A few weeks ago I attended the West Palm Beach stop of Warped Tour 2010 to catch some of the bands that I had missed when I was up at the stop in Indianapolis. This time around I was able to check out Every Time I Die, We Are The In Crowd, Alkaline Trio, The Cab, Hey Monday, Haste The Day, Sum 41, I Can Make a Mess Like Nobodys Business and We The Kings.

I was also able to spend a little bit of time with my buddy Adam Elmakias and help him out on a shoot with Sum 41. He is out on Warped right now with Pierce The Veil. Adam does a lot of work for major publications and a ton of bands so check out his work at www.adamelmakias.com He also hooked me up with one of his sweet 50mm 1.8 bracelets which I will post a photo of soon!

It was a super long day, and much hotter than the Indianapolis stop, but the day was well worth it. Kevin Lyman started the tour 16 years ago, and it has been growing into the state it is today ever since. Now over 100 bands play per day and it is a lot to take in if it is your first experience at such a festival. It can prove even more insane if you are trying to attend as a professional photographer.

Some things to keep in mind if you plan on attending or shooting a Warped Tour Date in the future:

1. Drink PLENTY of Water
• Bring sealed water in a backpack
• Bring money for extra water throughout the day
• If you do not have extra money, save your empty bottles (there are usually water fountains you can fill up at.
• If you run out of money, can’t get water, and feel sick, then go find a first aid station as they are prepared for people becoming de-hydrated

2. Find out who you want to see, and where they are playing.
• If you are press, and have acquired a press pass for the day, there will usually be schedules hung up in the press area. Some days MSO even will print out copies for you (but usually you do not get that luxury.)
• If you are an attendee, then there is usually a blow up schedule in the middle of the venue with all bands and times listed. (different festivals operate in different ways, but warped tour always has the big blow up schedule!)
• If you are a photographer, make sure you get to the stage of the band you are trying to see at or before the time on the schedule. Usually you are only allowed to take photos during the first 3 songs, and security will push you out after that time. If you show up after the 3rd song, the security may not even let you take any photos at all!

3. Make sure you have your credentials in order before you get to the venue.
• If you plan on taking photos in the photo pit or on stage, you need to be set up through a bands management before hand. If you just show up with your professional camera, you will usually not be able to get in with it. Even if you are allowed in with it, you will not be able to shoot from stage or up close unless you have the proper credentials and you will get annoyed.
• If you do have credentials set up, be sure to stay in the areas that you are designated to be in. You usually can only shoot from the stage if the stage manager has approved you being there. If you choose to go up without approval, people will get mad, and it will not make you look good in the future (if you plan on working with that band ever again)
• If you have a scheduled time to do specific press shots with a band (not live shots) then be sure to get there on time. If you are even a minute late, you will risk the band leaving to do other important things they are scheduled to do that day. Remember, If you are early then you are on time. If you are on time, then you are late.

4. Network, Network, Network!
• If you are a photographer, or in a band, or even have your own business, bring business cards and/or flyers to pass out to spread the word about yourself. There are a large number of people at these festivals and it is a great opportunity to let people know who you are, and make new friends.
• Don’t pressure people. If you are promoting yourself, do so in a friendly manner and if people do not respond to it in a good way, don’t take it personally. Just move on to the next person!
• If you are a photographer, meet people in the press area who are doing the same things you are doing. It is always great to make new friends and interact people who you can learn from.

5. Have Fun!
• Even if you come to an event to work, don’t forget to have fun. It is so important to enjoy what you are doing because if you don’t, your results will show that.

Anyway, most of you who come to this blog do so because of the photos, so look below for all of the photos from the day!

The great thing about having an amazing and beautiful girlfriend is being able to pull her out of bed at 5:30 in the morning to do a sunrise shoot for a clothing line that you needed to get done, but slacked on planning to find models.

