Last night, Silent Planet played a show in Des Moines (other bands on the tour to come!) and vocalist Garrett kindly got me set up with a photo pass. We met in August at a rehearsal for a wedding we were both in: he was my aisle-walking buddy and it was rad to see him in such a different context. People are wonderful and interesting and I like them. I hope you enjoy these shots as much as I enjoyed shooting and editing them.
Indianapolis /
I hadn't been to Indianapolis since I was born, really. Then this November, we were there a little over 2 days, so I'm splitting the post into sections by days. The photos are relatively chronological; the following is my only photo from Friday. Mostly on Friday we were listening to Jason play and then eating and it wasn't quite the right moment for a photo.
Saturday morning began in our beautiful Airbnb. From there, we ate brunch (some of the best donuts of my life) and went antiquing and thrifting. I found the best denim jacket for $2.99, which you can see in the Sunday part of this post (keep scrolling).
Saturday's photos ended with a dusky drive. On Sunday morning, after church (the same one my parents went to over 20 years ago!), we drove by the house I came home from the hospital to, then ate and explored Indianapolis one last time. (Photo of me was taken by Sarah.)
Minneapolis /
Current Location: Minneapolis /
Here we go. This is a long post and I don't know quite where to begin. A month ago, I sort of accidentally shot a LANY show and LANY's fans found the blog post and shared it dozens of times until it reached frontman Paul and cleared 1000 views. In one month. To give you perspective, most of my blog posts have about 37 views. On a good day, maybe 100 or 200. Nowhere near 1000.
I knew LANY had lots of fans, but I didn't realize how dedicated they were until that moment. When I'd refresh my analytics page every day to see another dozen or two views, I realized I'd stumbled upon something bigger. And these humans have been so kind in sharing my work. Even in the past few days, when my photos have been shared, they've been credited. And they've said such kind words. I was won over.
So I decided to do something at the Minneapolis show: fan photos. I've done a couple fan photos before, but nothing to this extent. But, then again, nothing to this extent had ever happened to any of my blog posts before.
And last Saturday was the perfect time: my current location was also theirs. Minneapolis felt like both summer and fall in the best ways and even by mid-afternoon there was a block-long line of mostly girls and some boys, all clad in white sneakers and denim and handmade shirts, proclaiming love for the band. Hands clutched roses and eyes sparkled nervously in anticipation. There was a tent and a card game and pizza and more faces than I can count.
After meeting so many of these adorable little humans, I feel quite endeared to them. I want to adopt you all and take you to my favourite donut shops and thank you for being so kind. Which I realize sounds weird so I won't do that, but know I think you're darling and I'm so entirely grateful for you. Though I look young, I'm nearly twice as old as some of you, rather closer to the age of the LANY boys. And I feel like you're like my little musical sisters (and brothers) and the cutest humans.
So this is for you. Because it's easy to forget. And if someone hasn't told you recently, I want to tell you:
You're beautiful and valuable and I believe in you. Don't stop being passionate about things. Create. Take risks and don't be afraid to ask for help. Live honestly and don't be embarrassed of what you like (I can sing every Taylor Swift album front-to-back--no shame). Keep looking at the world with wonder and don't let anyone convince you to be cynical. Live unashamedly enthusiastically. Stop for sunsets and cute animals. Chase light. Put sprinkles on all of your food. Skip and dance instead of walking just because. Write poetry about good days and bad days and normal days. It's okay to have normal days. Not every day has to be spectacular to be important. Don't let anyone tell you your life isn't worthwhile or important. Or that you have to be famous to be valuable. It's not true. You're infinitely valuable. Being cool is overrated. I've never been cool (I used to own off-brand pink Crocs); it's okay. Life is more than followers or likes--the social media kind or the kind from a boy or girl. Sing obnoxiously loud to the radio because you have lungs and you like the melody. Drink lots of water. Dream really really really big because I believe that dreams are immensely important and you can create something spectacular. Don't let your dreams daunt you. Learn to ask good questions and listen well--this is a game changer and something I'm still learning. It's okay to rest sometimes. Be kind even when it's hard. You'll have good days and you'll have bad days; just take it one day at a time and don't be afraid to ask for help on the bad days. Run up hills and roll down them and jump into leaves and into puddles (I still do this) because life is short and you'll grow older but you don't have to grow up, I promise. Yes, adulting is hard (I'm not good at it), but it doesn't have to make you boring and it doesn't have to steal your joy. Hope is powerful and love is powerful and you're not alone. We're in this together, okay?
