Q & A: Dwight McCann (Event Photography)

Jeez, you guys are a tough crowd.

Taygull, get well soon.

DwightMcCann wrote in post #2623322
Brain transplant!

Yes don't you recall me asking for a piece of your mind? Well they took it and now they can't figure out what to do with all the extra space I have between my ears.....it seemed yours was a bit undersized.:p

The funny thing is I think I'm starting to look like you since I have not shaven in a week!

taygull wrote in post #2625401
Yes don't you recall me asking for a piece of your mind? Well they took it and now they can't figure out what to do with all the extra space I have between my ears.....it seemed yours was a bit undersized.:p

The funny thing is I think I'm starting to look like you since I have not shaven in a week!

You lucky dog!

Dwight, thank you so very much for sharing your journey and experience with us.

Here's my tiiiny contribution to the thread: a very cool, free tool for manipulating EXIF/IPTC (including batch EXIF/IPTC modify, database backup, etc), batch file renaming, watermarking, resizing, and a lot of other useful functions, is EXIFER. The program hasn't been supported in a long time, yet it continues to be one of the most useful tools for that sort of work, and is part of my workflow. It doesn't have the cutesy "2.0" interface of opanda, but it can do some things that opanda can't, and it can do most other things more quickly.

http://www.friedemann-schmidt.com/software/e​xifer/

Since this thread started long ago and far away I thought I should update a bit. I am slowly migrating to RAW (I hear thunderous applause!) This would likely never have happened if I had to go to Photoshop to get there, but a curious set of circumstances has occurred. A long time ago, for reasons lost in antiquity, I bought Raw Shooter Premium (I probably thought I was going to convert to RAW at the time) but didn't download and activate it at that time. After a number of RAW discussions I decided finally to give it a whirl and went out and downloaded and activated and found out that the Raw Shooter folks, Pixmantec (I think) had been bought out by Adobe! So much for that investment, eh? Well, part of the deal turned out to be that Adobe would give each RSP owner a copy of their 'in development' product, LightRoom when it went GA. Way too much effort for me so I forgot about it.

Earlier this Spring I decided to invest in a seminar to try to jumpstart myself into Photoshop. I signed up for a 2-1/2 day class at Lepp Institute (an hour up the coast from me) in 'Digital Workflow'. I went to the class which started the day of LR's release and it turned out the class was 90% LightRoom. Well, I was a bit disappointed but worked through it. Interesting but not too useful to me. At the end I went home and sitting in my email was my invitation from Adobe to pick up my free copy of LightRoom. So, I pulled it down. Since then I have shot a few events in RAW+L and slowly but surely I find that I am developing a RAW workflow. The quick version is: camera [RAW+L] -> Epson P-2000 -> PhotoMechanic [rename, add IPTC, first cull] -> RAW only -> LightRoom -> selections and adjustments -> jpegs and TIFFs for various purposes. The most recent thing I did this way was a VIP event in very, very red but changing light with my 5D. By using LR on RAW I think I was able to get images that simply would have been impossible with just jpegs ... this was actually the event that has motivated my working out a workflow that I can live with and addresses most of my RAW issues. Now I am wondering how long it will be before I dare shoot a casino event using just RAW!?

Sorry to blurt out here, yet again, but I just have to tell someone! Seymour Duncan just called me! He's gonna meet me at the ZZ Top concert tonight. I have a 24" x 36" poster of my collage from my last ZZ Top shoot for him. He is just a really nice guy. [For those of you who don't know of Seymour, he is the premier guitar pickup designer and is based out of Goleta, California, which is where I work.]

DwightMcCann wrote in post #3109170
Sorry to blurt out here, yet again, but I just have to tell someone! Seymour Duncan just called me! He's gonna meet me at the ZZ Top concert tonight. I have a 24" x 36" poster of my collage from my last ZZ Top shoot for him. He is just a really nice guy. [For those of you who don't know of Seymour, he is the premier guitar pickup designer and is based out of Goleta, California, which is where I work.]

Gosh, you could have been gracious enough to call your driver!

