How To Become A Rockstar Photographer Podcast with Matthias Hombauer

Todd Owyoung talks about his music photography career, switching from DSLR to mirrorless cameras and how he became a Nikon brand Ambassador.

Josiah Van Dien talks about his work with Shawn Mendes, the challenges and rewards that come with the job of working for a big name.

Deb Kloeden talks about travelling long distances, her experiences as a teacher and how she ended up being a concert photographer.

Matty is the touring photographer for bands such as Thirty Seconds To Mars, Bishop Briggs and Billie Eilish and in this interview, we’ll talk about his specific workflow when on the road.

Brittany Bowman shares her experiences working on tour as a photographer, driver, merch manager and talks about the behind the scenes in the music industry.

Paris Visone shares her experience touring with Blondie and Marilyn Manson, how she got sponsored by Canon and talks about her documentary book.

Dominic Pencz talks about travelling between Germany and LA 6 months of the year, touring the world and work experience with KISS and Halloween.

Ryan Chang talks about moving from Singapore to the UK, what is the difference in the music scene and what it is like to tour worldwide with big band names.

Anna Lee talks about how she got from graphic design to music photography and what is the biggest difference between wedding and music photography.

Steve Thrasher talks about how it is to be a team member of DWP (Danny Wimmer Presents), and how important it is to network and be nice to people.

Kerrie Geier talks about opening a facebook group with female music photographers and how women are celebrated at the Australian Woman Music Award.

In Part 2 of our interview, Ed and Jack will answer questions from the community such as “Can I sell prints of photos to magazines or agencies without the band's approval?”. How many photos is a limited edition?

Edward Greenberg and Jack Reznicki talk about why it is very important to do a copyright registration of your photos and how to write a proper invoice.

After getting viral and published by PetaPixel, Lizzy Davis discusses why she wrote an open letter about the challenges we all face in getting photo passes.

Ville Juurikkala shares what is his approach when shooting intimate portraits of Rockstars and what helped him to connect to his inner-self.

Chase Jarvis talks about the importance of being creative every day, his daily routines and he talks about finding your passion and meaning in life. This upcoming interview is fully packed with tips and tricks from his journeys as a photographer and entrepreneur.

Baron Wolman talks about Woodstock, becoming the magazine's first Chief Photographer and what was his reason for starting his own fashion magazine.

Dana Distortion talks about the music photography industry and how she deals with personal challenges like insecurities and her upcoming film. I interviewed Dana in Episode 5 of my Podcast show and she just killed it. After 81 episodes, her episode is the most listened ones. This was 2,5 years ago. A lot happened in Dana's life and therefore I needed to bring her back.

Walid Azami speaks about why it is good to follow your instincts and explains why it is important to know your camera inside out. Walid is a photographer & director who got his start by working with Madonna + Co to help create a multitude of projects under her brand.

Karen Mason Blair reveals some great stories about working with all the famous grunge bands and talks about publishing her new book.

Jawn Rocha speaks about his journey on becoming a full-time touring photographer and how his hair became his marketing tool.

Working as a concert photographer in Israel and how Guy Prives built a 6000+ members concert photography community on Facebook.

In this interview, Brittany will talk about her journey as a concert photographer and how she is mastering the challenge shooting from a wheelchair.

In this interview, Matt talks about why he hires photographers with weird styles that wouldn't work with most other publications. We talk about his passion for landscape and music photography and how your photos might be published by Pitchfork too.

Today’s guest is California based live music film producer, studio engineer, photographer, and designer Julie Gardner.

In her long recording career as a studio engineer Julie have worked with some of the most successful recording artists and bands today, among them Neil Young, Van Morrison, Stephen Stills, Elvis Costello, Eric Clapton, Elton John, Gary Moore, Deep Purple, John Legend, The Cranberries and many more.

If you’re a metal fan, chances are very good that you have already seen some of Esters work on album covers or magazine covers of the most famous heavy, doom death, and black metal bands. 

In this interview, we’re talking about her incredible portrait work and how she comes up with inspirations for her photos, the making of her book “Ars Umbra” and why it has its own soundtrack.

Today’s guest is DJ photographer Drew Ressler, better known as RUKES.

Rukes is considered the #1 DJ photographer in the world (named #1 in the “Greatest Music Photographers Right Now” by Complex in 2012).

All the hard work paid off when he landed his first tour with Deadmau5 in 2009, traveling all over the globe with him. From that point on, Rukes hasn’t slowed down and can now be found jetting around the world on any given day with DJs or music festivals like Ultra!

Maryanne is an award-winning photographer with 30 years of industry expertise spanning 4 continents. Best known for subjects including rock ‘n’ roll musicians, celebrities, and high-end advertising campaigns.

