Staff

Dianna Augustine – The leader of the pack, shutter16.fam, head photographer and brain schemer  has been a Charlotte based concert photographer since early 2002. Her passion for photography was cultivated by her grandfather, a very well known and decorated war photographer who put the first camera in her very small hands at the age of three. Originally, her eye was set on portraiture and architecture photos. That was until one very hot night she ran into a jazz club with one of her cameras on hand. The band did not object to her shooting and the next night after she processed the images and showed them; they bought them on the spot. This peeked an interest as she’d had so much fun just seeing the show, writing about it and getting the chance to wield her favorite piece of equipment that is, lets face it, her third hand/eye and second heart…and getting paid?!

Having toured for close to ten years with some of the biggest bands around on Ozzfest, Area 51 festival, NAMM etc recreationally as for many, it’s all with the “who you know” on where you go. The next time she shot a show was a touring friend of a large band that she once toured with that contacted her and asked if she was attending the show. She basically said “Only if I can get into the photopit” as a joke. The joke came to life that night under starry blazing scorching lights and as she stood in front of nearly 15,000 people to shoot photos of a buddy from back in the day. She realized right then she was destined for this. Her pulse raced, the camera took on a life of it’s own, the metal music blared and to this day she will tell you that defining moment of her musical journey is one that she tries to relive every time she hits that photopit. “Never more alive than with my camera, a excellent band, and amazing fans to set the mood.” She has shot some of the biggest names in the business (Incubus, Metallica, In Flames, Sarah McLaughlan, Stone Temple Pilots, Ozzy, Jason Mraz, Cher, Iggy Pop, Slash, etc) but still has a heart and a glorified passion of supporting and loving her local music scene. “These people are the ones that while not many of them do but, some of them make it to super stardom. Had they not been supported in the beginning who knows what bands we might have never got the pleasure of knowing, seeing, listening to, memorizing lyrics, blasting in the car, singing to on those long nights with tears a flame or angry hair flipping.” While never formally trained, her experience in the field and her unique eye makes her one of a kind and definitely a photographer you want in your pit, shooting your show and exposing your band to the world. Always for hire and always looking for the next best thing to shoot.

“I decided to bring shutter16 to life to give local and regional bands more of a voice. Want to show that Charlotte, NC is the next best big thing when it comes to music right behind all of the largest cities. It’s happening right now and continues to grow. Lets do this people only we can be the voice of the city!”
Website: www.shutter16.com
Photography: : Concert, Portraiture, Events, Wedding
Background: : Self Taught
Shoots with: : Strictly Canon cameras
Favorite thing to shoot: : Metal and Punk shows but I’ll do it all
View her Shutter 16 portfolio: http://shutter16.com/wp/tag/dianna-augustine/

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Jenny Lou Bement- Editor-in-Chief, comes from a long line of musicians and was raised to continue this legacy but even after being classically trained in piano and violin, her family couldn’t get a pen out of her hand and headphones off of her ears. Some of her earliest memories involve sitting around her uncle as he played piano, writing lyrics and dancing as well as falling in love with records from her father’s massive vinyl collection which became the foundation to her growing passion towards music- Queen, Grankfunk Railroad, Frank Zappa, Pat Bentar, The Eagles… the list goes on.

As long as she can remember, she and her family has had an incredible love for music and subsequently has been at shows since before she should’ve even been there (even more so as she grew into a hellraising teenager who had a fever for music and rebellion paired with a knack for sneaking out). In a nutshell, music and writing have been the two consistent passions in her life and no matter what she does, she cannot get away from them. From high school into college, she consistently attended local shows and didn’t intend to study writing but it just so happened that she had taken all the courses she needed before she even knew what degree she was pursuing. I guess you just go with what you love without even knowing it. Upon graduating into to a horrible recession, she worked retail and began going out to every show she could afford. All-the-while scribbling fiercely in her notebook about whatever was playing, documenting and writing poems inspired by live music. Eventually, she had submerged herself so deep into the Charlotte music scene that she claimed them all as her new family and had found home. After much consideration, pondering and an opportunity with Charlotte magazine Creative Loafing, she realized poetry was kind of lame and documentation was her forte so she combined her two passions to give back to the art that has given so much to her. While she focuses more on local and regional acts like Andy the Doorbum, Pig Mountain, Lesser Pauls and The Emotron, she has also covered bigger acts like Weedeater and Cursive. You can often find her at the Milestone or Tremont Music Hall, jamming out to sweet tunes and enjoying Charlotte’s rich music scene.

