Concert Photograpy

Anyone can combine a love of photography and music for a fulfilling and rewarding career by photographing their favorite musicians (and seeing their byline in print!). Concert Photography provides detailed information on getting started regardless of where you live, securing photo credentials, working backstage and in the recording studio, producing publicity and CD cover photos, finding markets to sell and lease your photos, protecting your legal rights, the ins and outs of performance photography in venues ranging from tiny clubs to stadiums, and choosing the right camera system, lenses, lighting, and film to meet concert photography's unique demands. Concert Photography is the comprehensive, "how-to" reference book that should be read by every aspiring photographer seeking to break through into a professional status and a rewarding career. -- Midwest Book Review



Jon Sievert's Concert Photography is a delightful and informative book, one that transcends the stereotypical, predictable "how-to" tomes we all know and hate. His book is a marvelous marriage of word and image that manages to weave practical and technical concerns with aesthetic and journalistic ones. Clearly, the book works well on a number of different levels. At ground level, it's a shooter's handbook to pragmatic photography. Indeed, its basics humble the work of many standard texts I've read on the subject. Among other things, Sievert details nuances of lighting, film, camera systems, lenses, and deftly applies all of the above to the concert experience. What's more, his examples are drawn from over 25 years of living what he articulates: concert photography. On still another level, Jon Sievert's book serves as a comprehensive resource for aspiring and established professional music-business photographers. He offers a veritable storehouse of non-technical information on a wide array of things such as legal mentoring, securing credentials, marketing, freelancing and selling photographs, even insights on backstage shoots and etiquette. In addition, Sievert provides the names and addresses of music publications (organized by category), music book publishers, tour merchandisers, color labs and a very hip bibliography via a series of appendices. Finally, there is the photography itself - the work of Sievert and colleagues, the likes of Jay Blakesberg, Lynn Goldsmith, Jim Marshall et al. Many of the images are classic and stories that accompany them make good points. The photos are well reproduced and the book is tastefully designed and printed. The writing is terse, interesting and understandable, and Sievert's style is engaging and personal. Along with being a celebrated photographer, Sievert has worked as an editor and a feature writer. His work has appeared in Guitar Player, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Relix, Musician and dozens of other publications. This is a book I strongly recommend, not just to those interested in concert photography, but in photography in general - neophytes and veteran photographers alike. -- From Independent Publisher