In my effort to make this the best photography blog on the web I wanted to share some upcoming topics with everyone. Each month I sit down and develop an editorial calendar and starting in March I will publish what’s on tap for this site at the beginning of the month.

NEW Series – Photographer Interview Series: Each month I email five questions to various photographers. These photographers will be of all different skill level and acclaim – ranging from the published professional photographer to the amateur hobbyist. My questions will differ from person to person but all questions will be photography based. I am happy to announce that this week we will kick the series off with one of my all time favorite photographers – J. Grant Brittain. Grant is one of the most acclaimed skateboard photographers in the world. If you have ever picked up a skateboard magazine chances are Grant’s work has been in the forefront. (He discusses one of my favorite photos – it’s very cool.)

FOCUS Video Series: FOCUS is a web series where photographers are interviewed and given the opportunity to discuss some of their signature photographs. In March’s webisode of FOCUS a photo of Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers from 12/31/09 will be highlighted. This series to open to anyone who would like to be featured regarding a significant piece of work. If you would like to featured on FOCUS please send an email to: grt2@grtaylor2.com (Webisode #1) (Webisode #2)

Concert Photography 101: What it takes to take great concert photos. We discuss camera settings, equipment, lighting, gaining access and everything else related to concert photography. Here is a review of the first three installments (click here)

What else is happening? March is a busy month of music for me. I am scheduled to shoot Mike Watt, Flogging Molly, Hank III and Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers. I will post photos and reviews of each concert. Also, pay attention for a Call For Submissions for music photographs for a very special non-profit project I am working on (I can’t say anything else about it yet since the details are being finalized.)

Lastly, I appreciate everyone reading. February was a record month for www.grtaylor2.com and I want to thank everyone who commented, tweeted, re-tweeted posts and recommended this blog to anyone. If there are specific topics you want to discuss please leave a comment and I will address the topic soon there after. Keep shooting photos everyone…

There are moments when I am shooting photos that I lose track of  my surroundings. Let me clarify, sometimes I am so engaged with my photo subject that I don’t realize who or what is around me at that moment. A couple of weeks ago my brother Kevin came to town. Just like every other visitor Kev came to Arizona with a list of things that he wanted to do and see but I didn’t expect landscape photo shoots to be one of them.

Kevin and I took to the road and headed to the Four Peaks Mountains and a couple days later Kevin, Kristina and myself went to Sedona. Two great locations in Arizona for landscape photography.

After our photo trips back at the house in Tempe we sat down to compare images. Kevin surprised me with a couple of magnificent photos of me taking what I consider key landscape photographs for my portfolio. How cool is that! Now I have photographs of me taking some of my favorite photos.

Check out more of Kevin’s photos on his Flickr page by clicking here – Thanks Kevin it was great having you visit and it was a lot of fun shooting photos with you.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Webisode TWO of my FOCUS series. This webisode highlights a self portrait I took at Papago Park in Phoenix, AZ.

If you have a photo that you would like featured on FOCUS please contact me a via Email

To view my complete photography portfolio please visit www.grtaylor2photo.com

G. Love & Special Sauce brought their A-Game to The Marquee Theater in Tempe last night. Their set of laid back funky blues with the hip-hop flow kept the crowd dancing all night.

G. looked like he was having a great time and gave a shout out to our Phoenix Suns (the band attended the Suns vs. Blazers game the previous evening) before breaking into “Shooting Hoops”. (Click for a video of G. Love’s “Shooting Hoops” Video)

As a photographer this was not a difficult shoot. During my allotted three song limit G.  stayed seated with some decent lighting. The stage was back light in reds and blues (I hate red stage lights) with a spotlight that shined intermittently on him. For most of the shoot I stayed with the settings of f.2.8 – 4.0 at 1/60 with my ISO set at 800. (See my previous Concert Photography 101 Post for general settings.)

It was another night when as concert photographer you need to expect the unexpected. G. Love’s publicist left me off the guest list and I had to rely on the emails I had on my iPhone to make the tour manager (who was super cool and professional) feel comfortable in giving me the proper credentials.

All in all great show, G. Love’s tour management were extremely professional and the I was stoked to have had the opportunity to photograph the show.

