In the Studio

Last month I was asked to take some photos for Jasper Sloan Yip. He’s a musician in Vancouver and I’ve been playing in his band for over 10 years. We were scheduled to record at Afterlife Studios in November and Jasper asked me to also take some photos. He offered to pay me a little bit of money to do it. I had never been offered money for anything to do with photography before and thought it would be fun.

There were a couple of reasons I was excited about doing this. For one, the idea of not having to be discreet or have subjects that knew they were being photographed would be an interesting change from my usual street photography. Second, I’ve only ever shot what’s interested me and in an aesthetic that speaks to me. I thought that having to consider someone else in the work would be interesting. Would they like the style of photos or maybe it would lead to a different look that I hadn’t thought of before.

Leading up to the shoot, I asked Jasper what he was looking for. He said he really liked the black and white photos I was taking and just wanted something like that. My original thinking that I would have to change my style, or what I shot was proving to be unfounded.

Within the first few minutes, I noticed that I’d have to use some street photography techniques with the band. Things like turning off the physical shutter, not bringing the camera to my eye and looking the other direction while taking a photo helped just as much in the studio as on the street.

I found myself tucking into corners of the studio, using the various isolation booths, doors and equipment to frame subject. The light was pretty minimal and there were a few lamps here and there. Jasper was kind enough to rent an extra lens for me which was a huge help. It was a lens I’d never take out on the street because it’s too big, but worked great in the low light of the studio.

I was so worried that the photos wouldn’t be what the band was after, but as I continued to work throughout the weekend, I realised that Jasper asked me to take photos because he liked my work and wasn’t interested in me changing my style. Once that clicked, I leaned into the things I really enjoy about photography: using natural geometry/framing, playing with contrast and shadows and blending in to the environment.

All in all, it was really fun and I’d love to do it again. In fact, Jasper posted some photos on Instagram and another musician reached out to me to take some photos. Here’s hoping more of these opportunities come!