Zac Wolf
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[00:00:00]
Hello my friends. Welcome to another episode of Lenses &. Lyrics. Today is a different type of episode because I recorded an episode of a different podcast that I host called The Workflows Photography Podcast, and my guest, Zac Wolf, got his start photographing bands in the Boston Hardcore music scene, and during the conversation about his photography workflows.
The topic of music and band photography came up. So I thought I would take a short [00:01:00] clip from that episode and share with you here on Lenses & Lyrics. Now you're gonna hear this before Zach's episode of Workflows actually Goes Live. So in the meantime, in the show notes for this episode. Which you can get at lenseslyrics.com.
I am going to share the link to the other podcast that I host called The Workflows Photography Podcast, where you can eventually listen to the full episode and you can sign up to get notified when new episodes air. So, um, for now, enjoy this, this, uh, brief conversation with Zac Wolfe as a sort of teaser for his full episode at the Workflows Photography Podcast.
[00:01:41] Zac Wolf: ~Awesome.~ Did you have a bar mitzvah?
[00:01:43] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: I did have a bar mitzvah.
Yeah. And it was,~ um,~ so I was, as we were discussing before we recorded, I was a musician before I switched to photography. So, ~um, ~it was a music themed but not a cool kid music themed. It was like.~ Um, ~my tables, you know, you [00:02:00] get, you give nicknames to all the tables. My table was the piano man, so it was literally like Billy Joel and Elton John, and my parents,~ uh,~ picked the, the music.
[00:02:11] Zac Wolf: that's a good one.
[00:02:13] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: I mean, it was, it was fun. My cake cut, my cake literally had a clarinet on it, so because I played, I played clarinet in
[00:02:20] Zac Wolf: the coolest of instruments.
[00:02:21] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: the coolest of
[00:02:22] Zac Wolf: You never got to bust out your clarinet in a pop punk band.
[00:02:26] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: No. No, but I, I actually got into Berklee, Berklee College of Music playing it, so it was, I was good.
[00:02:31] Zac Wolf: There you go.
You could be the king of clarinet and who knows?
[00:02:35] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: I, yeah, I could be, I could be. I haven't picked it up in years.
~Um, ~anyway, so, so let's, let's actually shift into,~ um,~ into music for a second, since we're here. Right.
[00:02:45] Zac Wolf: Yeah.
[00:02:46] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: ~Um, ~you were telling me before we hit record. That you started by photographing bands, as did I. ~Um, ~can you share that, that story of who you were photographing, what you were photographing, how you were doing it,~ um,~ and [00:03:00] how that shifted into weddings?
I.
[00:03:02] Zac Wolf: Yeah, so going back to like 2005. I was a part of like the punk hardcore scene in South Florida. Like I grew up in Boca Ratone. Most of the shows I went to were in Miami and West Palm. ~Um, ~'cause those were like the major cities. So I wanted to like, contribute. I wanted to be in a band. I wanted to do all that stuff. Turns out I have no musical talent. I was not a clarinet whiz, I was not a guitar player. I was nothing.
So
[00:03:27] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: That wouldn't have got you very far in the punk hardcore scene anyway.
[00:03:29] Zac Wolf: listen, there's flute on a, on a hardcore record last from last year. So you're missing out. ~Um. ~But yeah, so like I was just like, okay, like what can I do? And no one was really shooting shows at that point, at
least in South Florida.
Like, so I started bringing my dad's like Canon Power shot to shows and leaving it, you know, I, I think it only had automatic, like, I don't know what else it had. And then I remembered, you know, I'd post them on like our message boards and then I started a flicker [00:04:00] and that was like my big, like this is the source of all my photos.
And then. I figured out how to do shutter drag on the power shot. And
that was like, what is he doing? This is so cool. Like people loved him.
And
[00:04:14] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Very, very, very common. Punk band style
[00:04:18] Zac Wolf: yes, yes. And then my 18th birthday I was given a cannon rebel.
