Hello, everyone! After an extended break we have returned with the latest installment in our ongoing series aimed at informing aspiring music photographers about the realities of life in the industry. If you missed one of the previous columns, you can catch up using this link. If not, welcome back! We’re happy you stuck around.
This blog exists to promote the future of the music industry, and to do that we need input from people like you and your music-loving friends. If you have any questions about the content in this article, or if you have an artist you would like to see featured on this blog, please contact james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.
We don’t instantly become good at photography. There’s no magic wand that you waive to enhance your skills. It’s a growing process and we continue to learn everyday to enhance our craft. I did a podcast with James Shotwell where we talked about the first show I ever shot and I admittedly said how awful I truly was. I still back this, but I want to go in a little further on why I was so bad, and what I wish I could have changed.
My gear was too good for my knowledge. I wish I didn’t shoot that show in program (auto). Shooting at f8 at 1/60 makes no sense when outdoors. I regret not knowing the basic fundamentals of photography before going out and shooting. If so, my shots would have been exposed properly, and maybe I wouldn’t hate myself for ruining photos of my favorite band, Against Me!.
The only photos I looked at prior were a few that were in alt press. My favorite image back then was one Jesse DeFlorio took of Geoff Rickly at Warped Tour at Nassau Coloseum, which was my first warped tour I ever attended. Geoff broke his nose on the third song and started gushing blood down his face, resulting in one of the most dynamic warped tour photos I’ve ever seen. I thought everything had to be cropped tight and to the frame. I didn’t vary in anyway. I feel like I barely shot any wide shots; however still I feel like I understood the rule of thirds naturally.
I should have turned around. there was an entire sea of people screaming their heads off to these bands. Bands aren’t the only subject at concerts. Why didn’t I capture them, especially since the venue I shot it at is gone, and it overlooked the beautiful manhatten skyline?
I should have shot raw. I didn’t know any better. Maybe I could have fixed some of these awful mistakes I made, if I shot RAW. Maybe…. Raw isn’t a magic wand to make your photos instantly better, but it certainly can help fix your mistakes.
Something subtle, my watermark. My text based watermark makes me cringe. It’s almost as bad as Comic Sans. Almost.
Lastly, I take photography very seriously. In fact, I take it way too seriously. I’m shooting four shows this week, and I really need to reflect that I’m doing a job that many people would love to do. I’m going to do something I haven’t done in the photo pit tonight since my first show, smile and appreciate my access of being up close to document world class artists performing, as my job.
Nick Karp is a professional photographer and freelance music writer. He recently relocated to NYC and dyed his hair bright pink because that is the kind of thing people do in the music business.
Greetings! You may recall a few entries in this series running around the start of the new year. We love this column and thought we had run every photo we had acquired, but it turns out we missed one! We thought about skipping it, but that felt like it would be a disservice to you and the photographer who was gracious enough to share their work with us.
Here’s the original introduction in case you were unaware of this series before now:
After much thought and debate, we settled on a new concept that we think everyone enjoy. Together with a group of our favorite music photographers, we have compiled a collection of images that showcase some of the best and most intimate moments in music from 2014. The images shared in this series were chosen by the photographers who captured them, and the only guidelines they were given was to choose the one image that meant the most to them. Some included an explanation for their photos, while others did not, but everyone chose images that are sure to linger in your mind for days to come.
Next up: Professional music photographer Connor Feimster.
In June of 2014, I was lucky enough to fly out to Dallas, TX to cover the first annual Pegasus Music Festival. I worked behind the scenes with PMtoday (now Move Orchestra), one of my favorite bands from my high school years that performed their final show under the moniker. The incredibly stacked lineup also included Bad Books, Dustin Kensrue of Thrice, Cold War Kids, Circa Survive, and headliners Brand New.
Anyone who knows close to anything about me will most likely know that Circa Survive and Brand New are two of my three favorite bands of all time (the third being mewithoutYou), so my excitement leading up to the night of the festival was unparalleled for the rest of 2014. My departure flight was the first indicator that my weekend in Texas would be legendary, as I sat one row away from three-fifths of Circa Survive and ultimately chatted it up with them to the point where they offered me a ride to the festival like the gentlemen they really are. The journalist in me played it cool while the fanboy in me exploded.
At the festival, I got to hang out backstage with literally every single band on the bill. Bumping into Jesse Lacey, Andy Hull, Kevin Devine, and Dustin Censure in the hallway together was something I never thought I’d see, let alone something in which I’d be included. I got to have a few quick one-on-one portrait sessions with most of these frontmen while also documenting my time with PMtoday and chatting with them about how much their opus In Medias Res means to me.
