Cloudside’s sophomore Album cover
I first worked with local San Diegans CLOUDSIDE in early 2016 when I was accosted by guitarist and friend Scott Szikla about shooting the band live at the House of Blues. My shoot then went well. I got some wonderful shots
This was a wonderful opportunity to meet the guys in Cloudside, and impress them with my skills as a photographer.
These photos ultimately led to the guys asking me to work with them again early in 2017 for some posed promo shots in the months leading up to the release of their sophomore effort, “IOLA”.
And a few weeks after these, Singer Jeffrey Jackson approached me about shooting the Album artwork for the release. Having wanted to work on more album artwork, I gladly accepted!
Jeffrey expanded on his vision for the album, saying he liked a fisheye lens perspective. Also he wanted something very rock’n’roll. He shared the covers of two sophomore albums of famous bands (VS by Pearl Jam, and Around the Fur by Deftones) as inspiration. I went to work, first using my mind’s eye to create what I wanted and thought might work well. I thought ‘Maybe I’ve already shot it!’ and so I sent over examples of pictures I thought might be cool. Like chickens.
The shot was cool, but not Cloudside’s kickbutt second album cool.
Onto the next idea. Obstacle #2, and Interpol reference: My mind was blank! I did not have any ideas coming to me! Do I panic? I asked Jefferey for a deadline. He said they wanted to release ASAP so something by next week. YIKES! Luckily for me, he’s a decent guy and easy to work with. He offered to find someone else if its too quick. Fortunately or unfortunately I’m stubborn and told him I will have something. Time for a Hail Mary!
I spent one Sunday afternoon at a close friend’s Jazz concert, where his 11-year old daughter joined him on stage. While Father and daughter shared a song, a picture came into my mind of her little hands holding a delicate flower, and I thought this would be my picture.
We shot some images a few days later, edited and shared the photos with Jefferey. He and the band liked one photo
but wanted the flower purple!
Now we have an Album Cover!
Here are some rejected photos from the same shoot:
^ As you can see, the flower started out pink.
^ And most of the photos started out in color.
different distances between the flower and the grass create different variations in amount of focus in the grass.
To Hear Cloudside’s IOLA yourself, visit HERE
