Posted by I often question myself about the world we live in; “whatever happened to common courtesy”? As a freelance photographer, building a professional portfolio and maintaining a concert blog/website takes time, effort and of course approval from the band, artist or their publicist I wish to shoot. As I do my personal digging as to who I need to contact, I email a “boiler plate” request that I send out to the person I suspect is the correct individual. More often than not, I get lucky and continue correspondence up until the date of the performance. What irks me though, is not receiving a response, whether the person no longer is associated with the band or artist or even worse, getting the approval only to find out that I was left off the guest list! Im also lucky in that there are a few venues who are familiar with me and my work and allow me to shoot the bands Im there to shoot! I guess the reason it irks me though is that I dont believe anyone is that busy to not drop a quick response or follow up Day of Show. I was in the business long enough to know what my day to day responsibilities were and I know the effort it takes to follow up! But a special kudos goes out to Def Leppard’s contact! As busy as Im sure she is, she took the time to respond to all correspondence, and when I came down with a pretty bad cold, shooting Slash, she actually answered her phone! At the end of the day, she was very attentive and understanding and allowed me to schedule a back-up photographer so that Long Island Sounds could still cover the performance!
And while Im at it, a special thanks goes out to Brian Bersen & Amanda Packey for the additional coverage and steller photography skills!
As for the website/blog. Long Island Sounds has been honored with the privilege to shoot several top-notch, international artists this year including Slash, Def Leppard/Journey, Mr Big, K.K.’s Priest, Joe Bonamass and review what could be David Gilmour’s final performance at MSG!
But I would be remiss to not include the great talent that resides here on Long Island, the reason my website/blog is so named Long Island Sounds! I have had the pleasure to shoot J.D Leonard, Sticky Sweet, Ozzmossis, Holy Mother, Absolute Adele, Sharped Dressed Band, Last Child and several others, all of whom are amazing artists, bands, performers and most importantly, great people!
Long Island Sounds is compiling a schedule as to what artists to cover or shoot in the coming year and I look forward to seeing all those I have had the opportunity to befriend thus far and hopefully meet some more new peeps! I should also add, a podcast is in development and hopefully it can get off the ground sooner than later, so stay tuned!
Here is a quick glance and highlights of this past year, hope you had as much fun as I did!
Long Island Sounds 