Hello to my fellow Country Music Fans!  

I am back with Live country music photo's!  Sorry its been so long since I've had a live concert review and photo's, Its been almost a year and a half since my last show. I miss this outlet of my photography passionately. it is afterall what got me started into photography and as most of you who have followed me since 2002 know its what I've always wanted to do as a full time dream job. Still to this date I have yet to make a dime off of concert photography, and never ever have had a press/media pass in that or any form of photography. My dream continues,,

A major reason for my lack on Concerts the last few years is this For me personally the last few years of my life I have been lost(still am) trying to find my way between job changes and a move out then back across the country and trying to find a way down the road towards the end.  

I gotta say for those fans who are just gonna skip the Concert review and scroll down and just look at photo's, I give you fair warning these are not my usual Quality of Sharpness or clarity of photo's as I had to rent a Sony RX10 point and shoot for this event because the last time I was at the Huntington center in Toledo, they asked me to put down my DSLR after only 2 songs. Granted its usually venues policy and I usually do have to sneak in my DSLR's to all Big Arena events but its just not worth the hassle So I rented this camera,  I am at a point where sure I love Country music and love to be there taking in the Awesome sounds and songs of my favorite artists  but In the back of my mind I think I have almost 20 grand in professional Camera equipment that I have saved up bought and paid for and I've spent thousands and thousands of hours of teaching myself and learning how to take clean photo's  that it is really hard for me to not take photo's of any big event that I go to. I just want to create pretty pictures. In any photo you've seen on my portfolio here, I love the whole process from composing, Click then trying to create a compelling image out of a raw file. I find it personally calming & rewarding.

So yep I rented for 3 days This Sony high end point and shoot fixed zoom lense for this concert.  Because most of my concert going friends have moved on I went to this show alone(which sucked big time not sharing it with someone)  soo I bought a pit ticket for this show and I'd be darned if I didn't try to get good pics of these artists being this close.  These photo's are pretty good(I did put a couple of them in my portfolio as I thought they were worthy) but yeah proud of the compositions that I posted here. The camera does has its short comings in a few area's with getting the quality files like that from my 5DIII and 1DX or for that matter any DSLR I own.

I'll have a full review of this camera pro's and con's up in a separate blog post here shortly cause I will say that this camera is a good buy for any of you concert goers out there. I get asked over the years by die hard concert friends of mine which point and shoot camera is good for concerts?  well now since I've rented a good one. I have a hands on suggestion. Stay tuned for that review :)

Show Review! Suits and Boots, I'll admit the main act I was going to see was Danielle Bradbery as this was the 4th time I've seen this Legendary singer in the making. She sold me as a fan long ago when week after week on the Voice she belted out perfect vocals of some of my favorite country songs and artists growing up. The coaches on the show say over and over song selection is a big part of the show, well Danielle and Blake you two nailed it that season for this viewer. I was hooked and voted for ya through the season.

For Brett and Thomas headlining well for me this show was a discovery of seeing what they are all about.   I've loved all the singles that they have released out to country radio over the years but really did not know there album tracks from the rest of the albums, Buying the Acoustic package pit ticket for the Suits and Boots tour you get a private two song performance from them before the show and you also get to digitally download there latest albums Illinois by Brett and Tangled Up by Thomas.  Yep I downloaded them but really did'nt run through them enough leading into the show night to learn the songs  but after seeing these guys kickazz onstage live and hearing the songs live  well I'm sold and looking forward to diving into the albums!  

OK lets back up and talk a bit about the artists, DB first. well first off before the show I met her for the first time with a meet and greet win through her FC.   I gave her a 8x10 print of a photo I took from the Elkhart IN show, The photo was when Zach and Colton (Swon Brothers) came onstage to surprise her, this one :)

they opened for her for a few shows this summer of 2014.  Meeting Danielle was awesome she's that same fun girl I remember from the Voice and was very appreciative of my photo gift I gave. For me I've been in a few Meet and greet lines over the years of concert going and I always feel a bit rushed sometimes, there's always people behind ya, and even though I've never been pushed through a line by the security or whatnot I still always feel nervous and rushed meeting a country artist for the first time :) So if you remember me DB sorry if I looked nervous, I was a tad :)   but yeah most of us of course we all don't get the chance to say all the cool things you want to say to a singing idol of yours.