The time then came for the festival to get a move on, and I got to go out to the crowd and do my thing at the barricade for each band. It was the coolest thing to be able to shoot and then head backstage to rest. It was like some sort of luxury. By the time I finished shooting Cold War Kids, a realization came over me: Brand New are essentially a “great white shark” in the music photography industry. The band, as “egotistical” or “shallow” as it sounds, does not ever allow photographers present at a show of theirs that isn’t under the category of a festival. I personally have no idea why (it’s the ~mystery~ aspect they have to uphold, I bet), but that didn’t stop me from running out to the front of the stage to prepare myself for easily the most important shoot of my young career.
Brand New’s performance was the stuff of legends. I’m lucky enough to say that I’ve seen them at least five times, as it’s damn near impossible for even the most devoted fans to see them at all, but there was something about this performance that struck a chord with me. It must be the overall experience of the festival, but their energy and lights and setlist were all just outstanding. I made it a duty to not look at my photos until the plane ride home, but once I was in the air, I pulled out my camera, flipped through, and dropped my jaw.
That night, Brand New used strobe lights, which are incredibly hit-or-miss to photographers, as they can catch everything or nothing at all. I was incredibly lucky to grab this shot, featuring all four members of Brand New, with heightened energy, within the light of a strobe. This is something I never, in a million years, would have seen myself getting. It’s the type of photo that literally catches me by surprise every time I see it, because I simply can’t believe that it exists.
Connor Feimster is a professional music photographer who has contributed to a number of popular alternative music blogs. His future is bright, and we believe he will do amazing things in the year ahead. If you enjoy the photo in this post, please make it a point to follow Connor on Twitter. You should also check out his official website, which hosts a ton of stunning live music images.
Hello, everyone! After an extended break we have returned with the latest installment in our ongoing series aimed at informing aspiring music photographers about the realities of life in the industry. If you missed one of the previous columns, you can catch up using this link. If not, welcome back! We’re happy you stuck around.
This blog exists to promote the future of the music industry, and to do that we need input from people like you and your music-loving friends. If you have any questions about the content in this article, or if you have an artist you would like to see featured on this blog, please contact james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.
The best camera you have is the one on you. For years I’ve thought that saying was the biggest cliche in the history of photography. I’ve debated and fought this countless times. My iPhone isn’t nearly as good as the guy with a Canon 5D MKIII. I’d even take a Rebel series camera of my that. I’m here to say that I was wrong.
On December 30th, I was privileged enough to see Patti Smith in concert at Webster Hall. I tried to apply for press countless times for the show, but was met with rejection each time. Patti Smith does not allow photographers; something that I think is very hypocritical as Patti Smith is a photographer herself and even had a relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe, an incredible photographer.
The day prior, Patti Smith also performed at Webster Hall, and a had surprise opener in Michael Stipe of R.E.M. It was his first public performance in years. With the idea that he would perform again the next day, I immediately looked up the guidelines for the venue and found out they did not have a camera policy, so I brought in a Fuji mirrorless camera, a camera which most would not even fathom calling optimal gear for a show. I wasn’t shooting for anyone, but just myself because of my love for R.E.M. Don’t get me wrong, I got the ticket for Patti Smith, but I LOVE R.E.M.
I got to the venue early and was about 6 rows back. I snapped less than 150 shots the entire show and thought nothing of it. I had a few shots I liked, but nothing that I would even consider my best work. Just shots to say, “Hey, I saw Michael Stipe and Patti Smith!”
I posted one photo on a message board and got an email later that night from Rolling Stone Magazine asking for images from the show. Why would they want a shot from a little Fuji. I sent them 15 of my best shots of the show and they bought the usage for them. What? Why? … I didn’t even use my gear.
Maybe it’s because I’m thick skulled, but I couldn’t imagine not published anywhere without my pro-gear. Maybe I’m spoiled in that thought, but regardless if a magazine like Rolling Stone took a photo that wasn’t on quality equipment then anyone really would. This was a point and shoot camera after all.
In the past, I’ve been guilty of judging people by equipment. I’m here to say that I was wrong.
Hello, everyone! This post is for all the photographers out there, and it’s written by our good friend Matt Vogel. If you like what you read, please check out his official website.
This site exists to promote the future of the entertainment industry, and to do that we need input from people like you and your entertainment-loving friends. If you have any questions about the content in this article, or if you have an artist you would like to see featured on this blog, please contact james@haulix.com. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.
My workflow is the most important part of being a productive and successful music photographer. Other photographers rarely ask about it, but I feel like it’s something a lot of people don’t think about until they’re on the road and freaking out because their workflow sucks. So I want to share mine here, on my nice little blog.
