Today's event in "Megan's life in LA is not normal" involved me putting eyeliner, eyeshadow, and lipstick on Mark Hoppus... Yes, that Mark Hoppus. Sometimes I think about getting a "normal" job, but then I remember that there is 11% unemployment in LA and I couldn't get a normal job even if I wanted one. Then I get a call from Jered, and I end up putting eyeliner on the iconic bassist of Blink 182. Another day in the office, whatevs...

Blog o Substance #2

"Horse" Selective Development Silver Gelatin Print
Megan Thompson 2006

Today’s informative rambling is going to pertain to a question I often find in my inbox…
“How did u learn to do all that stuff u do in photoshop? Can u send me a link to where u learned it?”
I can usually tell from their slaughtering of pronouns that they are not currently enrolled in a four-year program the local college. Here is my usual reply…
“I went to college, here’s the link to where I learned photography… www.montana.edu”
Snarky yes, but hey, that’s me. There are always people asking where they can find a short cut, a tutorial, or a how to. Very few people I encounter actually want to take the time to study the art and science behind making a photograph. Ask them what SLR stands for and they will stare at you and blink twice before mumbling, “Lens something… I dunno”. Here’s where the digital age gets tricky. Do we spend time educating students about silver halide crystals when there’s a huge chance they’ll turn out like me and exit the darkroom never to return? In my opinion yes. I’m a snob though, so if you ask me flat out, I will say, “Yes, I consider myself a better photographer because I learned alternative processes!” So HA!
This brings me to the real point of today’s blog.
“Should I go to school for photography?”

My professors would be the first to say that, no; you don’t need to go to school to be a great photographer. I back this up whole-heartedly; I know a lot of great photographers who don’t have $22,000 in student loans like I do. But most of the people I know who don’t want to “waste their time in school” aren’t that good. Chances are if you’re reading this and found me on myspace and you think that I am the greatest damn photographer in the world, then you my friend should go to school.

I know that for me personally going to school for photography was probably the best decision I ever made in my life. Up until I switched to the photo department I, A) Wanted to be a band videographer, and part time horse trainer, B) thought I was awesome already and most importantly C) Thought that taking good photographs was EASY. It is not easy. If you think it is easy, you probably need to go to college.

I decided to double major in graphic design and photography after seeing Annie Leibovitz’s portrait of The White Stripes. I looked at that photo and thought to myself “WOW. I want to do this for a living… what she does… this right here.” I decided to major solely in photography after the graphic design department made the executive decision that I sucked, and booted me out of the program. Failing so splendidly made me work about twice as hard as most of the people in my intro photo class because I was so afraid of not getting through that gate too. Fear is a powerful motivator, that’s why I edit with a bear in the room.

Like I said when I went into the program I thought I was pretty awesome. The reason most people should go to school is to be ridiculed and criticized and to learn how to let it roll of your back. I would have never gotten any better had it not been for my professors telling me when something was terrible. They also saw through any bullshit in about .5 seconds so they kept me always making better work. Working on assignments also makes you look at your work from all different angles. How do you see the 7 deadly sins versus your classmate? Working in such close quarters creates a competitive edge that will prepare you for competing for jobs in the real world, and keep your brain always producing. That’s how I come up with these ridiculous ideas for bands, my brain is always producing them, and I just need to remember to write them down.

This gets me to the last point I was going to make about photography being easy. If you think that taking photos is an easy gig, then you haven’t taken enough photos. Look at your favorite photo, then go out and try to recreate it. I’ve been trying for about three years to get an Annie feel in my lighting and I can’t do it. I can’t do it because I’m not Annie Leibovitz, and I haven’t been taking photos since the conception of Rolling Stone Magazine. But I’m finally able to take what I like about her photos and put my spin on it. Taking a photograph is easy, you just push a button, but making a good photograph is very hard. Look at how many images a photographer takes to get just one image that’s good enough to publish. You should never feel like you're good enough, because then you won’t strive to get better. That’s why I went to school. I’m the type of person who can’t learn anything technical unless it’s forced into my brain for 20 hours a week. I don’t think I’m anywhere near as good at photography as I want to be. I want to keep learning, and I think all good photographers should feel that way. I never stop reading, and looking at new work and you shouldn’t either. I feel like my generation is spoiled, and kids want to be handed a fun, cool career like “rock photographer” without working for it.

