Pictured above is Derek Dole, singer for Dead Hearts at a Holiday show in Buffalo, NY. I want to say this was taken in 2004/2005.

Sometime in 2004/2005 I picked up my first digital camera which returned me to photography about four or five years since I last picked up a camera. I had a Sony consumer level digital camera. The DSC-F717. I bought a monstrous wide angle lens and off body flash from B&H which eventually destroyed the camera. Destroying the camera would ultimately set the precedent for my concern to get the shot over the welfare of a equipment. Thank goodness for backup equipment and insurance. 

Going forward in my camera, everything is a stepping-stone. My life 5 months from now will be drastically different from what it is today on a professional level and I couldn’t be happier. This shot and the camera that I took it with was simply the start of something wonderful for my life.

I have always been an individual in transition or constant motion. To be fair, who isn’t? We are always learning and push ourselves to our goals and dreams. For me that is to push my work to being based on sincere and honest moments. I strive to become a photojournalist. That is who I feel I am as a photographer and what I am striving to do with my work. With that said, every once in a while I will make commitments to do photo work for friends who I know and want images outside of how I aim to proceed in my professional career. I do this to help them out. Although this is not an image that represents how I wish to move forward with my professional career, it is an image I really enjoy because I find it to be a simply wonderful photo and I wanted to share that with people. Let me know what you think. Thanks.

I’ve have had some personal dealings these past few weeks that required my devout attention so getting to publishing work has been at best difficult. What better way to get back into things by publishing photos of the very thing that got me started in photojournalism? Music. I feel bad because I was unable to catch Landmines but the good folks in Mayflower, Gunnar Stahl and Such Gold did not disappoint as always. Enjoy the photos and more work will be coming sooner than later.

Unfortunately the bands name escapes me at the moment but I feel that “The Jeff Brotherhood Band” is on the tip of my tongue…regardless I’m not 100% sure. Despite the failure of my memory I do recall them being one of the best bands I saw last year. They were fun to shoot and I turned off my camera before the end of their set which was a huge mistake on my end because it only got better at the end.

Paint It Black

personal favorite