That was long, but I'm full of words and I like you lots and want you to know those things. That all being said, here are the photos of your lovely faces.
Instead of curating the photos into groups like I did with the concert images, these are exactly in the order I took them (with the one exception of the very first image). I started at the beginning of the line, by the gals who won meet-and-greets, and by the folks who'd be waiting since the day before, and took photos all the way to the corner of the block. These are the faces.
I don't have a brilliant conclusion or one photo that sums up the entire afternoon, but I just have a few words. LANY fans, you're beautiful. Thank you for your kindness and for welcoming me on the internet and in real life. I like you lots.
Bad Bad Badlands /
The past month has been a whirlwind and crazy in the best way. I stumbled upon the opportunity to shoot LANY in Omaha a few weeks ago and due to the kindness of Lany fans, the blog post cleared 1000 view in less than a month. Insane. Thank you.
Bear with me for a moment as I back up. To give you perspective on how ridiculously unlikely and serendipitous Saturday was. It's a good story. Last fall, nearly a year to a day today, I drove back alone from Ann Arbor to Des Moines, mapping out coffee shops in larger cities along the way to break up my 9-hour drive. One of those coffee shops I found was Dagger Mountain. At the precise moment I walked in, I was the only customer, and thus struck up a conversation with the barista. In our conversation, we learned we had several uncommon places and events in common; and through that conversation, Matt and I became friends. When I traveled to LA, he introduced me via Instagram to his friend Steph. I tweeted a few weeks ago that I was looking to shoot LANY again with my friend Blake, but the Minneapolis date was sold out. Did anyone have any extra tickets? Steph knows Steve, who's on the Kinda Tour, and she introduced us via Twitter; and he got us set up to shoot the evening. And to make this story crazier, Blake and I only met about 6 months ago, via Instagram. I had never even heard of LANY before he introduced me to them. So this is all to say, yes, I did take these photos, but I can't take credit for much of this adventure. It's quite a bit of serendipity and even more generosity of other people. Thank you, LANY. Thank you, Steve and Steph. Thank you, Matt. Thank you, Blake. Thank you, LANY fans, you've welcomed me in so kindly this past month. These photos are for all of you.
Also, before I begin, there's a LANY/Halsey mashup Instagram account named "Bad Bad Badlands" and I thought the name was so clever that I used it for the blog post title, but it's not original to me.
Blake is my LANY roadtrip buddy. He's the same Blake who introduced me to LANY. None of this magic would've happened without him. He picked all the best music for the drive north and we explored Minneapolis most of the day, drinking coffee and eating 9 pieces of pizza and taking photos. He shot the show with me so be on the lookout for his photos! And he rocked overalls all day, which is basically an art, too.
While hanging out by my car and drinking cold brew coffee and weird beef jerky from Whole Foods, Blake and I saw Jake walk by. Naturally (nervously), I asked him for a portrait. He was quite kind and said yes. If you'd like to see portraits of all the boys, I have some here. If I was to get one portrait, though, it was lovely to get one of Jake because, as you'll see, most of the concert photos are of Paul. Primarily because there was no photo pit and from the spot I was posted up, Les was quite far away and Jake had a cymbal straight through the middle of his head. Even on my tipiest toes, with my camera up as high as I could reach, I could barely catch his face. Rather unfortunate, but what seems unfortunate is not always entirely so. I mean, it's still unfortunate that I didn't get many swell shots of Jake and Les. But. If there had been a photo pit, I would've only been able to shoot the first three songs and I would have missed shooting the surprise encore (more on that later). What seems unfortunate is not always so. Remember that.
With encouragement from Blake (I still get crazy nervous butterflies every time I approach a stranger to ask for a portrait), I took photos of the first block of LANY fans, most of whom had been waiting for hours, some since the prior day. Dedication. They were immensely kind and adorable. To keep this post from being dozens of photos long, I'm limiting it to mostly concert photos and a couple portraits. I'll have a general Minneapolis adventure post and a post entirely of fans in a bit. Deal? I promise I didn't forget about all your photos. You're beautiful humans. Speaking of beautiful humans, let's jump right in--shall we?
Doors opened at 6 and Transviolet took the stage at 7:15. They'll be in a separate post, too (I'm committing myself to a lot, I suppose), but meanwhile, these are photos from their Omaha show. LANY was slated to go on at 8:15, and took the stage around 8:25 to a room of screaming and the sound of Whitney Houston singing.
More than perfect, I want my photos to feel real. Like you're there. If you were there, I hope you remember how it felt.