So should you go to college? If you’re like me, then yes, you really should. Go for nothing more than the opportunity to learn so much more than just photography. Go to learn how to teach yourself about photographers, learn about new and exciting processes, and learn about fine art. Maybe you don’t actually want to photograph bands. Maybe you want to document cornfields and the people who maintain them, but you don’t know it yet. Most importantly, COLLEGE IS FUN! Go to college and live it up while you’re still young enough to not be the creepy nontraditional student.

Make sure to always check your settings kids! I have been battling the fact that I accidentally shot all of Versa Emerge's photos in Jpeg. Go me. UGH!

As a new rule I'm trying to make my blog more insightful so that maybe somewhere someone will actually want to read it. (Hi mom!) So less, "OMG whooooooaaaa" moments, more sounding like I'm not an illiterate fucktard.
In a separate effort to no longer be poor I started looking at my bank statements to see what sort of automatic charges I had on there. Found my lovely PhotoServe account. This bank drain has been with me since before I left Bozeman and I had high hopes that being a part of this "elite" community of photographers might put me in touch with the rich and famous, or at least get me a job. Wrong. I've been spending about $800 a year, I've been featured on the site several times, and in e-mails to creative executives, and not one single job has come of it. I am enjoying my free subscription to PDN though. I was thinking about this "email to creatives" that they send out so frequently. Who is to say that that e-mail isn't the same as spam is to us? I wonder who these "creatives" are...
Anyway today I e-mailed my... broker?... liaison?... Jeanne, the person who is in charge of my account, asking when my next payment is due. Maybe if she feels like I'm going to leave they'll get me a job. Probably not, but hey, I'm going to save about $200 every three months. Go me! I win. Stick it to the man and all that.
Tomorrow I'm going to write another "how to not be a crappy photographer" blog so stay tuned. Maybe I'll even learn something from myself and then those "creatives" will come a runnin'!

I'm celebrating Easter, or as I like to think of it, International Zombie Awareness Day with a room purging. I'd say I was cleaning my room, but it was so beyond trashed that the only way to start cleaning was to throw half of it's contents away. I cleaned my closet and actually started to sort through three boxes of clothes that I never unpacked after moving to LA. This means that there are two huge bags of clothes outside of my room to take to the donation bin at the liquor store up the street. I hung up a couple of paintings, and cleaned off my desk. I can see my desk! Woo hoo! Ikea is open today... maybe I'll go and get organizational goodies...

I'm also being proactive and spraying my baseboards with Raid in case it gets hot soon and the ants come running back into our house. I hate ants, and they came with a vengeance last fall when it was really hot outside. If I see so much as one little marching line I'm calling the landlord and complaining for real this time.

I'm a huge huge fan of how much behind the scenes action you can find on Vanity Fair's website. They have so many great videos from their cover shoots, and articles. It's all hilarious too. I like this one with all the comedians emulating their favorite icons. Seth Rogen as Frida Kahlo is pretty freaking awesome!

