Days 4 and 5 have been very relaxed and spent in and around Reykjavik. There were a few things, like the cat cafe, Phallological museum and Nautholsvik (geothermal beach) around town we wanted to visit.
Iceland (pt 3)
CommentIceland (pt 2)
1 CommentToday we decided to venture out to the Golden Circle, which is a route between multiple stopping points - Þingvellir national park, Gullfoss falls and a geyser geothermal area. It was a little under 2 hours of a drive from our airbnb right outside of downtown Reykjavik and the scenery the whole time is ever-changing between mountains, little towns and rocky flatlands.
Iceland (pt 1)
2 CommentsWow, the time is finally here! I'm in Iceland and we've (we being boyfriend Chris and I) navigated smoothly from the airport which included picking up the car rental and finding our Airbnb. We took off from Tampa on Tuesday, landed in Cincinnati around 6PM where we camped out in the airport until our flight to Iceland took off at 1AM.
How I Prepare to Travel Internationally
CommentAnother way you can find out in real time what life is like where you're going is by using Snapchat! If you pinch your fingers on the opening camera screen in the app, it takes you to the Map. You can watch stories from all around the world - so scroll to your destination, look for the blue glowing circles that indicate there is something there to watch, and voila! Real time, real people, real life footage of the area.
Italy
2 CommentsNew Orleans
1 CommentGirl's trip to New Orleans, April 2017.
From Jackson Square to Bourbon Street, from beads covering the trees, talented musicians and street performers and wild drunks, New Orleans is a unique city.
Cemetery tour.
Due to being below sea level and flooding issues - New Orleans houses their dead in above ground tombs.
Chicago
1 CommentTop 10 Photos of 2016
Comment2016 has had it's ups and downs- it was kind of slow for me photography wise. I left Orlando and moved back to the Tampa area, am taking a break from school, started a new job and in the midst of all that I was down for the count for a while before my move from knee problems. However, I still caught some rad shows and have picked out some of my favorites from this year. Check it.
1. We The Kings
I remember listening to Check Yes, Juliet on repeat back in middle school. Who doesn't? Anyways, photographing this show was a definite throwback and that made it really fun. We The Kings were going on Warped Tour after this tour and they made it on MTV's list of bands to watch- featuring this photo. To see my photo in an article that featured so many other photographers that I look up to was really cool. I had a few photographer friends of mine reach out and send me the link to show me, which is how I found out about it, and that was awesome and it might sound lame but I love when everyone in the field can come together to support each other and congratulate each other because we are all working towards the same goal and it can get hard sometimes. Regardless, this is my #1 photo.
2. LANY
I found LANY via Spotify (which shout out, Spotify is my favorite thing ever to exist) and they've grown to become one of my favorite bands. If you don't know who they are- look them up. This was one of the first shows I show since moving to Tampa and it felt SO GOOD to be at a concert again. A lot of the venues here don't have barricades and shooting from the crowd can be difficult when everyone is taller than you and/or everyone is holding their phones up but still, having the crowd presence in the photos is neat to me (sometimes) because they're such a big part of the show.
3. Motion City Soundtrack
I got to shoot Motion City Soundtrack's farewell show- a band who I've listened to for years, that I found back in the MySpace era. They're whacky and golden. This was my first show I did after having all my knee problems and after my move it gave me an excuse to go back to Orlando. I had a blast shooting this show and seeing the band. Sad to see them go, but their music will always be around.
4. Melanie Martinez
I almost missed out on this show- it had been rescheduled and I requested press for it super last minute but somehow managed to pull it off. Melanie is amazing, simply put. Her stage set up is crazy. Her performance is eerie and dark and brilliant and the crowd is singing along to every word.
5. Foals
The Ritz in Ybor is one of the coolest venues- the ceiling is super pretty and the way it reflects the lights is amazing. Anyways. Foals show was weird, in the best way. It's standard for photographers to get to shoot the first three songs from the photo pit, but for this show it was the last three. So it was a long show but we were all so ready to get into the pit and Yannis was super interactive, jumping into the crowd and standing on the barricade to sing to the fans.
6. Never Shout Never
Yet another throwback show I got to shoot. I was 15 and was begging my parents to let me go to a Never Shout Never concert- which ended up happening and my sister had to take me and had to chaperone me and my group of friends. I saw them on Warped Tour last year, too, so it was just fun to see them live once again.
7. Knuckle Puck
Honestly, Knuckle Puck ranks high on 'Sam's favorite bands to shoot' list. Their set is so high energy and the crowd is always into it. It's cool to see bands continue to grow and live out their dreams. When this tour got announced (The Wonder Years, Real Friends, Knuckle Puck, Moose Blood and Seaway) I was super excited to photogrpah it.
