If you’re a regular follower of this blog (thanks!), you know I love taking concert photos. If I can get a photo pass, I bring my good SLR camera and get up close in the pit. If not, I take along my “non-pro” point-and-shoot and, if all else fails, I’ve got my iPhone.
Yes, it’s important to Be At The Show and not just view life through a screen. I do that, too, but it adds to my enjoyment and is often part of my “job” (or is it a paying hobby?) to capture visual memories. It’s a recurring joy to look through my collection of photos and an ongoing challenge to improve my skills (alas, I am terrible at the technical end, but I think I have a good eye for composition).
I also love looking at other people’s concert photos, especially now that I realize just how hard it can be to get that one amazing moment, in sharp focus, with the colors right and no stray mic stands in the way.
Yesterday, a publicist sent me a gallery of shots from last weekend’s first inaugural Mempho festival, held at Shelby Farms Park in Memphis. I was blown away by the beautiful images. I pitched a story built around the gallery to an online editor, but was told that, since I wasn’t actually at the event, it wouldn’t be right for the site.
OK, then. But I can’t let these beautiful photos – of Cage the Elephant, Jason Isbell, Cold War Kids, Bishop Briggs, Robert Randolph, Southern Avenue – go to waste. You don’t have to like, or even know, the acts, to appreciate the shots. I picked my favorites from the nearly three dozen pics in the event gallery, and here they are – with photog credits, of course! – for your edutainment…
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