Serving Size

I can’t believe it’s not better. Where the margarine is marginally different, and rarely does it positively affect the taste of your lesson. It’s a crock, for sure. But why?

I want your recognition. I want your accolades. I want to be acknowledged as being superior at what I do.

Sprinkles on an unearned dessert.

But it’s been pretty damn silent. Flavorless. I got exactly what I asked for a few years ago. Cup filled to the brim with silence. Nothing extra. Just basic, black silence. 

When the phone went silent, I doubled down on my own work. When I doubled down on my own work, I saw improvement. When I saw improvement, I wanted to see immediate recognition. Some shares for how amazing my work is. How witty the words I write are. Some messages in the ol’ DM’s about how good I am at what I do. 

The worst part, I haven’t heard anything like that in quite a while. If I’m being honest with myself, it must be because my work isn’t good. If the meal was good, I’d hear about it right? Or I have, but it’s not from the people I want to hear it from.

I just barely started the process of learning how to cook. How to apply heat appropriately. How important it is to pay attention to the ingredients. To control the uncontrollable by just letting the process happen. Trying to move everything around before it’s ready. To help fuse lessons and flavors together by just turning the burner on higher, thinking that will get me what I need makes me a short-order cook.

Not a chef.

Turns out, I was just putting things in the microwave and calling it a meal and then expecting everyone to partake, call it delicious and tell all their friends.

That’s not a real meal. It’s not real butter. It’s wet. Still cold in the middle. There’s nothing nutritional in that. It’s fake. It’s marginal margarine at best. I can’t sustain myself, my family, my friends and my body of work with fake food, fake heat.

Fake ingredients.

No proper application of heat. Seared on the outside but cold as hell at the core cause I rush.

I need sustenance.

I need to learn to live off the fat I’ve built up these last several years from being lazy and feeding off the assumption that the group of people I hung around with made me better. They didn’t. But I believed they did. Cause that’s how I got my recognition. That’s how I ate. I’m not even sure we were at the same table most times. All the same food, but looking around wondering why the meal on my plate was burnt, sloppy, cold, and wet.

They helped me see the ingredients, nothing more.

Still burning it. Still undercooking. Still adding too much when less would have been more. Still finding ways to fuck it up.

I make the dish.

The Key: Light

Lighting is the key to creating an image that captures the essence of the landscape and tells a story. Light is the primary tool used to convey mood and feeling in a photograph, and it is one of the most important elements of composition.

As Ansel Adams once said, "A great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed." When shooting in the great outdoors, you must be mindful of the natural light and how it affects the scene. Light can be used to add depth and dimension to your images, enhance the colors and details, and create mood and atmosphere.

One of the secrets to Ansel's success was his mastery of light, and his ability to manipulate it to achieve the desired effect. Whether working with natural light or using a tripod and his famous "zone system" to control exposure, Ansel was always in control of the light and how it impacted his images.

When thinking about lighting, Ansel often visualized the final image in his mind, and then worked to create that vision by manipulating the light and shadows. This approach allowed him to create stunning, dramatic images that have stood the test of time and remain popular to this day.

In short, lighting is a crucial aspect of photography and, like Ansel, you too must learn to master it in order to create stunning images that truly tell a story and evoke an emotional response from your viewers.

Man vs Wild

The electrifying energy of a concert is something that can only truly be experienced live, but as a concert photographer, it's your job to capture that energy and atmosphere in a single frame. It's a challenge unlike any other, but with the right tools and techniques, the results can be stunning.

The pulsating lights, the roar of the crowd, and the energy of the performers all come together to create a one-of-a-kind atmosphere that is both exhilarating and dynamic. In order to do it justice, you must be able to work quickly and confidently, capturing moments as they unfold. There’s not many things better than being in the pit trying to get the right image of your favorite artist while the subwoofers rattle your insides into a gelatin from the bass lines and relentless double-pedal foot fire that is the kick drum.

One of the biggest obstacles in concert photography is the low light conditions. Spotlights, smoke machines, and flashing lights can create a dramatic atmosphere, but also make it difficult to get a properly exposed image. That's why it's essential to have a fast lens, preferably something at f/2.8, which will allow more light to reach the camera's sensor, allowing you to capture well-exposed images in low light conditions.
Tack on a little bump from your ISO and you'll be able to get the shot even in the most challenging of lighting scenarios. Keep in mind though, size matters. Sensor size that is. The larger the sensor, the more you run the risk of there being noise in the image. Bump too high, and it’ll look like your trying to look at the adult channels on the TV with those rabbit-ear antennae your great-grandparents used to have.

Composition is also key in concert photography. You have to be able to stop the madness. By getting up close and personal to the action, you can see the raw emotions on the performer's face and capture the energy in their movements. The background is also important, but the artist is importanter so be mindful of any distracting elements and keep the focus on the performer.

In the end, concert photography is a thrilling and dynamic genre of photography that requires technical skill, creativity, and a bit of daring. With the right approach, you'll be able to capture the energy and atmosphere of the performance, and create images that truly do justice to the experience. So go ahead, get out there, and start capturing the magic of live music!