Earlier this week I did a shoot with a true virtuoso, Toshi Iseda. Toshi is very intense, both as an individual and as a musician. Originally from Chicago, Toshi studied guitar at Berklee and has toured the globe demonstrating his artful mastery of the 7 string guitar, sharing stages with many other great musicians such as Eddie Van Halen and Mark Tremonti. With Toshi there is no half-ass doing anything. The day before this shoot he practiced for 9 hours, which is about 5 more hours than most people practice in a whole week. That sheds some light on why Paul Reed Smith Guitars chose Toshi to be an ambassador for their new 7 string SE model.
Toshi is also an activist for the humane treatment of animals and a supporter of no-kill shelters. His love of animals is as intense as his guitar playing.
You can read more about Toshi in this article from Intense Guitar and Bass Magazine and you can listen to some samples and buy his CD here.
On the day we sceduled the shoot for Paul Reed Smith we knew there was a chance of thunderstorms so we planned on capitalizing on the storms and hoped to include some ominous skies in the photos. But instead of thunderstorms we got steady heavy rain. Lots of it. By noon I was convinced we were going to have to cancel because I knew Toshi would not want that guitar to get wet and I am also very protective of my camera gear. But when the time came to shoot the rain moved out leaving a deep blue sky and white wispy clouds. I decided to use them to complement Toshi's PRS and got on the ground to shoot upwards. What we got exceeded my expectations.
Toshi is also an activist for the humane treatment of animals and a supporter of no-kill shelters. His love of animals is as intense as his guitar playing.
You can read more about Toshi in this article from Intense Guitar and Bass Magazine and you can listen to some samples and buy his CD here.
On the day we sceduled the shoot for Paul Reed Smith we knew there was a chance of thunderstorms so we planned on capitalizing on the storms and hoped to include some ominous skies in the photos. But instead of thunderstorms we got steady heavy rain. Lots of it. By noon I was convinced we were going to have to cancel because I knew Toshi would not want that guitar to get wet and I am also very protective of my camera gear. But when the time came to shoot the rain moved out leaving a deep blue sky and white wispy clouds. I decided to use them to complement Toshi's PRS and got on the ground to shoot upwards. What we got exceeded my expectations.
