Daughtry Blackjack at Red Rock Casino Las Vegas NV

So Mix 94.1 has commissioned me to photograph Chris Daughtry along with his band playing blackjack with contest winners from the radio. It was like 10:30 AM on a Friday, and after a semi-long night of partying and little sleep, I was ready to snap some killer shots of this semi-private event for a "semi-" popular star....yeah right...everyone and their mother knows who Daughtry is!

I could tell that the guys were totally just waking up and that having a camera in their faces wouldnt be too fun for 45 minutes so i took a rather large amount of candid shots using only available light. This photo is probably the only shot that i really asked Chris to pose for because i knew it would be a money ass shot!

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I would have to say that being the time of day and the just waking up factor, the guys were pretty nice and understanding about having me shoot these shots. The nice pit boss guy who let us use the cards for the shot had Chris sign them since they were in this shot. He said he is going to use my print to put in a case with the signed cards for display...nifty!

Also here is a nifty candid of Chris thinking about his next move:

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(Starbucks in Hand)

Here is the entire set of 105 photos from that event:

http://www.photofm.com/underground/daughtryblackjack08152008/index.html

Special thanks to John at Red Rock for being so cool about everything!

-FM

Otherwise @ House of Blues Las Vegas, NV

Otherwise headlined a show at the House of Blues and I managed to make it out to take some photos. They totally rocked the place and i got some killer shots out of the evening like this classic shot:

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A quick photo tip/technique for all of you photo nerds/strobists: In some of the images of the people hanging out at the bar in the crowd photos section, i bounced the flash off of a yellow/orange ceiling or off of the wooden floor back onto the subject.

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Normally, this would cause a yellow/orange cast on the subject, but the neat thing about shooting in raw is being able to white balance after the fact in post. I set my white balance to "Tungsten" in ACR for these images to correct for the cast. Now the other cool thing about doing this is that around the venue there are all kinds of tungsten colored lights on the cieling and sound equipment and behind the bar. This sets both the ambient lighting and my supplemental bounce flash to around the same color temperature creating a uniform white balance in the shot. This is very similar to using a CTO gel over a strobe as explained on the Strobist blog here.

For all of you extreme photoshop geeks, this means that we can do some extreme color pushing with the new whitebalance from the yellow bounce like so in this fabulous photo of Bob cupping my breast:

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So anyway enough chit chat. Lets look at some photos!

Here is the link:

Otherwise Photos

Big B @ Icehouse Lounge for Ink Fridays

Just uploaded all the pics from Icehouse Lounge from Ink Fridays on June 27th 2008. Big B & The Dirtball (suburban noize records), Opium Alibi, Slow to Surface, and not to mention, the Miss Ink Bikini Contest.

Here is a link to the photos:

http://www.photofm.com/concerts/icehouseinkfridays06272008/index.html

Enjoy!

-FM

Nick Rich @ VooDoo Lounge Rio Las Vegas

Last Thurdsday night I photographed Nick Rich, The Drummer KC, and Leddie Garcia at VooDoo Lounge on top of The Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, NV. There was a shitload of people there. I had to practically knock people over to get to the stage where I saw Nick standing on the sidelines waiting to be called up to play. He looked a little anxious, but come on, its Nick Rich...he becomes pure energy when sitting in that chair. Energy just moves, unquestioning the future, posessing no fear. The drummer KC was playing when I came into the picture and he had some pretty cute girls cheering him on. They obviously got a photo from me :) Once I managed to get down to the stage, I hooked up with Nick and Mike Booth (guitarist for Nick's band "Opium Alibi") who were both on the stage's left side. I loaded some fresh batteries into my 580EX and snapped some fun shots of nick with the staircase behind him to showcase the doomness I had to overcome to get to the stage :)

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Once Nick went up everyone went pretty damn crazy, especially once they got a little taste of the goodness. The Pink Cookies fashion show was going on in the background which heightened the fun by adding hot women in booty shorts to the photos.

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Not to mention the fact that this venue is on the edge of the roof of the Rio Hotel & Casino! The backdrop of these shots is The Las Vegas Strip!

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Also, Vic Firth will hopefully get to use some of these for a future promo ad featuring Nick holding their sticks!

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Sweet...

As usual, here is link to ALL 150 photos from the event:

http://www.photofm.com/concerts/nickrich/index.html

COMMENTS AND CRITIQUES ARE WELCOME

-FM

Solar Power @ Jillian's Las Vegas

Scott (Grand Element), Nick, and Tommy got together and jammed over at jillians for the upstairs gigs called "Club Synergy" on May 16th.

Here are some quick previews followed by the link:

Scott (click to enlarge)


Tommy (click to enlarge)


Nick (click to enlarge)


Solar Power (click to enlarge)


Solar Power Live! (click to enlarge)

Naked Chick Undergoing Body Painting by Orlando (click to enlarge)


CLICK HERE TO SEE THE WHOLE SET OF PHOTOS

Thanks to Scott, Nick, Tommy, Bryan, Tori, Pat, Nathan, Nips, Monique, Nick&Vanessa, Orlando, and the painted chick for coming out and letting me take your picture!

COMMENT PLEASE

-FM

Red Rock National Park - Ragged Edges

Red Rock Ragged Edges - This climb had a PHAT crack running up the middle. These photos probably didn't do this climb much justice because I was pretty dang tired and probably a little too "distracted" to really accomplish anything of value. Nonetheless, please enjoy these as there are some nifty shots of a butterfly and some leaves.

Here is J.Ray Doing a nice foot move...i am still learning the lingo guys, sorry in advance!
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Also, here is Nathan preparing to "jug the fixed line" (click to enlarge)


Click here to see the rest of this image set:

Red Rock Ragged Edges Photos by Fred Morledge

As always, please comment and subscribe to the blog. Include the image numbers when doign a critique.

Thanks to Bryan, Johnny Ray, Skippy, and Nathan for coming out and helping!

ALSO: You can now subscribe to my blog RIGHT TO YOUR EMAIL INBOX via the link on the right hand side of the page. This means that whenever i post a new blog, its sent right to you...you dont even have to come to this page unless you want to comment! Nifty!

Red Rock National Park - Panty Wall

Red Rock Panty Wall - Some of the silliest names i have ever heard of for climbs. Names like "Silk Panties", "Scanty Panties", "Cover My Buttress", and "The Last Panty" made the day rather jovial.

All images were shot on manual mode using a Canon 30D with the Canon 17-40mm f/4L lens. Some images were shot using a 1.2SE GND Filter.

Here is a highlight pic of Lucas Climbing (click to enlarge)



Another preview pic:

Lucas in the top left, Bryan in the bottom right. (click to enlarge)



Click here to see the rest of the images:

Red Rock Panty Wall Photos by Fred Morledge

Any comments are always appreciated. Please include image numbers for critique purposes.

Thanks go to Bryan, Johnny Ray, Pat, and Lucas for helping me make this shit happen.

-FM