A Day with Ana's Band

For a photographic point of view, perfect lighting is very important to achieve the drama that we wish for the final output of an image. And for a natural lighting, we depend on the time where sunlight is on its perfect form. That's what I am trying to explain to my clients everytime we do an outdoor photo shoot.

This time, I have an emergency pictorial for an upcoming band named Ana Loves Sundays. You might ask why its an emergency? My friend Dennis called me up late in the evening and referred me this project. We come up for a half-day shoot because it's the only time I'll be available. I have some pending jobs in the office that needs attention. We have decided to start early at 8 am so we can make most of the natural lighting.

The plan don't went fine as we have expected. We are at UP Diliman by 7:30 and expecting all members of the band to be there and ready for the pictorial. They never thought that we can go as early as this. May be Dennis don't clarify with them his intention for a day light effect on their pictorials. To make the story short, we ended up shooting around 11:00 am which give us a harsh lighting in the background. The sun rays is so distinct and its not perfect for them. It might give them a squint eyes one's they are at the middle of the field. We understood, its their first time and they never expected that we are that serious. So, we have modified some concepts of the shoot to take advantage of the sun lights.


I have to make a decision now, I don't want to ruin their excitement as we go along with the shoot. We have only finished 2 concepts out of 6 by 12:30. And i can't just go and leave them hanging with expectations. I decided to stay and continue the shoot till afternoon. After the break, we continue at 3:00 pm and finished the concept shots. We can't go to shoot in an intense day light, so warming it down would be a good decision to make. The idle time was devoted for discussion of the concepts while they are playing around jokes to each other.

This band were mostly composed of young teens and they were headed by their vocalist Ana, who is an executive in an advertising firm. They called their music "(sorry i forgot)" — a combination of Rock Ballad. Though I have not heard their song, truly this promising band, has something to show in the music scene in the near future. Ana said that they are already making some discussions with IVORY records and this pictorial is intended for their CD labels and poster campaign in some gigs. They are scheduled to do a front act during a concert of Barbi this October.