Susan Sarandon spanking a pig on stage with Of Montreal (photo by Chris Owyoung)

One of those “yes, that actually happened” moments from the Of Montreal show at Highline Ballroom this week. Of Montreal was joined by special guests Solange Knowles and Susan Sarandon. Kevin Barnes got on all fours, Susan sat on him and proceeded to spank a man dressed as a pig with a wooden ruler. Good times, good times.

The shot will run online at rollingstone.com and in print in both Rolling Stone US and Rolling Stone Australia.

Susan Sarandon spanking a pig on stage with Of Montreal (photo by Chris Owyoung)

Related posts:

1. Solange Knowles with Of Montreal
2. Published again.
3. MUTEMATH

Benjamin Burnley and Aaron Fink of the band Breaking Benjamin. Photographed for Guitar Edge magazine. (photos by Chris Owyoung)

What better way to kick off 2010 than shooting a feature with Benjamin Burnley and Aaron Fink of the multi-platinum selling rock outfit Breaking Benjamin. I caught up with Ben and Aaron on-location in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania for the January cover of Guitar Edge magazine.

More photos from the article and all of the the how-to goodies are just a click away.

About the Assignment

The job was very straight forward; drive to Wilkes-Barre, scout locations and shoot enough to yield a good selection of cover shots and a few shots for the interior of the mag.

My editor requested that the lighting be contrasty and rock’n'roll while leaving a lot of headroom for final toning and atmospheric adjustments in photoshop. (In the end, the photos did receive a lot of toning in post, though almost no retouching in the corrective sense).

Scouting the Location

My assistant and I spent roughly 45 minutes location scouting prior to the shoot. The search yielded four locations that I documented with my iphone along the way. The photo shows one of the best features of the final location of the shoot:

Obligatory List of Gear

• Nikon D3
• Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8
• Nikon 24-70mm f2.8
• 5 X Nikon SB-900
• 12′ Manfrotto Light Stands
• Lastolite 24″ EzBox Hot Shoe Softbox
• 3 Section Calumet Monopod
• Pelican Case (doubles as on-the-fly posing stool)

Since the 12mp files of the Nikon D3 have more than enough resolution for a double page magazine spread, choice of camera body wasn’t an issue. The main decision was what system to use for lighting.

Even though I had a Dynalite pack and head system in tow, the lack of a constant power source demanded the portability of the AA battery powered Nikon CLS system. Luckily, overcast skies meant that the SB900s had more than enough juice to overpower the ambient light.

(As can be seen in my post on band portraits at Warped Tour, the CLS system is just powerful enough to be used in full sunlight if you don’t need to kill ambient too much).

The Lighting Setup

A total of four Nikon SB900 speedlights were used for the cover shot. A single SB900 was clipped to train car behind Ben and Aaron with twin rim lights and softbox completing the picture.

The Cover Shot

I arguably could have shot this assignment with ambient light only were it not for the need to highlight Ben and Aaron’s guitars for the feature. As you can see in the cover shot below, the position of the softbox and the camera-left rim light did a really nice job of showing off Ben’s custom hollow body PRS.

End Notes

Enormous thanks go out to Ben and Aaron for being all around great samples of humanity and such easy subjects to work with. Additional thanks go out to my assistant Sara, Heather from Hollywood and, of course to, Laurie Baldwin whose skill with both hair and makeup were essential.

Got Questions?

Leave ‘em in a comment below?

Related posts:

1. Band Portrait: August Burns Red
2. Wedding Band Portraits
3. CMJ07 – Breaking Laces @ Luna Lounge – 16.10.2007

The August issue of Spin just hit newsstands with a two-page image of Lil Wayne I took last month at Hot 97 Summer Jam at Giants Stadium. If you pick one up, check out the first page after the masthead. I’m psyched!

Shoutouts \m/\m/ to Jason “eagle eyes” Bergman who let me know this went to print.

Related posts:

1. PLUG Independent Music Awards 2008 @ Terminal 5 – 06.03.2008

The lack of updates here are for good reason. I’ve been really busy recently but all of the hard work has been paying off. Photos of mine have recently run in New York Magazine, Billboard Magazine and Symphony Magazine. May is totally insane, but I promise to post more frequently soon!

Related posts:

1. No News Is Good News

Now all I need to do is get a few images into Rolling Stone.

Related posts:

1. Susan Sarandon with Of Montreal