In Summer of 2019, while working with Elbow in Manchester, concert photographer Peter Neill had an idea. He decided to try and stitch an epic panorama... with a twist. Instead of using a wide-angle, he would use an 85mm f/1.4 and capture a pano of the stage and the crowd, but with a shallow depth of field and bokeh.
The World Photography Organization has revealed the category winners of the Sony World Photography Awards 'Open' competition for 2020—in other words: "the best single images from 2019." From Architecture through Wildlife, 2019 produced some truly incredible imagery.
I am writing this concert photography guide in response to several ‘How to’ guides I have seen online that don’t quite hit the mark on how to take great live concert photographs. Most of the articles focus too much on the obvious, like concerts are dark and avoid things in your way (like mic stands and such). Personally, I think it is a bit patronizing to suggest that you are letting the photographer in on the ‘professional secrets’ if it is written by a non-professional music photographer, so this is my guide.
After I saw an ad on Facebook about an upcoming Best Buy photography workshop, I got the idea to attend it, and I thought other photographers would be interested in the experience, too. I signed up, paid the $50 to attend the workshop, and got an email confirming my registration.
What would it look like if I made a timelapse out of every single picture that I captured during a concert? I had occasionally been toying with this idea since I saw a wedding timelapse by photographer Kevin Mullins a while ago.
Photography workshops are a dime a dozen these days, but that isn't stopping a retail heavyweight from launching its own: Best Buy is now in the business of photography workshops for beginner and intermediate photographers.
Photographers know that in this industry, technology, tastes, and trends change on a near-daily basis. This means a constant evolution in the way they work, create, and run their businesses. Zenfolio moderated a lively discussion between 6 industry powerhouses to discuss the changes they see coming, and how they manage to find financial, personal, and business success in a volatile creative field. Read on to see how you can make a profit, secure your business, and find happiness as a professional photographer.
We didn’t start Unsplash to reinvent an industry. We started Unsplash because we thought it might be useful. Unsplash is a community where anyone can share high-resolution photos for anyone to use freely.
The city of Los Angeles is banning photography at free concerts in a public park, and photographers aren't happy about it. Several prominent photographer, journalist, and civil rights organizations have joined forces in writing a letter that protests the policy.
The kind of photography I do begins as a moment of theft. Finding the scene, finding your angle, and stealing the moment for yourself. Some photographers are creators. They build a scene, a still life, or arrange their models and angle their lights and create an image from nothing. I’m not one of those photographers. I’m a thief.
Take note: even the animal kingdom hates it when you use your iPad to take photos. At least that's what seems to be happening in this video, when a playful (or annoyed) dolphin snatches an iPad right out of a woman's hand and drags it into the water.
Apple has been awarded a US patent for a system that could disable iPhone cameras with infrared signals, allowing photography to be remotely banned in locations such as concerts and sensitive sites.
When I started photography nine years ago, I didn’t have a problem going out and finding inspiration. Everything was so new and, subsequently, there seemed to be no end to the ideas I felt I could produce. Looking back, I can see that my work wasn’t particularly indistinguishable from many others—there was no depth, no originality.
So you're getting ready to photograph your first concert? That's awesome. Chances are, it’s a less-than-perfect venue -- that's usually how it works out. It’s kind of like getting your first car. You don’t start out with a Jaguar. You get a baby blue minivan with doors that don’t shut in the winter…
Janet Jackson doesn't just have a strict concert photography policy when it comes to professional photographers -- she's cracking down on fan shots as well. Instagram users are reporting that their accounts are being deleted by the service after they posted photos and videos of Jackson during her Unbreakable concert tour.
If you're a concert photographer looking to shoot Janet Jackson's Unbreakable World Tour 2015, you'll have to agree to some extremely strict terms for permission to do so. First, you'll only get 30 seconds total to shoot. Second, you agree to sign over all copyright to your photos.
How do you go about capturing music in a photograph? Photographer Stephen Orlando has an interesting answer: light painting. By attaching LED lights to the bows of violin, viola, and cello players, Orlando is able to capture a creative representation of the sounds created by musicians.
Taylor Swift's concert photography contract recently came under fire for being overreaching and for threatening to destroy photographers' equipment, leading some publications to boycott the contract and obtain photos by other means.
