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
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
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
Sunday Music Class
Protocol
Protocol
Violets and Viruses
Violets and Viruses
Violets and Viruses
Violets and Viruses
The Drama
The Drama
The Drama
The Drama
Venue: Rock n Roll Heaven
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
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.
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
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