Kegs4K9s

Some photos from a fundraiser event involving beer, dogs and music. All photos with the Sony a6000 and Sigma 19mm, Summicron 50mm and Elmarit 90mm lenses.

Taylor Swift/Foo Fighters Photo Contracts

There’s been quite a bit in the photo news lately about the contracts required by Taylor Swift and the Foo Fighters to be able to photograph their concerts, and how some papers have boycotted the shows while several used creative means (crowd-sourced photos from attendees, and one sent a cartoonist to draw the show) to get around them. But where is all this coming from? I posted the following comment at an article on Poynter, which I think defines the problem fairly accurately.

This is a chicken-and-egg story, and I’m going to use MTV to illustrate it.

Before MTV the channel began, and before the internet was what we see today, bands would make short promo films of their new singles to try and get publicity for their new albums and singles. This was something they did at their own expense (or the label’s) because they needed to do everything they could to get their songs onto rotation at radio stations. Then someone thought “let’s build a cable channel around all these videos.” And this was win-win because the new channel had all this great material and the artists and labels loved it because their videos were being delivered directly to the record-buying public, bypassing the radio moguls.

Until the artists and labels decided that MTV was making money off of them, and they should start charging MTV for using their videos. And they had a new alternative stream for their videos – YouTube and websites – and that’s why there are virtually no music videos on MTV today.

Once upon a time, artists wanted photographers at their concerts, they wanted as much exposure as they could get, and concert photography with slower films was not an easy thing. How many rock and roll stars owe a big piece of their careers to Rolling Stone, Circus, Creem and other rock mags, and to famous rock photographers like Jim Marshall? Think about those iconic images of Hendrix, Jagger, the Dead, and even stars that didn’t need the help, like Lennon and Dylan. What would have happened if access had been so restricted? What would have happened if Johnny Cash refused to allow Jim Marshall to use that photo of him flipping the bird at the camera?

But now these mega-stars think photographers are living off their fame, and they’re worried about “bad” photos of them showing up in the media. They totally forget that nobody buys a bad photo of an artist, that’s the kind of stuff that goes from cellphone to Instagram. The Post wants good photos of the artist looking good, because bad photos of someone looking bad won’t sell papers and will ruin their working relationship with other artists and with the venue. These artists totally forget how badly they needed media coverage when they were on the rise, except that maybe people like Swift and Beyonce were never “struggling artists,” they were always in the care of a label manufacturing their look and sound. So they and their management think that everyone is just living off them, when without the media, they would still be at home singing into a Mister Microphone.

Zip Code Tour

Saw the Rolling Stones at Ohio Stadium in Columbus on May 30, 2015. Had to borrow a compact camera since they weren’t permitting DSLRs. Other than sitting in the nosebleed seats, it was a pretty great show.

Opening video show led to Columbus.

Keith was on fire

…as was MIck at the beginning of Sympathy for the Devil

It was a helluva show!

Setlist:

Jumping Jack Flash
It’s Only Rock and Roll
Let’s Spend the Night Together
Tumbling Dice
Doom and Gloom
Bitch
Wild Horses
Hang on Sloopy (the Ohio state rock song, and a song from their early concerts. Look it up)
Paint It Black (Columbus fan pick)
Honky Tonk Woman
Band intros
Before They Make Me Run (Keith sang)
Happy (Keith sang)
Midnight Rambler
Miss You
Gimme Shelter
Start Me Up
Sympathy for the Devil
Brown Sugar
You Can’t Always Get What You Want
Satisfaction

 

Ian Anderson/Jethro Tull

Got to see Ian Anderson perform at the Clay Center in Charleston a few weeks back. Ian, the leader of the band more popularly known as Jethro Tull, has been touring in recent years under his own name. He puts on a great show, has some great new material, but also gave us a tour through the most popular Tull material of the past. And you can see that he can still play the flute on one leg!

I was a good boy and shot all these from my seat in the 14th row. D600 with 24-120/F4 Nikkor.

Ana Popovic

Blues artist Ana Popovic brought her smokin’ hot Stratocaster and her smokin’ legs to the Charlie West Blues Fest in Charleston WV Friday night.

Ana Popovic

 

Ana with a little slide action

 

See more photos in my Google+ album. If you get a chance to see Ana in concert, don’t hesitate!

 

WVYS Winter Concert

Troublesome cellist

Some big brass

Young violinist

WV Music Hall of Fame

From the 2008 West Virginia Music Hall of Fame induction rehearsal and ceremony.

Duct tape repair

Bob Thompson

Mark Davis

John Ellison

Catherine Russell

Ann Magnuson

Finale

Blues Traveler

From the Charleston Sternwheel Regatta final concert, Blues Traveler.

Blues Traveler guitarist Chandler Kinchla

Keyboardist Ben Wilson

John Popper

John Popper

Bassist Tad Kinchla

More photos at my Picasa album