It was about 2:30 in the morning and I was rendering a video project I recently shot and while I was waiting, instead of going to bed, I started watching some old videos I worked on.  And I came across The Rick Short Band.  It’s over twenty minutes long and I didn’t intend on watching the whole thing.  But I got sucked in.  I hadn’t watched it in a long time.  Afterwards I started thinking back on how we did it.

I remember Rob (Silver City Studios) and I met with Rick and his wife Wendy at Gerber’s 1933 Tavern in Utica about a week prior to Rick’s band recording the album.  Rick was pitching us a completely different idea he had and then at some point he had mentioned he was going to be going to the studio to record his second full length album.  He also told us the history of Gerber’s as we had never been there.  It was nice hearing about a new original project idea.

So I got thinking about his recording and I messaged him and offered my services to go to the studio with the band while they recorded the album.  He agreed.

I never met the band before, never heard any of their material.  I only had met Rick and his wife the one time the previous week.  I had never been to Subcat in Syracuse or met Ron Keck.  I didn’t even know how to get there.

I remember after reviewing the video though how we shot the whole thing in one day with the band.  I got there early that morning while they were setting up.  Rick introduced me, they didn’t know they were gonna be filmed.  From a technical aspect, I shot with a Nikon point and shoot cam, two action cams, and my primary was a Nikon D5100 DSLR with a 50mm F1.8, the only SLR I had and the only lens I had at the time.  I now have two 5100s and a 5200 and still have that lens as well as five or six other ones as well as an additional action cam and the point and shoot I still have as well, it’s just quite beat up but it still works.

For not knowing the songs or the musicians and what random shots I was able to get, I was amazed at what we ended up with.  Looking back I remember it was a long day, but it was only one day.  And the gear I had was minimal to what I have now.  But we got it all.  I don’t know how many times they went back to the studio to finish the album, but we did all the preliminary layouts that day and it was just what we needed to accompany the new CD.  I did a follow up interview with Rick at MVCC in Utica as he is on the board there and I was taking a night class at the time.  We had permission to shoot but were on a limited time schedule.  We ended up finishing the shoot outside as it was getting late.  It was my idea I like the night time look and he was thrilled when he saw how it came out.

I remember I sent him the promo for the promo and he was very excited.  We both knew we had a great piece.