Website: http://clclt.com/charlotte/ArticleArchives?author=2184142

Writing: Creative Non-fiction, Fiction, Poetry, Journalism/Documentation

Background: BA in English Writing from Queens University

Favorite Bands: Tool, Alice in Chains, Queen, Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, Neutral Milk Hotel, The Pixies, Andy the Doorbum, Mose Giganticus, Zeus, Earthling, Pig Mountain, Lesser Pauls, Appalucia and many, many more.
View her Shutter 16 portfolio: http://shutter16.com/wp/author/jennylou_bement/

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Erin Tracy-Blackwood- writer, was born in Jacksonville, FL to a classical violinist mother and father who played blues guitar. Much to their dismay, she became enamored with hip-hop music and culture at an early age after watching the older kids in her neighborhood breakdance and walk around with boomboxes blasting Run DMC. Though she never tired of listening to all genres of good music, hip-hop became her first love. It was almost like a best friend offering support and awareness as she struggled through the challenges of life. 

She always had a knack for putting words together in a meaningful way and even tried her hand at becoming an emcee but gave up in disgrace upon first hearing Nas’ Illmatic CD when she realized she’d never be that good.

Afterward, she began to focus her energy on helping other artists succeed by creating an independent artist promotions company at the age of 18. She became heavily involved in the Charlotte hip-hop scene, creating a short-lived magazine dedicated to the subject, promoting local shows with national artists and running the now defunct website qchiphop.com.

When not writing slammin’ articles for Shutter 16, Erin’s full time career is in corporate marketing and public relations. She is always happy to lend her skills to independent artists she feels are deserving of attention. She has toured the country with some of these groups and regularly attends industry events and festivals. With her husband and brother-in-law she founded Fresh Ground: A Hip Hop Co-op in Mount Holly, NC, a facility designed to help artists broaden their performance skills and tighten their game while incorporating all 4 elements of hip-hop.

Despite hip-hop being her true love, she cheats on it regularly by throwing on some reggae, blues or jazz to unwind or some ska, punk or hard rock to get hyped. She is naturally drawn to well written lyrics like a moth to a flame.

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Websites: http://www.tattermask.com ; http://www.starvingartistrecords.com
Writing: Scholarly, Short Story, Journalism, Copywriting, Proposals, Lyrical Poetry
Favorite Music: Hard Rock, Acoustic Rock, Grunge, Punk, Classical, Industrial, Melodic Metal, Local Rock
Instruments: Voice, Guitar, Bass, Drums, Piano
Background: BA in Theatre Arts (Design/Marketing focus) from Furman University, MA in Arts Administration from Winthrop University, two-thirds of an MAT in English Education also from Winthrop University, Digital Design Certificate from York Technical College.

