Saigon Punk Chronicles: The Metal Edition

July 22, 2024 in music

Not really a hardcore or punk show per se, but this show still had a lot of overlap in the crowd. The bill consisted of Orca from the Philippines, Diarsia off their brand new release, Method, Obsess, and the Korean shred machine Oathean. I grabbed the Fuji x100v and an old speedlight and rolled the dice. These shows give me a chance to experiment with different set ups - multiple cameras, light set ups, techniques…No pressure if I shit the bed and they turn out awful, but at least I learned something. That said, I don’t think I’ve run into any insurmountable challenges, and different tools yield different results. I tried to shoot a bit more abstract images to bridge over from the usual dragged shutter and speedlight combo and I think they turned out interesting. Tried a bit of multiple exposure shenanigans. Essentially played around and threw everything at the wall to see what stuck. Maybe a bit artsy even… what is going on?!

Furniture photography by Vietnam Product Photographer Lee Starnes

Recent Work : Cameron Foggo Design

July 19, 2024 in Product

Back at it with the amazing team at Cameron Foggo Design, we wanted to create some dynamic new images for the line coming out this summer. We built new sets, came up with new ideas, and overall had a blast shooting the new line. It’s always so good to have repeat clients so the work can evolve and improve over the course of multiple shoots. Many thanks for the trust and can’t wait until the next one. The last image is a bit of an extra as we blended ambient light with our strobes to create this evening vibe.

Sunset in Alor Indonesia by travel Photographer Lee Starnes, shot with a Fuji x100v

Travel Diary : Alor Archipelago, Indonesia

July 16, 2024 in travel

It’s hard to really convey into words about how special some places in the world are. That said, if there was a list, Alor is currently sitting at the top. These images have been waiting to get published for around a month. During that time, I’ve been staring at the screen trying to figure out how to say how incredible this place is and I don’t think it’s possible to really convey with words, my photos, or even the mix of the two. These images are from the small time I spent above water in between diving and seeing all the incredible creatures of the ocean. Time seems to stand still. I know I’ve spoken about how time seems to slow down in some places, but somehow in Alor it feels like the world just stops and you’re in that place you’re supposed to be. At least it is for me. I can’t get enough of it.

Saigon Punk Chronicles : Aftershock

July 15, 2024 in music

This past Sunday I headed out to a show and to see some old friends I hadn’t caught up with in a while. The bill consisted of HSA, Song Am, Katto Katto, District 105, Cut Lon, and Luan Quan Collective. A mixed bag of genres and I wasn’t familiar with all the bands, but I knew there’d be some thrashy goodness with Cut Lon and of course the homies in D105. I didn’t get images of everyone, but I decided to shoot this a bit differently than what I’ve been shooting this project and brought my studio lights in much like I did back in the day in the States. It’s going to take some tweaking, but here we are and it’s nice to get a different look. I’m not going to divide the images up into bands this time around but rather an overall vibe of the show.

Street scenes of Ho Chi Minh City for the week in photos by Vietnam photographer Lee Starnes

The Week in Photos: Volume 5

July 12, 2024 in travel, week in photos, street

We’ve wrapped up a few commercial projects and had a few days before preproduction started on a couple of others, so I wanted to go out and shoot some images for myself a few days this week. Technically some of these are from the week before, so this is the week(ish) in photos. I’ll get better about the scheduling of this whole thing, but it’s been hectic lately so this will have to do until I get it together on the schedule.

Looking at what I’ve shot recently, I’ve noticed how I’ve gradually been shooting more and more at night. I think this probably has to do with a smaller camera that I can take with me on social outings and snap some images along the way, but also I think I’ve just become more and more intrigued with how pools of light and their contrasting shadow makes for such dramatic moody images. If you’ve been to Saigon, you’ll know how frenetic it is and how there’s never any shortage of energy when you’re walking around the city. Similarly, its easy to have very busy compositions and I’m a minimalist at heart. Using shadows to hide distractions and isolate my subjects is always going to be my first approach. So here’s the last week and a half in photos.

Annalynn's vocalist jumps into the crowd at RockFest Vietnam photographed by Vietnam Photographer Lee Starnes. A part of Saigon Punk Chronicles

Saigon Punk Chronicles : Rock Fest

July 10, 2024 in music

Although this wasn’t your classic DIY punk or hardcore show, it was certainly interesting to see hardcore bands play on a big stage with over the top production and I had to go out to support the homies in District 105 and check out a few other bands. A mixed bag of genres, Rockfest showcased both local and some international bands and its really good to see these types of events coming to Saigon more. Tons of bands played, and I took a boatload of images, but I’m going to limit it here to the bands that fall into the punk scene or at least close enough to the DIY scene to fit within this personal project. So, that being said, the images below are from Saigon’s District 105, and 18.18, The Flob and Thailand’s Annalynn and Defying Decay. I tried to shoot this a bit differently as the over the top production provided with about a bajillion different coloured lights which I find a bit visually noisy and takes away from the raw emotion of punk. Maybe I’m just an old head and love the way old black and white photos of live music look like…whatever. Anyways, to the images!

Osaka's Shinsekai Kokusai Gekijo Theatre shot by Vietnam travel photographer Lee Starnes

Travel Diary: Osaka Part 3

July 08, 2024

As I went through the rest of the images from Osaka, there were more than what I’m going to put in this blog post, but after sitting on these images for around a month, clearer eyes and that bit of removal from the romance of being in Japan allowed me to be a bit more selective in my final picks. With work being so busy, I’ve had this push to get work out the door and leaned on the idea that finished is better than perfect. Doubly so with personal work and, honestly, it really doesn’t matter that much anyways seeing as there are no client expectations or really anything else that matters other than what I feel should be representative of my work. That being said, giving it some time and “letting it cook” allowed me to have a bit more clarity and honesty when looking at the images. The emotional ties to the image are lessened and the moment is now further in my memory. Thankfully, I take pictures for a living so I at least have photographic evidence of the things I’ve done that I most surely will forget. Anyways, here is the last chapter in the Osaka series and those images of Mario World I mentioned in Part 1, well here they are. Scroll down to the end for those. And if you didn’t see Part 2, you can click here and have a gander at those, too.

The Week in Photos: Volume 4..... a bit delayed

July 04, 2024 in street

I started this whole series of The Week in Photos to keep the creative juices flowing and partially because I have this little camera that I can take everywhere with me and it’s just so fun to shoot with. I debated on whether or not to mix in travel images and maybe some of my actual work, but that seems a little messy and my sense of order wouldn’t let me go down that road. So maybe I should rename this “The week in photos when I’m not working or on the road or have a million other obligations”……probably not. But in any event, I had these photos from right before I headed out on the road and forgot that they were even on the hard drive until I started importing some random images from this past week. These are from around a month ago. So here’s The Week in Photos. From last month.