Hi Dwight,

I have been trying to be a live music photographer for the last 3 years. Could I ask you and the rest of this forum for an opinion about my pictures? Cause I have never had the chance to contact somebody doing the same in a professional way. You can take a look at: www.ricardovargas.cl

My main concern is how to get into the business...I´ve got a stock of pictures after 3 years of running around rock festivals in Europe but I haven´t had the
opportunity to sell one picture. I am not interested in money actually, I
do it cause it´s my passion, I enjoy it toooo much.

Also, I can´t see my pics as sharp as others pics...or is my
imagination? or Might it be my Nikon D100?? (Sorry guys I am shooting with Nikon) Finally, I´ve just updated to
Nikon D200 but I´ll see results next week when shooting Roskilde Festival
in Denmark.

It´s been very hard, I live in Sweden but I´m originally from Peru. And
the photographers net in this country seems to be very hard to reach.

Thanks for your time,

Ricardo Vargas
www.ricardovargas.cl

RicardoV wrote in post #3473152
Hi Dwight,

I have been trying to be a live music photographer for the last 3 years. Could I ask you and the rest of this forum for an opinion about my pictures? Cause I have never had the chance to contact somebody doing the same in a professional way. You can take a look at: www.ricardovargas.cl

My main concern is how to get into the business...I´ve got a stock of pictures after 3 years of running around rock festivals in Europe but I haven´t had the
opportunity to sell one picture. I am not interested in money actually, I
do it cause it´s my passion, I enjoy it toooo much.

Also, I can´t see my pics as sharp as others pics...or is my
imagination? or Might it be my Nikon D100?? (Sorry guys I am shooting with Nikon) Finally, I´ve just updated to
Nikon D200 but I´ll see results next week when shooting Roskilde Festival
in Denmark.

It´s been very hard, I live in Sweden but I´m originally from Peru. And
the photographers net in this country seems to be very hard to reach.

Thanks for your time,

Ricardo Vargas
www.ricardovargas.cl

Hey there Ricardo - first of all welcome! (Even if you are one of those Nikonians!).

I had a quick peek at your web gallery you have some really good shots there - certainly up to professional quality.

How to get into the business though? It's not easy but the best advice I can give you is to network network network - contact magazine editors or photo/art directors, webzines, newspapers, promoters, band managers, publicists, festival organisers etc - be prepared to get knock backs but don't let them deter you - keep on knocking and doors will open to you.

I suggest you head to the performing arts section and post some photos there for constructive critique - pretty good bunch of regulars there who will only give you a mildly hard time for shooting with a Nikon! Also I recommend you check out www.musicphotoforums.n​et as well.

Good luck!

Ricardo, Welcome! Richard is a concert photographer in Australia who by self reports is doing pretty well. We have some other OZes, a few northern Europeans, many UK and Canadian, and a smattering of others here (well, in Performing Arts) many of whom are making this same journey. So, bring your work to Performing Arts, read the FAQ there, search for threads about getting started in this thankless business, and learn about all the frustration and failures of others ... and the successes ... we do have a lot of successes. You just need to keep in mind that every 16 years old with a D200 and a love of music thinks they are a concert photographer ... as do the sixty-something year olds with high end gear. Always try to keep in mind that it is the journey, not the destination, that is the ultimate goal.

Thanks!

Hi guys,
Thanks for all the advices.
I've just discovered this forum and I think it's great. I have a lot to learn from all of you in here.
I'll definetly be back with more stuff and put up some pics to share comments.

Well, it's been a while but I wanted to give a small update. I was just contacted by UB40's assistant manager. He wanted to know if I wanted to submit any of my images from their recent concert at the casino for use in a brochure and they would give me photocredit. I explained photocredit was a requirement and not compensation. I gave them a price for use of my website gallery images. I doubt that I will hear from them again unless they decide to go through the casino which I suggested as an alternative.

Always baffles me how little money these big bands seem to have (be willing) to spend

René Damkot wrote in post #4013849
Always baffles me how little money these big bands seem to have (be willing) to spend

Particularly how much they are willing to blow on tiny creature comforts for themselves ... thousands of dollars a day ... and the huge crews they haul around and pay and all the things they insist upon for themselves. I think many of them are simply totally out of touch with any reality as we know it. But, as I told them, it really doesn't matter to me one way or the other if they accept my offer, it is just business and I will be happy to work with them when they come next time whether they license any images from me or not.