I work really hard to impress each artist I work for with my workflow and turnaround every day on the road. Editing on tour can be really difficult because you don’t always have power for your laptop, no internet to upload things, run out of space on your hard drive, and an endless list of other frustrating obstacles. It’s never an ideal situation, so whenever there’s a green room with a desk, working wifi, and a pot of coffee, I’m a very happy and productive man.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO HAVE A FAST AND EFFICIENT WORKFLOW?
As a tour photographer, I’m always taking pictures – not just while the artist is on stage playing their songs. That’s like 1 hour of the artist’s 24 hour day, so it should be 1/24th of my job. Actually I take that back – don’t shoot your artist while they are asleep, because that is creepy. So it’s like 1/12th of my job or so. The point is, I should always be shooting, and when I’m not shooting, I’m editing. There is no “hey guys don’t do anything interesting and let the photographer edit” time so I have to find pockets of time when I can. When interesting or funny things happen, as the photographer it’s my job to be there and capture that. Many of the best moments happen offstage.
When I first started touring, my workflow sucked and in turn I had to spend a lot more time editing and processing pictures. I was usually the first one up and the last one asleep. It honestly became so much less fun as the days went on and I was so exhausted. Not to mention I was missing crucial moments, or not delivering the number or quality of images I wanted to. After a few runs, I managed to fix my system so I’m only waking up early and editing quickly before we get to the venue. If your workflow sucks on tour, your life sucks on tour.
I’m of the belief that each person in the band and crew should have pictures delivered to them each day. This may seem like overkill and a lot of extra work, but the people you are on the road with are your friends. If they’re not your friends, they will become your friends when you have photos of them for their Instagram accounts in a Dropbox folder every morning when they wake up. Most every crew member I’ve ever been on tour with has been astonished that I take pictures of them and they really appreciate it.
WHAT YOU NEED FOR A GREAT WORKFLOW
There are a few things that make or break my workflow. This is a short list of things as a tour photographer I would NEVER skimp out on.
A powerful laptop
I have a loaded up Macbook Pro that ensures that I’m not sitting around for 45 minutes waiting for photos to export. This is the most important piece of gear I own.
Adobe Lightroom
Hard drives
Like a ton of them. I use Western Digital MyPassports because they are really cost effective and I’ve found them to be reliable.
Good card reader
I use a Kingston USB 3 card reader.
Fast and large SD/CF cards
I use 32gb SanDisk Extremes – 45 MB/s. These import through USB 3 into a Lightroom catalog in just a few minutes.
Dropbox
You need it! Or a cloud storage equivalent. Something with a whole lot of space. I like Dropbox because many people already have it, it’s very easy to set up if not, and their app is very user friendly.
LET’S BEGIN…
PRE-TOUR PREP
Before each tour starts, I give myself some homework. I create a folder system for each date of the tour. Here is how that looks:
A folder for each date. Each day, I create a new Lightroom catalog 2 folders deep in order to keep the show’s folder very clean and organized. I also import the raw images into a subfolder 2 deep as well. Exported images are in the “Web” folder, but that comes into play later.
I replicate this folder system on 2 hard drives. I use 2 drives to back up my work every day or two. I keep the drives in separate locations in case one gets stolen. After my internal hard drive starts getting close to full, I will delete the files from it, and still have the two copies on separate hard drives. Do not be lazy about backing your work up because if you don’t do it, your computer will light on fire and you will lose everything and this is not a scare tactic, it’s gonna happen. So back your stuff up.
The next thing I do is create a similar file tree in Dropbox, which is selective synced to my computer. Everything I put in these folders on my computer uploads automatically in the background, which is amazing.
Everyone on the band and crew gets one of these folders with photos from each day of the tour. I make these before the tour and share the folders with everyone on day 1 so that they have access to the photos from the Dropbox app on their phones.
I also create a folder called ‘Galleries’ which just includes every image from that day – I share this link with management, publicist, etc. as well as the artist and any band or crew that may be interested.
EXTRA WORK ON DAY 1
Day 1 is crucial to your workflow. The first thing I do after the show is import photos and spend some serious time in Lightroom.
In the image below, you can see my presets on the left side. Day 1 of every tour, I go through behind the scenes images and live images and create variations of my own presets. After the first day, I know what the lighting will be like for the live show, which dictates how I edit. Create a preset folder in Lightroom and do this, it will save you a lot of time.
After you have your presets, head to the import dialogue and set up your “Apply During Import” settings to your generic live preset, and setup your Metadata. This saves so much time later as well.
