Today is May 9. Long story short, it’s my birthday, and to celebrate, I want to give you the presents. And what’s better than the gift of rock ‘n roll? I can’t make you wail like Hendrix or drum like Ringo, but maybe we can rock your walls.

For the next month, I’m offering 30% off all prints.

The Details:

Any print size. Any order. No minimums, through June 9. This sale is good for any print size and any order with no minimum through June 9.

30% Off Coupon Code:

Just use the code “BDAY30” at checkout and the discount will automatically be applied.

The Images:

Visit my gallery archive for the full list of concerts available. You can also search www.ishootshows.com and click through any recent image to view it larger and add it to your cart. If you do pick up a print, please drop me a line and let me know!

If you’re looking for suggestions, these are some of my favorite images from the last year:

A few photo passes from 2010 – click to see a big 1200px wide version.

What does a year for a freelance live music photographer look like? Pretty much like the above snapshot.

As 2010 comes to a close, I thought I’d take a snapshot of my photo passes from the past year. All in all, I photographed about 110 individual concerts and a handful of festivals. The above photo shows my year in passes, excluding the passes I’ve lost along the way (Alice Cooper!) and most of the wristbands.

Hit the jump for a not-so-serious “paper plate awards” and superlatives rundown of photo passes from this year.

Biggest Pass: Sting

Runner Up: Alter Bridge/Sick Puppies

The award for the year’s biggest pass goes to Sting, who broke out with an 11cm x 14cm pass with metallic silver ink. Classy.

Most Passes Issued: The National (three individual passes, one concert)

Runner Up: Four-way tie between As I Lay Dying/Underoath (The Cool Tour), Angels & Airwaves, Killswitch Engage/The Devil Wears Prada, and Cobra Starship/3OH!3 with two passes

The passes for the National were a hookup from my friend Heather, who was kicking ass and taking names on the tour. The National’s tour passes were this really nice pseudo-metallic job on coated stock, which looked beautiful, too.

Most Infamous Pass: Kings of Leon

Runner Up: Justin Bieber

The infamous concert where Kings of Leon ended the show after just three songs when bassist Jared Followill was allegedly defecated on by a pigeon: I was there.

Then there was the make-up show to complete the healing.

The “Bucket List” Pass: The Flaming Lips

Runner Up: Chuck Berry

The Flaming Lips were one of those bands who have eluded my camera until 2010 – after missing them due to various circumstances, I finally got to cross them off my bucket list and get that silly picture of Wayne in his hamster ball.

The City Pride Pass: LouFest 2010

Maybe satisfying isn’t quite the right word, but it was pretty cool to have this photo credential for the inaugural LouFest, a proper two-day, multi-stage music festival in St. Louis that has been a long time coming. With headliners like Broken Social Scene, She & Him, Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, and Built to Spill, this fest wasn’t too hard on the ears, either.

Most Underwhelming Pass: Justin Bieber

For a monster tour with such huge production, Bieber’s pink paper wristband was a little underwhelming as a credential.

Passes Most Likely To End Up As Drink Coasters: The Pageant

The Pageant house pass (white triangles with the red border) is given out for any band (touring or local) who doesn’t have their own dedicated passes. Even for some large bands who have sold out the venue, these passes are issued, and since I shoot there what seems like a couple nights a week, these house passes add up.

It’s not that I don’t love these passes, too – I do – but they add up.

Favorite Pass: Elton John

My favorite pass of the year? Definitely the passes from a private concert with Elton John that my brother Chris and I photographed in NYC. While the passes themselves are pretty classy and slick, it’s more the sentimental value of having been commissioned for a job of this level and rocking it with my bro.

End Notes:

And that concludes the paper plate awards for the 2010 photo passes. Here are two more photos of the passes stacked up.

What Are Your Winners?

Do you have a list of your own superlatives? What were you favorite passes of the year? Let’s hear it!

Recently, I had the chance to visit the Nooka Lab in NYC, birthplace of some of the coolest watches around. It was great meeting up with the team, and I picked up a brand spanking new Nooka Zub Zirc to add to the collection.

