Moments

The Moment: Biggie & Tupac, I'm a Bad Boy-T Dot Eric

It wasn’t until 2011 when I was sorting through slide photographs and beginning to catalog my images that I seriously took a look at that one slide of a dude giving me the finger with a strong shadow on his face…"No f’n way!" I said, shocked I didn’t realize the guy with the shadow in his face was Tupac.

The Moment: De La Soul, Eye Am Eye Be-T Dot Eric

I did not have a light meter to tell me the proper f-stop to set my aperture, nor did I have polaroid back to see what things actually looked like.  My camera was a Canon AE-1 Program, manual everything.

I would make the flashes pop every so often so I could see where and how the light fell, I did a few calculation to determine possible f-stops based on feet of the flash away from the subject, how much light I would lose because of the gel on the flash, it was the best I could do.

 

The Moment: Smif-N-Wessun, Sky High-T Dot Eric

The publicist gathered the guys in the group, Tek and Steel, and we all exchanged hellos. I suggested we go up to the roof. We had been up to the roof so many times in the past just to hangout, so going up there now with a camera was no different.

The Moment: Will Smith, Tip of the Hat-T Dot Eric

Seeing Will in this outfit, I knew I had to take a picture of him. We shot at the edge of the set while the technicians were testing the lighting. After about 10 frames, I thanked Will and we sat back down until he had to get back on camera.

The Moment: Mos Def & Talib Kweli, Get By-T Dot Eric
When we saw each other, we greeted. Mos Def gestured that they were about to go on stage.

I motioned my hand asking to take one photo of him and Talib. They looked at each other and agreed. I stepped back, focused my Yashica Mat (124 G) camera, took one shot and thanked them as they headed for the stage.
The Moment : Lauryn Hill-T Dot Eric

When I arrived on set, the taping of the video was in full swing, and Lauryn and crew were handling all that needed to be accomplished, moving from scene to scene.