Click here to view the embedded video.

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.

The last time I’ve been this hyped on a new band was when someone gave me a copy of Is This It - by The Strokes. We Were Promised Jetpacks, from Edinburgh, Scotland came to Phoenix, AZ on tour to support their album These Four Walls and killed it. Four guys with a indie sound and indie spirit that played their asses off for the sold out crowd at The Rhythm Room.

The Rhythm Room is a great old Phoenix Club that has hosted some legendary shows over the years. Since it is such a small venue taking photographs is a challenge. The lights are dim and there is not much of a spotlight during the sets. Another challenge is that when the club is at capacity moving around to get a good spot for photos is tough. The crowd stands up against the stage and there is no real photography access. Luckily last night the crowd was mellow enough that I could politely ask people to move for a minute and they were happy to oblige. In hindsight the tough shows to photograph are always the most rewarding and I am happy I had the chance to shoot ‘Jetpacks in such a small venue.

Most of the show was photographed  at ISO 800 with my 24-70 f2.8 lens at about 1/60 (with no flash.)

What new music are you hyped on? What was your toughest music photo shoot?

As previously posted I am committed to a Photo 365 project (link to past video post.) Many people have been posting their photos daily, so I thought it’s time I posted how my project is going.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Photo 365 Obeservations

- I am really uncomfortable in front of the camera and I am trying to make myself relax
- Most photos are taken at the same time every day – early morning. I think it’s funny I am not wearing a wider variety of clothes
- I have a good side. One of my eyes reacts strangely to light and is photographed as being lazy
- I need to shave and get haircuts more often

Other Photo 365 Notes

- Daily self portraits are not as easy as I thought it would be. There are times when I just don’t feel like taking my photograph
- I had marks in a closet for my tripod but I have since abandoned the tripod method. I needed the tripod for a landscape photo shoot and it’s easier just holding the camera in front of me
- I was planning on sharing this project at the end of the year but I changed my mind and decided to post the photos monthly

Photo 365 Resources

Photo 365
Photo 365 Tutorial

How is your Photo 365 going? Have you experienced any unforeseen difficulties? Please take a moment and share with a link to your project – (This is a good time to show off your work!)

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

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone – I wanted to display two photographs that visually illustrate the feeling of Love.

These are my favorite photos that illustrate love. The top I took at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2002. The painting is Munch’s Vampire and the couple in front of the painting are complete strangers. This also is an example of having your camera ready at the right place and time.

The bottom photo I took of us the old fashioned way. Held the camera in front of us and snapped the photo. It was taken on a carriage ride through New York City’s Central Park.

Do you have any photographs that visually express the feeling of Love? Post a link to them in the comment and share!

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.)

In my last post I touched on my use of Social Media as a tool to get my work out to the public. The next day I read a great blog post by Valeria Maltoni discussing how she participates in Social Media. (Complete article can be found on Valeria’s blog by clicking here) She wrote:

“You cannot be expected to know what my settings are on each network. If I don’t give you a reference point, you will likely use your own settings as context. It’s not fair to you, nor it is to me.”

I wanted to step back a moment and outline the five Social Media Networks that I use and let everyone know what to expect from me. Outline My Rules of Engagement in Social Media.

FACEBOOK: I have two facebook pages. I use one for photography and the other is personal. My Facebook Photography page is an outlet for me to interact with people who have questions or want to know a little more about me. Also like my blog, I try to highlight other artists, photographers and musicians. It’s a quick easy way for me to push out messages or to post a quick link to a photograph I just shot. My personal Facebook page is a place where I do whatever I want to do and the people I know have come to expect that of me.

TWITTER: My username on twitter is @grtaylor2 and it is the place where my messaging is the most inconsistent. I will push out shortlinks to my photos, my blogposts, my friends blogposts or my tweets will be conversational in nature. Sometimes, I will tweet something that I find amusing and sometimes I will tweet about someone who is making me crazy. The main themes for my tweets are: photography, music, marketing topics, current events and issues relevant to my city – Tempe, AZ. I try hard to add value with most of my tweets to my followers but I admit sometimes I do tweet the inane. If you follow me on Twitter please let me know if my tweets ever get too inane and I become “That Guy”.

(TWITTER Update 3/19: I like the #followfriday thing. Over the time I have used twitter I have started to follow many people who were recommended through the #followfriday phenomenon. My #ff policy is to push out only one follow friday tweet per week.  All recommendations will be from one vertical or with like interests. This way I feel like I am adding value to the conversation and to the folks who follow me.)

YOUTUBE: The videos I post on my blog are hosted on YouTube – I use this network mostly as a media library. If you subscribe to my You Tube Channel you should expect music videos, my FOCUS web series and maybe some travel stuff. I tend to not get very personal on YouTube. And of course I do love watching funny videos on YouTube- so if you know of any great one please send me a link. (Here is a link to my favorite)

FLICKR: I post my non contracted photography to Flickr. My photography typically falls in the categories of: Concert Photography, Landscape Photography and Portrait Photography (there is some architectural photography mixed in but that’s not the norm for me.) I brand almost all of my photos and I post them under the creative commons license. If you want to use any of my work for non commercial purposes please feel free to – just properly attribute the photo. I try to foster collaboration as much as possible and for that reason I make all of my EXIF properties public. Please comment with questions etc.

That pretty much covers My Personal Rules of Engagement For Social Media. I want to interact with everyone as much as possible but I wanted to let you know what your getting into. Please know that I will not be offended if at any time you decide to unsubscribe to my blog or stop following me on Twitter. (NOTE: I am an eternal optimist so please don’t expect a lot of Doom & Gloom from me.)

In a nutshell, my use of Social Media focuses on: making connections, helping others make connections, learning and staying informed. How are you using Social Media or maybe more importantly why are you using Social Media? Leave a comment, leave a question – let’s discuss…

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.)