Here’s a snap of the photo passes I collected in 2008. From Radiohead to Metallica and Marilyn Manson to the Jonas Brothers, it was a wild and varied year of shows big and small.
The prize for the biggest pass goes to Metallica (the big black pass, lowe center). As one photog said, “They should have just given us t-shirts!” The runner up was the pass for Lil Wayne in August (lower left, with “staff” in caps), which was a large laminate card produced by the venue since it was a one-off show.
From a design point of view, I enjoyed the credentials from Erykah Badu, Radiohead, Project Revolution, and Sammy Hagar.
Do some of these passes look familiar to you? Let me know if you shot any of the same tours in 2008, I’d love to hear from you. You can see this image on Flickr with my notes here.
You can read about the rest of my 2008 here.
This entry was posted on Monday, January 12th, 2009 at 11:01 am and is filed under News and Info and tagged with 2008, credentials, photo passes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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well i was looking forward to seeing this closer and with notes on flickr, but i don’t have permission to view. what gives?
Hey Kyle, the permissions on Flickr should be all set now, though you’ll be stuck at 500 pixels wide.
I’ll see if I can upload a larger version, but in the meantime you can check out a slightly larger version here.
hey todd,
that’s good enough for me – it was just impossible for me to see if i’d been shooting the same tours as you. now that i can see the notes, i know :)
Right on. Yeah, at web resolution, the artwork shrinks down quite a bit and they all begin to blur together – only the Metallicas and Springsteens of passes stand out.
Ownage. What’s the one with The Shining?
Sell yir set on eBay. Wonder how much you’d get…
Hey Chris,
I don’t know. There are always fans who ask me for my pass, especially at shows like My Chemical Romance or Panic at the Disco, but I have to decline – and this shot is the reason why.
No way I’d sell my passes. :)
The one with Jack Nicholson was the pass for Pointfest.
I would definitely never sell mine, getting the pass is one of the most exciting parts of the night, its like Christmas opening up the envelope to see what it looks like.
Yeah, gotta keep ‘em. Though, for AC/DC this week, we didn’t even get photo passes – not sure why.
that’s really odd, I got a photo pass for the opener, but it was ac/dc’s….there was a lot of confusion with the promoter though, I missed the first song because they didn’t know I was supposed to be there and I had to have an escort?
You always have an escort at arena shows like that, but who it is depends on who’s doing the promotion/production. It could be AEG, Live Nation, the house media rep, and/or someone from the tour.
ah, it was my first arena gig so I wasn’t aware
I instantly recognized the Manson pass as it’s still the same as in 2007 (rape of the world :) )
great collection :)
Yup, same tour. I guess a lot of tours span a year or maybe more, especially if they start in the Fall or Winter and carry over until Spring.
Hey Todd! I have that same Metallica photo pass hanging on a mirror. I love it. It was actually the first show I got to shoot on my updated gear and the shots came out great. But oh man, as a Metallica fan, the photo pass was the best part of the show. :)
Thanks as always. You’re such an inspiration to me.
Hey Mark!
Great to hear from you. Thanks for the kind note. I know so many people look up to you on Buzznet and such it’s a little surreal to get a comment from you here!
The Metallica pass is just about perfect, I love it. I have to fold it in thirds just so it fits with the other, regular passes! That’s a great first show to test out your gear, too. The first three songs felt like 20 minutes for my show.
Hi Todd,
I love the site and your photos are amazing! You certainly get around to a lot of shows. I’m a freshman in college and I’ve been into concert photography for about a year now.
I’m just wondering how you have such a great success rate at obtaining passes. Do you ever get denied? I was recently denied a request and was told that only print publications were allowed in – is this something you encounter often?
Also, for the large arena shows, do you typically contact the venue first or the band? It seems like the contact information for the band is usually very difficult to find.
Thanks for all you do!
Matt