Mree - Live at Tammany Hall

A few weeks ago, a friend posted this video of a young musician named Mree,
covering the song "Blood" by The Middle East.

[embedplusvideo height="281" width="450" standard="http://www.youtube.com/v/KMe_5O0mYj0?fs=1" vars="ytid=KMe_5O0mYj0&width=450&height=281&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=0&autoplay=0&react=1&chapters=&notes=" id="ep1450" /]

I was absolutely floored.  Such a creative and beautiful cover.

And wow.  What a voice.

Listening to her music makes me feel like I'm ice skating on a never
ending glacier underneath the northern lights.

Well, I can't really ice skate.  So maybe "floating" is a more accurate
mode of travel for my auditory odyssey over this imaginary glacier.

All the rest of Mree's videos and music are equally stunning.

Expect to see and hear amazing things from her over the next few years.

I was in the city with my camera on Sunday and stopped in to catch a set
of hers at Tammany Hall, with my friend Sebastian.  An out of tune
acoustic guitar stopped her first song before it started.
"Close enough!" I yelled.  I'm glad she didn't listen to me, because I really
can't stand when instruments are out of tune.  Neither could she.

A good sign of a good musician.

Her set was quiet, gentle, and perfect for a small room with really good
acoustics.  Unfortunately we were in Tammany Hall, which is not
a hall, but a bar, and a number of generally inconsiderate clowns were
talking loudly throughout the set, one in particular endlessly clamoring for
FOUR SHOTS OF TEQUILA.... TWO BUD LIGHTS... FOUR SHOTS OF
TEQUILA.... NO, THREE SHOTS OF TEQUILA etc. - and bragging brashly about
the macho things he did during his time spent in the Marine Corps.

Apparently he forgot the part in his training where they taught people
to be aware of their surroundings, respectful of others and to not be an asshole.

Despite G.I. Jackass sounding off, Mree sounded just as beautiful live as she
did recorded, which is [for some reason] a rarity among musicians today.
She proved she can live up to the product she puts out.

You can hear more of her at her website: www.mreemusic.com

And now, some photos from the show.

-JoeySee

Alex and Alisa

Here are the photos from the workshop I attended on Sunday, with Kesler Tran.

Alex was our main model, and Alisa filled in.

  And a smile to end it all!

-JoeySee

Kesler Tran Workshop

This past Sunday I took part in a workshop lead by LA based photographer, Kesler Tran.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Kesler, looking busy and important.[/caption]

Kesler is extremely talented and has a very strong aesthetic to his work.  My friend
Chris had taken one of Kesler's workshop's before and took a lot from it, and at
his suggestion, I jumped on board.

Now, workshops can be a bit awkward, depending on how many people attend.
Typically, there is only one model, and anywhere from 4-10 other photogs snapping
away, all shooting essentially the same photo.

[caption id="attachment_2757" align="aligncenter" width="900"] The No-Flash Mob[/caption]

That said, the day went by without incident, and of the 6 other photographers there,
exactly 6 were excellent people and a lot of fun to be around.  I felt bad I wasn't more social,
but I was just coming down from being pretty damn sick the week before.  I had fun that day,
but every time someone made me laugh, I had a coughing fit.

I coughed a lot that day.

Our two models, Alex and Alisa were great to have on board as well.  They had two very different
looks, but both were really sweet.

Kesler had some good things to say at the beginning of the day.

When he looks for his photos, he looks for shadows.  He always tries to use the shadows to
his advantage.  He suggested (like most professionals do) that we shoot in RAW, but
he also showed us that he shoots his stuff in high contrast black and white in camera,
so he can see if he's getting the range he wants immediately.

I rarely shoot in RAW, but decided to try it out since I was there to learn.  I set my
settings to RAW, monochrome, and began shooting.

And I think I'll almost always do that from now on.

[caption id="attachment_2759" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Alex[/caption]

The differences were immediate and significant in how I judged the photos I was taking.
In post, editing was so much faster and easier, because I already knew how the photos
would look in B&W ahead of time.

Kesler didn't teach too much the rest of the day, but fielded questions from the group
when we had them.  Chris has mentioned that what he really enjoys is seeing how
Kesler chooses his locations on the fly.

We hit up Greenwich Village, Tribeca, mid-town, Times Square, Grand Central Station,
and Long Island City.  Very standard NYC locations, but very cool to see the thought
process of a photographer at the top of their game.

Overall, I guess I expected Kesler to be a bit more proactive and thought he'd be
teaching more, showing more, explaining more about how he does what he does.
I was hoping to get more insight specifically about how and when he directs
his models.  That is an area I need to work on in my shoots.

In this sort of workshop setting, I suppose it would be difficult for him to go
thru his whole directing process, because that's usually a very specific thing you
have to adjust to depending on your model, your location, and what look or feel it
is you're going for.  A big group definitely interferes with the photographer-model
dynamic too.

Chris was the one who suggested I keep my eyes and mind open to other parts
of Kesler's photographic process to learn from.  Particularly the locations aspect.

I'm sure the other photographers (Tony Ellis, Chris Vongsawat, Brandon Powell, Javier Oddo,
Dwayne John) will be posting their photos from the workshop soon enough.  I'll be posting a
follow up post with my photos from the day.

For now, here are some BTS photos for shits and giggles.

 



[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Javier, showing Alex the goods.[/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Alisa, strutting for Alex and Chris.[/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600"] This was going to be a bad ass photo. Then Chris made a cameo. Now it's a badass BTS photo.[/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Alex liked sticking her tongue out.[/caption]

Keep posted for the good stuff in the next post!

-JoeySee