Avant Documentary Photography » Music

Toronto Band Promotional Portrait Photos | August 7, 2010 | Maybe Refuge

admin — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 21:51:26 +0000

It’s interesting, my good friend Joey, known as Ni to some started this band Maybe Refuge and two of my other good friends Hiu and John also joined the band. As the band progressed in this music world, I’ve taken the honour to be shooting their first band promo shoot. This was taken in around Newmarket, in the east end. One of the hardest challenges of performing an on location photo shoot is the unstable sunlight. With the sun soaring at us and at times it staying behind clouds to give us some gorgeous light, every moment was a waiting game and the shoot took a lot longer than we expected. In the end, we have pulled through and got some amazing photos for the shoot. The actual photos will not be posted in this entry just so it’ll remain mysterious, but I assure you these photos will surface all over their myspace, facebook pages really soon.

Even though, I’m not posting those images, but here’s a few behind the scene photos. As you can tell, we had tons of fun.

John the guitarist from Maybe Refuge, having his glamour moments with my umbrella.

Light test, with Joey the vocalist and John the guitarist and producer of Maybe Refuge

Hiu, bassist of Maybe Refuge showing his sexy side.

We also documented our shoot with some stop motion videos. Enjoy the video, song by Maybe Refuge.

20100807 Maybe Refuge band promo shoot video. from Chris Pun on Vimeo.

Toronto Indies Music – Maybe Refuge | Band Practice Time Lapse | April 30, 2010

admin — Thu, 20 May 2010 23:39:16 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, I was looking for some sort of suction cup I can use to mount on my car to take time lapse video. As it turns out, I found the Delkin Fat Gecko suction cup and started playing around with it. I mounted it on the side of the inside window and drove off to my friend’s band (Maybe Refuge) practice before their show.

The whole video was shot on a Canon 5D Mark I on manual, the whole series of photos took about 3 hours.
Here’s a quick time lapse video from that band practice.

Toronto Indies Music – Maybe Refuge | Band | May 1, 2010

admin — Wed, 05 May 2010 22:36:37 +0000

My friends at Maybe Refuge was asked to play two sets at Chimeira Lounge the past saturday. As usual it was very fun witnessing them play yet another great acoustic show. As they have not found their drummer for the band, Kevin Mok of Violets and Viruses was featured as this show’s guest drummer.

Here are a few photos from the show.

More photos can be seen in my facebook gallery.

Toronto Indies Music – Maybe Refuge | Band | April 17, 2010

admin — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 02:13:58 +0000

On a Toronto saturday with breaks of sunshine and rain, my friend’s Maybe Refuge played another show at Aspetta Caffe at the Kensington Market. This time, they played in the middle of the afternoon for a very good cause, to be a part of the fundraiser for World Wildlife Foundation.

Yesterday, Kevin Mok from Violets and Viruses filled in for as a guest drummer/percussionist for this occasion. If any drummers are interested, Maybe Refuge are currently looking for a dedicated drummer.

Enough words, on to a few photos.

They will be playing on May 1, 2010 at Chimaira Lounge! Check them out and for more information, take a look at their Facebook fan page.

Music Recording Session – Maybe Refuge | Indies Music | April 1, 2010

admin — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 15:52:02 +0000

I’ve been involved in the Toronto Indies Band scene as a documentary/music photographer for quite a while now, it’s very interesting to see how many bands come and go. One of the newest band in the scene is Maybe Refuge, although the the members all played and are still playing in different bands, I’m hoping this band will last. With the dedication they have put forth, I’m sure they will grow together and make some serious strides in their music career. Last thursday, April 1st, I was at their recording session and me, being a photographer, took some photos of this session.

Maybe Refuge

Bassist Hiu during recording

Guitarist/Producer John

Vocalist hiding from the lens - Ni

Here’s a short video clip of Maybe Refuge at their recording session.

Very excited to taking some promo photos for this band in the near future.

Publication | Sharhythm | Mar 23, 2010

admin — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 00:37:54 +0000

Recently, my friends’ band Violets and Viruses performed an interview with Sharhythm magazine and my work was show in their half page article seen below.

Sharhythm Magazine - article of Violets and Viruses, photos by Avant Documentary Photography

The photo in the article was taken back in November of 2009. Anyway, check them out! MySpace

Acoustic Session – Maybe Refuge | Indies Music | March 19, 2010

admin — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 20:17:41 +0000

Last night was a special night, a few of my closest friends were playing an acoustic gig at Aspetta Caffe, around Kensington Market. Interestingly enough, the four piece are from 2 different indies bands, Violets and Viruses (John and Hiu; check out photos of the bands here) and Shades of November (Joey and Eugene). And of course, this is the first time they performed live as Maybe Refuge.

