Major Lazer’s Documentarian Shares 5 Favorite Portraits

Sam Shimizu-Jones, an instructor of the Photography Masterclass, shares his five of his favorite portraits while traveling the world with Major Lazer as their lead videographer.

Enjoy…

Over the course of three years, I had the opportunity to document the day to day tour life of the band Major Lazer and DJ/ Producer Diplo.  During this time, I captured many photos and recorded many, many hours of footage. Due to the amount of time spent on the road, I was able to capture portraits of the various members of the group all around the world and in very candid settings.

Below, is a collection of some of my favorite portraits captured while traveling with them and brief descriptions of what went into capturing the image and what camera I was using.

First up is a photo I took of Jillionaire on the way to a festival in Ireland.  We were sitting in a van like we did in most countries that had heavily tinted windows.  The sky outside was overcast and so there was this great soft light coming in. At the time, I was primarily shooting with my Leica Q, which is a great camera because of its quality lens, discreet look and ability to take photos very quietly.  

I snapped only this photo and then put down my camera. I purposefully exposed to the outside and let the interior fall into the blacks which I think looks much better than if I had exposed to the inside and let the outside be overexposed.

No direction was given to Jillionaire, he was just deep in thought about something.  

During a quick tour with Diplo around Europe, we had a day off in Santorini, Greece.  Most places we visited, Diplo would make time to get outside, explore the city or nature around the city before every show.  In Santorini we got some time to just relax on the beach and I pulled out my GoPro Hero 4.

I hardly used this camera except when we would go jumping off cliffs or swimming in the ocean, which was actually kind of a lot.  I had no idea how this was going to come out but I told him to dive down a couple of times and I just snapped away, not really knowing what I was getting.

What I love about GoPros is that due to their wide-angle lens, you can pretty much just point it in the general direction and get your subject in frame.  I got lucky here with all the seaweed that adds a great texture to the photo.

Going out to a club and playing an afterparty was always part of the plan after a big show.  Since my focus was on shooting the larger concerts, I would use this time to try and get more artistic shots.

I probably snapped a couple hundred shots this night with my LeicaQ, trying to line up right when various beams of light were shining in my frame and illuminating the guys.  One issue was that typically more than one would be caught in frame and didn’t give the look I was going for.

I got this one right at that moment when only this one light was shining and luckily, Walshy Fire was standing just behind the beam of light so he is illuminated by it but not directly hit by it.  

After a show in Ireland, we had a late take off and went on a little family hike through this beautiful landscape.  When we made it to the shore of this lake, we were all ready to take our shoes off and jump in but it was COLD! Sara is a trooper though and walked straight out.  She came up with this idea to start with her hands in the water and then splash it everywhere as she lifted her hands up.

I used continuous mode, 10fps on the LeicaQ, to capture a series of images as she threw her hands up.  This was my favorite of the series.  

Finally, this shot I got of Diplo out in the desert near Dubai.  We came out here with a few friends and went around on ATVs. It was incredible to be looking out over the vast desert and while another photographer was setting up a shot with Diplo, I was taking a landscape of the setting sun.  I then turned and just happened to be in the right spot. I crouched down to one knee, framed out the ATVs and other people and snapped this shot with my Sony A7SII with my trusty Voigtlander 35mm f1.2.

All in all, these might not be considered your normal portraits.  My approach has always been very non-invasive, being comfortable with my subjects so they almost forget that I am there or that we come up with a fun idea together and then try and capture that.  I want to start doing more posed work but something has always drawn me to capturing the more candid moments.