Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Hammond B3 Pictures Save the Day


Capturing the story of the B3 and its players on camera is an incredibly gratifying experience.  When it is all said and done, watching this documentary gives us an chance to relive the passion of each artist.  We have been amazed to find, when taken with a creative eye, still photos boil with the same level of passion.

Tony Monaco, Courtesy:  Mike Ivey
Early on, I read that many filmmakers regretted not taking more photographs during the production of their films.  Sure, these days you can make a still from video, but those images don't always enlarge with the same level of quality.  We knew good promotional photos would play a key role in how we could eventually promote Killer B3.  So, it was important to have stills that captured the excitement in the same way we experienced.

We went to Columbus, Ohio for our first out of town shoot.  There we captured the always expressive, Tony Monaco.  You will never see a more expressive organist than Tony Monaco.  Tony wears the passion of playing on his face, and through his body.

Tony Monaco, Courtesy:  Mike Ivey
Joe and I both worked camera during the Tony Monaco shoot at Park Street Tavern.  It would have been tough to shoot stills and video.  What were we going to do?

At the end of Tony's concert, we were pleasantly surprised someone had shot still photos all along.  Michael Ivey had shot dozens of incredible photos during Tony's show.    Mike was a friend of a friend who shares the passion for organ music and still photography.  I had never met him, but we did communicate via email after a web introduction from our mutual friend, motivational speaker Greg Smith.

Jimmy Smith, Jr., Courtesy:  Mike Ivey
Turns out, Michael Ivey wasn't just a hack photographer, he is an accomplished media professional, who shoots big time TV commercials on film and video. Somewhere in there, he finds time to take still pictures too.

We were lucky.   Mike's photos exude so much passion.  With the click of a button, he captured the spirit of Tony's performance, and the other musicians in Tony's band.  If all artistic types supported each other through service, like Mike Ivey did for us, so many more cool projects could be put out there.  I mean, this guy just showed up and started shooting.  The only thing he asked for was the proper courtesy credit for his photos.  Nice job Mike. Thank you so much for helping us.

Robert Kraut, Courtesy:  Mike Ivey
Me and Joe ended up taking some photos of our own.  I shot some of Shawn Brown during a show in New Port Richey, Florida.  While I got some nice moments, my ratio of good photo's too bad ones was pretty low.   That's why I have low standards and a high success rate.

Shawn Brown, Photo: Murv Seymour
Make sure you visit the Killer B3 photo gallery on our website to see more photos by Michael Ivey.  You might be surprised, we have a lot of non-B3 photos from the production of Killer B3.

Louis Tsamous, Courtesy:  Mike Ivey
Check out our Youtube channel too, we have added some new clips this week.  Don't forget to like Killer B3 on facebook!

Peace,
Murv & Joe
Producers, Killer B3




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