Happy New Year! A Great 2013.

Very thankful for the year we've had here at Lancaster Photography. We met a lot of fantastic people, were welcomed into a lot of family circles, spent time in many photo pits, and traveled around the US and the world... all because of the lens and being decent at using it.

Personal thanks to all my clients from this year for choosing my work (which even included Sony Music Entertainment and Ben Folds), huge thanks to my 2nd shooters and assistants, and to the staff at theFIVE10 Radio. 

A very Happy New Year to all of you!

-Clay

www.claylancaster.com

www.lancasterphoto.net

2013 Recap: Weddings, Concerts, Album Covers, Travel and Films

I was organizing and preparing for the end of the year, when I realized how awesome 2013 was for my photographic adventures. I make my living as a wedding photographer here in the San Francisco Bay Area, but there's a lot more that I've done (and will continue to do) besides weddings.

Don't get me wrong... I love my couples, and I love my job. But if you're a chef and your job is to make pizzas at a restaurant, you don't just stick to making pizzas at home!

To start, this year has been very travel-heavy. Normally I do a bunch of concerts throughout the year, but this time I swapped much of the concert shooting for traveling (and the projects that come with that). Tallying up, my journeys took me to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe (twice), Colorado, Florida, Istanbul, and Paris (twice)... plus all the local outings to wedding venues here in Northern California.

Some of the main highlights:

Paris, France: Worked on an independent film with my brother and a wonderful cast & crew. Crazy experience, and required two trips out there to get it filmed (once in April and once in October). See all my previous posts documenting the trip, if you want more details.

Me (looking thrilled), Barbara Probst, and Kevin Clark as seen through my brother's RED camera

Istanbul, Turkey: After our first round of filming in Paris, I headed to Istanbul by myself. I had never been to that part of the world before, and it was my first trip to another country alone... where I ended up shooting a hip-hop video for a Tunisian rapper/DJ in a dingy basement, with real blood donated by our video's "director" (we couldn't find fake blood)...

Las Vegas, Nevada: Brodie (of the Brodie Stewart Band) few me out with him to meet up with Faith Hill's guitar player, who plays on Brodie's upcoming record. We shot some great interview footage, then had a couple of nights hangin' out with those guys (and some of the stage crew for the Tim McGraw/Faith Hill show at the Venetian). All of it topped off with free tickets to the Tim & Faith show, and my own entire row of seats on the plane coming home for me to stretch out on.

Getting ready to shoot Adam's interviews at the Venetian

Ben Folds Five: The most rewarding moment of 2013 for me was getting my photo on the front cover of Ben Folds Five: Live, which is the first-ever live album for the band. I've been a huge fan of Ben Folds Five since high school, and once I heard their 12-year hiatus was over I pushed to get photo access for their show at the Warfield in San Francisco on their reunion tour. I was just thrilled to even go to the show, let alone shoot photos. But a couple of months later, I get a call from their people and BOOM!... there's my photo on the record cover (released by Sony) and can be found in stores all over the world. Pretty cool to see "Clay Lancaster" on the CD insert, and on the back of the vinyls.

My photo on the cover of Ben Folds Five: Live

The rest of the year was filled with wonderful weddings, trips to visit family and friends, some great shoots and celebrity guests for theFIVE10.com, AND I bought a condo... so I am now a first-time homeowner.

On January 1st of this year I didn't see any of those previous events on the horizon, so I can't wait to see what 2014 will bring. It's gonna be pretty hard to top what happened this year... but, of course, I said the same thing last year.

Happy Holidays!

Back Home and Not Slowing Down

Hey hey.

This post is gonna have a lot of photos. So bear with it. Although, I am a photographer... so maybe you should expect it.

After 3 weeks in Paris, we were able to wrap all the filming we set out to wrap. Long days, lots of wine, but a ton of fun. Very glad I decided to join the project.

Me (left) with my brother (center) filming Kevin for a quick scene on a bridge in Paris

screen shot from the film

We even had a few days left to take a toy remote-controlled boat around the city and drive it in some famous waterways (at the Louvre, at Luxembourg, in front of the Eiffel Tower, etc).

