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Tai | Tyrell Thomas

@tyrell213

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I take pictures sometimes.

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2025.10.16

Every third Thursday, Protoplasm (@protoplasmbaltimore) follows my Retro Game Night at Ottobar. Back in October they needed a photographer, so I jumped at the opportunity. It turned into a fun night with good music and energy. This was also the night I learned to NEVER trust the furniture at the Ottobar...

I've been sitting on a mountain of photos, and instead of letting my account go quiet until I finish everything, I'd like to start to sharing what's ready. More uploads coming soon.

#photography #ottobar #goth #gothmusic #baltimoreevents by @tyrell213

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4 months ago

Last, but definitely not least, of the 2023 New Year's-ish show was Nova Koloso (@novakoloso)! Going into the show blind was a good idea because my lack of prior knowledge made me really enjoy being introduced to the artists even more. There was so much diversity throughout the show. The first set featured a brass funk-surf rock fusion (or their self-defined "scifunkskadubsurf"), the second set had a nostalgic synthpop sound, and then Nova Koloso brought a heavy psych and stoner rock sound, both of which I love. If you're close to me, I've probably mentioned my love for stoner rock at some point.

Nova Koloso's performance was so great! The fuzzy guitars, clashing drums, and synth play created a rich, irresistible sound, and he band's energy and movement on stage made their set incredibly fun to watch. It's also worth mentioning that Nova Koloso shares members with the other two bands from the show, making it interesting to see some familiar faces on stage again.

If you're into artists like Truckfighters, Sandrider, Mars Red Sky, King Buffalo, Red Fang, and even Kyuss, Nova Koloso is definitely a band worth giving a listen! Their blend of heavy psych and stoner rock is a treat for the ears, and their live performance is an experience in itself. If you ever get the chance to see them live, don't miss it!

You can check them out here: https://novakoloso.bandcamp.com/

#ottobar #baltimoremusic #concertphotography #concert #maryland #photography #music #stonerrock #heavypsych #psychedelicrock #sonynex5r #sonycamera #sonyalpha taken in Ottobar by @tyrell213

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2 years ago

The second band to take the stage at the December 28, 2023 show was Handapple (@handappleband). I loved shooting their set so much! Fiona, the vocalist, was so gorgeous, and it was so much fun trying to capture her energy and dancing with my camera. Plus, her voice is incredible.

If I had to describe their sound, I'd say it evokes the spirit of early 2000s synthpop and indietronica. They reminded me of bands like I Am the World Trade Center (an unfortunately named but fun band), Metric, Ladytron, The Knife, You Say Party! We Say Die!, and Action Action. As a big fan of early 2000s synthpop music, I was invested from the moment they started playing. The set even kicked off with a fun song by the polysynth player and her husband.

You can check them out here: https://handapple.bandcamp.com/

As I mentioned in my previous post, some of the photos turned out a bit off because I was experimenting with a feature on my camera. But instead of discarding those shots, I tried to work with them. This issue affected a lot of the photos I took of Handapple and Nova Koloso's sets, but hey, lesson learned for next time!

#photography #marylandmusic #baltimore #baltimoremusic #synth #synthpop #indietronica #surfrock #rock #ottobar #concert #concertphotography ⁠⁠#music #maryland taken in Ottobar by @tyrell213

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2 years ago

I've been sitting on these pictures from the show for quite some time now—it took place on December 28, 2023. I got the flyer for it from Mark (@mudsharkmark) about a month beforehand and made sure to put it on my calendar. The three bands that played at the show were Kaiju Demolition Squad (@kaiju_demo_squad), Handapple (@handappleband), and Nova Koloso (@novakoloso).

As usual, I went into the show fairly blind. The first band to play was Kaiju Demolition Squad, who describe their sound better than I ever could as "scifunkskadubsurf." They were such a blast live! Their set was a mix of covers of songs and themes from old movies, alongside original tracks in that same style. I'd love to hear more from them and see them live again in the future!

Check them out wherever you stream your music!

I really liked most of the pictures I took that night, but a few of my favorites came out a little off due to experimenting with a camera feature. If you notice some shots with strange artifacts, that's why. I tried my best to work with it, but I could only do so much. I'll be posting the rest of the photos from this show in the coming days, so stay tuned.

#photography #kaiju #marylandmusic #baltimore #baltimoremusic #funk #ska #surf #surfrock #rock #ottobar #concert #concertphotography ⁠#music #maryland taken in Ottobar by @tyrell213

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2 years ago

8.30.2024

The last Friday of each month is Baltimore Bike Party. I knew about Bike Party (mostly from people complaining on Reddit) before getting my bike and wanted to attend one. My first one was in June and it got cut short when my chain unexpectedly snapped. Some bad luck for my first ride.

