July in San Diego and the living is easy…. Well, the concert going is easy. The weather is usually great, the outdoor venues like Humphries and Sleep Train are kicking into full gear. July found me at Humphries for a double-header, Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers along with Railroad Earth. This was a pretty special show, and here is why. JT Thomas is a friend of mine and he plays keyboards across the stage from Bruce. I have known JT for years and you couldn’t find a nicer guy. I also have some friends here in town whose son is a really talented piano player and while he had played a Hornsby tune in a recital, he had never actually been to a concert. Well his mom brought him to the show that night and he got to go backstage and sit down with JT and discuss music. A very special night indeed.
July in San Diego means it’s time for Comic Con. Now Comic Con doesn’t usually mean concert shoots but this year was a little different. There were two concerts going on at the say time on Friday night. On one side of town, Metallica was playing a show in support of their soon to be released movie and on the other Weezer was playing at the Walking Dead party. Now I would have loved to photograph the Metallica show but that was not to be. I was given ticket but no photo pass, so I opted for the Weezer show which was a blast.
There was a lot more to Comic Con that just photographic Weezer. I spent the time shooting for Fox/FX covering everything from Bobs Burger to How I Met Your Mother. Lots of fun and hard work.
July at the Valley View Casino Center was really light. There were only two shows on the books and one of them, Bruno Mars, did not approve a house photographer. No idea why, but that’s the breaks. The other show was Matchbox Twenty and the Goo Goo Dolls.
Summertime in San Diego means that the Del Mar Racetrack concert series kicks off. I missed the opening show due to the San Diego Comic Con so the first show I got to shoot this year was The Red Rocker himself, Sammy Hagar. A blistering performance covering his amazing catalog of music.
After a week of no concert shoots, I was back at the Del Mar racetrack for another Friday night concert. This time it was Iration.
The next shoot was a real circus. Seriously, it was the circus.
Next up I was back at Del Mar for the Pinback show at the racetrack. Another fun night under the stars.
Taylor Swift arrived in San Diego on August 15 to perform at the Valley View Casino Center on the RED tour. She was there with Ed Sheeran, Casey James and about 10,000 screaming girls. Quite an amazing scene.
If you have read or filled this blog for any length of time you have read about my photographing Steel Pulse. I never pass up an opportunity to photograph them and luckily for me they came back to San Diego to play during the Friday night concerts at the Racetrack.
For a change of pace, the next shoot was World Wrestling at the Valley View Casino Center. Good to shake things up…
August ended with another shoot out at the Racetrack. This time is was Rocket From The Crypt on August 30.
Followed by Ziggy Marley on the 31st to close out the concert season at Del Mar for another year.The Ziggy shoot was really great. Halfway through the first song, the publicist came to get me in the photo pit to let me know that they wanted me to shoot a couple from the stage to show the size of the crowd. I love it when stuff like that happens.
Then it was off to photograph another one of the dance parties at the Valley View Casino Center that same night. What a way to end August.
The next show really tested my patience. The duo Winsin Y Yandel took the stage at the Valley View Casino Center at 10:35pm. The show was supposed to start at 9.
September 20, was the Magic 92.5 Old School Block Party Live Featuring: Zapp, Sugar Hill Gang, Rob Base, Grandmasters Furious Five Featuring Melle Mel, Vaughan Mason and Crew, Mellow Man Ace, Candyman, Johnny Kemp, Oran Juice Jones.
I really thought I would be bored during this shoot, but it turned out that I knew a lot of the songs. I might not have recognized the artist names but I knew the songs and spent the non-shooting times singing along…. badly.
September wasn’t done yet. Next up was Panic! at the Disco and Fallout Boy. Tough lighting for the Panic! at the Disco set but great lighting and poses during the Fallout Boy.
And that bring the third quarter of 2013 to an end..
As always, all images were captured using Nikon Cameras and Nikkor lenses on Hoodman CompactFlash and SD cards and Sony XQD cards.
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