That's why many of these photos are in black and white. That's how a LANY concert feels. Deep and grainy and nostalgic and alive.
One girl (or perhaps a few) in line handed out cut bits of streamers and the whole group of them slipped the pieces of paper between their phone cases and phone lights. When "Pink Skies" began, they held up their phones, all glowing rosily across the high ceiling, like pink fireflies or stars. As the song goes, "it's better you and I, under pink skies." When the skies are gray and November, you create your own pink skies. "You'll want a photo of this," one girl to my right whispered to me before the song began. And I sure did.
The band left, but not moments later, they were back up the stairs for an encore. ILYSB. Then suddenly frontman Paul looked to his right, towards the stairs and door they'd just come out of and waved, motioned for someone to come up on stage, too. It was Halsey. I lost it. Everyone lost it. They sang "ILYSB" as a duet and it was everything you could hope for. Tumblr come to life in the best way. Because this was what made this tour date in particular stand out, what differentiated it from every other night, I've included quite a few photos of that moment.
To stunned, overjoyed, incredulous screams, Halsey left the stage. A few moments later, the LANY boys took a bow and, reaching out one last time towards the hands extended to them, left the stage as well.
Yea, babe, maybe love sucks sometimes. But LANY concerts sure don't. I like them lots.
Halloween /
Some of my roommates and friends dressed as iconic musicians and singers for Halloween. Alyssa Leicht took absurdly good photos of us, and we shot a few behind-the-scenes photos with disposable cameras.
Steven Tyler
David Bowie
Bob Dylan
Johnny Marr
Kurt Cobain
Willie Nelson
Johnny Marr /
For Halloween a crew of us went as iconic male musicians and singers. I was Bob Dylan (just look at literally any photo of my hair), Esther was Steven Tyler, Eden was David Bowie, Emma was Willie Nelson, and Blake was Johnny Marr. Since Blake and my outfits were super simple, once I messed up his hair and painted his nails, we had time and took a few photos in one of the empty rooms in the Carpenter House.
Prairie Pirates /
We called ourselves Prairie Pirates and all wore black jeans and brown boots and flannel shirts and set off on foot across the Midwest. We braved water and thorns and trees and got lost once, but we made it back, all in one piece. A rather successful fall morning adventure.
This is how I feel about running around outside. Tanner took all the photos that I'm in.
Most of the photos are in chronological order.
More and more often, when I'm documenting my "real life" (read: not client work), I'll use disposable cameras. I can stick one in my pocket and I don't have to worry about it if I fall in the water (I tripped and almost did). They're not as "high quality" images, but sometimes I like them better because they feel more like the moments that happened and I want to remember those feelings rather than perfect pictures, you know?
Shake It Off /
For Blake's sake, I won't caption every photo with Taylor Swift lyrics, but you better believe that this fringe jacket hardcore reminds me of that gal. Last night, Blake and I met up downtown, hung out for a bit, then explored Des Moines at night.
James Bay in Black and White /
In highschool and even a little into college, I had time to scour myspace and Facebook and Pure Volume and find new music. The older I get, the more life demands my time and the less time I have to wander the internet for new songs. A few of my younger friends have been lovely and recommended new music to me so I stay moderately relevant, but rarely do I find artists myself anymore.
Somehow around April, I stumbled across James Bay. Perhaps I’d heard a song on the radio and spontaneously decided to listen to the entire album. However it happened, I discovered him and as a result, his music is quite endearing to me.
For the seven months I processed claims, I listened to music in my cubicle from 7:25am to 4pm. James Bay’s The Chaos and the Calm became how I woke up; it was my first cup of coffee in the morning. I’d fill my french press with water and coffee from the last city I’d visited and I’d begin that album. Sometimes once-through, sometimes until noon.
Shooting James was on my photography bucket list. Between his music and his general photogenic-ness (he models for Burberry), I hoped to shoot his show someday. And I still hope to get portraits of him.
As of the Friday morning prior to the Saturday night show in Kansas City, my friend Brittany and I only had tickets. I didn’t have a photo pass and I was still pretty content with that. I would dance and sing every single word and it would be beautiful. By 2pm on that same Friday, I’d received an email confirming a photo pass. Undeserved and grateful.
That Saturday night I was the only one in the photo pit during James Bay’s set. The only one. In a giant theatre of beautiful faces and delicate melodies and deep feelings, I was right there in the middle of it. The night was poetry and if I can even do a fraction of justice in illustrating that poetry, I’ll be satisfied.
Grateful and full of words. Thank you.
