Ian the Drummer
I had great shoot earlier this month with Ian who has long wanted to commission a photoshoot of him and his drums to create some images to display on the walls of the studio where he teaches drums, and as a gift to himself for the hard work he’s put into his craft over the decades.
As with most of my shoots we started with a discussion about why he wanted the shoot and the types of photograph that he likes.
I created a shared Pinterest board that we seeded with some old images of Ian and his kit. This meant that we could pick from Pinterest’s suggestions for ideas of how to stage and frame drummers.
Sharing a Pinterest board with my client’s really helps get a sense of the type of thing they are looking for and whilst the intention is never to copy work it ensures that by the time we get to the shoot we’re on that same page with regards to what types of image we like and don’t like.
For the shoot we rented a session space at Tweeters Rehearsal Studio in Leatherhead.
I rarely shoot on white but we were going for a soft, bright aesthetic reminiscent of some images we’d found of Kenny Clarke for Drummer’s World in our Pinterest brainstorming.
With backdrop and lights set we slowly built the kit, taking shots of Ian at each stage so that he started with just a Tamborine or Cajon and then an ever growing kit.
Then with the full kit in place Ian just let rip while I moved around him getting some action shots, and then staging the kit as we dismantled it for some more considered portraits.
Ian ordered a number of prints and frames some of which now hang in his studio.
