I’ve always said, if I had to choose one kind of photography to do for the rest of my life, it’d be music photography. I love music so much and there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t listen to music. I’m pretty sure I’d go crazy without it. My grandparents were in a folk/country band when they were younger. My grandpa played the fiddle and my grandma played the harmonica. My dad was in a rock band in high school in the 60′s. My fiance plays guitar and writes original songs. His dad’s in a band and has been in about 50 bands. (I may be exaggerating that number a little.) It’s only natural that I’d be into music.
I grew up in a tiny town in Southern Indiana listening to country till I was about 11, then boy bands and other large pop groups (like Spice Girls and S Club 7) got huge and took over my life (I wanted to be like Sporty Spice). Finally, rock music came into my life when I was about 14. Ah, rock music, it’s my favorite. Really though, I love all music. I love how it can take you back in time, move you to the future, make you happy, and even make you cry. And, if it makes me sing and dance and make me and my friends make fools out of ourselves in clubs, even better. And when I’m driving, which I do a lot of, I’m a total rockstar.
When it comes to music photography, I can’t get enough! At major concerts like those at Verizon Wireless Music Center it’s a crazy rush. You know that tiny sliver of space between the gated pit and the stage where the security guards stand? Yea, I get to stand there to shoot the concert. I can literally reach up and grab the musician I’m photographing…you know, if I want to get kicked out. You know those cheesy anti-drug commercials, the ones where they say something like, “Sports. It’s my anti-drug.”, well, music is my anti-drug because I get a high from being so close to these musicians I listen to everyday in my car, the pounding of the bass, the lights changing, the thousands of fans behind me screaming, and moving around in this 3ftx30ft sliver of space in front of the stage filled with about 6 security guards, two massive video cameras, the two camera guys working those massive video cameras, and two to four other photographers, trying to get the shot without knocking out one of those other photographers or tripping on these little seat looking things that stick out of the fence.
With local bands it’s different. Every night I go out and hear a new band I get to hear brand new music. I could go out every Friday for the next year and never hear the same band twice because we have so many bands in Indiana. The crazy thing is, a lot of them are great. A lot of them should be playing major shows and touring. A lot of them, just need a little help and exposure. That’s one of the reasons why I love meeting and photographing local bands. All the bands are always really cool and love talking about their music, of course. Local bands are fabulous. That’s one of the reasons why I try to sponsor so many events. I like doing whatever I can to support local music. We have such a grand music scene here in Indianapolis and we just need one band to really make it and bring the spotlight here and then lots of bands can explode on to the larger scene with them. And, of course, I love trying to get the best shot I can at live local performances in bars and clubs just like at Verizon Wireless Music Center because I still have the pounding of the bass, the changing lights, and fans singing along behind me while I shoot.
As for promotional photography, as in the photos of bands posing in a cool location, I love that as well for a whole different reason. Sure, there isn’t loud music going while we’re doing a promotional shoot but, I get to work with the bands to figure out the perfect type of location, find that perfect location we envisioned, use the environment and my lights to create the mood they’re going for, and if I do my job right, you can hear their music just by looking at their promotional photo. There’s nothing more satisfying then walking down Broad Ripple Avenue and seeing one of my images plastered everywhere as an 11×17 poster for an upcoming show, or scrolling through my friends on Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter and seeing photos I’ve taken as many different people’s profile photos.
This the longest and most personal post I’ve ever written here on my blog and it’s all been to make an announcement. The announcement is actually a few things that all tie together. First of all, I’ll be relaunching my business in a few weeks and I’ll be relaunching as a music photographer only. If a senior wants me to do a shoot for them I won’t say no but, I’m only going to market myself to the bands. Along with that I’ll be getting a brand new website! It’s going to have larger images than the site I have now and way more features. It will have a shopping section where you can buy prints of my photos, an iPhone site so you can view my site on the go finally, and a video section where I’ll be posting behind the scene videos from shoots and even interviews with the bands I photograph. I’ll have a page dedicated to the shows I sponsor and a page that will change once every two weeks. That page will be for bands that I spotlight. I’ll post an interview, a photo, and a list of some of their upcoming shows (as well as links to their websites). I’ll still have a blog like I have now but it will be fully customized (and not just a theme I chose from WordPress) where I’ll continue to share photos from shows and promotional shoots on a regular basis like I am now.
So, if you’re in a band and want spotlighted or you’re a fan of a local band you want spotlighted start emailing me now so I can start putting the spotlights together now and be ready for the launch. I’ll tell you when the new site is going to be up, closer to the launch date. In the meantime, get ready to start seeing new business cards, posters, and other promotional items of mine out and about at all the venues.
Be sure to come out to the Battle of Birdy’s which is still going on. This is the last week of Round 1. Then, next week, we take a break before Round 2 starts up on October 15th. And, as always, keep supporting local music because, as you can tell, I kinda like it. 