Last week I received a shipment of clothes from Peter Says Denim, an Indonesian clothing line who have branched out into producing not only Tees, but flannels, jackets, wallets, and as the name suggests – denim shorts and jeans. I ended up making last minute plans with my girlfriend, Jenny, to do a sunrise shoot to show off some of his new line…

We got up super early (well mostly stayed up super late) and headed out to hit the beach at sunrise. The shoot went off without a hitch, mostly because there were hardly any other human beings taking up that precious, sandy, real-estate.

Peter was kind enough to send over a few pair of jeans for me to wear as well, and I have to say, these are some of the most comfortable and well fitting jeans I have put on in a long time. They are tight where you want them to be and loose enough where you need it.

Also, as skinny jeans normally go, the PSD jeans are not at all short on pocket space. You can really tell how much work Peter puts into his line with all of the custom tagging, labels, packaging, rivets, and especially how his product fits, feels, and stands up to wear and tear.

If you can, be sure to head over http://petersaysdenim.com/home/collection and pick up some gear! The average price of his jeans is right around $60.00 (USA) so they are definitely super affordable for the quality you get!

Check out some more photos from the shoot below…

I just got back from a trip to Chicago with my band Easton. On the way up to good ole Chi-Town, we stopped off at the Indianapolis date of Warped Tour to try to sell some CD’s and make some new friends and fans. As in typical Chris Martin fashion, I had my camera with me and decided to run off to see some friends and make some pictures! More after the jump!

Hey Monday was the first act of the day that I was able to catch, and they played an amazing set. They performed a few new songs off of their upcoming sophomore album “Beneath it All” and they also played a Jason Derulo cover. After their set, I hung out with them for a little bit and then ran over to the Kevin Says Stage to go check out Automatic Love Letter. Juliette ended up crossing the barricade during their set to get a bit closer to the fans, and I was able to snag some cool shots of her getting up close and personal with the crowd.

After A.L.L.’s set I went back to catering for a little bit to meet up with some of the guys in Easton and our friends Marshal, Johnson, and Singer of the Cab. We passed them off one of our E.P.’s (Which Marshal helped write part pf one of the H’s on) and then I took off to go catch Four Year Strong, and then the Rocket Summer’s sets.

I did not really get to have the “true” warped tour experience on the Indianapolis date because we had to leave a bit early to get into Chicago to prepare for our shows that weekend, but we were able to sneak in a photo shoot for Easton with our good friend Tom Falcone after hanging out with him and the We Are The In Crowd camp. I am really excited to receive those photos from him, and once we get them I am sure I will make a little post on my tumblr about it!

All of the photos from the show are below, and I will be making another post in the next few days with photos of our weekend in Chicago so stay tuned!

Last week I met up with the Hey Monday camp to hang out at one of their last practices before they hit the road for the Vans Warped Tour 2010. It was good to hear them practicing some of the new songs they have in their arsenal to gear up for the release of their new album. The new songs sound so big, and I am really excited for everyone else to hear them!

I had gotten a call a few days prior to Hey Mondays practice asking for some studio images for the clothing line “So So Happy” so we quickly figured out a way to fit a shoot in to their schedule. Everyone in the Hey Monday camp has been super busy preparing for this tour, so there really was not much time to work with.

I drove down to Ft. Lauderdale to meet up with them at their practice space and brought my portable studio with me. Thankfully the room they were practicing in had just enough space to set up my 9 foot backdrop and as they were running through their songs, I was setting up the backdrop, my lights, and getting everything tested so that we would be good to go the second they were done playing.

Once they were finished we only had about a half hour to complete the shots that So So Happy was looking for, so I positioned the band and started snapping away. We were able to finish all of the shots with time to spare and we even were able to take some additional shots for Invisible Children to showcase the bracelets they just made with Jak Vannek. The actual finished photos will be used in an ad that is coming out soon in Alternative Press Magazine, so be on the lookout for that!

