Portrait of Zoe Rain, music photographer, on a day off from the Macklemore & Ryan Lewis tour
After a weekend trying to find time during her short time on the ground in Seattle, I finally got the chance to meet up with music photographer Zoe Rain to shoot her for my Creatives I Know portrait project. Zoe and I met at the can’t-recommend-enough Survival Guide Workshop by John Keatley. I have been looking to add some of the other workshop attendees to my Creatives I Know photo project and since Zoe has moved I knew the chances to catch up with her would be small. Luckily I caught up with her on a short stop over by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis between their US and European tours. That’s right, Zoe is the official tour photographer for Macklemore & Ryan Lewis.
Comet Tavern was kind enough to let us take over their upstairs for this portrait session.
Concert photography, especially as the official tour photographer, sounds glamorous, and it does sound like Zoe is really enjoying it. But don’t for a minute think it isn’t hard work. Just during the 3 days she was in town she was slammed covering sound check, the concert, tour meetings, studio time, and editing all of those photos often for 24 hour (or quicker) turn around for social media. She is working. Serious. Working.
Usually I like to shoot creatives in their own creative space, whether that’s a studio, kitchen, or office. Zoe being a concert and music photographer, I imagined cool images of her on site at a concert venue. However, she is shooting for a hugely popular artist (not to mention this was a hometown show in Seattle), so she couldn’t just let me in to the venue during sound check so we had to find another option. Originally from Seattle, she felt pretty good claiming the bars and cafes of Capitol Hill as her creative space so we set out to find a location there we could crash. We met up at Comet Tavern across from Nemos where she had shot the concert a couple nights before. At times its hard for me to get up the nerve to ask for things, but I put on my brave face and asked the bartender if we could shoot for a bit in the bar. They were happy to oblige and even offered to turn on a neon sign for us.
Adding some light and color to the best dive bar in Seattle
Zoe was meeting another photographer for a drink and she joined us for the shoot as well. One of my favorite things about actually shooting the Creatives I Know portrait project is hanging out with other creatives so having a couple photographers there to talk shop and laugh with was fantastic. And doing it all over beers didn’t hurt either.
Cameras, Beer, and feet up, a nice day off for a tour photographer
Make sure to follow Zoe Rain (Instagram and Facebook) and her work as she continues to tour with Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and make sure to get a copy of her photo book documenting the tour, you won’t regret it.
If you’re a creative and would like to sit for my portrait, drop me a note. I am always looking for new collaborators. Read all Creatives I Know posts and see the project all together.