8. Say Anything
Max Bemis. Where to start? I'm a huge fan of artist/crowd interaction because again, the fans make the show. And fans love a Say Anything show. Talk about a high energy show- I don't think Max stops moving at any point. I love watching/listening to Say Anything live.
9. The Used
This is more in appreciation for my wide angle lens. But also, the look on Bert McCracken's face says it all. The Used did a tour this year where they did two nights in every city, playing a different album each night. They had mannequins on stage and a big, beautiful backdrop.
10. Fitz and the Tantrums
Last but not least, Fitz and The Tantrums are AMAZING live. Hands down one of my favorite live acts. Also, another wide angle lens shot appreciation post. I've seen them live one other time in Orlando when I was working with the alternative radio station- and I was really looking forward to this show. Fitz and Noelle have such an awesome stage presence/chemistry and they know how to put on a show.
Here's to 2017, bring it.
Pulse Terror Attack Candlelight Vigil in Downtown Orlando
CommentBy now, mostly everyone is aware of the Pulse terror attack that claimed 49 innocent lives and touched an uncountable number of family and friends. You hear about these things happening in other states or in other countries, but when it happens in your city, 20 minutes from your house, in an area you frequent with your friends on the weekends, it hits home a little harder.
It's been inspiring seeing our city come together, and to see multiple other cities and even countries come together and ask what can be done to help.
UCF Fashion Society Studio Shoot
CommentLast weekend I got the chance to work with UCF Fashion Society models in a studio setting and I love how the pictures came out. I'm slowly starting to work with models more and expand out of concert photography (still focusing on concerts though) and have a well-rounded portfolio to offer.
Anyways, here are some of my favorites from the shoot!
UCF Fashion Society Shoot
Comment+ UCF Arboretum / December 2015
I recently got involved with the UCF Fashion Society models thanks to my roommate Kelcey. We did a shoot with some of the models on campus at UCF in the arboretum; it was one of my first times working with models and posing so it was a fun shoot.
Here's some photos:
A Look Back on 2015
2 CommentsWith 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.
Three days left
CommentI have three days left out on the road with Smallpools. I'm having a blast. I'm writing from the green room in House of Blues Chicago waiting for the crew to start load-in, which should be anytime now. I'm excited to be in Chicago. Tomorrow we hit Iowa, which will be my last show day with the band.
We went from Philadelphia to Washington DC to Boston and had two show days in Michigan, Grand Rapids and Detroit.
Last night in Detroit there was a cool wall that I took advantage of. The venue where we were at is where Eminem started and where the film 8 Mile was based on, so that was neat.
Michael Kamerman / Smallpools
Shout out to the security guard @squared313 who wanted a photo.
I've been taking photos of Phoebe Ryan's set and trying to make as many connections as I can while I'm out here.
Phoebe Ryan / Detroit
Sean Scanlon / Grand Rapids, MI
Pre show high-five
That's all for now!
Update from the road
2 CommentsNYC was awesome. We got to NYC and I got a chance to walk around a little bit and I fell in love. The weather was so nice and such a nice change from Florida's constant state of hot. The show was at Webster Hall and the venue is huge and has three show rooms. I was going around like usual taking photos of all the pre-show shenanigans- like the painting of the inflatable whales thrown out during "Killer Whales."
Then it started. During the first set, Machineheart, I noticed my camera starting to mess up. Something wasn't right and I went up to the dressing room to look at it, didn't see what was wrong, and went back down and then my camera shut off and gave me an error message and no matter what I did I got an error message. Yikes.
The show was a CMJ showcase and Joe Jonas' new band DNCE was an opener for Smallpools, and I managed to snap a couple pictures of their set before my camera died.
Nothing I could do made anything any better. I was searching Google and asking the tour videographer and we couldn't figure anything out. So I just watched the show since there was nothing I could do. The next day we were going to Philadelphia so I searched some places where I could rent a camera from and found a place that would let me ship it back to them from wherever I would be coming up. So I rented a 5D Mark iii (suuuuper nice camera btw) and I have that for the next 3 days and then I'm getting a 70D (what I usually shoot with) shipped to the Michigan venue where I will be at. So I was covered for the show in Philadelphia, which was a good show and a cool venue.
Sean Scanlon // Smallpools
About to go on stage at the Trocadero theatre
I think I was just happy/relieved about having my camera situation figured out for the time being.
Sidenote: the two openers on this tour, Phoebe Ryan and Machineheart, are worth checking out.
Phoebe Ryan
Stevie Scott // Machineheart
So after running around Philadelphia figuring out my camera issue, the show was awesome and now we are in DC on an off day and tomorrow is the show in DC. Then we head to Boston and Grand Rapids, Michigan with an off day in Buffalo in between. Things are going smoothly again. I have 10 more days out on the road and I'm looking forward to Chicago's date and tomorrow's Washington DC's show.
