Todd Eckhart Band | Album Release
Hey blog followers! Finally “dead season” for photography is over, so more sessions will be hitting the blog soon!
To start off my 2016 blog posts, I am sharing my parents band photo shoot I did at the end of 2014.... I had to wait a whole year before I could share all of these!
I am so excited that my parent’s finally released their first album! Unfortunately, this album has been a LONG time in the making. Let’s just say a good couple years...or so ;) If you haven’t seen my Facebook posts, I have been involved a lot in the making of this album. When my dad came to me about taking their band photos for the cd booklet and promotional use, I wanted to make sure I found the right scenery for them and create the right look we wanted to portray the album. The main message for their album is that we would be one with God’s heart and that as we stay near to Him, we would be changed as well. The location we used is in Lancaster and it was an open space with broken walls, pavement and junk laying around. But I loved it because even though it was a mess and falling apart, nature was still growing there and it created a really cool look. It reminded me how God takes our brokeness and turns it into something amazing in our lives. That’s what we wanted to photos to show for the album, so we did the shoot there. ( This location is now changed and doesn’t look this way anymore. )
I also dressed the band so they would look good and color coordinate with each other haha. We did a classy, rock look and a more casual look. This was at the end of 2014, so of course it was FREEZING out! Like below 20 degrees....So I wanted to make sure they would be somewhat warm too. Right before I would take a shot, they took off their coats and then put them back on after I got the shot I needed. I don’t blame them! It was so cold, I couldn’t press the button fast enough to take the photos!
The other thing I included in the session was my dad’s old guitar amp road case. My dad has had this case since 1976 and my mom stenciled the band name on herself. So it’s definitely original! I really loved how it looked though and how it fit who they are as a band. The one shot ended up being the back cover of the cd case. Only some of these shots are actually on the cd booklet and the others will be used for promotional purposes.
Lastly, the photo of the heart below is the cover of my parent’s album called “The Rhythm of Your Heart.” It took me probably about a year to draw on my Wacom tablet. It only took that long because I still had to take care of other responsibilities like photography, music, different events and daily life things at the same time as I was taking my time drawing this. I also don’t get to practice drawing on my tablet in Photoshop or Illustrator too often, so it took me a little longer. This is what I envisioned the cover to be when I knew they were going to name the album “The Rhythm of Your Heart.” I wanted it to be a very sketchy, messy heart. It represents our hearts when we come to Jesus broken and messy. The colors black, gray and white obviously create the depth and realism of the heart, but also represent the light and the darkness in our hearts. The key represents Jesus unlocking our hearts because He is the key and the answer we all search for! It is gold and elegant to portray a heavenly, royal key that holds our true identity and the beauty of Jesus. The cracks in the heart around the key show the impact God has in our hearts and that His love is so strong, He will never leave us. That is a simplified explanation of the cover art.
Thanks for checking out this post! I am always honored by every one of you who follows my blog and my journey. Enjoy the photos!
If you’re interested in checking out their music, go to www.toddeckhartband.com to hear some songs or purchase their album!
You can also find them on:
Facebook.com/Todd Eckhart Band
Instagram: @toddeckhartband
Twitter: @toddeckhartband