Nooka was the official watch sponsor for Warped Tour 2010; you might recall some of the recent photos from the punk rock summer camp with artists rocking Nooka, like Grant Harris from Breathe Electric:

The Nooka Zub Zirc

This watch is one of Nooka’s Spring 2010 models, with the face of the Zirc in the slick polyurethane styling of the Zub series. As a music photographer, I went with the black model; I always prefer to go as low key as possible in the photo pit, so BK was the natural choice.

The face of the watch features several elements, with a circular hours readout and a linear minutes display. Seconds are noted in a two-digit digital display. You also have your AM/PM and alarm indicators as well.

The clasp on the band isn’t your standard band buckle, but super fast pinch-mechanism. The latch is also spring-loaded, so it pops open; easy to adjust, easy to put on.

End Notes:

Shout out & big love to the fine folks at the Nooka – I think I have my new concert watch. Until I get Nooka’s new Zub Zayu, anyway.

Now, to keep this music photography related, here are some artists artists sporting Nooka who you might recognize:

July 10, 2008 – Performing for a private event, Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus, AKA “The Greatest Show On Earth,” came to the Chaifetz Arena in three-ring style with the performance of “Bellobration.” The performance starred head-clown Bello Nock, who was named by Time Magazine as “America’s Best Clown,” and featured a host of other attractions including acrobats, trained animals, death defying stunts, and, of course, general clown-foolery.

Photographer’s Notes:

While most of my duties as the house photographer for the Chaifetz arena involve music acts, Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus provided an exciting assignment. The nearly two-hour event provided no shortage of engaging subjects, with all manner of acrobats, clowns, and other acts filled up the hour and a half-long show, from the floor of the arena to the ceiling.

I photographed the event from the very edge of the floor, well outside the ring. For some of the acts that required supports, the rigging of which was positioned betwen me and the action, this position did have some limitations. However, the majority of the event was covered easily with the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 on the D3.

In addition to the 70-200mm, I used the Nikon 300m f/2.8, 24-70mm f/2.8 and 14-24mm f/2.8. While the 300mm obviously had superior range, the flexibility of composition with the 70-200mm won out.

Thanks to spotlights used for most of the more key acts, light levels were no problem for this event. I shot between ISO 1600 and 3200, with shutter speeds between 1/400 and 1/1000. Lighting was bright enough to keep a relatively tight aperture range of f/3.5 to f/4.

While the event as a whole was more multi-dimensional than most concerts – in the performance space and range of entertainment – most of the basics of event coverage carried over. Timing, observation of the subject, and a little luck all came into play.

August 23, 2008 – Bruce Sprinsteen and the E Street Band performed at the Scottrade Center arena in a no-frills production that saw the Boss dig deep into his back catalog, with frequent trips across the length of the stage to return a bit of the love his fans displayed so enthusiastically. With a very sparse stage treatment and 360º seating, it was a night of no frills – just rock.

Photographer’s Notes:

While I generally prefer to avoid soundboard assignments, I jumped at the opportunity to photograph The Boss. Going into this show, I knew well in advance that this was going to be a soundboard shoot, so I came packing. I decided on the Nikon 500mm f/4 and the 1.4x TC for the Nikon D3, which put me at an effective 700mm. You’ll have to believe me when I say that every millimeter counted for this gig.

We were set up behind the soundboard on a slightly elevated platform – quite ways off from the stage at the opposite end of the floor. Still, the super telephoto and teleconverter did an admirable job at helping to close the distance. The reach was just about perfect for a full-length shot of Springsteen at center stage.

The effective f/5.6 aperture of the combo made for a considerable cut in light, so I shot the entire performance at ISO 6400, with marginal shutter speeds hovering around 1/250. Given that the 500mm f/4 is about as big as my leg, I shot the whole rig on my old Manfrotto 3021 with the Really Right Stuff BH-55 ballhead.

Aside from the telephoto prime, I also twisted on the 70-200mm and 14-24mm for a few one-off shots with the Nikon D700 for wider perspectives.

Overall, the stage treatment was very simply and without much variation during the two songs we shot. The light levels were fairly bright, given the arena setting, but lacking in the surgical brightness of some larger pop shows.

End Notes:

Did you see the halftime show for the 43rd Superbowl? If not, you should definitely check out the video, particularly the first song, “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out,” where the Boss does a powerslide over the stage – right into the camera. His face when he gets up is priceless – that’s pure love.

The knee slide is at about 2:20 in this video.