Dairenn Lombard’s new project is ready to roll and be booked, but the band lacked any live photos demonstrating their theatrical, high energy show. Not to be deterred, we rented a showcase stage in Orange County and shot a day’s worth of photos of him performing.

Click here to see a short slideshow of selected images from the shoot.

A selection of photos of rock songwriter Will Bryant taken on location in downtown Los Angeles, where we were able to incorporate views of some of the gorgeous Moderne, Gothic, and Beaux-Arts bridges that bejewel what is otherwise a gritty industrial landscape.

In one of the samples attached, you can see the Sixth Street bridge, under which the famous drag race from the movie Grease started.

click here to see a short slideshow

When Rich McCulley approached us about creating a cover for his fifth Americana record “Starting All Over Again,” we jumped right into it.  This is our third album together now, and the last two have seen quite a bit of radio play and placement activity on TV and in film. 2009 was a tough year for Rich, in which he lost not only a close friend but also a former girlfriend, both of which were music partners too.  So this record carries the theme of loss and inevitable change, not always for the best.

Typically we begin with me listening to his master recordings and sketching out dozens of ideas, a process that works well for artists that don’t come with set image or theme ideas out of the box.  I keep my sketch pad handy in the car and in the studio and just spin the record as much as possible.  All in all I presented about 30 finished sketches to Rich and this one struck a chord right away:  a little toy house burning right to the ground.

We had some difficulty locating just the right plastic house, but finally an Echo Park 99 cent store turned up two packages of the structure seen on the cover, allowing us to burn one as a test and use the other for the final shots (and only cost $1.98).  As it turned out, both sets of shots yielded some great stuff, so we ended up using one set for an animated film on the splash page of his website, and the other for the cover.  Who would have thought it would be so tough to burn down a little plastic house?  But it is, probably for kid safety I suppose, and it took an entire box of wooden matches set aflame inside to get the houses burning correctly.

The inside photo was taken on a concrete staircase nearby to Rich’s recording studio, showing him in a reflective mood that matches the vibe of the record.  All the album notes fitted neatly under the cd face, allowing the rest to remain relatively untouched.  On the back cover we placed a closeup of a match, which also appears from a different angle on the cd face.  The texture and color of the asphalt adds a nice grey tone to the whole package.

This album drops on March 16, 2010 with a full press campaign, so listen for it on a station near you soon…

An 11″x 17″ concert poster for Americana artist Rich McCulley, featuring a photo taken by us in Los Angeles’ Echo Park neighborhood. This is intended to be printed in large quantities and reused, so there’s plenty of space for writing gig details in the middle, over the sidewalk (which had to be created out of thin air as the actual photo ends just below Rich’s feet).

There’s also a small bit of promo on the bottom for Rich’s upcoming record, for which we also did the art design and photography (our third collaboration!).  Look/listen for the new record “Starting All Over Again” on March 16.

A glance at a MySpace page for a prominent member of the Americana scene here in Los Angeles shows 5/20 of his “top friends” using photos taken by Duff Ferguson as their profile picture. Another 4 are clients, either for photos or art or both.

We’re proud to be such an integral member of this vibrant community.

Roots rocker Rich McCulley is readying a great new album for release early in 2010, with artwork underway here in the Amplitude studio.

For a recent photo session, we walked the gorgeous Echo Park neighborhood near his new location for Red Hill Recording.

To see a photo slideshow, click here.

We are very pleased to announce that Duff Ferguson has once again been named an official photographer at the annual Far-West Folk Conference, to be held in Irvine, CA in November.  The conference is an industry-only event that gathers all the movers and shakers of the folk music community on the West Coast for three days of networking, showcases, panel discussions, and all night jams.

Photographs that Duff took last year were used on an album cover for James Lee Stanley and a folk festival program insert for Nathan Rogers, as well as numerous promotional uses by the conference and many of the attendees.

A business card for songwriter Michael McClellan, featuring a relaxed photo of him placed in a studio.  The pic is made in two stages: pics of him were shot on white background at our photo studio, and then placed in the studio background.

The reverse has his contact info in an elegant style.

These photo cards are useful in places like Los Angeles where so much networking takes place.  It isn’t uncommon to arrive at home with a pocketful of business cards and have trouble remembering who the people were or what they looked like.  This kind of card solves that problem without being too promotional.

A nice clean MySpace website customization for songwriter Michael McClellan, including a confident  shot of him in a studio.  The pic was created in two stages: pics of him were shot at our photo studio, and then placed in the studio background.  A contact link at bottom right connects potential contacts with him.

Presents a very professional image without eating up a lot of bandwidth.  Loads fast and looks good.