An interesting fact is I know all four of them have very different musical styles, ranging from pop, rock, to heavy metal. What they have in common is their love of music. At the end of the night, what made it such a successful acoustic set was their unity and how they performed as a new band. Here I present to you a few photos from the first ever show from Maybe Refuge.

Maybe Refuge

Maybe Refuge Vocalist - Joey, Eugene in the background

Maybe Refuge Vocalist - Joey, with Hiu in the foreground

Maybe Refuge Guitarist - John

Maybe Refuge BassistGuitarist - Hiu

Maybe Refuge Drummer - Eugene

More photos here in my Facebook page.

If you are ever interested in last night’s videos, search up on Facebook. I’ve seen a couple of friends/fans posted some clips already.

Venue: Aspetta caffe

Rock show – The Ultimate Rock Show | Indies Event | Feb 3, 2010

admin — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 03:52:48 +0000

As many of my friends and past clients might know, one of my passion aside from my wedding and portrait work is concert photography, or simply music photography. Thinking back, the first time I seriously took photos for an event was for a concert by a band named ZiON NOiZ, I wound up taking photos for them for the next few years for various gigs on 35mm Kodak film with a Nikon FE. For quite some time I lost connection with photography and bands, but 3 years ago, I had an opportunity to kick start my interest in indies rock shows, with SFC, Spider’s Kiss from the Toronto Asian Indies scene. Through these bands and shows, I met a lot of great musicians and friends.

It has been a while since I took any music photos (aside from the promo shoot for Violets & Viruses back in November, read here), last night, The Ultimate Rock Show was held in Rock n Roll Heaven, the following four bands played and I had the opportunity to have some fun shooting some photos.
-Sunday Music Class
-Protocol – MySpace
-Violets & Viruses – MySpace
-The Drama – MySpace

Sunday Music Class

Protocol

Violets and Viruses

The Drama

Venue: Rock n Roll Heaven

Violet and Viruses Band Promo Shoot | Nov 15, 2009

admin — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:10:54 +0000

As many people know, I love working with bands and people who are into music. Violet and Viruses is a rock band based in Toronto, ON that started back in September of 2008 and I have been working with these guys on photoshoots, covering live events and being part of the roadie crew (or the only one) back then. As it turns out, this is the second photo shoot I have done with Violet and Viruses. The first time was done in U of T where we were shooting in the cold at midnight with only available light. This time around, I shot the entire shoot with one speedlite on manual settings with a 1/8 grid invented by David Honl. Good thing that day was not overly windy or too cold, even though my light stand got blown and knocked to the ground a couple of times, but we managed to get some good photos out of the shoot. It’s always fun working with local talented musicians.

This was such a last minute thing and we really did not scout for a place till the very last minute. Originally we were going to do it in some woods in Richmond Hill, but the safety did not occur to us. Then we thought about someone’s party room in their condo but that plan also back fired. We finally arrived in some swamp area in Markham, ON. I am going to be honest about this. I got inspiration from Slipknot’s “All Hope is Gone” album cover as soon as I saw our environment. Here are a few photos I like

Violets and Viruses Band Promo Shoot 2009

Violets and Viruses Band Promo Shoot 2009 - Vocal

Violets and Viruses Band Promo Shoot 2009 - Drummer

Violets and Viruses Band Promo Shoot 2009 - Guitarist

Violets and Viruses Band Promo Shoot 2009 - Bassist/Guitarist

Finally, here’s a quick 30 seconds video that I made with Animoto.

Photo Exhibition | Sept 11, 2009

admin — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:18:51 +0000

As I have stated previously, this one I assure you will be very different from my wedding posts. Back in mid August, I received a phone call from the bassist from Speed of Service and I was very honored to be invited by them to exhibit the photos I have taken for various Toronto underground music bands (mostly soft rock, hard rock, and metal) for the past couple of years. Of course, I was asked to help out with the photo documenting during their CD party release.

Here’s a slideshow I made that was played throughout the projector and my notebook all night long.

Toronto Indies Bands – Slideshow, 2007-2009 from Chris Pun on Vimeo.

On top of the slideshow, I had a printed portfolio for everyone to check out.

Here’s a photo of the small but efficient exhibition setup on three mini tables and a photo of me in action.

Thanks to all the friends who came out and supported the event.

Music of slideshow courtesy of Speed of Service – Official Website, MySpace, Facebook

Shouts out to Mok for providing these photos. All images were left raw, uneditted.

Location: El Mocambo

: Exhibition

: Me in action