..you still have made a choice.”

So as if shooting Tom Petty wasn’t rewarding enough, the following night, I shot RUSH. Again, shooting a band that’s been influencial in rock music since I was a youngster is quite a rus…er..honor.  RUSH doesn’t even have an opening band, they just perform two sets on their own, and judging from the crowd, that’s exactly the way they want it.

The lighting was in abundance for their set so that was a major plus, the only challenge was trying to get more than one member in a shot.  Since the band is a trio, they were pretty much spread out in triangular formation.  I never did get that group shot.

I haven’t gone through all of the photos yet but you can check out a few of them out on my Flickr account.

As a music fan, it was a pretty exciting weekend for me.  On Saturday night had the pleasure of shooting rock legends Steve Winwood and Tom Petty.  Since it was Father’s Day weekend and my Dad is no longer with us it was especially meaningful for me since he always loved Tom Petty.  I knew he would have been thrilled at the idea of me shooting his set.

From a photographer’s standpoint, wasn’t the best show to shoot, I wish I had requested the Boston date instead.  For some reason, there was some extra gear down in the photo pit relegating the photographers to the left side of the stage without a clear front view of the stage or Tom.  (Hence my abundance of profile shots.)  But, hey, as a photographer you have to make the best of any given situation so I’ll stop my bitching now.

Oh yeah…Steve Winwood opened….he’s no slouch either.

You can check out a few shots from each set on my Flickr account.

The new ish of The Pulse is now out so if you’re in Central MA you can pick it up.  If your’e not, you can read the feature I wrote on solo artist Matt Shwachman for the Up & Comers section by clicking on the link below.

Matt Shwachman - A one-way ticket to “Uncharted Territory”

(Scroll down the page until you see it)

On June 4th I attended the third annual Larry-oke charity event hosted by New England Patriot special team captain Larry Izzo.  Larry grew up in a military family and has always supported the troops and now is able to use his celebrity status to raise additional funds for military based charities.  The past two events have raised over 200K each and hopefully this year surpassed that!

New England Patriot Kelly Washington

This is not an event I go to work at, I just go as a spectator to help support a great cause and to laugh at some of our boys making asses out of themselves (there’s something to be said for NFL players who don’t mind busting out some New Kids on the Block, dance moves and all.)  We even managed to get one of the players to wear my bright pink headband that I just happend to have in my purse..he wore it while singing “Physical.”  Sadly, I just found out he was cut from the team the next day.   I hope it wasn’t because of the headband.

Mike Dragosavich wearing my headband

I wasn’t sure what the photo policy was and I didn’t want to chance having to bring all of my gear back to the car so I just brought my 40d with my fixed 50mm lens.  I was cose to the stage so I was able to get a few decent shots but I was a bit too close for some of the funnier group performances.

I’ve posted some of the photos on my Flickr account if you want to check them out and please check out Larry’s charity website and help if you can!

 Wide Receiver Wes Welker gearing down