With only 5 days left of 2015 (well there were 5 days left when I started writing this...), I figured it was time to sit down and do some reflecting. I've seen a lot of photographers I follow do a 'top 10 photos blog' post, so I'm going to follow suit because I like the idea. Things/photos get lost with doing so many shows, I forget about the ones I did months ago- so doing this will make me look through all the shows I got to shoot.
If you told me two years ago when I started college, or even a year ago, how things were for me I probably wouldn't have believed it. This year has been crazy, and a lot of fun. I started doing social media for one of the radio stations I work for, I got to shoot three days of Warped Tour, I went on tour with a band, and I ran into some major camera problems. I'm trying to figure out what I want to do with school and trying to map out the next steps I'm going to take with photography.
With that being said, enough talking. Here's some photos.
#10
Admittedly, sometimes I go to concerts without fully knowing who all the bands on the line up are, which is what happened when I went to the Lights show with X Ambassadors. Sam Harris puts on a good show and I fell in love with them after seeing them live. They put out their debut album VHS later on in the year, and I may or may not have jammed it on repeat for a while.
#9
Opener bands, in all honesty, don't usually take me by as much surprise as Finish Ticket did on the Blurryface tour with twenty one pilots. Finish Ticket have also posted a couple of my photos so I take that as a compliment. Anyways, I really like capturing photos where you can see the emotion in the artist's face.
#8
So throughout this I'm going to mention tour a few times, bear with me please. Everyone that was out was amazing and it was cool to see how it all really works. I snagged this photo of Phoebe Ryan, one of the American Love tour support bands, the night I got a 5d Mark iii for a rental, the beginning of my camera nightmare. If I remember correctly we were in Philadelphia.
#7
Chvrches was my first show I shot after being back from tour. I brought some friends with me and had a blast at the show and it was a good homecoming. Their lighting set up was incredible, as you can see. The power stance Lauren Mayberry has here, as she first came out on stage, sums up her whole being.
#6
Senses Fail is one of my favorite bands to shoot. Buddy is energetic and crazy on stage. They were a favorite to shoot on Warped Tour, too. But I chose this one over pictures from Warped because of the closeness and intenseness? Intensity? Who knows. I just really like it.
#5
This picture of Sydney Sierota, of Echosmith, from a sold out show at the Social in the beginning of 2015 started my year off strong. I love love love crowd shots and I don't take enough of them. I love the hands in this one, I don't know, I just love it.
#4
New Politics are amazing live performers. Every time I've seen them there is never a dull moment. David, the lead singer, breakdances on stage and does handstands and flips and it's a blast to photograph. When he crowd-surfed, he dove into the crowd after saying "Whose arms am I falling into?" and down he went into a sea of screaming girls. I was on the balcony at House of Blues for the perfect over head shot of it. This was also my last show of 2015.
#3
Twenty One Pilots have skyrocketed this year- and for good reasons. Their live performance is AMAZING. Which I'm not just saying because I jammed their album 'Blurryface' on repeat when it came out. I saw them for the second time this year and the atmosphere and the crowd's energy made it one of the best shows I went to all year. I got to snap a quick picture during meet and greet before the show, too, which was exciting.
#2
Warped Tour is a crazy mess. I got access to shoot the St. Pete and Orlando show kind of last minute, and I ended up doing Jacksonville last minute. It was my first time shooting Warped, let alone even going to it. I had a blast and was with great friends. We mini-road tripped it through Florida to go to the separate dates and we got rained on, a lot. Anyways, this is one of my favorite photos of one of my favorite bands I ended up shooting every day I was out.
#1
This picture of Smallpools was taken at The Social in Orlando. This is my favorite photo of this year. It's the photo I posted after the show and somehow, miraculously, my ticket to tour. It was a whirlwind and if you know me, you've probably heard me talking about being on tour. One of my goals is to be a tour photographer, and this fall I went on with Smallpools for a couple weeks on their American Love tour as their photographer and got to travel with them and it set in stone that touring is something I want to pursue.
Honorable mentions:
Ready to see what 2016 brings.