Cooking Up Rock and Roll Pictures

You Will Require:

    1 roll (at least) of 35mm film (36 shots)
    Couple of spare batteries
    Several flash bulbs
    Your good eye, a liberal dash of inspiration, the roar of a young, feisty crowd, and a band.
1. Set up band before with drums, cymbals, guitars, bass, keyboards, and microphones, etc…

2. Gloss up band with make-up (but not too much!) and wardrobe.

When ready,
3. Mix band with young, feisty crowd and capture moments. Add fog to taste.

4. Return to darkroom, remove film from camera, and process.

If using digital equipment, return to computer, plug camera in through USB port, download captured moments via software of your choice.

Voila, rock and roll pictures!

Save. Print. Upload. Sell. Collect. Treasure. Reminisce. Repeat.

Hold on there, don’t think that you only have to get shots of them rowdy rock ‘n rollers in action to get good rock and roll pictures. How about a candid shot of the drummer reading “Lord of the Rings” on the tour bus? The lead guitarist leafing through “Accounting for Dummies”? One of the stagehands smoking a cigarette, looking at the sunset after setting up gear for a festival gig? Do not forget the behind-the- scenes people!! Some fans like to see just how human their musical heroes really are. Surprise ‘em when they go looking through the scrapbook.

Wait-- what about a surfer riding a huge wave back to shore? Or a souped up hot rod? Slap some stock photo image on a 12x12 slab of cardboard and call it an album cover.
Crop an image, clean it up in Photoshop, include the club’s address and ticket price and suddenly you’ve got a gig poster.

Take the band out into the street, or back into the studio, group pose them – boom! publicity shot.
Rock and roll pictures, all of ‘em.

We’ve all seen them. The good and the bad, preserving time, youth, rebellion, balls to the wall attitude, ten feet tall and bulletproof. Illustrating the thrilling history, culture, atmosphere, moments we call rock and roll in sepia-tone; Polaroid instant; Kodachrome—whatever film stock/memory stick you use.
Later on we’ll see those pictures in documentaries that tell the familiar stories (and some forgotten ones) of careers climbing and diving, fortunes rising and falling, of those musicians, their managers, the labels, and the communities that support the talent.

Rock and roll pictures reminds us of the world’s musical zeitgeists—whether in Woodstock, Yorkville, London, Liverpool, Amsterdam, Berlin, Moscow, Beijing, Tokyo, Sydney, New York, Kingston, Rio, or your local scene. The young have and the old want to hang on to the oozed energy, charisma, and sex. All that’s been encapsulated in every photo of a grin, or grimace during a soaring melodic solo, every smile caught with a click that’s later used to sell the vibes caught and pressed into vinyl, dubbed onto magnetic tape, encoded into a compact disc— it’s all rock and roll and we love it!

Let simmer over time and those rock and roll pictures will become icons.

About the Author

For the most impressive fine art photography from a music photographer, check out my website. As a famous rock photographer I have taken pictures of rock bands, rock legends and music icons, for many years. On my website you will see rock and roll pictures of bands including Guns N’ Roses, ZZ Top, Staind, Korn and 50 Cent and many more. There are many fine art photographers, but few can claim to be a music photographer as well! Their music thrills you, now let their photographs move you.

Author (Nick). Submitted on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 Time: 6:52 AM

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