Debra A. Zeller Photography

A few months ago I had another wonderful portrait session with The Ian Fays. I noticed they’re playing a show this Thursday at the Bottom of the Hill so I thought I’d post a few photos from our recent shoot. We took a few outdoors and then had some more fun with balloons in the studio. I love these ladies!

Go here to see a photo from the previous year.
oxoxo,
Debra

I had the pleasure of working with local San Francisco musician Chris Jones on his latest album cover and publicity photos. He’s a wonderful guy with a heart full of talent.

oxoxo,
Debra

Under the Radar Magazine recently hired me to shoot a band portrait of Les Savy Fav for their special “Protest Issue”, which should be on stands any day now. The ‘peace’ sign which each member signed will be auctioned off with the proceeds going to a charity called War Child. I’m not sure of the auction details, but I’m sure they will be posted on Under the Radar’s website.

I had 20 minutes with the band and it took them about 10 minutes to make the sign and then another 5 goofing around, so I had 5 minutes to get a shot. Photographing touring bands is always a fun little challenge.

June has been quite a whirlwind of a month and it’s not even over. I have two weddings, a couple family shoots, an engagement shoot, a session with a wonderful librarian, and a trip to Guatemala to share. So stay tuned, lots of beautiful images will be coming soon!

oxoxo,
Debra

Check it out, I have a photo in today’s San Francisco Chronicle’s 96 Hours of the Ian Fays.

The Ian Fays are near and dear to my heart, I can’t tell you how much I adore them. I’ve been watching this band bloom over the past few years. Tonight they’re celebrating the release of their fantastic new CD “Dylan’s Last Days” at the Bottom of the Hill. I can’t wait!!   

oxoxo,
Debra 

Here’s a sampling of some of the photos I took during NoisePop. The highlight of all the shows I covered was She & Him. I was extremely impressed with Zooey, her vocals are amazing and she plays the piano beautifully. I was only allowed to cover the first three songs so I don’t have photos of her playing the piano, unfortunately, as she looked so beautiful playing. Links to all the photos I took are below, check ‘em out and enjoy!

February 28, 2008 :: Herbst Theater
: The Magnetic Fields
: Interstellar Radio Company

February 29, 2008 :: Bottom of the Hill
: Holy Fuck
: A Place to Bury Strangers
: White Denim
: Veil Veil Vanish

March 1, 2008 :: Bimbo’s
: Gutter Twins
: Great Northern
: Monotonix
: Apache

March 2, 2008 :: Great American Music Hall
: She & Him (Zooey Deschanel & M. Ward)
: Whispertown2000
: Adam Stephens (Two Gallants)
: Emily Jane White

oxoxo,
Debra

Alrightee, NoisePop is now officially over and I successfully photoraphed 16 bands in four days. Needless to say, I’m exhausted! Now I have the fun task of editing.

I’ve never been good with writing reviews, so I hope you can get a feel for the music by checking out my photos. First up we have Magnetic Fields performing at Herbst Theater. What a gorgeous venue and such a lovely setting for such a lovely band.


The opening act was a live radio show called Interstellar Radio Company. The fella in the middle told a story while the fellas on the side provided sound effects. It was pretty cool!


oxoxo,
Debra

I’ve been shooting for the NoisePop festival since 2003, it’s something I look forward to doing every year. I just received my assignments for this years festival and couldn’t be more excited! My #1 show I wanted to shoot was Magnetic Fields and I got it! I love Stephin Merritt and the earth he walks on, he can do no wrong. You’ll find me up front and center on the following nights:

2/27 Quasi @ The Rickshaw Stop

2/28 The Magnetic Fields @ Herbst Theater

2/29 Holy Fuck @ Bottom of the Hill

3/1 The Gutter Twins (Mark Lanegan & Greg Dulli)@ Bimbo’s

3/2 She & Him (Matt Ward and Zooey Deschanel) @ Great American Music Hall

The only one I wasn’t familiar with was Holy Fuck, I had to look that one up! I’ve learned early on that you should never judge a band by it’s name. I’ll admit when I first saw the name I thought “oh, must be a noise band”, but I was wrong, it’s a lovely electronica rock band from Toronto. I have to say, I quite like it, it’s fun music to work to. Hopefully they’ll have some cool projections to help make for some interesting photos

In other news, January has been a slow month for shoots. I’ve been having a lot of consultations and planning my schedule for 2008. I have a couple shoots coming up that I keep having to re-schedule due to the rainy weather. Hopefully it doesn’t rain this weekend so I can photograph at least one of the jobs on my plate. I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

oxoxo,
Debra

My photos have been posted on the Treasure Island website, so grab a beverage and a comfy seat and check them out here.  I shot 13 bands over two days and some scenery shots. Fun stuff! Can’t wait to do it again next year.