View her Shutter 16 portfolio: http://shutter16.com/wp/tag/amanda-caines/

Glenn Cocoa(second from left pictured here with Darkest Hour) tour photographer, was born in Chicago but was raised in Hilton Head, SC. After graduating high school, he went back to Chicago to advance his knowledge in photography at Columbia College Chicago, where he received a BA in Photography. In 2003 or 2004, he meet the band, A Life Once Lost who loved his photography style so much they asked him to do some press photos on a chilly Chicago night. Sometime in 2005, he also became friends with Darkest Hour. During load-in at the Soil Work show in Fayetteville, NC he had a not so welcome run in with a bass cabinet which from that day forward was known as TOECRUSHER because it broke 2 toes. After this tragic incident, he became the bands personal photographer. In 2007 he made a trip up to Philadelphia to document the pre-recording stage for A Life Once Lost’s album Iron Gag. March of that year, he went to Vancouver to spend a week with Darkest Hour while recording their follow up album, Deliver Us, which was also a birthday trip. He was then asked by the band to contribute to the album art work for the CD-booklet along with John Baizley of Baroness doing the main cover work. He also likes to scuba dive, be a beach bum, candle lit dinners, be a bit of a music/movie whore and whatever floats his way. He also just relocated from SC to Richmond, VA. That’s it.

Shoots with only Canon

Top bands (in no order)
Darkest Hour, A Life Once Lost, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Denali/Ambulette, The Red Chord, AC/DC, Van Halen, Dr. Dre, Beastie Boys, The Hope Conspiracy/Bars, Beethoven, The Beach Boys, Billy Joel, Cursive, The Cardigans, Cat Stevens, Simon and Garfunkel

Top Movies and TV shows (in no order)
Star Wars (all of them in a whole), most comic book movies (yes I am a comic book nerd), Uncle Bick/the Great Outdoors, Billy Madison, Lord of the Rings, Transformers (movies and the 80s show), G.I. Joe (the 80s show), Alf, and a few others

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Jeff Grindstopher- 31 year old videographer and owner/sole operator of Grindstopher Productions, Jeff has been filming bands off and on since 2006. The idea  to start capturing live footage came to him when he realized he had friends who were in bands that didn’t have a lot of exposure via YouTube so he took it upon himself to spread the word to help these bands that deserved the exposure. Since the majority of these bands opened for national touring bands, a lot more contacts were established and ultimately, taking this approach to filming bands landed him a field staff position for Sick Drummer Magazine.

He has been filming for Sick Drummer since July, of 2010. Grindstopher Productions was established in March 2011, when he acquired a Canon Vixia HF S200 (equipped with external mic), giving him a more professional approach to capturing footage. He has also been recently been approached to film a trailer for a novel that a friend from high school wrote…more details on this to be announced via shutter16.com in the near future. For employment, he operates forklifts for Unilever Home Products. Spare time includes spending time with family, and collecting vinyl. “Collecting vinyl is much more satisfying than just CDs just because of the extra artwork that they provide and finding the challenge of finding various pressings of certain albums albeit financially draining that is nice to brag about.”

Bands Jeff has filmed for personal use: Devourment, Misery Index, KENmode, Wormrot, Gaza, Cephalic Carnage, The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza, Putrid Pile, Embalmer, The Red Chord, Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire …and many more

Sick Drummer: Eric Park (Devourment), Trey Williams (Dying Fetus), Fitri Pillow (Wormrot), Jon ‘Charn’ Rice (fill-in for The Red Chord, original drummer for Job for a Cowboy), J.P. Damron (Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire)

Favorite Bands: Faith no More (greatest band in the world), Nirvana, Misery Index, Rotten Sound, Gaza, Pig Destroyer, Magrudergrind, Alice in Chains (Layne Staley era), Discordance, Axis, Suffocation and many more

Local Bands: The Lion’s Daughter (thelionsdaughter.blogspot.com) Fister (fisterdoom.com/pissfork.net) Sine Nomine (nominefactionrecords.bandcamp.com) Final Drive (finaldrive.net)

Websites: facebook.com/grindstopher vimeo.com/grindstopher

View his Shutter 16 portfolio: http://shutter16.com/wp/tag/jeff-grindstopher/

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Alan MacNorton- Photographer. Growing up in a musical household, Alan began playing the bass around age 8 or 9. He owned his first acoustic guitar at age 10 and it was not long after that he composed his first song “Cheer Up, Cook Well.” He owes his love of music to his father Roger. He recalls, “Without him, I may have never been introduced to music. Although, I’d like to think that music would have found me eventually but not nearly that early in life.” Equal to his love of music is his love of photography.

