A few days ago I went into a local used record & book store, and stumbled across a vinyl album that reminded me of a photo story. Here is the cover of the album from the band AD:

Kerry Livegren AD

The band toured while I was in college, and I was on the newspaper and yearbook photo staff. I was assigned to photograph the band. I went to the field-house early while the band was setting up, and talked to the band members. The drummer, Dennis Holt, asked me if I would take some photos of him and his drum kit during the show and send them to him so he could have some promotional photos.

AD - the people in the band

The concert was dark and my film was slow and I didn’t have a tripod. I developed the film and tried to make some prints the next day in the darkroom at school. Unfortunately, I shot a bunch of very dark photos. It was disappointing for me to not have any good photos to send to Dennis. It’s amazing to me to now have digital cameras that shoot in near darkness and display the image that was captured instantly. I can now attend a concert and take photos, even with a point and shoot camera, and know instantly if I captured a decent shot.

Kiss Alive 35 - Gene Simmons Yes Tour Van Halen

In September, 2015, I stumbled upon a website called Tookapic, a site encouraging and enabling 365 day photo projects, and integrated it into a photography class that I’m teaching my daughter. I also began uploading photos every day to the site. It’s a very fun community of photographers who are polite and encouraging.