Big Thanks to my good friend Joe Perri for letting be borrow some of his Alien Bees after one of my lights blew out earlier this week! Check out his work at http://www.joeperriphoto.com/

Be sure to check out Hey Monday on Warped Tour at http://www.heymondaymusic.com
Check out So So Happy Clothing at http://www.sosohappyonline.com
And Check out Invisible Children over at http://www.invisiblechildren.com

More photos from the day are below!

Last week I had the pleasure of doing an Engagement shoot for Ryan and Kyleen. I was hired to shoot their wedding in October and in the package that they purchased I had included an E-shoot so that they could have some photos before the wedding to send out in their “save the date” cards and for any other needs they may have pre wedding.

Engagement sessions are always extremely fun sessions to shoot because the couple have usually recently gotten engaged and their love shows very strongly through the portraits. It is because of this, that I normally opt to shoot with natural light and keep a good distance from the subjects to ensure that they are in the most comfortable mindset that they can be in. When you have studio lighting popping off it can take a lot of work to capture natural, raw emotion and that (love) is what an engagement session is all about right?

As with a large amount of the photo shoots I do, I try to schedule an extra 30 minutes before the session starts meeting at a Starbucks or local coffee shop near the area. I feel that meeting my clients before hand and spending a bit of time just talking with them about anything really helps to open them up and get them comfortable with the daunting task of posing (or not posing) in front of a camera. For some people, having their photos taken is something they really do not like to do. If you can figure out a way to make your client forget that there is a big lens in between you and them, then you will almost always get natural, fun, candid, and real photographs.

I was lucky with this shoot in the sense that I have known Ryan and Kyleen for a few years now from working with Ryan on his projects for the online program “Film Riot” on the Revision 3 network. He and I are very similar in our taste of humor so we had each other cracking up the entire shoot. It was a good change of pace for me, because recently I have been immersed in band shoots and I really enjoy making photographs of subjects that are a little less “posed”.

If you have not seen some of the videos that Ryan has produced, go check out http://revision3.com/filmriot and also if you have time, check out the video that I was in over at http://www.youtube.com/ Ryan is an amazing Director and Editor and I am very excited for his upcoming film “Tell” to be released. Make sure you subscribe to their You Tube page and keep up on Film Riot for more info!

More photos of this beautiful couple are below, and I want to personally thank them for making my day a blast and being so amazing and easy to work with!

All the way back in December, I got a call from my good friend Dan Dobi letting me know that he would be in Orlando to film the new A Day To Remember video for “I’m made of wax Larry, what are you made of?” I was also told that I may have a part in the video, so I was super excited about it.

The video was just released today on MTV2 and MTVU ! It is also available for viewing on www.mtv2.com and www.mtvu.com so go check it out!

The video was sponsored by Rockstar Energy drink and since it has a sports theme, Rockstar cheerleaders were present and rooting hard for the boys in A Day To Remember. I actually ended up being cast as the coach for the kids kickball team, “The Little Sluggers”, and I definitely shaved my beard to fit the part!

As said before, Dan Dobi directed the video, and if you want to check out his past work you can do so at www.dandobi.com

Now for the fun part! While I was at the shoot, I took a ton of behind the scenes shots (obviously). They are all below, so have fun browsing the below gallery in all of its glory!

Yesterday I went out to Wellington to go hang with Alex, Mike and Pat of Hey Monday while they were practicing for the upcoming AP tour. Cassadee was up in New York recording vocals for their new record, and Jersey is up in NJ with family so they were not able to be at this practice, but everything still went smoothly. They were actually working on an amazing cover that will have to stay a surprise until you go out and see them.

Mike and Alex will be heading up to New York soon to start putting finishing touches on the new record and then the band heads out on the AP tour with Never Shout Never, The Cab, Every Avenue, and The Summer Set. The shows are going to be amazing so be sure to check them out when they come to your city. The dates are all up at http://theaptour.ning.com/ and you can also check out Hey Monday at http://www.heymondaymusic.com

Photos and a video from the practice are below!