Debra

The 2nd day of the festival was so incredibly fun. I ended up shooting 10 out of the 13 bands that played. It occurred to me while I was editing that I’ve never shot live music in the day before. What a real treat! I’m so use to dealing with really bad lighting or no lighting at all. Below are some of the highlights of the day for me. You should be able to see all my photos on the Treasure Island Music Festival site probably within a week.

So, on to the fest… Strange creatures roamed the grounds making friends with festival goers (and photographers!). How can you not smile when you see these guys? They’re kind of creepy, yet kinda cool.

Here’s a shot of Peter Ellenby in action shooting Built to Spill. Peter is one of my all time rock photographer heroes. You should get his book with his incredible work “Saturday Looks Good to Me”.

I haven’t seen Film School in such a long time; I absolutely love this band and am so proud of everything they have accomplished. This is the first time I’ve seen the new line-up; could they have found a prettier bass player? I don’t think so. They also sounded fantastic.

One of the biggest highlights of the day for me was Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. They have a couple songs I absolutely love and have to listen to daily.
Finally we have Modest Mouse. It was so strange, yet cool, to see Johnny Marr playing in the band.


That’s it! The rest is history.

I’m heading out tomorrow for a nice long weekend up at my friend Marc’s place in Cazadero. I seriously can’t wait to hit that hot tub!

Have a great rest of the week and weekend,
Debra Zeller

Today was the first day of the Treasure Island Music Festival which was put on by the folks from NoisePop and Another Planet. I wasn’t originally planning on going as I’m not really a big fan of big festival type settings, but I was hired by NoisePop to shoot the festival so I said “why the heck not!”, there were a few bands that I wouldn’t mind seeing/shooting and a few bands I’d heard of but never heard so I thought it’d be fun. I started my day at 8:00am sharp in hopes of finishing editing Sarah and Dan’s wedding pics, but ended up not finishing as I had to get out of here by 3:00 to go catch the shuttle to the island. Wow, what an experience! It was pretty exciting to arrive at the Pac Bell Park (or does it have a new name now? I can’t keep track) parking lot where there was a ton of folks waiting for a shuttle – it was exciting, it felt like a real adventure. This is the first time this fest has ever taken place. To be able to park in the city and get shuttled on a big bus loaded with music fans to an island rarely explored was pretty cool.

I arrived just as M.I.A. hit the stage, so I made my way through the crowd so that I could figured out the layout and where I could go and not go. I made my way to the side of the stage where I didn’t see easy access to the pit, so I just shot from the sidelines, here are a couple shots…


The first familiar face I saw was my fellow rock photographer pal Jeanne, she informed me that I had to make my way through the crowd to get to the photo pit (!!!). Can’t say that I’ve ever experienced that before. I really don’t like pushing through crowds, and with big events like this I’m use to be escorted to the pit or having easier access. Needless to say I was out of my element! (sorry to those I had to push through!).

After listening to a bit of M.I.A. (who btw, KICKED SERIOUS ASS!!!) I thought I’d check out the other smaller stage; West Indian Girl was set to take stage next. There was a photo pit there but it was PACKED with photogs, so I opted to shoot from the audience, which was sparse – go figure.



After seeing a bit of West Indian Girl and capturing the above shots I wandered back over to the big stage. DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist were up next. Not being able to access the photo pit (long story!!) I shot a shot from the sidelines, this is all I could get – shooting this type of music is really tough an not very exciting, though the music is good… anyhow.

That’s it for now, more tomorrow, this gal has to catch some zzzzz’s! But before I hit the hay, one more shot of the most adorable gal on the entire island, Ms. Ruby!

Word can’t describe how much I love this kid!!

Goodnight!
oxoxox,
Debra