Three Songs, No Flash!— Book Review

Your Ultimate Guide to Concert Photography by Loe Beerens

By Mark Shapiro

This is a beautiful and very interesting book. Even if you do not plan on becoming a professional rock & roll or concert photographer, you will be entranced by the images and how they were captured. There is not a lot of text but the images and facts speak for themselves. If you love rock and roll, you'll love this book. This would be a great gift for anyone into music - as well as the photography enthusiast.

The book starts with the political and legal essentials of shooting a rock and roll concert - how to get there - how to get accredited and how to stay accredited, how to get backstage, in the pit, how to prepare for the shoot by watching YouTube videos, and how to get those creative live action stage shots That's where the title comes from - you usually get to shoot three songs or less and you are not allowed to use flash,

Loe Beerens does not spend a lot of time discussing the technical aspects of photography - you either know how to use your camera or not. However, he does explain how to set up your shot, which lens he would use, the various decisions you have to make at every concert, and how to figure out the right composition and equipment to make your shots work and sell. What angle works best for a singer, for the guitarist, for the drummer. His years of experience make it possible for a neophyte concert photographer to take great looking pictures.

He covers how to shoot the various performers on stage, various musical styles as well as how to shoot other types of performances such as plays, dance, fashion shows, as well as how to shoot in the recording and rehearsal space.

Author Loe Beerens, a veteran photographer on the international concert scene, relates his experience in and knowledge of all the important aspects of planning and photographing concerts of all kinds in this new book from Rocky Nook, Three Songs, No Flash! ($24.95 USD). From punk to classical and everything in between, Loe covers how the music industry is organized, how to get access, the right people to befriend, and the proper etiquette of concert photography.

From preparation to equipment selection, the reader will learn how to make the most of those three songs from this richly illustrated book. Shooting techniques for each of the major musical instruments are covered, as well as capturing the peak action, post-production techniques, shooting in low light, and marketing your images.

Whether you are a photography enthusiast, a working professional, or just a lover of music, you will benefit from this informative guide.

About the Author
Since the day he became a photographer in 1980, Loe Beerens has been fascinated by music photography. In those days he photographed music legends in the early stages of their careers such as Ike and Tina Turner, Thin Lizzy with Phil Lynot, Annie Lennox in The Tourists, Little Feat with Lowell George, Rod Stewart and the Faces, Van Halen with David Lee Roth, the first festival gigs of the Police, the debut tour of Dire Straits, and so on.

In the mid-eighties he stopped working full-time with professional photography to work in the music industry as artist manager and artist promoter. The only pictures he made in this period were of artists with whom he worked. Since 1995 he has returned exclusively to professional photography and became the photographer for Universal Music The Netherlands. Marco Borsato, Guus Meeuwis, Trijntje Oosterhuis, Lionel Richie, Live, Laura Fygi, DeeDee Bridgewater, and Toots Thielemans are among the artists for which he has created CD and DVD artwork photography.

Loe has also opened his own studio and works as a freelance photographer/photojournalist with experience in a wide variety of photography including public relations, advertising, press and magazine photography, events, corporate, annual reports, photos for websites, and portraits.

About Rocky Nook
Rocky Nook's books are distributed internationally by O'Reilly Media.

Rocky Nook was founded in early 2006 in Santa Barbara, California, and is closely associated with dpunkt.verlag, a leading publisher of books on technology based in Heidelberg, Germany. The focus of Rocky Nook's publications is on digital photography and computing.

About O'Reilly
O'Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O'Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying "faint signals" from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism.

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