And that's the reason when people ask me why I shoot Canon, I said, because I started with canon and I'm too
lazy to change.
[00:04:30] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yep.
[00:04:31] Zac Wolf: ~Um. ~And I started shooting more shows and like, you know, shirts, like shirts, would have my photos on them, records and stuff. And then in 2007 I moved up to Boston where,~ um,~ the hardcore scene there was like kind of at an all time high,
~um,~ bands like have heart and Verse and the carrier and all that stuff were kind of blowing up from that area and. There was a national message board that everyone would kind of check in on what Boston shows were doing, and I kind of grew a name from that, which was really cool.
You know, [00:05:00] I've, I'm very fortunate that my real name is Zac Wolf, so it's very easy to remember. It's very easy to spell. ~Um, ~so people and like back in that day, we would watermark all the photos so everyone knew my name 'cause it was on there.
And you should see my first watermark 'cause it is incredibly cringey.
[00:05:15] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Weren't they all?
[00:05:18] Zac Wolf: Yes, it was like a big X with a like just a photo of a cannon rebel over it.
[00:05:24] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Oh, nice.
[00:05:25] Zac Wolf: Very cool. And then from that it was just like. I was, you know, I was trying to mix it up and try to shoot bands different ways and figuring out like, okay, like I'm in this shitty basement, how can I make it look interesting?
Or, you know, started doing off-camera flash at shows, which is now pretty common, but at the time, like there weren't many of us doing that.
~Um, ~and then through that someone was just like, Hey, can you shoot a wedding? I was like, yeah, I've never been to one, but I could figure it out and like. I just saw so much creative potential in weddings and I've always [00:06:00] been like a big extrovert my whole life. So it was more of a chance to like get to be with people, you know what I
mean? Like people make a living, shooting still life and shooting products. I. I would rip my hair out. I,~ uh,~ what I, the joy I get from this business is people, and that's part of why I automate the stuff that doesn't need me is 'cause that's not the stuff I love. And I could spend more time doing the part I love because of that. So,
Yeah.
[00:06:30] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: ~Um, ~so I got my start. I still have it back there. Its over there an Olympus point and shoot that actually had some manual control,~ um,~ and a PC port for flash, so I could actually like, have a
[00:06:43] Zac Wolf: Wow.
[00:06:44] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: wire so I would hold. ~Um, ~
[00:06:46] Zac Wolf: The old, the old wire around your neck and
[00:06:49] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: yep. ~Um, ~I was also doing shutter drag.
~Um, ~so it's very similar,~ uh,~ to differentiate my photos from others in the, in the New Jersey punk scene. I would actually [00:07:00] incorporate every band I was photographing. I would have photos of their feet because guitar pedals, bass pedals, tuners, whether it's Converse All Stars or, or Vans or whatever, you know, some pen, the band Penfold, they would actually wear like black shoes, like dress shoes,~ um,~ or like Doc Martins, you know?
So everybody had their own style and it was like a cool way to remember that band. Buy their shoes. It was just a fun thing. ~Um, ~so
[00:07:30] Zac Wolf: You gotta do
something weird. If, if you're, you
know, everyone's shooting the exact same thing,
how are you going to stand out? Like, I remember the year that I went in 2008, I went to Sound in Fury, which is a big fest in California, and that was the year they were like, Hey guys. You have to get approval to shoot this show because there's too many photographers now.
And it was like the first year they had like a media pass for a hardcore show and it was just like, and now it's like standard, like even local
[00:08:00] shows. You like need to, you know, the rule used to be like, if I don't know where to find your photos, you don't get to take photos.
[00:08:05] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Mm.
[00:08:06] Zac Wolf: ' cause that, 'cause people would show up, take photos, then you just never see them again.
And
I mean now luckily with Instagram and stuff, like, it's been amazing. You know, it's, it's so great that like. I like as a fan of band photography, it's been fun to just like follow bands and then they'll collab with photographers, so you see it in their feed and it's like the, the quality of band photography out there now is so high.