Today's guest is Robert M Knight. Raised in Hawaii and based in Las Vegas, Robert is a long time advertising photographer who also specializes in the rock and roll music industry. His career spans from 1968 to the present constantly working in the music industry for international record companies, publications, and music equipment manufacturers. Robert is best known for his "Guitar Legend" archive, having worked with such artists as Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, Slash and many more.

Katja Ogrin talks about her beginnings back in Slovenia, music photography business and why she is still hesitant to switch to mirrorless camera systems.

In this interview, Thomas will talk about his touring experiences from his beginnings in a tour bus to exclusively flying and getting upgraded to first class all the time. He will reveal why he is talking to other photographers every day and we'll talk about his dreams doing more full documentaries.

Today’s guest is Jerome Brunet, an award-winning photographer whose work has been published internationally in Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Time, Billboard, and The New York Times to name a few publications. 

In this interview Jerome will talk about the making of his upcoming book “Into The Light” and how he was able to raise $30 000+ for it on Kickstarter and why it’s a good idea to donate your work for non-profit organizations.

Today’s guest is Greg Gutbezahl and in this interview, it’s all about exhibitions. Greg will give you a step-by-step guide on how to plan, curate and do the marketing for your own exhibition. And he’ll reveal which photo formats work best and we’ll discuss strategies on how to sell your work after your photos show.

Christie Goodwin with a career that spans over 35 years, gives insights into her world and talks about challenges, successes and her dreams. After obtaining a bachelor’s degree in art photography, she initially shot fashion assignments but soon got restless and left the fashion world behind her. For a good decade, she shot mainly fine art projects and held regular exhibitions to showcase her work as well she shot political news and editorials. 

Today’s guest is New York-based music photographer Leo Mascaro.

Leo was born in Sao Paulo and after finishing his graphic design education, he moved to New York to start his career as a music photographer from scratch. 

In this interview, he'll share his best strategies to work with bands. 

Leo is also the administrator of the official HTBARP Instagram account where we choose the best concert photos tagged with #htbarp and features the coolest photos three times a week. Leo will give you some tips on how to get featured as well.

Today’s guest is California based music photographer Steve Rose.

We’ll talk about how he started his career by taking photos of his cat (and Steve even got published in a cat photography book), how he became one of the tour photographers of the band Journey and how to master the challenge when shooting the same concert every evening on a tour.

It doesn’t matter if you know Adam from his work, being a social media star with 416 000 followers on Instagram or if you ordered one of his camera wristbands. This interview is for you if you want to get a behind the scenes look of being a pro music photographer. 

Adam will talk about how he started his career as a tour photographer and he’ll share his best tips and tricks to become one. We’ll discuss how important marketing really is for a photographer and why we both love giving back to the concert photography community.

After finishing my online academy Shooting The Rockstars he got serious about becoming a music photographer and found a unique way how to break into this business. 

In this interview, Andy Tatt talks about how he built an awesome team of concert photographers out of the HTBARP community and shares his secrets on how he approaches organizers and promoters of festivals in order to work with them.

Bela Molnar is a director, producer, and photographer specializing in documentaries, music videos and live events filming.

He has been nominated for an MTV Video Music Award in New York for a music video he did for Moby and Bela was in charge of 24 film cameras when shooting a performance of Jamiroquai. So this guy knows what he is talking about.

Imagine documenting the beginning Rock N Roll in New York including artists such as Iggy Pop, Blondie, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, KISS, Ramones, Sex Pistols, The Clash, Alice Cooper and many more sounds very exciting to me. And I guess for a lot of you who are listening right now a dream would come true if you could have experienced what Bob experienced in his career. 

Bob Gruen became close friends with John Lennon & Yoko Ono and his photos are known as the most iconic and most used photos of our time.

Today’s guest is Rock N Roll Photographer Chester Simpson. Chester learned all the secrets of the photography business from legends such as Ansel Adams and Jim Marshall who took him under their wings, Both told him that he should always help other photographers which is an approach I really relate to. 

In this interview, we’ll talk about Chesters experiences and stories from his last 38 years. However, the main focus in this episode is the part of our industry where almost everyone is struggling with: the business side of concert photography. Chester will share his approaches when it comes down to sell your photos, work with bands as well as we’ll go deep into specific pricing for band shoots as well.

Today’s guest is New York-based music photographer Coen Rees. 

While recording former episodes of my podcast one name was mentioned many times as an inspiration and therefore I needed to get Coen on the show. 

As an African French-born Londoner Coen built a huge archive of music photographs taken in England in the mid-nineties and therefore documented the rise of the “Britpop” era. As one of the few black rock photographers back then she moved to Los Angeles and finally settled down in New York. 

In this interview, we’re going to talk about her style and why she loves Black & White, how she started with minimal equipment and worked her way up in the music photography industry and Coen will reveal how she was able to shoot portrait from stars like Shirley Manson, Nice Cave, Wayne Coyne, Michael Stipe without any press accreditation or magazine access. 

