I did a guest blog on Scott Kelby’s blog all about shooting live shows, full post after the jump… read full post
This is badass. I have never done a guest blog before, so thanks to Scott and Brad for giving me the opportunity.
I am a music photographer and I spend most of my time photographing bands/ musicians with my camera while they tour the world. In addition to photographer I also make those fun Lens Bracelets® you may have seen floating around recently at Photoshop World DC. Anyway, it’s really hard to sum up my career path quickly, but I still want you to give you a bit of background information on myself so that you know where I am coming from. I think bullet points will suffice-
– Started photography at age 16 for high school year book assignment, I was living in Madison, WI at the time
– went to tons of local shows, started bringing camera and photographing them for fun/ made me feel “cool” (cut me some slack, I was young)
– befriended the local promoters, traded show photos for free admission and band posters
– began working with online music sites, getting press passes for larger shows and shooting from the pit
– bands started crashing at my house after shows and we would do quick press shoots the next day around town
– became good friends with a few younger national touring acts
– flew out to new york for my first big shoot when I was a senior in high school, totally blew it, shots never used
– college for a semester while still shooting press images on spec and live shows when I could, started making pretty decent money
– stop college, go on the road with a band I was good friends with for 30 days, full USA, 8 dudes, 15 passenger van, smelly
– kept touring for next 18 months or so, continued shooting live and press images, working for publications
– moved to San Diego on a whim, continued touring and shooting
I have been doing a mixture of everything for the past few years. Shooting bands in studio, on the road, off the road and working for a few various publications.
Thats the gist of it, there is heaps more but at least it gives you an idea of what I have been up to. You can check out a full list of where I have been here, and view a map of it all here. If you want to get a little more in depth about whats its like to live on the road, I suggest checking out my five part blog about a summer I spent on The Vans Warped Tour, it was pretty wild. Here is here” target=”_blank”>part one to get you going.
Like any photographer I have grown a lot over the past few years. I didn’t like shooting live and/ or candid images of people at all to begin with. In fact, at first I was very emotionally disconnected from photography. I thought of it as a pretty basic thought process – get five sweaty dudes, put em in order and make ’em look nice so they can sell some records. However it has turned into something more than that for me. I imagine I will it will continue to connect with more and more as I continue to shoot and grow, but at this current point in time I am pretty stoked on on shooting lives/ candids and portraits. Lifestyles is a good way putting it
