Not your typical Band shoot

For awhile now we were discussing the possibility of a cool shoot for the Amsterdam based Mod-Jazz band, West Hell 5. Finally, last December we decided to go for it! Not the ideal time to have a fun band shoot on location, in the middle of a hard freezing winter in Amsterdam! But, a great opportunity for a location came up; a Coal transport and storage bulk terminal called OBA, located at the western docs not far from Amsterdam. So we picked a day a week before Christmas, cleared the permissions to shoot there and now were hoping for some snow/rain-free hours. It seemed we were in luck for not only a dry day, but sunny as well! Freezing -15°c non the less.
After meeting up for a quick cup of coffee we were all set to go. The band came all dressed up mildly cheerful and excited, despite the cold weather. Driving to the location in Eric’s awesome black vintage MGB GT (which we were about to use as a prop), I kept worrying about something. As we approached the location my worries became justified; the snow from few days back hasn’t cleared up yet and the supposedly beautiful black Coal hills were still covered with white. I was fearing Christmas type of photos!

The great Martijn, our OBA supervisor.
Arriving at the checkpoint, showing our identifications and signing the clearance forms, we were instructed to follow the road inside were we’ll meet up with the OBA supervisor assigned to us during the shoot. Martijn is a big guy who seemed a little intimidating at first sight. He turned out to be the nicest most helpful person one could ever wish as a supervisor. After my brief description of what I was looking for as shooting spots, he walked us through the area naming some suggestions. Let me first of all picture it for you, when you arrive to OBA, everything seems huge! The Coal piles are huge hills, the metal constructions around are all stacked 20 meters high, the ships by the harbor are just majestic and the tractors digging through the Coal hills look like a house! Impressive and inspiring indeed. So, Martijn led us to an area where those huge tractor recently cleared a way through, revealing a whole black section we could shoot at. I was happy, oh yeah!
There were still some tractors busy there –no problem– Martijn calls some instructions on his walkie-talkie and what do you know, the tractors are moving out! “You have 30 minutes to shoot here before they come back”. Groovy. We quickly drove Eric’s MGB and parked it just right in-front of the impressively black Coal hill, which was blocking the sun leaving an even clear light. Nice. I’ve quickly unpacked my gear, tripoded the Nikon F100 with a 24mm lens and after quick light checks I started setting up the shots. Click click, 20 minutes and we were done, ready for the next.

Climbing up the metal construction for the next shoot.
Next spot was up the metal constructions. And if it was freezing downstairs, up there it seemed worse. The band members were dressed for the shoot and it was by no means enough against the cold, and I could see it on their faces – they weren’t as cheerful as before. But the sunny panoramic view was gorgeous and they all tried their best to look their best for the shot, bless them.

One of the left-outs, but I like Eric’s “surprised” expression on his face.
After shooting also by the harbour, Martijn the Supervisor came to the (band’s) rescue again and suggested getting back inside and try the office/working area as the next spot to shoot in. Everyone was happy to hear that, frankly so was I. Inside it was nice and warm, the band quickly got to their playful-self and after a short break we’ve set few more shots to complete the day’s session.

Norbert and Eric admiring the walls decor.

A final group photo with Martijn the Supervisor. “They are pointing horns behind my back, aren’t they.”

Happy faces and a smoke-break after a hard days work.
Job well done, fellas! Be sure to check also the West Hell 5 website, or fan them on Facebook and see what they’re up to.
You can see the complete photo shoot here.