Saturday, November 6, 2010

I suppose I should lay some groundwork.

I travel for a living. My day gig is as an outside sales rep for a large musical instrument manufacturer; a very cool company. I like it. It pays my bills. But I, like most people, I would imagine, enjoy traveling for pleasure, as well. My job affords me an opportunity to photograph things and places I might not otherwise get to shoot.

And I dig that,

As much as I love my job, my passion is photography. After playing in a band in San Diego for the better part of ten years, I stepped away from it after it started turning into a job. As I've mentioned, I have a job. I don't want a second one. I decided, without possession of the slightest clue of what I was in for, to become a concert photographer. How hard could it be?

I thought back to my earliest foray into the realm of concert photography. It was 1978, and I was a 16 year old junior at Hauppauge High School on Long Island. I was going to write a review of, and photograph, the band Styx at the Commack Arena. It was the Grand Illusion tour, and that was my favorite album. I was an insane fan. I made my own shirts; Hell, I even made a Styx belt buckle in metal shop. My fanaticism bordered on the deranged, and I knew it. I just didn't care.

So there I was, in my $6.00 seat (hey, it was 1978), my Canon TLb in hand. The band hits the stage, and I start shooting. I don't remember how many rolls of film I shot that night, but I do remember that not a single frame came out. The results were absolutely horrible. I should've been cited for littering.

Some 30-plus years later, though, things are somewhat different. I've learned a few things. I take better pictures now.

What I found, though, was that I wasn't shooting enough to satisfy me. I wanted to shoot all the time. Well, with concert photography, that just doesn't happen. Back in the 70's, nobody cared about someone walking into a concert venue with a camera. Now, it's a completely different story. You need to be credentialed. To get credentialed, you either need to know somebody, or you need to be affiliated, usually, with a publication. I still shoot a lot, but I was wanting to shoot a lot more.

So, I branched out a little. I decided to use the fact that I get to travel to my advantage with regards to my photography.

I hope you like it...

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