Kevin drives our speedboat at the Louvre

After saying our goodbyes to all the wonderful people involved, Kevin went back to Los Angeles, my brother Keith left for London, and I caught a plane to Istanbul.

It was my first time in another country by myself, and was quite an adventure. If you've been keeping up on all the news lately, Istanbul is the center of an uprising that is involving a lot of police brutality. It all started a couple of blocks from where I was staying 3 weeks ago, so it's weird to see all these places I recognize on the news.

New Mosque in Istanbul. Photo by Clay Lancaster

Among the people I met over there, I got to know this rap artist from Tunisia. He liked that I did camera work, so we did a small photo shoot on the Bosphorous waterfront one evening:

After sharing a bunch of beers on a rooftop night after night, looking at the river, he and an employee of the hostel (where I was staying) came up with a music video concept and asked if I'd film it. I figured "why not?" and it was certainly an interesting day.

After a good 17+ hour travel day, I finally arrived back in San Francisco after being gone for almost a month. My new condo was still packed away in boxes, so I immediately set to work getting my new home set up. I still need some sort of blinds for the sliding glass door, but the rest is pretty much good to go!

My first endeavor back in the States was shooting the Napa Bottle Rock Music Festival. We interviewed a lot of cool people on theFIVE10.com, including Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam, comedian Jim Breuer, and some of the cast of the Daily Show.

Perry Farrell and Dave Navarro of Jane's Addiction at Bottle Rock. Photo by Clay Lancaster

Then I jumped straight into wedding season, and have had some wonderful couples so far. I have a LOT of editing to finish:

Finally, yesterday was the international release day for Ben Folds Five: Live, which showcases a photo of mine on the front cover. I'm thrilled to be a part of it, as BF5 has been one of my favorite bands for about 15 years. I see my photo popping up all over the internet... iTunes, Amazon, Target.com, blogs, magazines, etc. It's crazy.

Ben Folds Five Live on Target.com. Cover photo by Clay Lancaster

Ben Folds retweeted a photo from Japan that shows a big in-store display:

Ben Folds Five Live store display in Japan. Cover photo by Clay Lancaster

...to which he said to me (via twitter):

Super cool!

We're almost half way into 2013 and this year has been nuts for me, but really exciting. New home, new travels, new people, new accomplishments, new projects, new clients... and this is also shaping up to be the best year for my business since I started it.

Thanks to everyone who's been so supportive, and thanks to everyone who's found my work good enough to throw your hard-earned cash at it :). It means a lot.

Makin' Progress!

First off (it was finally announced, so I can talk about it now) one of my favorite bands of all time, Ben Folds Five, is releasing Ben Folds Five Live... their first-ever live album on June 4th. The coolest part (for me) is that they got a hold of me to license one of my photos from their tour this past January, so now my work is featured on the album cover:

Ben Folds Five Live. Photo by Clay Lancaster.

Secondly, filming has been extremely successful so far. Some long days in there... lots and lots of walking & train-hopping around Paris, lugging video & audio equipment everywhere we go, shooting in the rain, etc. But last night we managed to wrap all scenes that involve our lead actress, Ms. Barbara Probst (good luck trying to read her wiki if you don't speak French). We've lovingly renamed her to "Blahblah".

After filming all day yesterday, we celebrated with a large dinner for cast/crew/friends and a lot of wine. Like, a lot. Some of us are hurtin' a little this morning.

Enjoy some candids from filming so far!

Kevin discussing a character with one of our actors

Filming on the Metro with Barbara Probst and Kevin Clark

Heated discussion in the studio with Barbara Probst and Kevin Clark

Yours truly monitoring some dialogue audio

I look thrilled to be a part of this scene.

Left to Right: Keith (cameras), Barbara (lead actress),  me (sound), and Nadia (script supervisor)

Notre Dame evening.

Clay Lancaster, Kevin Clark, and Barbara Probst

Lancaster brothers on the train after a day of shooting

2013 Off to an Adventurous Start

Happy New Year!