Now on day 2 when I go through the rough 1,000 shots I took during the day, all I have to do for the live ones is adjust exposure and minor details on the sliders. This keeps a consistent look across all photos and makes my workflow much faster.
After shooting all day, I usually import the photos immediately after the show so that I don’t misplace a card, accidentally overwrite it, and basically just avoid any sort of data loss incident that could occur.
I won’t go through the actual editing of the photos, but the basic premise is I cruise through my Lightroom catalog, using the hotkey “B” to make a quick collection of the keepers, while I edit as you go. I usually have a quick collection of 150-300 images. I export them, resizing for web, into my folder “Web” in each date’s subfolder.
From this huge list of photos, I go through each one and copy and paste the photos of that person into their daily Dropbox folder.
I rarely edit the night of the show, and instead try to get to bed fairly early and wake up early the next morning to do my complete editing process before the bus gets to the next venue. I try to get in the venue as fast as I can and get on wifi so that my selective sync Dropbox folders update and the guys wake up to a notification that there are new photos in their Dropbox folders.
All of this stuff is pretty basic but has changed my life on tour and saved me countless hours by putting in an extra few of prep time before the tour starts and on the first few days. My entire workflow including importing and exporting is roughly 1 hour and 15 minutes for each show.
Photos on tour are very time sensitive – in extreme cases some artists like my friend Hoodie Allen like to post a crowd photo minutes following the show, so I import, edit that very quickly, and text it via iMessage to him right away. The whole process takes under 5 minutes, but really helps engage kids on their way home from the show reflect on how awesome it was.
Things like wifi on cameras are also becoming part of my workflow. For example, I was just with Hoodie Allen when he played a TV show. I took a photo of Hoodie and the show’s host on my 6D, connected via wifi to my phone, edited in the VSCOcam app, and sent Hoodie the high res image for his social media within minutes. That type of shortcut in my workflow is rarely used, but amazing in the right situations. When my artist asks “How the hell did you do that so fast?” I know that my system is working.
I’m always learning new things to implement into my workflow and how to improve it and make my life easier. My personal goal as a music photographer is to provide the artists I work for an insane amount of content, and to make that content amazing. The faster I churn out the content, the more time I can spend focusing on making sure it’s amazing!
Hello, everyone! Welcome to the beginning of a new work week that promises to be filled with thrilling content and insightful conversation. We have been looking forward to this particular week for several months, mostly because it coincides with the launch of our latest tool in the continuing fight against digital piracy. You can expect to learn more about that as the week carries on, but for now we are going to take a look at what it’s really like to be a professional photographer in the music industry. If you have any questions about the content of the blog, or if you would like more information regarding the distributional services offered by Haulix, please email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Every week I find myself engaged in conversation with young people who are both excited and a tad bit nervous about the future of the music industry. In each of these conversations I try to find the time to ask what the person speaking with me sees at their ultimate career goal, and nine times out of ten the response I receive involves spending excessive amounts of time on the road. Sometimes they want to be a tour manager and other times it’s front of house sound, but without a doubt the response I receive most often is that people want to find a way to make a living taking photos on the road. Call it a tour photographer, or a group archivist, or simply a freelance music photographer, whatever the title you slap on it the desired work environment is the same: See the country through the windows on a van/bus and capture every moment along the way.
I wish so very badly that we could provide a step-by-step guide to achieving this goal, but the fact of the matter is that you have about as good a chance of becoming a professional tour photographer as you do winning the lottery while simultaneously being struck by lightning. There are literally thousands of aspiring music photographers across this country, including several hundred who contribute to so-called influential music blogs. The difference between one photographer getting landing a dream tour gig and another not has as much to do with hard work and talent as it does networking and blind luck. The best advice we can offer is to work hard, keep an updated portfolio, and constantly challenge yourself to try new things. Once you have a handle on all that, talk to everyone who will listen and learn to promote yourself without coming across as desperate. In time, people will notice your work and opportunities will begin to come your way. All you will have to do is be prepared for the challenges they will no doubt present.
It’s incredibly important that you understand up front there is no such thing as an ‘easy job’ when you are part of a touring group/festival. Everyone who is not performing on stage nightly has to handle multiple tasks, some not related in the slightest to their job title, in order for the entire production to successfully move from city to city. If you find yourself in a position to join a tour, you too will be expect to chip in daily to help with tasks and challenges as they arise.
To help emphasize and further explain just how demanding life on the road can be for someone hired as a professional photographer, we have partnered with current touring photog Ashley Osborn to present a rundown of what a typical day looked like on her most recent outing with hard rock favorites Chiodos. This was the group’s first tour since 2012 and demand for tickets were extremely high. Ashley took photos, sold merch, and did a few dozen daily tasks in between. The tour lasted several weeks, with each day presenting a similar-yet-unique set of challenges. You can view her daily routine below:
11:00 AM: Bus arrives at venue.
