After 4 tours, 5 festivals, countless local shows, and then just shooting for the fun of it, I've taken more photos this year then I can remember and I wouldn't have it any other way. This will be the second year that I have made this blog post featuring my favorite photos that I've taken in a year. As I started this years I remembered how hard it was to make this blog post last year, and this year I have even more photos to narrow down.
2016 has been the biggest year for my photography career, allowing me to travel to new places, meet new people, and do things I never thought I would get to do. I'm really excited to share with you my favorite photos of 2016! Each photo will include a description and the photos are in no order.
The first photo is Sean Mackin, violinist for Yellowcard. After playing the violin for 9 years while growing, Yellowcard was and still is one of my favorite bands. I idolized Sean and his playing in Yellowcard's songs. I spent this summer touring out on the Vans Warped Tour, one of the bands playing was Yellowcard. During this past summer I got to know these guys personally and call them my friends, I cant thank these guys enough for sharing their stage with me this summer and allowing me to shoot them.
Choosing just one photo from Warped Tour to post was very difficult, when you get done reading the rest of this blog make sure to check out my full length blog post on Warped Tour! (Link: http://tylerleaman.com/blog/2016/7/29/i-couldnt-wait-for-the-summer-and-the-warped-tour)
Next is a shot of Kacey Musgraves before she took the stage at the Pilgrimage Music Festival in Franklin, TN. I was asked to come back and be a part of the festivals photo team for their second year and of course I said yes. Kacey is hands down my favorite female country artist, she always puts on an amazing show. She released a Christmas record a couple of weeks ago, go check it out if you're in the Christmas spirit.
I love this shot of Kane Brown, very few people get to see what happens backstage at shows, that's why these are some of my favorite moments to capture and be able to share with people. This shot of Kane singing was taken in the shower of a locker room in an arena during Florida Georgia Line's "Dig Your Roots" tour which Kane was the opener for.
Two years in a row Bear has made my top photos blog. Here's a shot of Bear warming up backstage during their "Tour de Compadres". Over the past 4 years, NEEDTOBREATHE has become my favorite band and getting to shoot for these guys is always a blessing. I had about 18 shots of these guys from this year that I wanted to put in this blog post, but obviously that wouldn't have worked.
This spring I spent a month touring with The Griswold's from Sydney, Australia on their co-headlining "Hotline Spring" tour. Just like with Warped Tour, choosing one shot to post in this blog was almost impossible. Towards the end of the tour we played at the Hangout Music Festival in Gulf Shores, AL which takes place right on the beach. This whole weekend was insane, I got to watch so many artists I've been dying to see play live like Walk the Moon, Cage The Elephant, Alabama Shakes, Lenny Kravitz, The Weekend, Fetty Wap, HAIM, and so many more. But, what topped this weekend more then anything was getting to watch and document my friends The Griswold's play in front of a crowd of atleast 20,000 people.
Next is a shot of Magic Man, Magic Man co-headlined the "Hotline Spring" tour with The Griswolds this spring. Before the start of the tour I'll admit that I've never herd of them before, but through-out the tour I fell in love with their music and I now listen to their album "Before the Waves" from start to finish atleast once a week. I love these guys and cant wait for their new record to come out and see them live agin.
I'll take a break from sharing music shots to share this photo of a National Park Service park ranger during a tour at Mammoth Cave Nation Park in Kentucky. This photo shows some of the true power of the Canon 5D Mark iii, there's not that much light a couple hundred feet underground.
And for the second year in a row Brian Kelley from Florida Georgia Line has made the blog post too. I love shots when the fans make great natural framing, especially like this one. I also love this shot because it shows of the amazing production of a FGL show. If you have the chance to go see FGL, do it! This shot was taken during their "Dig Your Roots" tour.
Here's a shot of Matthew Healy, lead singer of the The 1975. The 1975 are from Manchester, England and have become a huge hit here in the states and have become one of my favorites. After missing out on seeing them a couple of times throughout the the year I'm glad I finally got the chance to see and shoot them this fall. I love this shot with all of the fans in the front row holding up roses. The fans that were standing up front camped out for four days in front of the venue.
After my 6 AM flight out of Detroit was canceled and they couldn't get me out on a flight back to Nashville until the next day I decided to pull out my phone and open the Bands In Town app to see who was playing in town that night. While scrolling though the bands I saw my friends Panama Wedding who opened on the "Hotline Spring" tour this spring. A few texts latter and an expensive Uber from the airport to downtown Detroit I was down at the Mo Pop Music Festival. I love this shot of Pete I took right before he walked off the main stage after their set. I ran up from being already off the stage to get this shot and just barley got it. As soon as he walked off the stage I showed him the shot and he was like "Dude thank god, the whole time I was doing that all I was thinking about was if you were behind me getting that shot."
This photo is a great example of why I love photography, being able to catch a very small fraction of time that you can talk abut and share with people forever.
Getting to tour with the Goo Goo Dolls this year has been unreal and unthinkable, I've been listening to them my WHOLE life. It's still crazy to me if you just head to their website (www.googoodolls.com) you'll see my photo on their homepage and my photos of them are on posters all around the country.
One thing that always makes an amazing photo is natural lighting. I love the lighting in this shot! This is a shot from back earlier this year when Amberlee Fletcher was recording her debut single, "This Door", at Dark Horse Studios in Franklin, TN.
Here's Eric Cannata of Young the Giant. I love this shot mainly because of the expression on Eric's face. This shot was taken during Lighting 100's Live on the Green Music Festival here in Nashville. I also love this shot because it shows the never ending Nashville crowd that came out to watch these guys and more play.
Here's a portrait of British rock band, The Struts. Photo taken at the Pilgrimage Music Festival.
I had to share another shot from the "Hotline Spring" tour, I love this shot of Tim from The Griswolds too much. I love the natural lighting coming in through the open door of our Band Wagon and lighting him. #goldenhour
It's very rare that I don't have a camera on me anymore, this shot is from when I was walking around downtown Atalanta and came across this guys sitting and playing a song in front I think a restaurant.
Well, that's it. There's my Top 16 photos of 2016. I feel like I'm leaving so many great shots out! I hope you enjoyed and thanks for taking the time to view and read this blog post! 2016 has been my biggest year yet for photographing and I already have some amazing things lined up for 2017. I can't wait to see what 2017 has in store!