Hello, friends.
I hope that you will excuse the triviality of this thread, and I hope that this topic has not already been addressed exhaustively elsewhere on the site, but here it goes...
We have all seen CD covers of the saxophonist and his horn. Some are creative, and some are not. Sometimes the guy is standing in a dark alley with his saxophone hanging around his neck, for example. Sometimes he's just smiling with the horn in his hands, as if ready to play at any moment. Sometimes he's got his foot up on the upper rung of a barstool, with the saxophone reclined across his knee, and his hand on his chin, as if thinking about what to play next. Sometimes he's got the horn beside him on the sofa, while he, himself stares into the camera (I think Michael Brecker had that one).
I assume that we also like to have a professional photograph taken of ourselves, now and then. I had my first saxophone photograph professionally made recently, only because it was part of a special offer where you could have several shots during the same session, all for the same price (e.g., with the whole family, or alone with your wife, or alone with your saxophone, if you happened to bring one along.)
Many of you are skilled enough to have a CD made, so you have probably already thought about this as you designed the cover for it, but more likely, somebody else designed it for you, and you were never completely satisfied with the results, and have been on a quest for the perfect pose, ever since. Even if the rest of us never release a CD, we can still have a fascinating photograph of ourselves, in the meantime, that would make a great album cover someday, if we ever did, and hang it on the wall, in the meantime.
Consequently, I think that we could ALL benefit, to see creative shots uploaded to this thread, so that we could all get some good ideas for our own photographs or future album covers.
Now, I'm not necessarily suggesting that you upload photos of yourself, although you could feel free to do so. For the sake of privacy you could even pretend it was a picture of someone other than you, if you wanted to. I am mainly thinking of poses that you have come across on the Intenet, of other musicians, album covers that you think are just too cool to be ignored--even if they are not even of famous album covers or famous musicians--that might still be useful to the rest of. Feel free just to upload any picture, as long as you think it is PARTICULARLY INTRIGUING, and not just an ordinary pose of a guy in a pretty shirt, holding his sax.
In fact, as we go on this quest, in a sense, it would not be fair to include a picture with a really exotic background that the rest of us could never have access to ourselves, like the Egyptian pyramids, if our goal is to borow ideas from these photos, but then, again, feel free to upload whatever you like, as we may get some good ideas from one aspect of the picture unrelated to the background (e.g., the pose itself). Of course, the background is an important part of the overall photograph, but sometimes something as simple as a dark hallway or some unusual interior architecture, can create as much intrigue as a lush tropical waterfall.
NOTE: I am NOT particularly interested in poses that involve the musician playing the instrument on stage, and not necessarily in a picture of the musician playing the instrument at all, since these tend to be the most stereotypical images that we see everywhere else. But then, again, you may have come across an irresistable shot of such, that we should not ignore, so feel free to include it, if that's what you have. Maybe it's a man playing on a stage after hours, for example, when the entire audience has already left, or maybe there is only one person sitting in the audience at all. That kind of shot would, indeed, be artisitic, in spite of the usual "playing on stage" pose.
Keep in mind that, you don't have to like the musician's music, in order to appreciate his album-cover design, so no need for any apologies, as you upload the pictures.
I hope that you will excuse the triviality of this thread, and I hope that this topic has not already been addressed exhaustively elsewhere on the site, but here it goes...
We have all seen CD covers of the saxophonist and his horn. Some are creative, and some are not. Sometimes the guy is standing in a dark alley with his saxophone hanging around his neck, for example. Sometimes he's just smiling with the horn in his hands, as if ready to play at any moment. Sometimes he's got his foot up on the upper rung of a barstool, with the saxophone reclined across his knee, and his hand on his chin, as if thinking about what to play next. Sometimes he's got the horn beside him on the sofa, while he, himself stares into the camera (I think Michael Brecker had that one).
I assume that we also like to have a professional photograph taken of ourselves, now and then. I had my first saxophone photograph professionally made recently, only because it was part of a special offer where you could have several shots during the same session, all for the same price (e.g., with the whole family, or alone with your wife, or alone with your saxophone, if you happened to bring one along.)
Many of you are skilled enough to have a CD made, so you have probably already thought about this as you designed the cover for it, but more likely, somebody else designed it for you, and you were never completely satisfied with the results, and have been on a quest for the perfect pose, ever since. Even if the rest of us never release a CD, we can still have a fascinating photograph of ourselves, in the meantime, that would make a great album cover someday, if we ever did, and hang it on the wall, in the meantime.
Consequently, I think that we could ALL benefit, to see creative shots uploaded to this thread, so that we could all get some good ideas for our own photographs or future album covers.
Now, I'm not necessarily suggesting that you upload photos of yourself, although you could feel free to do so. For the sake of privacy you could even pretend it was a picture of someone other than you, if you wanted to. I am mainly thinking of poses that you have come across on the Intenet, of other musicians, album covers that you think are just too cool to be ignored--even if they are not even of famous album covers or famous musicians--that might still be useful to the rest of. Feel free just to upload any picture, as long as you think it is PARTICULARLY INTRIGUING, and not just an ordinary pose of a guy in a pretty shirt, holding his sax.
In fact, as we go on this quest, in a sense, it would not be fair to include a picture with a really exotic background that the rest of us could never have access to ourselves, like the Egyptian pyramids, if our goal is to borow ideas from these photos, but then, again, feel free to upload whatever you like, as we may get some good ideas from one aspect of the picture unrelated to the background (e.g., the pose itself). Of course, the background is an important part of the overall photograph, but sometimes something as simple as a dark hallway or some unusual interior architecture, can create as much intrigue as a lush tropical waterfall.
NOTE: I am NOT particularly interested in poses that involve the musician playing the instrument on stage, and not necessarily in a picture of the musician playing the instrument at all, since these tend to be the most stereotypical images that we see everywhere else. But then, again, you may have come across an irresistable shot of such, that we should not ignore, so feel free to include it, if that's what you have. Maybe it's a man playing on a stage after hours, for example, when the entire audience has already left, or maybe there is only one person sitting in the audience at all. That kind of shot would, indeed, be artisitic, in spite of the usual "playing on stage" pose.
Keep in mind that, you don't have to like the musician's music, in order to appreciate his album-cover design, so no need for any apologies, as you upload the pictures.