Since then I wanted to eventually go again. I missed the July ride but I was able to make it for the August one. Being a little paranoid from my incident back in June, I packed an extra chain in my pannier. I had a good time and saw some familiar faces.

These pictures were taken during the afterparty. I spent some time during the preceding weeks teaching myself how to shoot everything manually with my camera rather than relying on auto settings. While they're not perfect, I'm still pretty happy with how things came out for my first time doing this. Practice makes perfect! I also tried to embrace the imperfections and tried to work with the blurry shots rather than discarding them.

#photography #baltimore #baltimorebikeparty #digitalphotography #sonyalpha #sonycamera #sonynex5r #bikeparty #candidphotography taken in Harbor Point by @tyrell213

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2 years ago

9.3.2024

On Tuesdays, I often join a bike group for a taco ride. The ride was canceled this week and I still had a craving for tacos! Rather than staying home, I decided to create my own taco ride. After grabbing my tacos, I headed over to Federal Hill Park to wolf them down.

I've been been to this spot once before with the Taco Tuesday group, but I didn't bring my camera then. It had a beautiful view of the harbor and I wanted to eventually come back with my camera. I'm very glad I was able to go back there and take these pictures!

#photography #baltimore #baltimorephotography #baltimorephotographer #baltimoreharbor #baltimoreinnerharbor #landscapephotography #sonynex5r #digitalcamera #digitalphotography #sonycamera #nauticaltwilight #federalhill #landscapephotography taken in Federal Hill Park by @tyrell213

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2 years ago

8.14.2024

This past Sunday, I went to a bike time trial and barbecue. I didn’t take a ton of pictures, but here are a few of the highlights.

I feel like this is a nice intermission post before I start dumping more concert pics and a project I started in the spring. I still have a lot of pictures I want to post from my camera roll. If you've been following my stories, some of them will probably look familiar once they're up. The nature photos in this post are a sort of prelude of what's to come from my spring project. They're very much inspired by someone whose work I adore, but I'll keep the name and @ secret until then. Enjoy!

#photography #Baltimore #naturephotography #sonyalpha #sonycamera #sonynex5r #digitalphotography #landscapephotography #bbq taken in Druid Hill Disc Golf Course by @tyrell213

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2 years ago

Bonus Post: When editing the photos from Moraine's (@moraineband) album release show, I made black and white versions of everything. In some cases I probably preferred the B&W versions, but didn't use them in their respective posts for consistency.

Here's a batch of my favorite B&W photos from the show. Send the artists some love!

#music #posthardcore #postpunk #alternativerock #altrock #screamo #skramz #baltimore #ottobar #theottobar #concert #concertphotography #photography #indiemusic #indierock taken in Ottobar by @tyrell213

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2 years ago

What I failed to mention in the previous parts is that the June 27th show had Moraine (@moraineband) as the headliner, and a damn good one at that! The show was a release show for their debut album "Debut Build Maintain," and they brought a lot of energy to the stage! A lot more than I think my pictures can convey. Hell, the bassist even broke his glasses early on, which is why there's a few photos of him not wearing them.

It was probably the most challenging to find pictures of the bassist that wasn't motion blurred. Instead of completely discarding them, I wanted to try something different with the fourth pic. The set was so great that the crowd demanded an encore! They played an older song of theirs, which they didn't entirely remember how to play, but it came out well to me.

They're a sort of post-hardcore/alt. rock band similar to Biffy Clyro (especially with the fuzzy guitar distortion), Cave In, Sparta, and Rival Schools. There's even some hints of space rock! You can check out their new album here: https://mindovermatterrecords.bandcamp.com/album/design-build-maintain

Similar to what I mentioned about Pavonine in the previous post, the members from Moraine welcomed me with open arms. I think the camera around my neck helped. They were incredibly humble and offered to pay me, which I pretty much declined out of my own modesty and lack of confidence in my abilities.

That being said, I had a lot of fun editing these photos and I want to say they look good (my self-criticism hasn't kicked in yet). I think my favorite from the batch is the one of the bassist with the sort of ghost effect. I've seen so many other concert photographers with photos like that and I wanted to try my hand at it. It's a little experimental, but I'd like to think it came out well.

Anyway, that's it for this collection. I wanted to finish it a lot sooner than I did, but life got in the way. I just hope it was worth the wait!

