From the archive, 2016. Photography by Blake Wisz, produced in-house with the Our Daily Bread Ministries creative team.
In 2016 Our Daily Bread Publishing set out to document a project with Out of the Dust, a band whose whole reason for existing is the story of restoration. I was on the in-house team at the time and shot it alongside the crew. The brief was behind the scenes, not the finished product: the people, the room, the work in progress.
The brief
A publisher launching a music-led project needs two kinds of imagery. The polished stuff is for the cover and the campaign. The behind-the-scenes set is for everything else: social, press, the launch story, the emails, the moments that make an audience feel they were in the room. We were there for the second kind.
On the day
Behind-the-scenes work is mostly about staying out of the way. We shot with available light where we could, moved with the crew rather than around them, and kept the camera on the in-between moments: a guitar being tuned, notes on a page, the band talking through a take, the crew resetting. The band's story is about people who have been through something and come out the other side, and the honest frames were the ones where nobody was performing for the camera.
What the team got
A set of edited stills sized for web and print, delivered fast enough to use during the launch rather than after it. The kind of library a publisher can pull from for a year: candid, warm, consistent, and clearly theirs.
Worth knowing
- Book behind-the-scenes coverage for the day the work happens, not a separate shoot. The real moments do not reshoot.
- One photographer who moves quietly beats a crew with lights for this kind of work.
- Deliver in the launch window. BTS imagery loses value the week after the release.
- Shoot verticals for social alongside the wide frames.
We shoot behind-the-scenes and documentary photography for publishers, ministries, music and nonprofit teams. Get in touch to talk about a project.
Photography by Blake Wisz, 2016, in-house for Our Daily Bread Publishing with the Our Daily Bread Ministries creative team. Captured on the gear of the era. See more people photography and brand work.