Ok. Tonight was the best and worst stream of luck a photographer has ever had. A while back OkGo scheduled a show in Anaheim that I wasn't able to go to because I was too poor, or out of town or something. Damian got sick and the show was postponed (hooray!) but it was moved to May when I was going to be out of town again (booo!). Until I got an e-mail at the beginning of the week from Jorge informing all of OkGo's fan kingdom that they rescheduled show was now moved to Friday the 10th (hooray!). However I was still way too poor to afford a $25 ticket (boo!). Until I got a care package from my wonderful mother and decided to spend a little Easter cash and treat myself to a concert for once (hooray!).
Fast forward to me trying to figure out how to secure a ticket for tonight's show. I couldn't get one online, I couldn't get one on the phone, I couldn't even get a human on the phone to tell me if there were actually any tickets still available. I found two tickets on craigslist but they were gone by the time I e-mailed the guy. I posted a bulletin on the wonderful myspace and my great friend Nik who works for Capitol Records (OkGo's label... ) texted me to "see if he could find me a ticket"(HOORAY!). I got a text letting me know I was on OkGo's list! (Double HOOOOOORAY!) Then I started into the "Oh I hate going by myself" mindset and decided to find a friend and Mark agreed to go. I told him I'd pay for half his ticket since mine was free. Here's where karma comes in somehow... We went to the ticket window to get my ticket and they didn't have the list yet. We asked to buy a ticket for Mark, and a gentleman behind us offered us his for FREE! We even tried to pay him but he didn't want it. So nice of him! Then we went to get dinner... I should have gone back to check if the list was there... we had a nice pizza dinner and around 8:30 went back to get my ticket. The nice window girl went off with my ID and came back with a contract for me to sign for my PHOTO PASS! She slipped an after show pass and a photo pass to me... I was completely unaware that Nik had e-mailed OkGo's manager saying his "Photographer friend wanted to go" OkGo has the most amazingly awesome manager in the world apparently, and hooked me up. So back to me being completely unaware and completely without my 5D... NOOOOOOO!!!!! If I had checked back before dinner I would have had enough time to speed back home and get my camera in time for OkGo's set. FAIL!
All that aside, it was my first time seeing OkGo in 4 years and my golly they still pack a punch! It's going to take so much for any band to top them as my absolute favorite live show. Tonight was lucky #7 for times I've seen them and... I mean... I GOT TO SEE THIS LIVE TONIGHT!

There were also about a million confetti canons and they threw OkGo tambourines into the audience. If you have never experienced OkGo, you really need to before you die. It will make your life exponentially happier.

OH MY HELL GET OVER IT YOU NARROW MINDED HORRID PEOPLE!!!!

Yes, the gays be commin' with pitchforks and fire to terrorize and kill your heterosexual ways! You a gonna catch the homogay! God people are ignorant.
I was literally waiting for Andy Samburg to pop out and for this to turn into an SNL Short. I'm getting so unbelievably sick of the argument that gay marriage takes away people's "freedom". Ugh the worst part is the woman horrified by her son being taught that gay marriage is ok. Yes, I hope too that when my future children are enrolled in school that they are taught that being gay is bad, and to taunt and tease anyone who's different. Then and only then will my "freedom" be protected. Come on the 10 Commandments have condemned me for being a PHOTOGRAPHER, and they don't say anything anywhere about "Though shalt not join in marriage with someone of the same sex". No coveting donkeys, but nothing about same sex marriage. I mean seriously, IOWA is more open and accepting than California at this point. I honestly can't think of many other issues that get me this hot headed and worked up. Let's kill two birds with one stone, and legalize marijuana for only these narrow minded people. Then maybe they'll chill the eff out.

Thank god Portia De Rossi knows when to say sorry...

I'm about to head downtown to a tattoo parlor I've never heard of...







To photograph a band for a spread in AMP Magazine! Wooo hooo!

I wasted a good part of today making this... and all the titles are too small.

Last night was so fun! I'm pretty sure very few bands are as giddy on stage as Dr. Manhattan. Seriously one of my all time favorites! I was pretty bummed about the lack of lighting, but for some reason the video that I shot looked incredible. I love my camera. I feel like I need to say that on a daily basis. After the show I spent a good portion of the night on an epic mission with Matt from Dr. Manhattan trying to find an open Taco Bell. Five T-Bells later we found an open Del Taco and victory was ours!

I finished Justin's "Faith in Fame" print... I love it. I'm totally going to hang the artist proof copy in my room. So Mr. Carroll be on the lookout for something fun in your mailbox soon!

ahem... roar.

