PHOTOGRAPHER Encounters a Black Metal Band in Woods During Engagement Shoot
It has been incredible to see this image blow up like this. This photo that has gotten so much attention was completely spontaneous and unplanned. Thursday morning I received an call from ABC News “Good Morning America” saying they would like to write up a story about this photo. I’ve had people tell me that it had 205K + views on Imgur and it’s already on the third page of Reddit! This was all because my friend, Michael Cannavo, saw me post that photo on Instagram and reposted it on Imgur and Reddit.
Since then, the image has received almost 800K views on Imgur, hundreds of thousands of shares and features from BUZZFEED, New York Daily News, Metal Injunction, Esquire, Fstoppers, and The Huffington Post and countless other reposts! We are still getting requests for interviews.
When you run into a black metal band in the woods during your Engagement Session… you ask them to join in!! Here’s what happened:
John Awesome and Nydia Hernandez are getting married next Fall and decided to do their Engagement Session at Holy Jim Canyon this past Sunday. I encouraged them to make their Engagement photos personal and uniquely them and they wanted part of their photoshoot to be an ode to John Awesome’s favorite movie, Forrest Gump. We had a Bubba Gump hat for him, a flower crown for her, and of course a box of chocolates.
This darling theme quickly changed when we ran into a black metal band named “Coldvoid” in the middle of the dark forest. They had nails, bullets, a noose, and a black candelabra that dripped like red blood when lit. Coldvoid was preparing to do promo photos for the band since it was a full moon that night. I struck up a conversation with them saying, “Lookin’ good guys!” John Awesome used to have his own metal band and it was so fitting we asked if they’d jump into a few photos and they were all for it. They gave us a copy of their new demo and it was the perfect eery soundtrack for the drive out of the woods. John Awesome even said “I wish those guys were with us for our whole photoshoot” HA! It was a perfect, spontaneous finale to our photoshoot. We couldn’t have planned it better.
Location // Holy Jim Canyon, California
Engaged Couple // John Awesome and Nydia
Band // Coldvoid // https://facebook.com/Coldvoidblackmetal
Photographer // Wheeland Photography // https://wheelandphotography.com
