Something from the archives today with a look at a shoot with young Cairns band The Medics that i did in June 2009.

I’ve been lucky enough to shoot stills on a Foxtel project that’s profiling various indigenous artists, and that’s what took me to the Dreaming Festival last year for several things, including this photo with The Medics.

The video crew were filming the band on a road by a river, and i had a few minutes to drag them away for pictures.

When we got to the location i set up the backdrop and lights with my trusty assistant Elleni.

The lighting set up was pretty simple and self evident. Two umbrellas, one to white out the backdrop, one to light the band. The power was set to match the daylight.

One thing i’ve learned working on film shoots is that stills is understandably way down the list of priorities. So it was about four hours between the test shot and getting the band in.

Thankfully the weather cleared up nicely in that time. Good for my shots, not so good for the continuity on the film shoot.

I took some pictures of each band member before bringing them all in.

It was feeling a little static so we did a silly shot too.

Then a couple without the backdrop.

If it all gets a bit too serious then getting your talent to jump is a good solution.

And now of course the line-up of the band has changed, so the pictures are out of date and relegated to history.

Sigh.