Blog o Substance #1

Recently I've been getting bombarded through my myspace e-mail with people asking for "tips or tricks" on photographing bands, or clothing companies. So I've decided to try to address these through this blog once a week so that I can then point the inquiries to my blog, and not have to respond to each e-mail. While I'm not going to give away all of my tricks, I'll definitely be giving away some valuable advice on how not to make the same mistakes I made. So... without further procrastination...


Goodnight Sunrise in the Desert.

Working with bands: Do's and do Not's
One of the e-mails I most frequently receive goes something like this...
"I want to photograph bands like you do. How did you get to photograph bands like Goodnight Sunrise, We the Kings, and All Time Low?"
These e-mails usually come to me from 15 year old girls. To which I mentally respond... "Do you want to photograph bands like these, or do you want to date the boys in these bands?"

I think that female rock photographers have the hardest time being taken seriously because of the over abundance of teenage girls calling themselves "photographers" in a ploy to hook up with the cute lead singer. This phenomenon also leads to bands thinking of female photographers as glorified groupies, and me getting slapped on the ass. So 15 year old girls, KNOCK IT OFF!

But back to the question at hand. Suppose you're like me and you're in it because you love music, and aren't necessarily in it for the fun of having a boyfriend on the road six months out of the year. I started photographing bands that I was friends with. Photographing your friends bands is easy because if you screw up, they'll usually be cool and understand. You can spend a lot of time getting it perfect. I've been photographing Goodnight Sunrise since 2006. I've built a relationship with that band and they're like family. They never hesitate when I have a crazy idea or a new technique I want to try out. That being said they're usually on the cutting edge as my style develops.

If you're like me as I said, and are photographing bands because you love music, you shouldn't have a problem meeting tons of local bands. If you don't have any friends in bands, start going to shows and talking to people. When I was working on The Forgotten State I spent 2 years embedding myself into the scenes in different cities. If I wasn't at a show 3 hours away in Missoula, I would get a call from someone asking where I was. I can't stress enough how important it is that you have to LOVE it. Love is an understatement. You have to eat, breathe, sleep, dream, and sweat music. If I find myself in a slow spot where I'm not booking much, I make a point to go to all the shows I can of bands I've photographed. I'll dust off my live shooting skills, and get introduced to the other bands playing. Maintaining relationships with the bands you work with is important because if you're nice, they will want to work with you again. If you act like a big shot during the shoot, and spend more time dropping names than taking photographs, the band will most likely tell their friends that you were a pain to work with.

Most importantly make sure you listen to what the band wants. If you have a fantastic idea that you're excited to do that involves fireworks and a slip and slide, but the black metal band isn't feeling it, you need to respect that. That also goes the other way, if the band wants to be photographed in their tighty whiteies and you don't feel comfortable with it simply tell them All Time Low already did it, and you don't want to copy someone else. Stick to your guns. I have a lot of little personal rules that I try to follow at all times. I very very rarely will photograph a band where anyone is smoking, because I don't want to portray it as cool to their young fan base. It's an extreme pet peeve of mine when a band of 18 year old boys wants to be portrayed in that way to their 14 year old fans. Moral rules are tricky because if the band is dead set to be chain smoking in a hotel full of call girls and drinking, they'll find a way. I've been flat out ignored, and a band has started smoking anyway because they really wanted to look like "players"... with cancer in their future.

Last but not least RESEARCH! Read every music magazine you can get your paws on! Keeping up to date on what's trendy in photographic styles is essential. If you don't know what a band means when they come up to you and say they want their photos to look "Spin Magazine" then you're screwed. Spin and Alternative Press have totally different photo styles. Chances are if a band is coming to you wanting AP photos you have that style already. Bands are pretty good at researching photographers before they plunk down their hard earned merch dollars. Don't stop at reading magazines either. I have a coffee table full of around 20 photo books by everyone from Franchesca Woodman to Annie Leibovitz. Don't settle for trying to emulate the photographers in Alternative Press, strive to be like the best of the best. Go sit in Barnes and Nobel for a day and look through high end fashion, music, and culture magazines. I even read wedding magazines looking for new lighting styles to try out. If you don't read PDN, start now. Photo District News has some great lighting set ups in the back of the magazine, and lots of interviews with world class retouchers. I've gleaned a ton of information from that magazine.

