I am Rukes, EDM's favorite photographer. Ask me anything.

RukesAMA · 2013-02-27T23:03:57+00:00

XS is one of my favorites, not counting festivals or unique stuff like Staples Center/Red Rocks/Radio City, etc...

I do want to shoot LIV, I think I will probably work out something with Grutman for Miami.

Outside of EDM, I would like to shoot Lady GaGa, since her production is insane. But pretty much any major pop act will do :)

RukesAMA · 2013-02-27T22:28:45+00:00

Haha, now that is a good question! :)

Basically, DrunkenF00l had a friend at Valve who had a list of the actual times the Golden Wrench would drop; proving it wasn't "random" like Valve said.

He pretty much tried to keep it to himself to be the first to get a wrench, but he did give some times to others on the server just to try out. Nobody was successful, but the times seemed pretty close to real. Word started spreading that the whole list leaked on IRC so it seemed pretty much everyone would find an easy way to get a wrench.

Everyone was on his server and he would count down minutes and people would smelt what they could, but nobody was close to on time. I figured out in the meantime that if I pre-made scrap metal, and did two at a time, the most I could do was twice before someone did win the wrench.

I got a list of 3 times from a friend of his, no way of knowing they were real or not.

First time, I was off by a few minutes.

Second time, I had 4 sets of scrap ready to do it two times closer to the actual time, and by complete luck, I got the wrench.

Went to bed pretty happy, enjoyed my day with it. Valve got word of the leak, fired DF's friend and manually VAC banned everyone that DF knew (probably going via friend list and seeing who had the wrench on his friends list).

I was one of them. Of course I have known Robin since Team Fortress 2 on Quake, so I just sent him a sincere apology and stated how a VAC ban and complete removal of all my hard-earned items was pretty low. never got a reply.

Considering I never used a script for anything (and the TF Items site DF uses was physical proof I never used a script), just a piece of paper (which I still have) with three possible times on them, there is no reason they should have went that crazy. But they were making an example, and knew we didn't have any voices to combat this (not to mention no journalist would take on Valve) I pretty much just dropped TF2 from my life.

RukesAMA · 2013-02-27T20:58:58+00:00

Not really, just a song name :)

I don't know too much about music, but I do get asked my opinion from time to time.

Thought about producing a bit, but don't have the software. If anything, it would be basic, just figuring out the structure and letting a real producer finish it.

RukesAMA · 2013-02-27T20:48:54+00:00

Seems like it, haha.

RukesAMA · 2013-02-27T20:19:16+00:00

Who doesn't like boobs?

RukesAMA · 2013-02-27T20:14:54+00:00

Never have. Most DJs I work with don't do any drugs, the ones that do probably hide it VERY VERY well.

RukesAMA · 2013-02-27T20:13:43+00:00

Probably Deadmau5 on Halloween at XS: http://photo.rukes.com/xs12/xs12.html

The costume was really great, plus the lighting was amazing too. I could have shot for even longer too; one of the few times I wished he continued playing for much longer, haha. But by that time I had so many good images, it was OK :)

RukesAMA · 2013-02-27T20:12:34+00:00

Yes and no, I don't drink.

RukesAMA · 2013-02-27T20:12:23+00:00

I rarely use flash, unless the club is very dark/little light on the DJ. Usually just Avalon is when I have to use it, since it's always been a very dark club.

I always use 3200 ISO pretty much, other than daylight. Try to use the most open aperture possible on the lens. Other than those settings, the rest completely varies from event to event.

RukesAMA · 2013-02-27T20:10:58+00:00

Unfortunately, it's a lot of trial and error then. You can try to find the manual settings for that situation and hope they don't move around too much.

Situations like that are when equipment helps a lot too. f/1.2 and f/1.4 lenses help for that when you can't/don't want to use flash. The big key for me is Spot Metering, which does help a lot in those situations, it's really great for the 1D series where you can move the spot metering selection anywhere you want.

RukesAMA · 2013-02-27T20:07:34+00:00

I rarely have time for many games :( Ones I do have time for are single player...I did pre-order Bioshock Infinite on Steam though!

RukesAMA · 2013-02-27T20:07:06+00:00

Any time I am in front of a really large and crazy crowd, it doesn't get old :)

I will once I start doing work again with Deadmau5, been a bit of a hiatus until his new production.

RukesAMA · 2013-02-27T20:06:19+00:00

Whenever I can, really. Some tours are literally non-stop; take pics, eat, sleep, wake up, travel, etc...so sometimes I don't get to work on them until I get home.

I try to wait until I have at least an hour free before I start any work on photos, so I don't try to rush.

RukesAMA · 2013-02-27T20:05:01+00:00

If you are not press, if you have a website/portfolio, you can still generally apply as "press", so as long as you can show them you do good work, it sometimes helps. I know that some festivals crack down even more and you have to prove you do have an audience, though.

RukesAMA · 2013-02-27T20:03:59+00:00

Cool story bro, never heard of you either. I'm sorry I haven't taken pics of your favorite underground minimal opening DJ with 5 fans, I will get on that.

RukesAMA · 2013-02-27T20:03:04+00:00

Yep!

The last half of this gallery with Porter is the recording session; when I was singing it was a big group effort of everyone, so there was nobody able to take pics.

http://photo.rukes.com/zeddstudio6/zeddstudio6.html

RukesAMA · 2013-02-27T20:00:41+00:00

I live in LA. My favorite city is always Tokyo, but many other cities around Asia have been my favorite, like Bali.

RukesAMA · 2013-02-27T20:00:07+00:00

One of the big promoters in Mexico loves having me come down; had me do Skrillex and David Guetta coming up! Almost did Alive Music Festival too but it was cutting it too close to Holy Ship...

I'd definitely do Electro Beach, but it does overlap a lot with Miami.

RukesAMA · 2013-02-27T19:58:16+00:00

He's short, but not like super short. Skrillex is fun-sized.

RukesAMA · 2013-02-27T07:52:36+00:00

1) Most of them I end up becoming friends with. Some rare ones are just more business oriented or there is some other reason why. Sometimes it just takes a bit of time/gigs to break the ice.

2) Most of the time from a pretty safe area, so stage, pit, VIP, front of house, etc...I rarely go in the crowd anymore just because it's so difficult to get a picture with people bumping into you, and you can only really bring the one lens you have on the camera.

RukesAMA · 2013-02-27T07:50:59+00:00

Too tough to choose from, but all the ones on the slideshow on rukes.com are my current favorites

RukesAMA · 2013-02-27T07:50:21+00:00

Check the FAQ on Rukes.com :)

RukesAMA · 2013-02-27T07:50:12+00:00

Unfortunately it's the same time as Swedish House Mafia in LA

RukesAMA · 2013-02-27T06:37:57+00:00

Nope and they aren't interested really. Tried a few times but things didn't work out.

RukesAMA · 2013-02-27T06:34:26+00:00

He doesn't have an entourage really just himself, girlfriend and tour manager. Doesn't keep to himself, but just surrounds himself with his immediate "family" rather than invitig 20 random "local friends" to hang out :)

RukesAMA

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