The Soft White Sixties, Natalie Carol and Rachel Goodrich | LA, CA| Music Photography

The Lyric LA is an awesome venue.  The black building covered in a gold script hides an awesome space inside its doors.  The entire venue is quirky cool – from rooms covered in artificial grass to hallways lined with newspapers.  The detail in the ambiance carries over to the care taken to the stage area with fantastic lighting and a room built for great sound.

Rachel Goodrich  and the Grrrls started the evening off.  Rachel has a voice like velvet, it is soothingly beautiful and she is backed by the sounds of quirky 50’s rockabilly stuffed with pop.  The music makes you grin.  The vibe is whimsical and happy  with an almost vaudeville sense of sarcasm that lets the audience know that the punchline is coming.  They leave the listener smiling with cotton candy colored glasses on where the world is fun and hopeful, with a little wink.

Go have a listen, I know you are going to dig it.

Next up was Natalie Carol with her guitar and her voice. Rich and strong vocals full of longing with stories weaved of the hopefulness of life and love with a sensitivity to the struggle for life and love.  The music has a rawness about it, a bluesy 70’s sound.  She captured the room by herself, save for a lone dancer that she had accompany her with movement on a few tunes.  Fluid, soulful and beautiful.

& then the reason that I had found myself at The Lyric LA that evening, The Soft White Sixties.  TSWS were one of my fave bands from my summer tour, The Rock & Roll Highway, and I was more than psyched that the universe sought fit to put us in the same town on the same night!  They are awesome.  They are a funky, groovy, sexy sound and show.  They are rock, 70’s rock.  Real rock.  I’ve been playing their cd on repeat for the past few months and I was excited to see them live again, I had to know if they would hold true to the memory of that show at The Zoo Bar back in July, the show that blew me away.

And booyah, they did it.  The entire band is tight.  You can see that they are giving their all, delivering a rough around the edges throwback sound. The hard hitting drums and driving guitars are the perfect backdrop to Ocatavio’s never slow down persona.  Octavio is badass.  He commands the crowd with his slick dance moves and inclusive way of making every person in the room feel like he is singing just to them.  His excitement bolsters the crowds excitement and that just keeps growing every moment of the show.   This band has ‘it,’ whatever ‘it’ is..that ‘it’ that makes you move on the dance floor, that ‘it’ that makes you grin in the dark, that ‘it’ that makes you sing along and know that you and every person in that room are getting an ‘it’ show from an ‘it’ band that is clearly making ‘it’ happen.

All Rachel Goodrich and The Grrrls Images

All Natalie Carol Images

All The Soft White Sixties  Images

 

More Images on Ashly Covington’s Instagram

Headshot Mini Sessions in LA for December 2014!!

The west coast is wonderful!  The weather, oh the weather.  I escaped right before the cold settled on the East Coast as I had a few jobs on the west coast.  Those few jobs have turned into some more and I found myself, very happily, canceling my flight home.

Yeah, LA!  & I’m excited to announce a special that I’ll be running a Headshot Mini session all month.  I had the pleasure of updating the actor Don Boughton’s, headshot (bottom right) and the comedy writer CeCe Pleasants (purple sweater) publicity shots.  We had a blast and rocked out four changes for CeCe and over five for Don in under 45 minutes.

If you need new pictures, I’ll be in LA for a few weeks and would love to create some images that rock for you.  Send an email to info@CovingtonImagery.com

Afterwards I got a lovely email from Don that said;
“Had a great time this morning. Best photo session I’ve had, no exaggeration.”

and CeCe posted online saying;
“Hey LA friends! Yesterday, my good friend Ashly Covington, who I’ve known for more years than I can mention if I am going to keep up the charade that I’m about to turn 31… came over to our house to do a headshot session with the wonderful Don Boughton. I don’t act much anymore, but occasionally somebody asks me to do some acting or standup or something, and they want a picture of me. The one from 10 years ago, though lovely, isn’t really an accurate representation of what I look like now. So I decided to piggyback on Don’s headshot session and have Ashly shoot me too. (You might have seen some of our glorious wedding/engagement photos… those are also her handiwork.) I HATE having my picture taken, and I really don’t like pictures of myself… that is, unless Ashly takes them. Ashly is a sort of magician with a camera, which is not at all to take away from the fact that she is a RIDICULOUSLY TALENTED PHOTOGRAPHER… and the best part is, she can take 15 awesome photos in under 15 minutes. So that thing I’d been putting off for years ONLY TOOK 15 MINUTES! It’s like ripping off a band aid, only with zero pain and really beautiful pictures afterward.”

<3 what you do!

Transformation Tuesday in LA | Headshot Photography

Yesterday I had the joy of photographing a LA actor named Don Boughton.  I knew it was going to be a great session as he was referred to me by CeCe Pleasants Adams, a comedy writer in LA.  I am pretty sure she only knows hysterical and awesome people, so I knew it would be a pleasure.  I always like to see the prior headshot and hear what they love about it and what they would want to improve as well as hearing what types of roles are being sought.  Don sent along his and let me know that while he liked it, it was just sadly out of date, and that he was going for a friendly, welcoming shot that could get auditions for grandfathers or retired gentlemen.
It can sometimes be hard to find the time to update shots, I KNOW THIS, I currently need a new headshot.  Mine is so out of date, so I understand the pain involved with trying to set up the whole process to get it done.  That is why I set up my mini sessions – They are fun and fast!  We could have finished Don & CeCe’s session in half the time (CeCe decided to get some updated shots as well since we were shooting around her home in Glendale!) but we were laughing and chatting too much.

Don’s Before headshot

and after The Covington Imagery Headshot session.

‘Had a great time this morning. Best photo session I’ve had, no exaggeration.”

I’ll be in LA all month, so if anyone is dragging their heels (like I am) to get an updated headshot, hit me up – I promise you’ll have a great time and get too many images.  As I was leaving CeCe said “The worst thing about your photography is that I can’t possibly choose just two"

DJ Williams Projekt with Karl Denson at The Broadberry | Richmond, VA| Music Photography

DJWP was the first show that I pointed a ‘real’ camera’s lens at. That was back in 2007 on a cold winter’s night at Cafe Diem when they had their weekly (always packed) residency. In the years since, their funky has gotten funkier, they’ve jazzed up their jazz and they have kept rocking the f’ out of everyone who comes to a show. They were tight back then and now they are somehow tighter because of dedication and lots of time putting in the work. These guys work hard and love every minute of the gift that they give to everyone who comes to see them.

The night at The Broadberry, one of RVA’s best new music and event space, was fantastic. Karl Denson, wearing an RVA tshirt came to rock a few tunes and celebrate DJ’s homecoming and Mark Ingraham’s, the trumpet players, birthday. The night was a party for everyone there.

For all the pics CLICK HERE

 

Ashly on Instagram