(SIDE Note: If you are standing in the front row at the rail and I am getting ready to shoot photos in the pit, please feel free to ask me any photography related questions BUT I will not give you my camera so you can take a picture of me at the show. I know that I am there and my work will document me being there. Believe it or not I am asked that at every concert I photograph.)

Let me clarify…how do you get your photos viewed? Do you care about it?

I take photographs because I like capturing an image or moments. I’ve never been concerned about art for commercial sake but I do like people viewing my work. I’ve never had an exhibit (though I do have one planned) and I’ve never been in any photography shows but I have had my photos seen by the public. How? Through the use of Social Media.

I am a bit of a Social Media nerd…there I said it. Through various Social Media efforts I have had people whom I admire and respect view, critique, hate and/or compliment my work. I post photos to Flickr, tweet about them and I have my Flickr stream automatically update my personal Facebook page. To me as someone who is making a name for myself these are very powerful tools.

I guess I could have taken a more conventional route – I could have called a curator for photo exhibits and submitted my work. But why? The power of social media allows me to interact with people who in many cases I don’t even know their real name – but  value their feedback. Social Media has allowed me to “push” out my photographs to people in my virtual network and have them tell their circles about my work. Real people and many times to people I haven’t even met. The power of Social Media is amazing when put to proper use...

My Question To You…

Is Social Media an important tool for you to get your work seen? Do you care if no one ever sees your work? Is this a topic worth exploring here – Social Media and The Photographer?

To view my complete photography portfolio please visit www.grtaylor2photo.com

I bet whatever skill level a photographer you consider yourself you probably didn’t start there. Right? How did you get to your level?

I am the first person to critique myself as a photographer and say that I am not the most technical. I studied marketing in college and not photography/fine art. My photo education has been one of taking pictures, asking for critique and trial and error. After that took me to an artistic plateau I needed something else – I wanted to get better. I wanted people to view my photos and consider them art rather than snapshots. (Every day I set out to take photos I keep that thought in mind – “Make ART!”)

The next level of growth happened when I started asking other photographers questions and started collaborating.

I learned to place high value on collaboration over competition in art and photography. It’s how I’ve been able to grow as a photographer and acquire new skills. Here are three ways I like to collaborate with other photographers:

PHOTO WALKS: Go out and make some photographs other people. Talk about what you see – discuss settings, technique, composition and anything else. Watch how the other photographers work and periodically view their images. (Just yesterday I went on a photo journey to Four Peaks with my brother. We talked about photography and whatever else came to mind.) Scott Kelby has initiated an annual photo walk which takes place in cities all ove the country – this is a great place to start.

DIGITAL PHOTO FORUMS: I subscribe to many photo blogs and photo newsletters. This is a great place to see what other photographers are doing and to hear about their photo adventures etc. My favorite website is Digital Photography School. DPS is broken into three sections – Tips & Tutorials, Cameras & Equipment and Post Production. I value this site as an important resource to interact with other photogs through comments and get critique of my work.

PHOTO PROPERTIES & EXIF SETTINGS: This is a great way to learn about making photographs. EXIF is a technical standard for storing information about each photo that you take with your digital camera. EXIF information is automatically captured in each photo file when you take each picture, and includes the date and time the photo was taken, the manufacturer and model name of the camera taking the picture, as well as a plethora of other useful information about your camera’s aperture setting, shutter speed, focal length, metering mode, and ISO speed. One of the brilliant things about FLICKR (and other photosharing sites) is that you can make your EXIF data public. (Click here to see the settings for the above photo.) Whenever I see a photo I really like I always see if the EXIF data is available. This level of transparency is a huge help to others and it’s why I share the data of every photo I post to Flickr.

This is just a short list of three ways to learn from other photographers. There are so many more ways but these three are the ones that helped me grow as a photographer and take things to the next level. When you help someone grow only good can come out of it.

How did you learn your photography skills? Do you have any favorite ways to collaborate with other photographers? How do you feel about transparency? Please leave a comment and let’s get a dialogue going. Thanks for reading.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Today marks the 51st anniversary of the plane crash that took Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and JP Richardson (The Big Bopper) from the world – thus taking their future records from everyone. (See video clip for historic facts.)