Todays guest is New York based photographer and the deputy photo editor at Rolling Stone, Sacha Lecca. 

In this interview Sacha will reveal his best tips on how to get your work published in one of the most prestigious music magazines and we will talk about the future of our industry.

Find Sachas work, his favorite camera equipment and much more on his show notes page at htbarp.com/sachalecca

Today’s guest is A.F. Cortes, a multidisciplinary artist in the fields of screenwriting, directing, design and photography.

In this interview we’re going to talk about the underground music scene in Brooklyn, about Andres job as a filmmaker and how it differs from his photography work and Andres will talk about his newest music documentary REHEARSAL SPACE, that explores the creative process of iconic musicians.

Find Andres work, his favorite camera equipment and much more on his show notes page at htbarp.com/andrescortes

Recently Alex left a comment on Instagram saying “Can you get David Fearn aka shit show Dave on the podcast? it would be great to see the other side of concert photography, the guys who shoot shows that rarely have a pit and can shoot the whole show. And how it is to deal with crazy crowds!”

Sure. I can Alex!

Today’s guest is Los Angeles based music photographer Dave “Shitshow” Fearn, Dave committed to documenting the dark underground punk/rock scene instead of Hollywood celebrities and shooting big stadium shows.

In this interview, we’ll talk about his personal journey from being a pro sports photographer who was never touched by his own work, why he is giving it all for the local music community and Dave will explain why he started to publish his own magazine.

Today we’re going to discuss an important topic which every concert photographer should be aware of: ear protection and I am super excited that Ryan Parry, CEO of eargasm joined me for this interview. Recently I wrote an extensive earplugs review which you can find on my homepage and Ryans eargasm earplugs went straight to nr.1.

We’re going to talk about why earplugs are so important, the 2 key factors you should look for when buying earplugs and how Ryan came up with this unique name.

By the way. Ryan was so kind to give my followers a great offer. Go to htbarp.com/eargasm and use the coupon code HTBARPEAR when checkout to get a -10% discount on your order. 

Today's guest is California based music photographer and entrepreneur Matthew Belter.

Matthew joined my HTBARP community right from the beginning and he will talk about how this event transformed this life to become a successful music photographer. He will also share what he learned when building his own family business and why he is working out hard with his kettlebells every day.

Today’s guest is Glasgow based music photographer Alexandros Costa who has a similar story than myself. He studied architecture, but decided to follow his heart instead and is now living his dream life.

Alexandros will reveal his hard-working ethic, how he became a finalist at the Heavy Music Awards “Young Photographer Of The Year” and we’ll talk about how important Instagram is to promote his work. With more than 50 000 followers he is absolutely rocking the platform and we’ll talk about his best strategy to build your brand on Instagram.

During my short podcast break, I was busy working on my own Instagram video course for concert photographers called “Rock Instagram”. In this course, I am going to show you how to get more like more followers and build an awesome brand on the most important social media channel for photographers. If you want to learn more about Rock Instagram visit: htbarp.com/rockinstagram

Before my short podcast break in April I promised in the words of my Austrian fellow, Arnold Schwarzenegger “I’ll be back”, And here I am.

After 50 episodes interviewing the most inspiring music photographers on this planet I am prepared and ready for another 50! As I already mentioned a couple of times before my aim is to interview 100 of the most successful music photographers and then writing a book about my key findings which should help you to learn all the shortcuts and strategies that work when becoming a concert photographer.

I am super excited about today's episode because I know that this topic is one of the most misunderstood but at the same time the most important one for every concert photographer. Today, I am going to discuss with my colleague Naomi Dryden-Smith, a. Concert photographer and Copyright lawyer the nuts and bolts of copyright law.

I got a lot of questions such as am I able to sell my photos I took of concerts, are foreign contracts of bands legal when I sign them, what should I do when a band uses my photos without permission and am I screwed as concert photographer when the new GDPR law is coming on May 25th.

We all know the fights about copyright between bands and photographers on the internet and with this interview, I wanted to know exactly what we, as photographers are allowed to do with our photos.

Please be aware that the copyright law is very complex and specific legal issues should always be discussed in detail with a lawyer in your country. Naomi tried to be as general as possible. Since our community is built of people from all around the world and certain aspects discussed in this interview might not be applicable in your country.

Today’s guest is Mississippi based music photographer Jennifer Devereaux.

We’ll talk about how she manages her concert photography job with three kids and venues more than 2 hours away from her hometown. Jenn will explain how she balances her music and wedding work on social media and what challenges she has as a woman in the photo pit.

Today’s guest is Melbourne based Hip Hop photographer Michelle Grace Hunder. Michelle, a former model picked up her first camera when she was 31 and is now considered one of the most revered Australian Music Photographers.

