Hi I’m Tamara Lackey for the reDefine show with AdoramaTV and on this episode
I speak to Mike Corrado about his standout rock-n-roll photography
and how he uses impact, energy and emotion. Plus you can’t help but notice how his
passion for his subjects translate into his image as he walks us through
exactly how he creates one striking photograph.
Take a look.
AdoramaTV presents the reDefine Show
with Tamra Lackey.
Hey Mike how you doing? I'm doing good how are you?
I'm doing well. Are you having a good time here in Los Vegas?
It's a beautiful place to be because the east coast is not the place to be right
now
if you're North. No it is not the place to be. I wanted to talk to you
because I've been following your work for a while, your obviously my friend, but I have been following
your work for a while
and you've got... The word that jumps out at me when I look at
is like energy. Especially your drummer work.
Tell me a little bit about what it is that you
look for when you're setting up your shots, when your creating your images.
Well the type to work I do is spontaneous.
So it's about action, so you don't know what you're looking for you have an idea
what your going into.
Right. But I think the key ingredients to what I like to see my shots is
impact, energy and emotion. Impact. Energy.
Emotion. Okay. I think those words are so critical. Sometimes we go out there
and in sports, or rock n roll, or any kind of action photography you go out on the blind,
you know,
you don't really think about about it. You think about making the action shot but your not
thinking about getting to the action shot, right, and so the good news about
rock n roll as you know is that there are people on the stage and you know where
they are.
Your ust waiting for the action to happen. I think if
an image has these key ingredients or you strive to within your work
get to these three things, the pictures are more
powerful overall when you look at them and it doesn't mean that you have to
have
all the impact, all the energy and all the emotion in one image.
There are varying degrees of that in each of the individual images that you create. If I
get all three in one
then I know I scored probably the better image of my take. Yeah.
You will build your image with remotes and such, tell us a little bit about that.
Well, remote photography comes from the days of my sports work and now I've
taken it into rock n roll
and I've done things a little bit differently than most because of
frustration.
When you can't make an image, what do we do? We try to solve the problem, this is a
game of solutions. So
I felt like drummers, you know are probably the heartbeat of everything we
do.
Music is a heartbeat of everything we do. Lyrics are a part of my life they help
tell my story.
Like our images tell stories and so while shooting drummers from the
photographic pit which you typically are in
regardless of what you do, the longer the lens your still
blocked by the obstruction of symbols, stands, pipes, tubes
in the framework of the drumkit and you may get that cute little,
yeah there's a space , but where are the drumsticks where are the hands and you never
get those elements together so
like the sports days, trying to bring the camera to the action
were I can't stand was the motive to get past the frustration of not making a
picture. Kind of like a hero
picture of a pilot in the cockpit. Nice super wide angle lens real
close up, but if you get it at the right angle it doesn't distort too much
and now you're right there plain in the line of sight.
No obstructions whatsoever and I started that with the Canadian band Nickelback
with Daniel Adair who, he had a great passion for photography.
We traded our thoughts and what we knew
he gave me access to his drum kit. We started with one remote.
It was a semi failure, but what we learned,
we took to another concert and we put two remotes up
and I hit a picture that I don't know that I could ever replicate again.
That had all of the impact I needed, all the energy I needed,
and the emotion of him rearing back with the drumsticks
is something I don’t know that I'll ever get again. So
what was key about this shot is the placement of cameras actually suggested
by the drummer Daniel.
This is under the China symbol and he said I whacked that China symbol up and down
during the Kochi you get a great picture from here
and that's exactly what happened but what's nice is all the elements coming
together, the impact, the energy, emotion.
Look at how the head is reared back, you know many people told me they thought
that was sweat coming off his head.
What it is is pyro in the background, the position of the stick, the drumstick as it
comes out towards the bottom of the frame. I don't know they could of placed
that any better.
The cleanliness of the drum kit the reflections in the
drum that that you can see from the pyro and then you got another stick coming up
towards the back.
That again you can't frame that any better. I mean maybe it could be a little
higher but
in the sweep of the lines within the frame it just seemed to work perfectly
and of course the emotion comes in his face.
So the impact of the moment you know
the visual here. The emotion in his face, you know the
energy overall that the picture has to me does have those three key ingredients
that I look for and I love to see. You
recently become pretty obsessed with bird photography. Yeah
you know I believe in one thing as photographers wether in business or not,
it's a hobby.
Personal projects are everything to your world. That's what keeps you creative
I'm in a world at Nikon where sometimes I have to shoot grid to
grid pictures. Sometimes I have to photograph product, sometimes
you know there the most mundane pedestrian type of images that you
just don't wanna have to create.
But I also have access to some incredible gear and
and one of the personal projects I picked up outside of this drummer love
project was going to a local lake taking a walk with my wife
seeing what birds are out there and all of a sudden I realized it wasn't just
swans and ducks and typical Canadian Geese.
There were double-crested cormorants there were all kinds a beautiful hern's
and as a sports photographer I wish I would have photographed birds first
because it's the toughest thing to shoot in
action. It would've made me a better sport shooter. I realize it was a story to tell
that's the birds of Stoney Brook,
and of course you might start to go into these fantasies like maybe there's a
book. Maybe you can sell this to Stony Brook, maybe you can help tell the story to
bring people to the community
to see the beauty that you see and as the seasons change is the first year I
had one full season
of photographing the birds from the spring through
the fall and now into the winter. So the birth,
the the progress, the growth of signets.
You know and the Swans there creatures that I wanna go out and find and see and if I
don't find them
I go home depressed. It’s obsessive
and its it's compulsive and it's a habitual and its,
it's addicting.
What are your favorite pieces to shoot with that allow you
to get that impact, get that emotion to
meet that obsessive need. Thirty years working for Nikon
I have had access to a locker we have for Nikon pro services
and I would think it’s, it really is depending on the subject that I'm
shooting. So
if I'm going for the birds the longest focal length I can get with the D810 and a 800mm
f/5.6 and a teleconverter, you know so I can take that
reature bring him much closer to me, bring it much closer to me,
but there are also times when at certain times of the year when the birds are much
closer so you don't need as long a lens like a 80-400mm is more than okay.
You try to work a lens like an 800mm or 600mm and there real big lenses.
There a lot lighter than they've ever been
but still after 20 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour,
you really do need the gym to to be able to handle these types of
lenses because as most would say where's your tripod? Where's your mono pod??
I like to break the rules. I I know that's the right way to go
but when you're trying to focus on a bird that's flying up above, monopods
don't cut it unless you kick it off the ground. Tripods don't work because you
can't maneuver
and get down quick enough and I've tracked egrets as they come from a distance
right overhead
and you literally have to go right up and you can't do that with any device on
the bottom of the camera
With a lens. So where can people go to see more of this work?
I have a website corradophotography.com. Corrado Photo is a social handle
for Instagram, Twitter and
the Facebook page.
Thank you so much Mike that was
incredibly cool. Join us here next time on AdoramaTV and
remember to Subscribe to AdoramaTV for some extraordinary videos, tutorials and walk throughs!
Do you want great-looking prints at low-cost? Be sure to visit our easy to use online printing
service.
Adorama Pixs has professionals who treat your images
with the utmost care that you can count on. For a quick turnaround on
photos, cards or albums use
adoramapix.com