Hey Monday Practice for the AP Tour from Chris Martin on Vimeo.

The night after I attended the New Found Glory Orlando show, I went to House of Blues Orlando to hang at the Take Action Tour. Most of the tour was actually at the NFG show because they had a day off, and the guys in A Rocket to the Moon had invited me to come out the next night to hang so I happily obliged.

I had an amazing time at this show because I have known all the bands for quite a while now. I unfortunately got there at the end of There For Tomorrow’s set and was not able to snag any shots of them, but they are from Orlando and always a blast to hang with.

I met A Rocket to the Moon in April of last year and took some promo shots of them that you may have seen on my website, or on your walls (if you own their large poster with Nick, Halvo, and Justin on it) They are probably some of the nicest dudes I have worked with and they make some amazing music! I hope to see them on tour with Taylor Swift in the not too distant future, I think it would be a perfect fit!

My first encounter with Mayday Parade was back in 2006 when Further Seems Forever was playing their run of final shows through Florida. Mayday opened up the Orlando show, I played after them (Words Now Heard) and then Further Seems Forever took the stage one final time for their fans in Orlando. Mayday blew me away then, even in their early stages of the band, and they have only gotten better through the years. Definitely check them out if you have not heard of them already.

I had met the guys in We The Kings a few years ago when they were playing as Broken Image and they were working with AKT Enterprises for their merchandising needs and web development. I, being the director of merchandising for AKT at the time, brought them out a few boxes of t-shirts to one of their shows and stuck around to see them play. I never would have thought at the time that a year later they would change the name from Broken Image to De Soto and then to We The Kings, and become the pop/rock monsters that they are now! I am definitely very proud of what they have accomplished.

Anyway, getting back to business, the show was a blast and all of the bands played extremely invigorating sets. You should have been there… Now I will leave you to let your eyes wander and explore the plethora of photos below!

I had the opportunity a few weeks ago to attend and photograph two of the 10 Year anniversary shows for NFG’s self titled album with New Found Glory, Saves the Day, Hello Goodbye, and Fireworks. As some of you may already know, I grew up in South Florida and NFG is from Coral Springs so their music played a large part in my life and the lives of most of my friends in the area.

They ended up playing the entire self titled album at the Ft. Lauderdale and Orlando shows, and though I have seen them play over 25 times, these were by far some of their best performances to date. I had an especially great time up in Orlando getting to hang with some of my good friends up there from AKT Enterprises and A Day To Remember, and I always love hanging at the House of Blues!

The next day I had a shoot in Gainesville, FL and then was immediately on my way back to the House of Blues for the Take Action Tour. I will have a post up very soon with photos from that night!

On to the photos from both nights of the NFG tour… They are all in random order below, so feel free to browse through and have fun!

On Friday, January 8th 2010, Alex Tchekmeian of AKT Enterprises, Joshua Woodard of A Day To Remember, his good friends Jordan Scheib, Robert Lane, and myself (Chris Martin) left on a Southwest Airlines flight at 7am to Las Vegas Nevada. We were in for a weekend of wild happenings, most of which I did not ever expect to experience in my lifetime.

I had a very late night, the night before. I spend most of the night doing laundry and packing up all of my lighting gear to be able to fly the next day, and I am surprised that I did not keep Alex up with the taping of boxes all through the night. I needed to be able to check my light stands, but was very concerned with how fragile all of my gear is. I don’t have flight cases yet so I had to rig proper sized boxes together and fill them with bubble wrap. Josh and I took a quick trip at 2 in the morning to Stake & Shake, to enjoy some of their delectable shakes, and then came back to get some much needed sleep.