Tour update from Durham, NC
CommentI'm writing from a hotel room rented for the day while we are on an off-day in Durham, North Carolina. The band and some crew members flew to NY for an extra show, and the rest of us got an off day and are meeting them in NY for tomorrow's show at Webster Hall. We're all pretty excited about hitting the bigger market shows and are looking forward to the next few days. So far I've been with them for their shows in Carrboro, NC and Athens, GA. Travelling on the bus has been good and even though there's 13 of us, it hasn't gotten too crazy.
Show days are fun. We all wake up, do our thing in the morning- usually scoping out the nearest place we can get coffee- and gather for load-in, I take pictures of the crew doing their thing, and then sound check happens, more photos, then back stage hangs/getting ready, more photos, and the show time, more photos, and then after show/load out/meet fans, more photos. I find time to edit photos and get them out after sound check and after the shows. Finding good internet is the struggle (it's taking about a million years to get these photos for this post uploaded).
Crew load-in / Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, NC.
Sound check / Cat's Cradle, NC
Show / Cat's Cradle, NC
Then we were in Athens, GA and the venue, 40 Watt Club, was decorated for Halloween. Athens is college town and it really is a neat little place.
Beau Kuther / drums / hanging out
Show / 40 Watt Club, Athens GA
Meeting fans after the show // 40 Watt Club
After hitting New York, Boston, Philadelphia, DC and Chicago I will have some awesome content. Stay tuned.
For those of you who don't know the band I'm traveling with- here.
I'm going on tour
CommentThis is so crazy! The last 12 hours have been unreal. I shot a show at The Social in downtown Orlando last night for a band called Smallpools, and I posted a few photos after the show like I regularly do. I got an email from their manager and he had seen my pictures and was asking me if I was interested in touring- which hello yes, I am. So I replied and we had a few back and forth conversations and I met up with them in St Pete during their show here tonight, dropped my car with my sister, and now here I am at 2:30am about to get in my bunk on the tour bus. Tomorrow is an off day and we will be in Georgia! I am super excited and I am super nervous, I don't know what to expect except to have a blast and take lots of photos. This is my first tour and I've never worked one-on-one with a band, let alone bunk with them! The guys all seem super nice and I'm super stoked about this run.
I literally confirmed with the tour manager I was able to go (I am taking online classes I'll still be able to do assignments for and my work thankfully is flexible and my boss is super encouraging with all that I do so that is being taken care of) packed my bag and left. I'm on with them for a little over two weeks, hitting places like Chicago, Boston, New York and Washington DC along the way. I've met everybody there is to meet so far and I'm excited to see what tomorrow will bring. I'm going to try to blog and share pictures as much as possible!
I'm about to head to my bunk and Netflix it up- I've been warned I probably won't sleep much tonight and it'll be super weird being in motion and sleeping. So let's see how this goes!
Ongoings
CommentSo I've decided to take a few minutes and talk about what's going on in my life right now.
First off, a picture I posted of the opener band Radkey for Rise Against, gained some attention. A guy working for Radkey's record label in the UK stumbled upon it on my Instagram and reached out to me via email, asking to see more pictures from the show and furthermore saying they were interested in using the photo in a promotion they're doing with Gibson Guitars. I asked to be notified when they go up, so I hope to be seeing the content soon!
And then, my manager at the radio station called me and told me there was a guy who runs a type of events magazine in Orlando and they wanted to use some of the Fitz and The Tantrums pictures I took of the show. So, I'm being published in a magazine! One of my goals is to work with a magazine at some point. So it's pretty cool for me to be getting this opportunity and to see my work being published.
The pictures I'm posting below are the ones I sent in from the show.
Anddddd that's it for super cool stuff as of now. I'm shooting a lot of concerts and I'm still learning a lot as I go and meeting other awesome photographers. Let's see what else is in store!
Twenty One Pilots: Quiet is Violent tour
Comment4 Comments
I've been wanting to post a new blog update for a while now but keep getting sidetracked or I don't know what to write. I am in the process of being officially hired for a radio station, which is awesome because I've found a job that I can enjoy and do what I like doing (photographing music) and so that's something new that's going on. I'm shooting Fitz & The Tantrums tomorrow night, which I'm looking forward to because it's almost been a month since I've actually shot a concert. I was at K92.3's All Star Jam in the beginning of August, which was a huge country concert, and that was awesome, but besides that I haven't been at any concerts. There are so many concerts coming through Orlando within the next three months that I realllllly want to shoot/see so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can get approved for most of them. This is just me rambling so I can look back in a while and see what I was up to, as weird as that sounds.
I'll post some stuff I've done through the radio station.
Tove Lo signing a guitar at her Q&A with x107.3 Orlando.
Dirty Heads performing in x107.3's Green Room
Big and Rich at K92.3's All Star Jam.