In one of the biggest concerts brought to Harding University (ever) Jason Mraz really pleased the crowd.
I cover the concert as I usually do as the house photographer, but this time Darren Abate at Press Photo International has graciously agreed to have me on as a contributor. The guys at PPI are definitely worth checking out. If you didn’t see the link above, click here and it’ll take you right there.
Mraz is just kind of a cool guy, very chill as you can imagine. He spent a few hours outside this afternoon doing yoga before the soundcheck.
But the concert was very good. Lighting was exceptional. Crowd interaction was good. Overall just a very good experience.
I’m only posting a few photos from this take because I want to drive a little traffic to PPI for the rest. There’s a few dozen more there.
Anyways, it was full coverage and pretty exclusive because of it. Spent almost the whole day in that auditorium. Its the way things are. You must put through the time, become a fixture, have conversations with everybody on staff, make sure the talent (and his agent) knows you and knows you’re supposed to be there… then you have the access.
Exclusivity is not a press pass anymore. Those are easy to get. Exclusivity is the way it is presented. Yes, the local news guy can buy a ticket and come in and sit in the back and take a photo from 200ft away. Or… you can have free reign of the entire place for the entire concert, never showing a press pass the whole time.
I say all that to say this: photojournalism is less about the technical skills of playing with cameras than it is about simply putting in the time to develop relationships with people. Remember the post a few days ago about the county fair – the monster truck thing. But this time, when the moment comes when someone asks, “Wait a sec, who are you?” its Jason Mraz that says, “Oh, he’s fine, he’s the official guy.”
Monster truck drivers or A-list musicians or the ladies who clean up after everyone goes home, people are just people… and I never want to forget: so am I.
Stay tuned,
-Noah D.