I also did'nt want to ask her for my Tour photography dream job and shoot her my ideals about that :) I  did'nt want to seem like a "that stranger guy/salesmen" on my first meet and greet with her. I did throw in a couple of my Cards with the 8x10 so hopefully those were'nt tossed out and are pinned on DB's bullitin board with a sticky note written with Call the Capn for the next tour ;)  haha  I will say to Danielle and powers that be in your team.  just give me one interview to toss around my ideas of adding to your career with my (modestly saying) greatest of all TIME concert photography :), just give me one show to implement those ideas. ya or nay we go from there afterwards.  I read this awhile back, "Doubt kills more Dreams"  & those wise words could go to anything in life.  So I have to ask. 

Lets talk about her short 25 mins or so set of songs,  Loving the new songs Danielle and I'm not the only one in the world raving about these new songs you are singing in show the last few months leading up to your new album,  there were many songs on your debut album which should have been released and I thought would have rocked country radio to #1  but I understand the music industry a bit and that artists that release a debut album it rarely gets more than a couple songs released as singles  but still I gotta commend the debut album its so addicting to listen to (I've said that a couple times in other DB reviews I believe  :) )  .  but dang these new songs are all kickazz great as well!! Room for Two and Sway are just Absolute gem's of songs, if they don't get released as singles with video's to boost  well that would be shame and a loss to the overall wellfare of T H E  W O R L D!!!.   I read a review of this tour leading into my show someone said where all of your songs in your set sounding different and thats why the set ruled. After hearing and seeing this Suits and Boots set I'd have to  agree!

Lets think about this for a second, to the average Joe or Jane out there you ever try to learn and sing a song? ok without the words in front of you? its super hard I've never tried it, to dang hard.  You realize how many songs Danielle has learned and sung in her short 3 year pro career? give her a search on youtube if your just discovering her singing..  all the cover songs she has covered in show since the voice all the new songs she has written or cowritten,  you know how hard that is to do? to learn lyrics and sing that song. And Sung to perfection. I'm just amazed at how talented She is at her young age of 19.  & that goes with any singer songwriter out there including Brett and Thomas here and there catalogs of songs. Its super hard to do, to sing a bunch of songs onstage each night.. 

Switching lanes, Danielle I commend you on all your positive posts of wisdom you pass along to your fans and followers. its refreshing to see these posts. Many singing Artists do post words of wisdom and encouragement but many don't. Alot of what how people turn out comes from your upbringing and beliefs. Your parents did a great job DB. My take is you are very well grounded on where you are and where you are going. Keep it up and keep inspiring.

Who's to say But I believe DB that you have enough fans and songs to do a huge Arena tour already! So Big Machine who's got the money to make this happen? come on!! who's with me?  :)   haha I had to ask cause say it with me, Doubt kills more ,,,, .  I believe that Huge Arena tour idea to be a exact fact though :) just Keep Ruling Danielle! and Release that next album already! from what we've heard already it probally should win all the awards at the ACM's and CMA's and Grammys! probally :)  

Ok Thomas Rhett next up, Thomas you rocked!!  The big thing I took from your performance was Energy and absolutely loved your dance moves around the stage, I gotta say I've seen alot of Male Country singers and have never seen anyone dance like that.  That alone if I were the true longtime TR fan would keep me buying tickets to your shows. Great great fun songs and great interaction with the fans, that really goes along way to keeping fans coming back to your shows.  Choosing fun or meaningful songs with stage presence You have that Thomas!! I would love to work for you as well as I totally believe what you are doing and would love to help further it along with my take on concert photography. Keep the busses rolling Thomas.

Brett Eldredge closing out the night, He reminded me of Thomas alot with tons of energy working the songs and stage to the max. I wished I would have learned the songs a bit more from Thomas and Brett as looking around me everyone was singing along and I only knew a bit of the chorus from the released singles, like I said it was a discovery mission for me with Thomas and Brett  but I did have fun! I was  highly entertained buy both of them. And now I know :) be prepared capn!!  Brett I'll say the same thing I would love to be your tour photog someday! would be a blast!

Merry Christmas my friends

Have a happy and blessed new year

Onto the Pics, I've narrowed it down to 196 here, The pics are ok and got some neat looks from the 3 but my timing was off and I believe I missed some cool moments  such as when at the end of Thomas and Danielle's duet they hugged and I totally forgot about trying to get that pic, darn.  but yeah this rented Camera I was strugling with, the focus system was a large focus box in the vuewfinder, I'd lock focus and recompose and alot of the time the locked focus would move off when I recomposed.  So I was struglling with that the whole night, not being able to compose shots like I wanted to and ended up having to crop to much in post processing  thus losing detail.  I def missed my ability to move around focusing points like that on my DSLR's,  more on this Sony RX10 camera in my review of it as i know a few of you are waiting for that. 

OK so you can scroll down per usual or click through them in fullscreen on flickr just click on the picture below