Getting on the flight proved to be a longer experience than usual. Apparently the power pack that I use for my lights can be very easily misconstrued as being a bomb, and I spend around 45 minutes waiting to have all of my bags checked, wiped, and tested for explosives. On the flight there I tried to get some more sleep while Josh sat next to me, carefully studying the “Big Book Of Black Jack”. He has a keen understanding of the game, and has an even better understanding of when to stop playing after he has hit the “perfect run”

When we arrived into Vegas, we waited to get all of my luggage and then piled into a limo to head to our first destination which was the Hotel we would be staying at. Josh had worked out rooms for us at the brand new “Aria Hotel and Casino” and he had also somehow managed to get us into some of the best rooms there in the “Sky Suites”

This is by far the nicest hotel I have ever been able to stay at and the catch was that everything was completely free (comped by the hotel to Josh because he has gambled there in the past) So thank you to Josh for having us in this gorgeous hotel! The room we were in was a 2 bedroom suite with a beautiful view of some of the city and mountains. The sunset from the room was just spectacular, and it looked like the whole valley lit up in gold.

The first night was spent hitting numerous casinos, gambling with a ton of money (winning and loosing some as we went) and basically just having a ton of fun with friends. Robert made $8,000 in his first sitting of the day when we first got to Aria, and the momentum definitely did not stop there. There of course were a few bumps in the road, as with any gambling experience but over all the first night went well.

On Saturday, Josh had been invite to play in a Black Jack tournament at Mandalay Bay. This tournament was invite only, and there were over 200 people competing. The basic idea was that you played with $100,000.00 of the casinos money each round for 3 rounds, and the final hand of the final round was a no-limit bet. The people who placed in the top 10 for the entire competition would win Cash Prizes up to $3,000,000.00.

Josh played in two rounds of this tournament on Saturday, and the third would take place on Sunday so we decided to go out and have some fun. We went to Ceasers Palace, Wynn, Encore, Flamingo, Planet Hollywood and Rio and Josh and Robert were up and down and up and down and up again all night long. We finally decided that we needed to take a break so while we were at Rio we got comped tickets to go see Penn and Teller live. Penn and Teller are amazing comedians and magicians, and if you ever get the chance to see them, you definitely should. They pull off a trick where they shoot marked bullets into each others mouths and some how manage to not kill themselves. We had a great time and I was really excited that we were able to see the show. Also, Jordan and Josh got to meet Teller after the show (and he actually does talk!)

That night we went back to our suites and ordered the most amazing room service ever. Everything was RFB which for those of you who don’t know, it means room,food & beverage are completely on the hotel. We gorged ourselves with Chicken Fingers, Filet Mignon, Maine Lobster, Asparagus, Baked Potatoes, Creme Brule, and much much more. Safe to say, it was the best sleep I have had in months. I definitely took a coma!

The next day, Josh went out to go finish up his tournament at Mandalay Bay. We were sad to send Alex off the night before, but he had to return early to Orlando for his girlfriend Kelly’s Birthday. Josh played the final round and at the last hand went all in and won the hand with $290,000.00. We were feeling really good about everything, but had no idea how other people had placed. Since everyone could go all in at the last hand, we figured everyone was doing it and we were praying that most people would be busting out. We had a few hours to kill before we found out the results so we went back to the hotel for room service lunch.

When we returned to Mandalay bay, there was a wild sense of excitement in the air, and we were hearing buzz that Josh may have placed in the top 10 for all 3 rounds. We did not know what to expect, so we just waited it out while they called out the results. 10th place was announced, then 9th, then 8th, then 7th, the anticipation was building so fast at this point! 6th place was announced and we were holding our breath. Finally Josh was announced as the 5th place winner of the entire tournament to the tune of $10,000.00 cash! We were so excited about it so what did we decide to do??? Go out and gamble some more!!!

The rest of the weekend was a total blast, filled with continued gambling and a ton more fun. I want to send a big thank you out to Josh and Robert for bringing me out to document everything, and hopefully I will be able to make it out there with them for another trip soon!

More than 100 photos of the weekend are below, so be sure to check them out and see what you can do with a little persistence, good playing, and great friends!