My First Professional (ish) Blog Post
Hands down, the thing I’m asked the most is how I got into concert photography, with a vague hint of ‘how in the hell were you so lucky’ hidden behind the question from time to time. And I totally get it, I still shake my head in disbelief when I’m up at the stage shooting a band I love, or when I get to go backstage/sidestage/on the tour bus/etc.., with musicians. It’s usually several days (of photo editing) before it kind of hits me that, holy &%$$, I just hung out with Five Finger Death Punch a few days ago – what WORLD is this?
I’ve actually been really fortunate in the ‘concert photography’ world in that I had just the right amount of “ooomph” behind me to get me going (right people, right time) and exactly the right amount of insanity to continue its growth from there. I’m 41 years old – I just started this line of work a little over 4 months ago! Prior to that, I hadn’t picked up a camera in a “professional’ sense since I was 19 years old working for Olan Mills Portrait Photo Studio.
At the young age of 19, I wasn't yet ready for portrait work. I decided to venture into the corporate world for the next 21 years. And it was about as interesting as I’ve made it sound here.
Last year I was sidelined by a low blood pressure condition that forced me out of corporate America until a better handle could be grasped around the condition, so I had to think pretty damned fast about what I was going to do with what was essentially 24-hour-doctor-mandated bedrest that A) could make me money and B) was legal.
I decided to hone in on my very basic graphic arts skills I’d learned on the job as a marketing specialist. Surely Photoshop couldn’t possibly be MUCH harder than what I’d learned, right? (Did you hear all the photographers laugh right there?)
Initially my plan was to freelance graphic design projects…. I designed some start up logos and business cards, helped small home-based businesses like myself brand themselves and get started in social media, but the more creative side of me was DYING to be set free, unchained by the “keep it simple” rules needed for things like logos. So for fun, I started creating designs around the bands I love. For me, this was a no-brainer – I’m a Motley Crue fan TO THE DEATH so I started with Crue. By this point we had moseyed on into 2014 and they’d announced their “Final Tour” so there was plenty to create, and being the Administrator for several pretty large Crue FB fanclub groups, I had plenty of people to share with.
One night, I photomanipulated Nikki Sixx (Motley Crue's bassist) into an already existing art piece (artist unknown but would love to know who) of a demon looking creature who had wings, so to really drive home the juxtaposition of the “good and evil” sides of Nikki Sixx I added some horns & a tail and I thought it really captured how so many (including myself) see Nikki. I tagged the photomanipulation design with my (then) OWL watermark and shared it with my Crue fanclub groups, thinking that the Sixx-heads like me would enjoy it. I had NO idea just how much.
The design went VIRAL. Hundreds turned into thousands of people insistant that it make its way into Nikki’s hands – I’m sure when it was all said & done he was probably like “ALRIGHT already, I’ll acknowledge it, STOP SENDING IT TO ME.” But – make its way to him it did, and he acknowledged it not only on his FB and Twitter, but also from SixxSense as well.
Now, first off, you must understand that, to me, Nikki Sixx is pretty much the equivalent of what the Pope is to Catholics…. I don’t have a crush on a rockstar when it comes to Mr. Sixx – I revere him and look up to him in more ways than I can even begin to list here, so when I got my first notice that Nikki had “liked” the design – I THOUGHT I’d have freaked out, jumped up & down, SOMETHING but – the complete opposite happened. I sat at my computer screen, completely and utterly dumbfounded at what I was looking at. As his “thanks” and tweets started out, my notifications on FB were OFF THE CHARTS to the point that I couldn’t have done anything if I were ABLE to (I wasn’t.) I sat there for HOURS watching all the likes & congrats & amazing words of kindness pour in from I don’t even know how many people, but it was staggering. I still don’t know if I’m completely over it and this was in March. (How does one ever get over their idol acknowledging their exisistence though, honestly…. he’s since liked several more things I’ve had floating around, and has instagrammed a tshirt I designed in his honor, he’s favorited tweets, etc.., and his record label follows me on Twitter as well & I still NEVER cease to be floored by any amount of acknowledgement from him whatsoever.
……………Stay tuned for Part 2 whereby I actually ANSWER how I got into concert photography this time!!!…………………….