I know, it's February now... but I've been a tad busy. Not including hunting to buy a condo and dealing with my car being fussy, let's start from the most recent events:

After waiting 15 years, I FINALLY got to see Ben Folds Five play live at the Warfield in San Francisco. My brother had literally waited half of his life to see them as well, so he drove up from Los Angeles to join me.

(and if you weren't aware, Ben Folds Five just reunited last summer after splitting up in 1999)

Not only did I see the show, BF5's kind publicity people granted me media access as well. So I was a happy camper Thursday night. Here are a few photos:

Ben Folds Five at the Warfield in San Francisco. Photo by Clay Lancaster

Ben Folds Five at the Warfield in San Francisco. Photo by Clay Lancaster

Ben Folds Five at the Warfield in San Francisco. Photo by Clay Lancaster

Before this, I was enlightened to the fact that rock guitarists are still being created when we interviewed/shot Tyler Bryant for theFIVE10.com. This kid (who is seriously the next Stevie Ray Vaughn) already opened for Aerosmith and Slash, and is featured in the rock-photographer documentary Rock Prophecies. It's been a long time since I've seen someone play guitar like this:

Tyler Bryant & the Shakedown in San Francisco. Photo by Clay Lancaster.

Tyler Bryant & the Shakedown in San Francisco. Photo by Clay Lancaster.

Tyler Bryant & the Shakedown in San Francisco. Photo by Clay Lancaster.

...and before that, I had ventured to Los Angeles to see my brother, check out Abandoned Pools at the Viper Room in Hollywood and shoot a wedding for a producer friend of the family. Congratulations to Sean and Laura!

Sean & Laura wedding in Pasadena, CA

Photo assistant for the day, my brother. Keith Lancaster.

So there are the 2013 highlights so far! Things start kicking into gear a bit more in February. Hope everyone else is doing well.

-Clay

Coming Around Again: The Current Trend of Re-Forming Bands

This post has nothing to do with photography really. I just felt compelled to post something about the subject.

I spent last night and this morning listening to a track called "Home" by Ben Folds Five. No, not Ben Folds... Ben Folds Five.

Some of you may be confused.

You see, many kids nowadays know and love Ben Folds. That's what they know: "Ben Folds"... as a solo artist. It seems a big portion of his newer fans haven't looked into his history to discover that he hit the music scene with Ben Folds Five (a trio) back in the early 90's.  I was a die hard fan of BFF, as was my brother.

Reunited Ben Folds Five in 2008 for a live Myspace concert.

Needless to say, it was heartbreaking to hear of their decision to disband in 2000... and for the last 11 years all I've had to go on was the three official Ben Folds Five albums, a live/rare album, and any demo or bootleg I could find.

Until yesterday, that is, when I was hit with "Home"... the first brand new Ben Folds Five song in over a decade. I was thrilled, and only become more thrilled to find out that a) there are THREE new Ben Folds Five songs on Ben Folds' upcoming retrospective album in October, an b) they plan to hit the studio in December to work on a new record! This would be their first new record as Ben Folds Five since 1999.

To my satisfaction Ben, Darren and Robert aren't the only ones reuniting lately. There's been a whole resurgence of bands that I grew up listening to that are now giving it another go: Smashing Pumpkins (sort of), Candlebox, Live, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Sunny Day Real Estate (sort of), Faith No More, etc.

There must be a 10-year rule or something that gives fans enough time to move on, until they realize that much of the music nowadays is throwaway and they start longing for the bands that mattered. Actually, I shouldn't just say fans... the bands themselves needed a break to explore other career options, and are now finding their roots again.

Some of these groups (like Ben Folds Five) seemed to have split amicably and remained friends. Some (like Smashing Pumpkins) still have inter-personal issues and re-formed under the same name but with new members. And some (like Sunny Day Real Estate) have made a go at reuniting, but just can't seem to make it happen for the long term.

Either way, I'm stoked. In a time when new bands are cookie cutter clones and few offer more than a summer hit-single, it's nice to hear many of my former musical heroes coming back into the game. Maybe they'll inspire another generation like they did back then.