It's been a busy month for me. And love it even more, I get to work with talented artists like this young musician that goes by Kyle Thomas. This isn't my first time working with Kyle. Last July, he hired me to shoot his live show at the Dusty Armadillo, and you can say that was the first time getting my feet wet in the world of country music.
Kyle certainly has a strong country sound and shows creativeness and heart when writing music. As a young musician, he's still trying to find himself visually. He came to me with a few ideas in mind but wasn't too set on having a stable country look like what other artists may be representing. With my schedule a little crazy, I decided to take this photo shoot locally into beautiful Hartville, Ohio. Hartville holds a lot of country beauty that would fit Kyle, but at has options to provide more of an industrial feel downtown towards the square.
On my drive into town, I spotted this old abandoned shed off the side of the road by Maize Valley Winery & Craft Brewery on Edison Street. It had a potential for a rugged look and that's where we began first. We played with shooting Kyle from outside and inside of the shred's window. We worked the grounds of the area, finding a grungy trailer and weathered corridor. Heading into downtown, we mixed it up and photographed Kyle in between two semi trailers. I loved the leading lines in the scene. After we had exhausted that spot, the sound of an incoming trailer "choo-choo'd" our next location. Snapped a few photos with the train passing by and decided to place a light stand for a real moody approach. I figure I cover all grounds for Kyle making sure he had a little bit of everything to play around with.
Little direction on my part giving Kyle a strong male presence as the kid had it down. He was mixing up different stances after each fire from the camera. Thank you, Kyle, for the great turnout! I had a blast working with you again.