To sum up...
Be professional, especially if you're a girl.
Love music, or find a different niche.
Listen to what the band wants, and make sure they respect your style and moral code.
READ! Get off the internet and go to the library or a book store!

P.S. Stop calling photographs "shots"! God it's annoying.

I just wanted to pop in to say that very few things make me quite as happy as Manchester Orchestra. One of those things is Kevin Devine. I get to see them both at the Troubadour in May. In the same week. I win.

DONE! This is what 25 hours looks like you wussies!

HOME STRETCH! I can actually see the light at the end of this editing tunnel. For Settings anyway... sigh

Yesterday I went to Springfest out at USC. Not gonna lie, it was pretty cool getting to see Brand New, The Submarines, Portugal the Man, The Summer Set, Iglu and Hartly, and Run Doris Run... but I can barely handle a 6 band lineup, much less 9 hours and 16 bands. I got super ADD, and it there wasn't enough going on to keep me occupied. Mostly hung out with Jared and the Run Doris boys, and The Summer Set between sneaking around trying to figure out how to get my hands on a press pass for Brand New. Our theory of "security getting used to you" didn't work and half way through Portugal's set I got booted out of the barricade. According to the little lady who was in charge there weren't any photo passes. Yet in Run Doris' green room she handed one to her friend who I saw later taking pictures with a dinky power shot. Eff my life. I wanted to scream. Anyway, I'll post some of the photos I got of The Submarines in a while. The sun was setting right behind them and it didn't hurt that she has great blond hair and they cover everything in daisies! So pretty! Probably some of my favorite live photos ever.
Back to editing!
Currently listening to Ace Enders and a Million Different People- When I Hit the Ground

I went to the Verizon store in Glendale today to try my luck at getting a new EnV for free again. When my original EnV started acting crazy and turning itself off I took it in and they smiled and handed me a brand new phone. Not so lucky this time. Jose informed me that my phone wasn't under warranty any longer and I'm not up for an upgrade until September. I asked if I could just buy a new phone or something and he actually told me no, "not until September". But he told me I could replace it for $50. I started to say no thanks, then asked to just buy a new charger. Oh hold on there, I could get a new phone, and a charger and a dreaded douche tag bluetooth for $50. Sold. So now I'm home charging up my new, yet identical to the last two, green EnV. We'll see what happens with me and the Bluetooth. I think that California might have just made that cell phone rule to make everyone buy a blue tooth and therefore look like a douche. California douche law. Next we'll all be required to drive those stupid little mini hummers.

My other interesting observation in the store was once again that I was the solo white girl, and NO one was speaking english. I heard Spanish, Japanese, and something that just sounded like angry jibberish, but the man at the counter was fluent in it. Welcome to LA!

So this isn't quite finished, but I couldn't help but edit it a little. This is The Summer Set from Arizona. We photographed down the street from my house with two gallons of sherbet and it was messy and really fun. The shoot was for Hide & Seek Clothing. The Summer Set recently joined the sponsor roster with Goodnight Sunrise, Versa Emerge, and myself. Welcome to the family!

Slade from Anarbor
I'm slowly getting through the editing fog. Today was a very long day and I'm really looking forward to going to sleep. I'm actually getting a grownup tax return this year. Shame that it will probably be the last one I'll ever get now that I'm self employed. Oh well, not complaining, I can pay rent and all feels right in the world for another month. Tomorrow I'm photographing The Summer Set for Hide and Seek and all I can say is that I'm excited... and it's going to involve brightly colored sherbet. Yum!
My roommates had a gumbo feast and the whole house smells like home. It's making me homesick actually, and I can't even eat the gumbo because it's full of chicken sausage. Sad panda. I'm going to bed.