One of his fondest childhood memories is constructing miniature stages, complete with drums,
guitar & bass. He built guitars and amp stacks from wood and painted them to be “realistic” looking. Drum kits were constructed mostly from 35mm film canisters, using the caps for cymbals. Band members were an ever rotating cast of appropriately sized characters, though Cassie the cockatiel would sit in on drums from time to time. He enjoyed being his mini-band’s official photographer. Let us not even begin to count all the many
summer hours spent chasing bugs and birds around with the camera. Eventually, as his skills progressed, this hobby became much more. Some many years later, he is very pleased to have the opportunity to combine his loves into one expression. When Alan isn’t jamming with friends or hanging out with family, you can find him at the local hot spots or on a mountain top, Nikon in
hand.
View his Shutter 16 portfolio: http://shutter16.com/wp/category/photographer-alan-macnorton/

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Kyle Knight - Videographer, Kyle Knight’s love for music began in the early 90′s when the grunge movement struck the MTV eyewaves. The music and imaging of bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden were so raw and dirty which was something new that he was not used to seeing in the small Christian country town of Ooltewah, TN. In 1995, he attended his first concert, Helmet & Primus in Atlanta. Afterwards, he was addicted to live music and attended several concerts and festivals in the Atlanta and surrounding cities over the next few years. Towards the end of high school, he grew tired of the mainstream bands and largely attended concerts so he went out of his way to find more eclectic and underground bands, eventually becoming a huge fan of Ween & The Dead Milkmen.

After high school, Knight threw himself apon the Atlanta and surrounding suburbs punk/ska/hardcore DIY scene, going to every show he could on the weekends. After three years of serving the scene at age of 21 he joined an established local nerd ska/punk band, Treephort as a mascot and eventually, playing synthesizer. But left the band in 2003 due to conflicts with other band members.

In 2004, Knight took his new love for the synthesizer and went solo in an always evolving, sequenced act he would call The Emotron. In 2007, Knight was fed-up with Fed-Ex at his 9 year warehouse job so he quit his job to play shows as the Emotron and see and experience as much as the world as possible.

Since quitting his job in 2007, Knight has toured to Alaska where he worked at a fish cannery, done medical testings, sold shit videos to gay men on the Internet, hitch-hiked to play shows, worked seasonally at a flower shop, managed a baseball card shop and consistently selling 80/90′s pop culture memorabilia and VHS in his perfectly crafted “Tour Store.”

Knight now lives as a drifter, eating from garbage cans from town to town, documenting music, art and anything eclectic.

Website: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheKylemotron

Documents with: Nikon Coolpix s205 & Brain

Favorite things to shoot: Basement shows, DIY Business’s, Stoner Metal, Alt Metal, Punk, Ska, Hardcore, Drunk People & Weird Shit.

Stops for: Yard Sales, Thrift Stores, Flea Markets, Shaved Ice, Turtles in  the Road, Hitchhikers

Win me over with: Sugar, Garbage Pail Kids, VHS, Keyboards, Shit Stories, The Dubyah

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Dana Haidar -photographer and world trained chef with aspirations of becoming a “band mommy.” Dana hopes to not only take photos of bands but eventually tour and assist in business aspects. Metal music is deep seeded into her roots and drives alot of her photography but she is more than happy to shoot any band. She is an active part of the local music scene in hopes of opening peoples hearts up to talented local musicians. Aside from locals, she has shot acts like The Black Dahlia Murder, Cursive, Between the Buried and Me, FLOOR and more. Dana stays very busy at shows. You can see her anywhere from working merch to taking photos to loading band equipment. So if you spot her at a show,buy some merch, grab the other side of the amp, or just plain give her a high five! Cheers!