11:30 AM: Wake up, check out the day sheet for the day and evaluate it for a good five minutes to plan out my day. For those of you who don’t know, a day sheet it basically all of the information you need for the day.
12:00 PM: Roll out of bunk and kind of try to make myself presentable to society.
12:01 PM: Grab phone, open google maps, search for nearest place to consume as much coffee as possible.
1:00 PM: Load-In (AKA be back at venue to bring in all of my merchandise). This is when I go in and figure out not only my own spot, but all of the support bands’ merch spots for the night as well, gather up tables and chairs for everybody, etc. I tried my hardest to make it as easy as possible for all of the other merch people.
1:30 PM: Begin setting up displays and merch area. Usually this involves sorting all sizes and making the day’s sheet. Then I figure out what I need to restock for the day.
2:30 PM: Restock merchandise. For people who don’t do merch (haha) this basically means I bring it what I need for the day. Things we sold a lot of / out of the night before. Then I bring it back in and count everything I just pulled from the trailer, add it to my sheets and sort it all into it’s right spot.
3:30 PM: Gather up supplies and make VIP laminates for band’s acoustic meet and greet.
4:00 PM: Find food because usually by this time I haven’t eaten today. Vegan treats were always the #1 most wanted.
4:10 PM: Usually I change and ACTUALLY make myself kind of presentable to society?
4:20 PM: RUN AROUND LIKE A CRAZY PERSON DOING LAST MINUTE THINGS BEFORE 5PM ACOUSTIC MEET AND GREET BEGINS. AHHHHH. Usually during this time a merch rep comes to find me and has to count me in or asks me to send them all of my merchandise sheets or something kind of annoying and last minute (it’s okay because they are just doing their job). I’m just always mega stressed during this stretch of time.
5:15 PM: Meet and greet. Every day I took all of the meet and greet photos.
6:00 PM: DOORS. Now it’s sell time! Hang out and talk to fans, sell merchandise, make new friends with cool fans and edit, show off my semi-cool fanny pack, upload and update photos on the band’s social accounts. Priority other than selling merchandise during this period was trying to get all of the meet and greet photos finished.
9:15 PM: Typically time to go find all of the band and take behind the scenes shots before their set begins. This was my favorite part of the day every day!
9:30 PM: Set time! Shoot, shoot, shoot!
9:45 PM: Run to merch and begin uploading photos to computer, switch memory cards and run back to set to keep shooting.
10:00 PM: Run back to merch again, upload those photos that I just took and edit photos, upload at least 10-15 photos for the band to post after the show. I did all of this while selling merch during their set. This was the most insane part of my night… somehow I managed every single night to have photos done for the guys before the set was over. They never TOLD me I had to do this – so don’t get me wrong. I just thought it was important for us to do this. Fans loved seeing all of the images from their show and it makes the experience that much more personal. I love that! Makes me so happy.
11:00 PM: End of the night mad rush. At least 100 kids come to merch after the show to buy things so it’s just a really crazy (somehow fun) rush that happens in a matter of 10 minutes.
11:15 PM: Begin counting out all merch. This basically means I count every single item at my merch table, enter it into my sheets and boom. While I do this I also pack up bin by bin that way when I’m all done, I’m ready to roll my things out and put them in the trailer.
11:40 PM: Settle out with the merch representative at the venue. For those of you who don’t know, every night most venues take a percentage of merchandise sold from every band on the tour. It ranges from 10-20%. Sometimes they take state tax too. There’s some paperwork, etc I have to do with the venue during this time as well. Sometimes it takes five minutes, sometimes it takes twenty.
12:00 PM: Hang out with tour manager in front lounge while eating dinner (I loved making grilled cheese and tofurky sammies on the bus) and work on finalizing merch sheets for the night, count money, make sure everything matches up then send everything off to management/accountant, edit more photos, catch up on life, watch movies, etc. Winding down at the end of the night is always nice.
4:00AM: Go to bed sort of. This means laying in my bunk and texting friends, tweeting, reading, etc.
As you can see, there is a lot more to being a tour photographer than waking up and taking pictures. We will be partnering with several other photographers in the weeks ahead to present you with their daily routines, but I will tell you right now most are fairly similar to the one described above.
If you want to become a professional photographer, we highly suggest spending some time on our series dedicated to mastering the various aspects of live event coverage. Click the links to read parts one, two, and three. We expect additional installments to be released in the coming weeks.