Like the bar is
so much higher than it was back in our day.
Like you could get away with next to nothing.
And now it's just like you have to be doing something cool and you have
to have your take on it.
[00:08:43] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: I, I'm at the point now where like, for example,~ uh,~ Matt Pryor from the getup Kids is coming back to New Jersey very soon to do a,~ um,~ it's a solo tour that he is doing, and I'm like, okay, I'm gonna go, but do I [00:09:00] wanna go with my camera? It's literally at a brewery. Small one. So I'm like gonna be like right up close.
There's, there's no stage. ~Um, ~do I want to bring a camera and photograph and or video, or do I wanna just go and enjoy it? Right? I know that I won't need a media pass because there is no stage to worry about. It's like a open mic night almost, except it's scheduled, so I'm just going to enjoy. But.
[00:09:28] Zac Wolf: Yeah.
[00:09:29] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: If he said, Hey, come to the getup Kid Show next time we're around and we'll get you a media pass.
I would go and photograph it. So,~ um, ~but you know, it's,~ uh,~ you know, it's,~ uh,~ at this stage in my life,~ uh,~ I'm picky. picky about when I wanna bring the camera.
[00:09:46] Zac Wolf: Yeah, that back to have Heart, they were just kind of like the important band for me in my
life, and especially my life as a photographer. 'cause they're, I photographed them all through my time in Boston. Their final show was like, kind of like my last time really shooting bands [00:10:00] like heavily. And then I photographed their first reunion when there were 10,000 people outside in Worcester, Massachusetts, which was incredible.
And then they just did a reunion this past year and they reach out and they're like, did you want to shoot this? And I'm like, you know what? I've seen you guys probably a hundred times and I've never just watched, so no, like, thank you
for the offer, but
like, I'm gonna stage, dive, to have heart for the first time in my
life.
And it was incredibly awesome to get to do that and see it. And like, you know, there's, they, they killed
it with all their reunions, but I
did hurt myself a little bit. But it's fine.
[00:10:34] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: yeah, I, I, I had to make that decision,~ um,~ recently as well. Same, same brewery. This one brewery that's an hour and a half north of me does started doing shows,~ um,~ which a lot of 'em are like reunions or like comebacks and stuff like that. So, Cave In. They disbanded a while back. ~Um, ~Cave In. There, there satellites on my leg, by the way.
It's one of my tattoos. ~Um, um, ~Steve, but so they disbanded, you know, they, they lost their bassist,~ um,~ in a tragic [00:11:00] car accident. They are doing, they've done like a comeback sort of. ~Um, ~and Steven Brodsky, the, you know, lead singer and,~ um,~ and Adam McGrath, who's their, their, their lead guitarist. ~Um, ~ they did an acoustic show at this brewery.
Again, I'm like, do I bring my camera or do I just go and enjoy it? So I just went and enjoyed it 'cause they're my absolute favorite. And of course I whipped out my phone and recorded a couple songs, but I'm not looking at my phone. I literally put it down and I'm just like watching and, and absorbing and whatnot.
And it was it. You have to do that. You have to make the decisions of when do I pay attention? When do I actually look through the LCD of my screen, of my camera? ~Um, ~and,~ uh,~ I think that decision to, to just enjoy that last show was a very smart decision,
[00:11:52] Zac Wolf: I, it's funny 'cause getting away from bands like we go to Disney, we live like 30 minutes from Disney. We
go all the time and like watching people [00:12:00] spend 15 minutes recording a video of the fireworks
when there's HD tripod footage on YouTube already.
Like just watch the fireworks. Like you fought tooth and nail for a good spot.
Your
kid is on your shoulders. Like just watch the fireworks. You're not gonna go back and watch this video.
[00:12:18] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Right. I totally, totally like, to me it's like, ~uh, ~I'd rather watch my kids' ex facial expressions than that. I don't even care about watching the fireworks. I wanna see the facial expressions of my kid. I. Enjoying the, the fireworks.
