In the past few years I’ve found myself more and more interested in videotaping and telling stories about artists. Just last week, longtime Cedar Rapids, IA metal guitarist and singer Eli Wedel branched out, launching his first rap album. Wedel had been experimenting with beats and had collaborated with a few wrappers before deciding to record his own album.
To capture the attitude of the album we went downtown just before dusk to shoot some portraits. In fact, we took a lot of good shots. The photo of Eli on the train tracks near the Cedar Rapids downtown library has much of the right attitude, but it was too busy for the album cover. The featured image had more of what we were looking for – the artist – The Impossible Kid – looking for his way. The Five Seasons Tree, symbol of the city stands behind him. He’s on the bridge, above the river, in the middle of the river.
At dusk, the light is always changing. It moves from warmer to cooler tones as the sun sets, and it also provides much more even lighting. Shadows display more evenly across the face at dusk as compared to noon. In bright sun, the shadows around the eyes and nose are sharp.
For this shoot we were lucky to have the clouds. They enhanced the mood we were looking for in the shoot, and they added a lot to the final result.
To hear a song from the album, visit The Impossible Kid on SoundCloud.