It looks like change has resulted from the controversy: Taylor Swift's concert photo agreement has been revised to address concerns that were raised and to be friendlier toward photographers.
Over the last couple of weeks, the matter of photo contracts has once again been debated. First came Jason Sheldon’s blog post, calling Taylor Swift out on her hypocrisy when attacking Apple for demanding musicians give away their music for free while doing the exact same thing to concert photographers in her photo contracts. If you’re reading this, you’re probably well aware of that whole ordeal, so there’s no need to get into it further other than to say that I fully support Sheldon’s views.
Last week, the Washington City Paper made a stand against what it considered an unfair concert photography contract presented by the Foo Fighters with an article entitled "Why We’re Not Photographing The Foo Fighters." Concert photographers everywhere stood up and slow clapped for the headline, the main idea of the article, and the stand it took on photographers rights.
In the last paragraph of the article however, the City Paper did something even worse to photographers than the Foo Fighters ever could have: they called on the fans to submit photos of the show, and they offered to pay for them.
At least one major newspaper is taking a stand against Taylor Swift's concert photography contract, which has generated quite a bit of discussion in recent days over its 'restrictive' and 'unfair' terms. The Irish Times, Ireland's second most popular newspaper, explained today that it chose to leave out photos entirely rather than sign Swift's contract.
Vintage Trouble recently played their biggest gig in front of 115,000 people as the support act of AC/DCs “Rock or Bust” Tour 2015 at the Red Bull Ring in Zeltweg, Austria.
I had the once in a lifetime opportunity to join the band and work with them directly on stage. It was life changing for me and this experience once again showed me that being a concert photographer is the best job in the world!
We recently shared how baseball legend (and hall of famer as of this week) Randy Johnson has been working as a professional photographer, rekindling the passion that he developed while majoring in photojournalism in college. His website contains an impressive collection of travel and concert photographs.
It's not just his photography that people are talking about, though -- his strange logo (shown above) is bringing him quite a bit of attention.
It’s been a tough few years and people are frustrated with the state of the industry. Everywhere I turn, people seem to be saying that a photography career isn’t what it used to be and that budgets are tight. Many of the blogs I read and the message boards that I visit all seem to be repeating the same message: There’s no work, there’s no money, and the competition is too intense to succeed. To quote one frustrated photographer, “How do you f’ing make a living shooting pictures anymore?”
A couple of days ago, we received an email from a concerned concert photographer who had apparently earned the right to photograph an upcoming Motely Crüe concert.
The photographer, who preferred not to identify him or herself, shared with us what they claimed to be the Red White & Crüe Inc. photography licensing agreement, bringing our attention to wording that seems to indicate photographers can't even license their own images without the company's express consent.
One would think that those in the photography and music industries would act as allies -- both industries, after all, are built upon the hard work or artists and storytellers who have spent years honing their craft.
However, all too often, they wind up butting heads as was the case with the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus story two days ago and, now, with this Facebook rant from a major band's tour manager.
A Little Background...
I am a 23-year-old photographer who moved to Chicago from Nigeria 6 years ago. I started photography about 3 years ago. After playing around with a DSLR in Target, I was hooked. I shoot mostly fashion photography, and female models. I have shot full frame since late 2011 with the 5D Mk2, then the D800 since November 2012.
The past year saw a mini-boom in musicians discouraging or outright prohibiting fans from taking photos at gigs, pitched mainly as a "pay attention to the music" measure. But now the trend is attracting a sort of venue where reckless flash photography would only seem to add to the experience: electronic dance clubs.
There have been several stories lately of musicians banning photography and asking fans to keep their cell phones in their pockets and enjoy the show. Most recently, Prince's "purple rules" had security guards at The City Winery in NYC snatching phones in mid-air and kicking people out.
The Unsound music festival taking a larger scale (though less aggressive) approach: festival organizers have banned photography and filming festival-wide, and are asking that festival attendees be the ones to do the enforcing.
I got a chance to photograph for Warped Tour this year, and wanted to share about my experiences and takeaways with you. I was actually quite lucky to get the job. It started off with an email to the media director of Warped Tour, followed by having to fill out this media request form. From there, I just had to wait a few days for them to verify everything, check out my portfolio, and get a confirmation email literally 12 hours before the show started.