Just curious.....Photographers and Musicians please read

If you are walking past a bar and the Guinness looks like it tastes good if you walk into the bar and say give me a Guinness for free please.....You will probably get punched in the throat or laughed outta the place. OR You are at a show and ask a band for a CD and you want it free you get the riot act of how hard it is as an artist to make it ....and you have to buy the CD for the band to make it.Yet if you take pictures of a band they will want them for free. Prime example....Saw a band my wife and I both enjoyed. I was there to take photo's of another band...The Band...(will remain nameless to protect the guilty). When they were done we bought their CD. I posted the pictures of the band on my website and....you guessed it ...they wanted them for free and were perturbed I did not give them the pictures. AND we will not bother with any of their shows or buy their products any more. Simple
I gave away pictures for a long time until the pictures I took were awesome. I don't charge an arm and a leg in fact I think I am the cheapest photographer in the area....Because I enjoy taking pictures. But My camera body costs more than most bands entire compliment of instruments ha ha well at least some. When I go to a shoot at a club or bar there is about 6 thousand dollars worth of gear in my backpack. Some photographers have that tied up in just the camera body!!! Not a cheap business to get into....Let alone the cost of processing software (Photoshop, NIK, Tiffen, etc) 
When I take pictures of bands (being a musician) I know what makes bands look good. and I make bands look good.

I don't just point and shoot. I get the right angles and make musicians look like the rock stars  they ARE!!!.

So when I am charging a couple bucks for digital downloads of pictures that bands love but they want for free.... it cracks me up that they are charging for CD's.
Remember I am a musician.....So when you are selling your band remember the point and shoot picture you have as your marketing tool to show you as a band speaks volumes of your attention to detail. Pro Photo shoot of live shots with a Pro band photo says this music is gonna rawk....look at the attention to detail these guys/gals have they put effort into everything all the way down to marketing themselves.
So support your local artists....this means Bands, Street artists, glass blowers, bartenders (yes they are artists too) and of course your local photographer.
If you are a band and want shots go to https://www.facebook.com/e34photo
If you drink Guinness you may get your shots free.
RAWK!!!

Musician/Addict

In a bad mood? A Guinness will make it all better...err wait.
In a bad mood? Music can fix it or may have sent you there.
In a good mood again the fix or the cause in a small way or a big way depends on the day.
So to convey what it is like to write good music is beyond words.
To an artist of any kind they will know the same feeling...sorta.
To coax sound out of multiple inanimate objects and make it convey emotion is a very powerful thing.
Even more so when part of a group of musicians...which is in reality a sort of disease.
Some are infected to the point of being disabled and some are just functioning addicts.
I am a functioning addict. Because I had no gift of natural talent. I fought to be this infected.
There is no controlling the affliction just going with the flow when it overwhelms you and being able to save money when it is in remission, which is never very long.
If you are not a musician or an artist...think of it this way.
What is the best feeling you have ever had summed in one moment?
Sex? Birth of a child? Making eye contact with your better half for the first time? Riding the fastest roller coaster EVER?
Take all that x's it by infinity and you have what it feels like to write kick ass music.
I get an even bigger rush as I usually have to put together a puzzle of different instruments play them or program them and then hear the final result.....mind altering. I write allot of music but I have written 20 or so songs that amaze me every time I hear them and take me to another universe. I can feel the same rush as when I wrote them. Better than crack cuz the high is always just as high and the feeling is always as intense.
I wish everyone could experience this. But you can't ...so neener neener neener!!!
\m/
Drink Guinness

A drive ....how relaxing.....NAWT

I drive a lot. well not a shitload but a fair amount. A minimum of 2 hrs a day usually.
Let me begin by saying I make my fair share of mistakes. Forgetting my turn signal, looking down for that french fry that just fell only to look up a an assfull of truck!!!
But if I do that I look to see who I may have endangered and give them the apologetic "I am a moron" look.
Now let the venting begin.
76.35% of the time this is a woman
Coming up the on ramp riding the ass of the person in front get to the merge spot (or just past the gore point) and without turn signal across 4 lanes of traffic she goes. My guess....Women think merge means something other than the true definition.
Merge Definition: to combine, blend, or unite gradually so as to blur the individuality or individual identity of.
I think the definition in their mind is I have the right away or maybe they have an empty balloon head full of songs like My lady lumps swirling around in their void most call brains.
DO NOT Get me wrong...the 22.65% that are male are named Cleetus and drive large trucks with big engines and big tires to make up for their tiny pee pee's.
Here is thee most annoying one to me. 4 lanes of traffic turns into 3 lanes of traffic. Take a guess where all (MEN AND WOMEN) merging goes on???? six feet before the lane ends as well as your life.
What is wrong with people????? If you happen to be in the way after letting 20 other fucking Russian truck drivers in and they can't squeeze between you and the NOW STOPPED TRAFFIC you get the barrage of middle fingers and funny convulsing and scrunchy faces that come with it.

Merging is an art, adjusting your speed as to be absorbed by the flow of traffic. But the brainiac's think it means the flow of traffic MUST LET THEM IN AT THEIR BECK AND CALL!!! HA HA HA not if I am in my personal vehicle ....I will put you in the ditch you stupid backward non merging FLOW INTERRUPTING piece of human excrement!!!! But most of the time I am in my work truck and wave their retarded asses in because my licence plate is pretty easy to remember.
PS
Also what is up with the 30 second delay on going at a green light? It is like everyone in Washington is mesmerized by the changing of a stoplight from Red to Green that it takes them 15-30 seconds to respond to this miracle.....(also see blog 1-3)
Today is a Whisky day
Be good to each other and merge nicely!!!

Professional sports .....sort of

So watching the Superbowl today (of course having a tall cold Guinness) I kinda came to an Epiphany...or maybe I just burped but I digress....
I saw alot of effort on the field today but also saw alot of half hearted effort as well. I see this alot in football especially living in the Seattle area and watching the Seahawks. (except the game they won in the wild card against the Saints which was filled with intense emotion and ....a win)
anyway to the point. Football has no balls any more in my eyes.
HOCKEY on the other hand......Guys get paid a pittance of basketball or football and the love of the game shines thru SOOOOO much more. 23 stitches in the forehead only nets 15 minutes out of the game to actually get the stitches then back at it. Intensity levels so high fights erupt and it is accepted.
Football .....in a play off game a quarterback leaves with a hurt knee. I am not saying you need to play on a blown ACL but when you are standing on the sidelines jumping up and down ....that aint hurt.
Hockey scenarios
Steve Yzerman played half a season and thru the playoffs with a debilitating knee injury
Jeremy Roenick had his jaw broken in multiple places and played three more shifts until trainers forced him out
Richard Zednick had his throat cut wide open and splattered blood all over the ice and played on to score the game winner....that part is a lie but the first part isn't.
Multiple broken bones in feet and staying in the game because if they take their skates off the swelling will prevent them from putting their skates back on and playing.....stories go on and on. Tough guys Tough sport.
Football use to be tough....Like when Ronnie Lott dislocated his pinkie finger at the knuckle and opted for amputation rather than missing a game.....Tough.
Rugby....harder than football AND NO PADS. Plus those dudes have day jobs!!!!
Football players...toughen up or take a pay cut. Don't even get me started on Basketball...pffft
Drink Guinness....it's good for you.
Jimbob