Would they have gone on to make even greater music? I don’t know. I do know their influence has been heard on tons of records and in lots of bands. (Fact: The Beatles got their name from the Crickets, The Rolling Stones first hit was a cover of Holly’s “Not Fade Away” and I don’t think the Elvis era would have sounded the same had it not been for Holly.)

There’s no hiding my love for music. My love for music and photography evolved into a passion for concert photography and I have been fortunate to photograph some great bands. I can’t help but think – What would the music of the bands I photograph sound like without the many artists that preceded them.

Today may have been dubbed “The Day The Music Died” but the spirit of their music will always live as long as someone is strumming a guitar and belting out vocals.

What music has had the biggest influence on your life? Either as a photographer or any aspect of life. (The Replacements, RCPM, Grateful Dead and Springsteen are just some of the bands that have shaped the soundtrack of my life.)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Webisode ONE of my FOCUS series. This webisode highlights a photograph I took of Kristina while I was attempting to recreate Ansel Adams’ famous Snake River Overlook photo.

If you have a photo that you would like featured on FOCUS please contact me a via Email

To view my complete photography portfolio please visit www.grtaylor2photo.com

Here is a list of my 10 favorite bands to photograph and a couple of words in summary…

10. Mickey Avalon: Unpredictable on stage (photo)
9. Crowfield: New band to me & great music (photo)
8. Black Carl: Emma’s vocals (photo)
7. Death By Stereo: Hardcore from the crowd (photo)
6. Rusted Root: Great vibe (photo)
5. Agnostic Front: NYHC Legends (photo)
4. What Laura Says: Great on stage (photo)
3. Cage The Elephant: Next generation punk rockers (photo)
2. Rev. Horton Heat: Perfect lighting (photo)
1. Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers: Always a challenge – Great stage presence (photo)

I am proud of my list’s diversity. Each show was a very different experience which is why they stand out in my mind.

What bands do you like to see live? Have you ever photographed their concerts? As always, we want to hear from you. Leave a comment and if you shot photos of the show add a link to share them.

To view my complete photography portfolio please visit www.grtaylor2photo.com

Taking great photos at concerts has everything to do with knowing how to use the proper settings on your camera. I don’t care if you are shooting with a $750 camera or a $7,500 camera. If you don’t know how to use it under specific concert circumstances – you will not get the shot.

Before the show there are a couple of things I think about. Have I ever seen a show at this venue before? What access restrictions do I have? Is there a photo pit? These questions all lead up to the final question: What is the lighting like at the venue?

Light dictates all of my decisions regarding camera settings.

ISO: The simplest definition of ISO is the measure of film’s sensitivity to light. In digital photography ISO measures the digital sensor’s sensitivity to light. (For a complete explantion: click here)

I set my ISO to the lowest available setting that produces a properly lit image. I don’t like to shoot at ISO 1600+ because of the noise or extra grain in the photo. With that being said – there are situations where it can not be avoided.

How Do I Know What ISO Setting Is Right? There are two ways to quickly determine ISO settings – Test shots or live view. Use your camera’s live view mode to see when you need to push (increase) the sensor’s speed. Live view is helpful to confirm settings before and during all my concert shoots.

Shutter Speed and Lens Aperture: As I mentioned in my previous Concert Photography 101 post, before I was comfortable shooting in manual mode I relied on TV (or shutter priority mode.)

Why? For most venues I tend to max out my lens’ aperture at 1.8 or 2.8 – so there is very little thinking about aperture. When shooting in shutter priority the aperture is automatically adjusted by the internal light meter (we’ll get into metering in the next post) as I alter the shutter speed. Again use your camera’s live view function to preview the photograph. It’s typical for me to change shutter speeds as the stage lights change. Often I go from 1/125 to 1/45 during one or two songs.

These three things (ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speeds) are the simplest way to get on the right path to taking good concert photos. I suggest you practice at your house and get a feel for how your camera reacts to different light. A good experiment is to turn on all the lights in a room – take a couple of photos with different settings. Do the same with medium and dim light. Review the photos and document the settings. Why would you wait until the night of the event to experiment?

If you visit my Flickr gallery you can view my camera settings for every photo posted – take advantage of this information and get a feel for what settings you’ll need at the next show.

As always, I want to know how you do things – leave a comment and share some of your knowledge with everyone.