My brothers, Mathieu and Alain, own and operate a recording studio here in uptown Saint John and they've just launched their new website, www.fluidaudiogroup.com. Needing some new banner photos for the site, Mathieu asked me to take a few pictures of the upstairs drum tracking room that has recently been reorganized and cleaned out. They also needed a photo of the workshop area that highlights the chaos that is the workbench. Click the link to see a few more photos.
The photo above is of the drum tracking room at the back of the top floor. It was once a fur storage fridge, with racks and catwalks to hang coats. It's a beautiful room with wainscoting from top to bottom, and hardwood floor that has never needed refinishing. The ceiling is 14ft high at the highest point. As for the photo itself, it is actually several unique exposures blended into one; each photo has a flash pointing at a different element of the room. During post-processing, the best parts of each photo are brought into one final blended image in Photoshop. Tedious, but simpler than using 6+ flashes outside of the frame.
Above is another photo of the drum tracking room from a different angle, taken in the same multi-exposure fashion as the first.
We wanted to showcase this room from a high point in order to show the size. To accomplish this, I secured the camera to a monopod, set it to remote trigger with Pocketwizards, and climbed a ladder for maximum height. Holding the monopod from one end, and raising the camera until it touched the ceiling, I popped a few shots. Afterwards I would bring the camera down, check how the images turned out, and repeated as necessary from different angles. Simple!
As said, another required photo was of the workshop. I wanted to use a fisheye lens to really emphasize the clutter equipment. There's one flash through an umbrella, high above, lighting the table more evenly, and you can thank Mathieu for kindly holding that up.
And while I was up on the ladder, why not take a photo of Sejin and Matt.
A note from Sejin about her impression of the studio:
The studio has everything that makes sounds! Especially, two drum sets are facing each other so two drum players can talk less loudly! :) When I went to the room for mixing the songs, I felt like I should be on a stage starting my show, maybe because the wall is painted with orange colour and the light was perfect for dancing. I love to visit the studio, it's fun and vitalizing!
In other news, I know it's been a little while since I've posted here, but I have valid excuses, I swear! Work has been keeping me really busy, and while I'm not at work, I'm helping Sejin plan our wedding that's coming up in just over a month. It's been pretty busy! On top of that, I'm currently preparing to take my motorcycle course as I just bought a 1986 Suzuki GS-400S that I will thoroughly enjoy this summer, and I just signed a lease on a new Honda Civic that's been almost too fun to drive so far. Would you blame me?
As always, I've posted these and a couple more photos on Facebook for you to comment on individually if you wish. You can see them here. Take care for now!
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