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Larry Lourcey
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February 24, 2014

Off The Record: Cris Joel

February 24, 2014

Off The Record For this cover, I took on the album cover of one of my all-time favorite albums:  Billy Joel’s Greatest Hits Vol 1 and 2.  When photographer Cris Duncan suggested the cover, I knew it was one that I wanted to work on! How It Happened Cris is located in Lubbock, Texas – which would hav...

Off The Record:  Cris Joel

Larry Lourcey

Hi and welcome to my blog!I do my best
to keep things updated and give you a look at things happening behind the scenes here at Lourcey Photography. Although I've been a professional photographer for over 20 years, I'm also semi-famous for my pizza and bread making. So follow along and enjoy the adventure. And don't be afraid to leave a comment and say hello!

Off The Record

For this cover, I took on the album cover of one of my all-time favorite albums: Billy Joel’s Greatest Hits Vol 1 and 2. When photographer Cris Duncan suggested the cover, I knew it was one that I wanted to work on!

How It Happened

Cris is located in Lubbock, Texas – which would have normally made things kind of difficult. However, we both spent this past weekend in Richmond, Virginia – speaking and judging at the VPPA Annual Convention (which was a BLAST by the way!). Although the days were pretty busy, we managed to find some time to squeeze in a quick photo shoot for the cover.

The Cover

Billy Joel's Greatest Hits album cover

Billy Joel’s Greatest Hits album cover

The original cover featured Billy leaning on a piano. Since Cris plays guitar, we decided that substituting the guitar for the piano made sense. We found a blank wall in hotel and setup a single monolight to try and emulate the look of the original image. Unfortunately, we setup right outside an elevator and had a constant parade of hotel guest passing through. However, Cris was a trooper and we managed to capture a great image.

Cris Joel Album Cover

I thought it was a very nice shot – similar to the original, but with a little bit of a twist. As it turns out, Cris’ middle name is Joel – so the name swap on the cover was an easy decision. I decided to change the title from Greatest Hits to Greatest Pics – for the obvious reference to “pictures” – of course, it later dawned on me that it could also refer to guitar picks. Funny how things work out sometimes.

In all, I was very happy with the final shot. I think it makes a great addition to the Off The Record series. I’ve got several more in the works, so stay tuned!

Outtake from the session

Outtake from the session

 

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