Drawar

Mine would probably be this one:

I'm trying to get into concert photography and have just over 40 sets since starting in July. So when I stepped into the hall quick during a concert and got this shot of one of the drummers, I was pretty happy. Something about how it's so candid, but definitely captures the mood and his personality just strikes me.

As someone that went out and bought the Canon Rebel XT with a couple kit lenses back in the summer I strongly recommend against getting any sort of kit lens. It's tempting because it's packaged together and offers a decent focal range, but Joe's advice is right on and I wish I had done exactly what he is suggesting when I started.

Another thing I think you should consider is buying used. If you feel like you're likely to upgrade soon with the very tempting feature-packed 40d and incredible quality found in the new 5d around the corner it's probably not worth getting a new body, especially since the Rebel line is plastic.

You will get into a brand war everywhere DSLRs are discussed and so it really does come down to going to a local shop and trying some out. I think you'll be happy with any make and model, but some do offer advantages. From my experience and reading if you are looking to do low light (possibly concert) photography you'll probably want to go Canon because of better noise control whereas if you want a wider range of options available on the body you'll probably want to go Nikon. Still, trying to argue a brand is like trying to convince you to change your favourite colour. It's probably not going to happen.

I think Rich brought up a very important point; subjectivity. I'm just going to go ahead and leave you with a quote.

Nick Naylor: -OK, let's say that you're defending chocolate, and I'm defending vanilla. Now if I were to say to you: 'Vanilla is the best flavour ice-cream', you'd say:
Joey Naylor: No, chocolate is.
Nick Naylor: Exactly, but you can't win that argument... so, I'll ask you: so you think chocolate is the end all and the all of ice-cream, do you?
Joey Naylor: It's the best ice-cream, I wouldn't order any other.
Nick Naylor: -Oh! So it's all chocolate for you is it?
Joey Naylor: Yes, chocolate is all I need.
Nick Naylor: Well I need more than chocolate, and for that matter I need more than vanilla. I believe that we need freedom. And choice when it comes to our ice-cream, and that Joey Naylor, that is the defintion of liberty.
Joey Naylor: But that's not what we're talking about
Nick Naylor: -Ah! But that's what I'm talking about.
Joey Naylor: ...but you didn't prove that vanilla was the best...
Nick Naylor: I didn't have to. I proved that you're wrong, and if you're wrong I'm right.
Joey Naylor: But you still didn't convince me
Nick Naylor: It's that I'm not after you. I'm after them." ***Points into the crowd***

Trying to get into concert photography, but I could use some new glass.

These are some great photos.

I can see why that would be a current favourite publicenergy; it's really an amazing capture.

You could ask Jason if he has a higher res version of his October desktop calendar release. The highest res he has available for download is 1920x1200, but it's worth asking him.

Kriegsnet 2007 Desktop Wallpapers

I think a lot of people are behind the Dells. More bang for your buck. Paul has one and I think Derek Punsalan and a few others stand by the suckers. The extra swivel options and memory card readers are nice too.

I want to thank everyone again for the tips and advice and figured some of you might be interested to see how my first attempt turned out. I've uploaded a few of the highlights from my first outing that haven't had any post processing done. Let me know what you think.

Concert Photo Set @ Flickr

It's maybe not the best of reasoning, but I more or less lost interest in supporting JPG mag after I read some of the shit that went down behind the scenes as detailed by Derek Powazek. It kind of reminds me of what happened at Deviantart between Jark and Spyed.

I guess I get aprehensive in supporting a community after shady stuff happens.

I think my sarcasm detector just exploded. If not I totally misunderstood the point of the iPhone having a "full version" of OSX and the "real" internet and not a mobile version.

I'm working on a multi-author blog and I'm hoping to add some dynamically generated pages (included in the wordpress loop). It would be nice if you could go over how to make an author.php page and maybe how to have archives separated by author and some other selectors if you have time.

I think a lot of this stuff is touched on in the WP Codex, but it's a pretty big mess.

Good stuff BinaryMoon.

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Realistically, taking shots of lesser known artists in coffee shops and at free concerts would be great for now, since I'm mostly looking for practice. I was just hoping that there would be some way around this dilemma at least for outdoor, festival type events.

With that being said I'm hoping that with a project I'm working on and through some friends (intern at universal music, band members, etc.) I should be able to work out some sort of agreement or press pass in the future. I guess I was hoping to temporarily bypass that for now.