A little backstory

As a young amateur photographer, I was eager to find a way, any possible way, to somehow make photography a career. I really, really... like REALLY love taking photos even now, but I used to be straight up obsessed. I would habitually scan Craigslist ads, I would go out every day doing some kind of photography, I would talk about it with friends and force them to be my photo subjects, I would obsessively work on photos for hours, I spent many of my nights (when I should have been sleeping) googling photography techniques and watching my heroes youtube tutorials. It was a true obsession.

Then one day I found this ad looking for concert photographers for a local music blog. I'd never managed to actually photograph a concert before but I had taken some music related photos, so I sent a few of my favorite shots in to the ad poster. Turns out he liked my work even though I had no concert experience and he let me know I had made the cut! It wasn't a job per se, what I mean is that I wouldn't get paid, but I got to go to concerts for free, and I got to legitimately photograph the bands, which was even better. I can't even describe to you how excited I was that someone had just told me I could go out and take photos for them, for zero compensation... in fact it usually ended up costing me something, I'm chuckling to myself now just thinking about it.

Let's fast forward a bit

Jumping ahead about 8 months, (get it? jumping?? cause of the obligatory concert photo to break up the huge wall of text??? hahahahaha), and I'm no longer a rookie. I know the venues, I'm getting better with capturing good moments, it's not the insane adrenaline rush it used to be, and now I'm starting to get some really solid photos. I had read an article that David Hobby (aka The Strobist) had published talking about personal projects, and a photographer who would take 1 second exposures during concerts. The series was called "1 Second with (insert band name here)" and I couldn't help but think what a rad concept that was.

I had been trying to get myself out of a creative funk so I was looking to try and make a personal project for myself. The only problem was that everything I tried felt so contrived and bogus that it made me want to simultaneously puke and punch myself in the face. I was in a crisis. I was convinced I was a hack, that I had no talent, that any tiny amount of creativity I may have really had was already burned up and that this was the end. What a loser.

Then one night shooting a concert this idea popped into my head: "I bet a double exposure would look super cool with this set up, maybe that could be a cool project!" * cough * (totally contrived) * cough * I had gotten all the shots I needed at this point anyhow, why not try some experimenting? So I set my camera to double exposure, and took a few shots.

"Yeah, not bad I guess, kinda cool... sorta... meh"

Didn't work, gave up on it, I'm a hack.

Then something awesome happened.

I looked back towards the audience and noticed that the light on the crowd actually looked kinda cool. I can never pass up taking a shot in great light so I lifted up my camera, focused, clicked, and the image that came up on my screen threw me back a little. It was this one:

"Wow.. what the heck??"

Turns out I had forgotten to turn my camera off of double exposure mode. I had taken a shot of the bands lead singer, then I noticed the light on the audience, and I took that photo on top of the first.

As I looked at the image on my screen a thought popped into my head: "That's kinda cool, it shows the band and the audience in one photo." The more I thought about it, the more I started to like the idea, so I went ahead and snapped a few more.

My project is born

I really liked those photos that I had captured, but what I liked even more was the idea behind them, the idea that it was a shot of the artist playing, and the audience they were playing to. I had finally found my project, something that was unique (I have still never seen any other shots like these), not contrived (at least I felt that it wasn't) and something I could continually work on.

The next few concerts I shot I was so stoked about, I got my shots for the blog then played around getting some double exposures with the audience. I loved it, it was a lot of fun to do and it was interesting. I was getting excited again, I felt my creativity coming back. Here are a few of my favorites that I took during that time.

Then life happened

I really enjoyed working on this project while I did, but unfortunately just as I was breathing life into it, it kinda faded away. Life was getting busy at that point. I had a wife now, and work was more important than free concerts, even though we usually went together (I was almost always able to get a plus 1, hehehe) On top of that the owner of the blog wasn't nearly as active anymore, the blog was taking a lot out of him and he had to step back from it for a bit. Still I think I was able to get a few cool shots during that time.

I really wish I had an opportunity to work on this project as much as I had always wanted, but hey, that's the way the cookie crumbles right? I really can't complain, I went from amateur nobody, to unpaid concert photographer, to professional full time paid wedding photographer in the span of about a year, so I'd say all in all it has worked out.

I still look for personal projects all the time, and have even found one with my work as a wedding photographer that I have worked quite a lot on, (it was actually my previous post here) but I still feel like The Artist and the Audience was my favorite personal project I have ever done, and to this day that first image is the desktop wallpaper on my monitor.

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As always thank you so much for reading. If you like the post, or the photos, or both, toss me a little up vote, I really loves me some up votes! And be sure to follow me @dexter-k for more original posts all the time.

Dexter