WHO ARE YOU?
My name is Michael Connell (you probably already figured that out) and I dabble in photography. I love live music and enjoy photographing local musicians doing their thing on stage. While I have done a bit of semi-pro work over the years, photography isn’t my main gig. It’s more of a passion than a vocation for me.
WHY ARE YOU PHOTOGRAPHING MY BAND?
Well, aside from the fact that I enjoy photographing live music, it’s my way of supporting the local live music scene.
HOW CAN I SEE THE PHOTOS YOU TOOK?
I’ll send you a link sometime after the show, usually in a few days. Might be longer. This is a spare time thing for me. If you don’t have a website, Facebook page, or other obvious way to contact you, I’m usually pretty good about handing out a card. Feel free to ask!
CAN I USE THE PHOTOS?
Sure. I’m not hoarding them for myself. It’s nice to be able to help bands and local venues promote themselves.
WHAT IS THIS GOING TO COST ME?
I’m not trying to make money off of local musicians. I play drums myself and I served my time on Austin’s stages over the years. I know quite well that you guys make next to nothing most of the time and the music venues are struggling to stay alive. Giving the bands and venues quality photos to help promote local live music is my pleasure and it just feels good to give back to the musical community.
WHAT’S THE CATCH?
There isn’t one. I’m not trying to profit from my photography of local musicians. If you enjoy my work and get some use out of the photos, I appreciate your crediting me in social media posts and linking back to my web site. I do love and appreciate when bands give me a copy of their albums or toss a t-shirt my way too. Trading art for art is a cool thing.
HOW DO I DOWNLOAD PHOTOS?
There is a small download icon in either the lower right of a photo in my galleries or off to the side if you’re viewing a photo full screen. It looks like an arrow pointing down. If you’re having trouble, feel free to message me through the contact form on my site in the top menu. NOTE: Right-click downloads are disabled so downloads don’t work that way. The reason is that if you were to download that way, you’d be getting a low resolution preview image. Using the download button gets you the full high resolution image. Some of the files can be kind of large, so you may need to resize for social media.
WHY IS THERE A BUY BUTTON ON THE PHOTOS? I THOUGHT YOU SAID THEY WERE FREE!
Once in a while I get asked about getting prints of photos (All too rare in the Smart Phone age. Sigh…but I digress.) I don’t have the equipment or the time to do print orders. Sure, you could take the digital files and print them yourself. My work is kind of dark and moody though. I can almost guarantee if you do prints at a place like Walgreens or any other non-professional lab, the photos will look crappy. If you’re going to print, do it right. That’s why my gallery site is backed by a pro lab that fulfills the print orders. They will do a great job and you can print all kinds of stuff. You always wanted a huge canvas of you shredding on your guitar, right?
SO, ARE YOU MAKING A PROFIT OFF OF PRINT SALES?
Nope. The Buy button in my galleries passes your order through to a pro lab and you are charged actual cost of printing, shipping and handling. I don’t mark anything up. I don’t even know that you ordered anything. If you do order something, let me know. I’d love to hear what you think of the quality in case there are any issues. It’s important to me that my work looks the best it can.
IS ALL OF YOUR WORK IN BLACK AND WHITE?
Not all, but most. It’s how I roll. Black and white is kind of timeless. My work is focused more on the passion of the performance than the individuals and I feel that black and white gets my vision across more effectively than color photography. I’ve also got some color blindness, so black and white is naturally more comfortable. I’ll use color if I think the images need it.
CAN I GET MY PHOTOS IN COLOR?
Maybe. Ask nicely and I’ll probably do a couple in color for you. No, I won’t redo an entire gallery in color - at least not for free. It just takes too much time. If you dig my photos, I hope you’ll understand and appreciate the artistic vision of my photo processing as it is.
WILL YOU COME OUT AND TAKE PICTURES AT MY NEXT SHOW?
Maybe. I mostly take photos at venues that I am going to be at anyway. It’s a casual thing and I don’t spend the whole night working. I snap a few photos of bands in the first 2 or 3 songs of their sets, then enjoy the rest of the show. Depending on what you have in mind and where it is located, I may come out and do my normal thing. It’s there’s more time, effort, and travel involved, then we can talk about a compensated dedicated live photo shoot. Most of the time, it’s not a big deal and if I really like your band I’m happy to do it. At the very least, make sure I’m on your guest list - cool?
I SEE YOU HAVE BOOKS OF YOUR PHOTOS AVAILABLE. DO YOU MAKE MONEY OFF BANDS WITH THESE?
Hardly. I print books for myself because I enjoy looking at and handling physical prints. Sometimes I’ll offer them up for download as ebooks or printed books that you can order. Like photo prints, I’m not trying to make a profit here. Books are expensive to print and online orders don’t get any mark-up for me. It all goes to the printer. There is a little mark-up on books sold in person at places like the Black Sparrow to help cover the expenses of handling the sales, credit card charges, etc. Bottom line, nobody is making any money off these. It’s often quite the opposite.
ARE YOU ON INSTAGRAM?
Nope, I don’t do much on social media. I prefer to have full control over how my work is displayed. Since you can’t tag me, I would appreciate your mentioning my website (www.michaelconnellphoto.com) if you share my work there.