Before going on tour with Ben Kweller this spring, Sleeper Agent played to a home crowd in their city of Bowling Green, KY. Along with Cage the Elephant and other bands like Morning Teleportation, Bowling Green is becoming a nice Kentucky music hub with a lot of great talent. Watching and shooting the Sleeper Agent show there was great. The crowd was into it, the band was into it, and there was that feeling in the air that felt like this band is headed on to do great things.

Shooting Notes:

Shooting at small venues often have challenges, and this show was definitely no different. Usually the lighting is the biggest variable that can be the difference between horrible photos and great ones. Luckily, the lighting at The Twisted Tap was pretty good, with a variety of colors and some interesting accent lighting spinning in the background. That coupled with the electric energy of the band made for a really fun show to shoot. Small shows always have an intimacy that makes them something special to cover, and the fact that this one was in the band’s hometown was all the more special. Big thanks for Ryan, the band’s tour manager, for getting me all set up in a venue/city I had never shot in, and to the band, who put on a great show and are great people. Hopefully I can catch Sleeper Agent again before too long.

In one of the more physically challenging games of the season, Alabama brought a lot of toughness and ultimately left UK a better team. Despite the heavy physical play, UK still pulled out a win and finished the game with an amazing six players in double-figures.

UK put on a show in their route of Arkansas at home. Finishing with five players in double-figure points and a massive 13 team blocks, the Cats gave a tease of what games can look like when they are running on all cylinders.

In one of their most explosive games of the season, UK ran on all cylinders against South Carolina at home. Anthony Davis continued to won, breaking the school single-season blocks record in only 19 games and finishing with a massive 7 blocks for the game.

Between shooting concerts and college basketball, most of my time devoted to photos is spent either shooting one of those or editing the photos afterward. It’s always a treat to arrange a portrait session when I find a gap in my schedule. I arranged a shoot with Dakota in the unusually warm December weather which turned out great. Hit the jump to check out some of the shots.

Shooting Notes:

I had never worked with Dakota before but judging by her portfolio I had seen, I knew she had a great look and knew how to ‘bring it’ at a shoot. We went for a few different outfit choices in a variety of settings, which produced a good variety of shots. She was awesome to work with and did a great job of flowing from one pose to the next, not needing much direction at all. Can’t wait to do another fashion shoot soon when the weather gets warmer and hopefully work with Dakota again.

Easily the most anticipated game of the season for any Kentucky or Louisville basketball fans, the UK/UofL rivalry is said to be the best in college basketball, and one of the best in sports period. It definitely makes for a great shoot and you can tell it’s a big game when Jay-Z takes time out of his busy schedule to fly down to Lexington to watch it on New Years Eve.

The past year has been nothing short of a thrill ride for me when it comes to photography, and especially concert photography. While I continued to do house photography for local venues and shoot occasional shows in surrounding cities, I really put a lot more time and effort into shooting more shows that interested me in 2011. Hit the jump for some of my favorite concert shots I took in 2011.

It’s easy to say that 2011 was the most exciting year for me yet as a concert photographer. I went to Rock On The Range for the first time, which was a lot of fun to shoot, see so many bands and meet so many other photographers. I traveled out to L.A. in the summer to cover the first ever L.A. Rising festival at the L.A. Coliseum, which featured Rage Against the Machine and Muse, two of my favorite bands. Striving to shoot the biggest artists touring in 2011, I covered many acts that I’ve always wanted to see/shoot, such as Paul McCartney, Lady Gaga, Elton John, Janet Jackson, Steve Martin, and so many more.

It’s going to be really hard for 2012 to top 2011, but I will definitely be doing my best to crank it up even more and make it the [new] best year yet. Below you’ll find a photo of most of my photo passes I accumulated in 2011. Below that is a photo of all my passes from 2008 through 2010 (which I took last year).

In the last game before the big state rivalry game against Louisville, UK made good work of another team of Cardinals when they matched up against Lamar. Although Terrence Jones was not what he was at the beginning of the season, he returned to the court from his injury and got his feet wet again.

In another game sans-Jones, and their last one before a Christmas break, UK took on Loyola of Maryland. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist stepped into a leadership role for this game showing obvious leadership out on the court as well as while on the bench.

Having dislocated his finger during the previous game, pre-season All-American Terrence Jones wasn’t able to play in UK’s game against Samford, so it was a good test to see how the team would hold up without Jones on the court battling. They pulled off another strong win sans-Jones and showed they still have plenty of talent on the court even with the sophomore on the bench.