# The Highs and Lows of Being a Professional Concert Photographer \| Blanc Creative

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## Description

An honest, lived-in account of what the job of a professional concert photographer is really like. The moments that make it, and the realities that test it. The kudos, the thrill, that old rock and roll magic. It is all there. Picture it. You are stood feet from your musical idols, surrounded by thousands of fans, as one of the biggest bands in the world walks on stage. You are a professional concert photographer, and the job is to capture all of it. Why wouldn't you want to be there? The buzz of shooting live music never dies. It is a seriously cool job, and music photography has been a real part of my life for years. But behind the lens, behind the kudos and the anecdotes, there is a world of hard work that few people see. This is the honest version, the highs and the lows, from over a decade doing it. A quick signpost before we start. This piece is about what the career is actually like. If you want the practical route in, I have written that up separately in how to become a concert photographer. And if you want the detail on contracts and who owns your images, that has its own guide too, who owns your gig photos. How I got in: a bit of luck and a few good people I am Lee Blanchflower, and I have spent the last decade as a full-time commercial photographer, video producer and concert photographer. Through my company, Blanc Creative, I had already built a name as a Norwich commercial photographer, and I won the SWPP Travel Photographer of the Year award back in 2013. A good portfolio helps, but so did luck. Twenty-five years ago I worked in a shop with a mate called Steve Barney. Steve went on to become a world-class drummer, touring the globe with the likes of Annie Lennox, Anastacia and Mike and the Mechanics, playing the global Live 8 concert and recording alongside the likes of Nick Mason of Pink Floyd. In a twist of fate, I reconnected with Steve while he was drumming for The Wanted, and he invited me to spend a day with the band, shooting their set at Love Luton. Around the same time, I called in a favour from another friend who was picture editor at a local paper. Paul Weller has always been my music hero, and he was playing Forest Live at Thetford Forest in 2013. I got the assignment. I have been the official Forest Live photographer for the eleven years since, and I photographed Weller for a third time in 2023, on my tenth anniversary of shooting those concerts. I would love to paint a picture of a rock and roll lifestyle, hanging out with the bands for iconic shots that get remembered forever. The truth is those moments are rare. The job is mostly graft. But when the good moments come, they really come. The moments that stick It is not every day you get to tell people how soft the hands of Dan Reynolds from Imagine Dragons are. How do I know? Because at Radio 1's Big Weekend in Norwich in 2015, he came out singing to the crowd, and after I slipped over on the wet ground right in front of him, he reached down and picked me up off the floor, live on BBC TV. All I remember is trying to hide the embarrassment and look like I had meant it, while another photographer in the pit happily captured the whole fall. Then there is Danny O'Donoghue from The Script, who I have shot a number of times. During a sound check one afternoon I asked him whether he would be heading into the crowd during his first three songs, since that is what I had shot the last couple of times. He told me my images were on the wall in his dressing room, and that this time he was planning to go right out into the audience later in the set. Then he said, "come with me," walked me backstage to his production manager, and told him to give me a pass for the whole set, not the usual three songs. That kind of generosity is rare, and it is a reminder that plenty of artists still value the people documenting their shows and now, every time they play at the same venue, I always receive the same treatment. It's so humbling as a concert photographer to revive this kind of respect. It doesn't always happen though.

## Image

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