#baltimore #ottobar #concert #concertphotography #altrock #alternativerock #hardrock #rock #photography #posthardcore #indie #music taken in Ottobar by @tyrell213

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2 years ago

The third band to play at the Ottobar (@theottobar) on June 27th was the only one I was familiar with going into it: Pavonine! (@pavoninetheband) If it hadn't kept in touch with them since the first show I saw with them a few months ago, this show would have gone under my radar. From the time I arrived, there was this sense of camaraderie where it felt like we were fans of each other, in a way. Chatting felt like we were old friends, which helped eased my nerves a bit. The vocalist/bassist (Joe) even remembered that I asked about the cassettes of their album a while back and gave me a free copy, which I nearly lost immediately after because I forgot where I put it. I'm very thankful for that, man! They jokingly called me their biggest (or was it #1?) fan, which made me blush. It's funny because I remember making I made a similar comment to myself a few days earlier about them and another artist.

With all of that out of the way, their set was great! They played some songs from the album, and I believe three songs from their upcoming EP. There was also a song written during the EP sessions that was fun to hear before it got a proper release. I kept finding myself singing along to "Come the Sun" as I was taking pictures.

In my post from October, I compared them to bands like Pile and Six Gallery. While I still agree with this, I also want to add Armor for Sleep, Far, Braid, Microwave, Hum, and the shoegazey elements of The Smashing Pumpkins to the mix. They definitely have a unique sound and I feel like only drawing parallels to the two I named before would be a disservice. All around, it's just a lot of alt-rock fun!

You can check them out here: https://pavonine.bandcamp.com/

I can't wait to catch another one of your shows in the future!

#rock #concertphotography #concert #altrock #alternative #shoegaze #music #baltimore #punk #punkrock #indie #indiemusic #postrock #posthardcore #ottobar #alternativerock #photography taken in Ottobar by @tyrell213

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2 years ago

The second band to take the stage at the Ottobar (@theottobar) on June 27th was Talking to Shadows (@talkingtoshadows). Since I wasn't familiar with them beforehand, I didn't really know what to expect, but I had a lot of fun once they started.

When they got tuned up and finished the sound check, they asked for the lights to be turned off and started playing almost immediately after it got dark. I'm a sucker for shoegaze, so they clicked with me instantly. I don't know if it was because the vocalist's look reminded me of Aimee Mann, but at times they made me think of 'Til Tuesday. Speaking of the vocalist, I really loved her voice and I wasn't the only one. After their set, someone came up to the stage striking a conversation as he complimented her singing. I tried to snap a candid shot of it but I was too late.

If you like artists like Slowdive, Starflyer 59, Galaxie 500, Ride, Mazzy Star, Glimmer (😉), and even 'Til Tuesday, you'll want to give these guys a listen! You can find them here: https://talkingtoshadows.bandcamp.com/

I had a lot of fun editing the photos from this set. Early on I made edits as I normally would, but I stumbled upon Lightroom's vintage presets and I felt like that was the perfect aesthetic for the band. Especially with the lighting. Since I'm colorblind, I can't be certain about the color accuracy, but I'd like to think I did a decent job manipulating everything in my favor. I used different aspect ratios for the bassist and guitarist, which Instagram doesn't like. I had to go back to my old use of borders to keep Instagram happy. I feel like the black borders play well with the grainy look of the photos, though. I'm hoping to finish the rest of the pictures of the show soon, so stay tuned for that.

#photography #talkingtoshadows #Baltimore #baltimoremusic #shoegaze #dreampop #alternative #alternativerock #ottobar #concert #concertphotography #summer #music #maryland taken in Ottobar by @tyrell213

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2 years ago

Since seeing them play at the Undercroft last October, I kept in touch with Pavonine (@pavoninetheband). So when they told me there was a show at the Ottobar coming up, I made sure to mark my calendar immediately. After much waiting and anticipation, June 27th finally came!

As usual, I went into the show almost blind. I only knew of one of the performing acts, so everyone else was new to me. Opening the show was Samskara (@samskaraband)! I will admit that I wasn't immediately into them. They had a more aggressive sound than what I usually go for, but they ended up growing on me. I can't remember at which point, but as their set went on, I got really into it. During some of their later songs, they reminded me a bit of early to mid-2000s screamo/skramz bands like The Fall of Boss Koala, Toru Okada, Joshua Fit for Battle, Fear Before the March of Flames, along with late 90s ones like You and I and Saetia. Sprinkle in some black metal and post-metal, and you've got a really good band on your hands. I hope that, unlike the bands I mentioned, this one sticks around a lot longer. I can't wait to hear more from them in the future!

Check them out here: https://smskra.bandcamp.com/

I'll be posting the rest of the show throughout the week, so stay tuned for that!

#screamo #skramz #hardcore #metal #blackmetal #sludgemetal #baltimore #postmetal #concert #concertphotography #ottobar #theottobar #maryland #photography taken in Ottobar by @tyrell213

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2 years ago