Michelle has been invited as the official tour photographer for international Hip Hop acts and has been the Official Festival Photographer for "Come Together" at Sydney's iconic Big Top at Luna Park for 4 consecutive years.

After shooting with literally every major player in the Australian Hip-Hip scene, Michelle has spent the last three years on a personal project called "Her Sound, Her Story" celebrating Women in Australian Music, across all genres,

By chance, I recognized that she is using the same portfolio builder for her homepage which is format.com. Format is the nr.1 Portfolio builder and it comes with beautiful designs and is easy to set up. I got in contact with these guys and they offered me a 30 days free trial versions for my followers. So if you want to get your portfolio online within minutes, go to htbarp.com/freeportfolio and grab your free 1-month trial version.

In this interview, we’re talking about her career as a successful hip-hop photographer, how Michelle is using Instagram and Twitter to build relationships with artists and her approach when it comes down to shooting portraits in the studio.

Today’s guest is music photographer Roger Navarro.

We’ll talk about the music photography scene in Barcelona, how he found his own style, and why he loves shooting festivals.

Today’s guest is Sarah a music and portrait photographer born and based in Reading.

Her clients include Upset Magazine, Rolling Stone, Kerrang! Magazine, The Guardian, and The Observer to name a few. She also regularly works as an in-house photographer at the renowned O2 Academy Brixton.

In this interview, we’ll talk about Sarah's approach when it comes down to shooting portraits of Rockstars.

After Paul Miles in ep 30 and John Raptis in episode 34 we’re back in Australia!  This time my guest is Jaz Meadows, a Melbourne based music photographer. Let me tell you, I love talking to those guys from down under. It seems they are always in a good mood and it’s a lot of fun doing this interviews with them.

Jaz is someone who found a unique style for his concert photos. Every time a black and white concert photo with high energy in it catches my eyes, I know this is one of Jaz work.

So we’ll talk about how he found his unique black and white style, about the music photography scene in Australia and how he approaches social media to get his work seen.

Let me introduce my guest for today: Mr. Brian Rasic.

Born in Yugoslavia, Brian began his career photographing local acts, and touring bands from abroad, in his hometown of Belgrade in the early seventies. He moved to London in 1979 and over the years has trained his lens on artists from every genre of popular music, including rock, pop, jazz, country, and blues.

A dedicated fan of The Rolling Stones, Brian has covered their shows since the early 80's, capturing some exceptional moments along the way.

In February 2006 he was the Stones' official photographer at their biggest-ever gig, in front of 2 million people on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro.

Brian also worked with his personal heroes such as David Bowie and David Gilmour, who have also entrusted him with being their official photographer.

We talked about how the music business changed and of Cours his experiences with the biggest rock stars.

Today’s guest is someone who is living the Rockstar life. Let me introduce you to Mr. David Bergman, the official tour photographer of Bon Jovi.

We’ll talk about his crazy schedule when he is on tour with the band, why being persistent and knowing exactly what you want is the key to success and why his upcoming workshop is taking place on a cruise ship.

Today's guest is Kyser Lough, a music photographer and Ph.D. student in the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin.

What made this interview so fascinating for me was that Kyser is the first one I know of who wrote 2 research-based papers in the field of concert photography. And as he told me there is almost no literature in the academic field about this topic out there. So he is helping with his findings to make the concert photography community even better.

Kyer had a closer look at the body movements of concert photographers in the pit and how behaviors like blocking others can have an effect on the whole group. In addition, he interviewed women about their experiences in the male-dominated photo pits and drew some interesting conclusions which can help us to make the photo pit a safe place for all of us.

Today's guest is the Swedish musician Stefan Bratt. He is the founding members of one of my favorite bands, Atlas Losing Grip and he recently joined the punk rock legends of No Fun At All.

In this interview will we talk about how to deal with self-doubts and how to survive the music business as a musician, Stefan will talk about behind the scenes of Atlas Losing grip and why he is living his dream right now.

Today’s guest is New York-based music photographer Joe Papeo.

We’ll talk about why Joe left his high paying desk job in order to live his dream as a concert photographer, how he managed to break into the music industry and why he is now shooting for the Impractical Jokers, one of the biggest comedy television shows that tours a live show.

Today's guest is my friend and lighting designer Andres Atkinson. I met Andres when he was touring with Fink some years ago and since then we work together whenever he stops by in Vienna.

In this episode, we can all learn from one of the best lighting designers in this industry.He was working and touring with bands such as George Michael, Rick Astley, Kasabian, Mogwai, Florence and the Machine, Gossip, Editors, Manic Street Preachers, The Pet Shop Boys, Kaiser Chiefs, Fink and many more. Andres will share his experiences about stage lighting, concert photographers and why he loves smoke machines. Let’s get straight to the interview.

Today's guest is Neal Preston, one of the greatest rock photographers of all time. Neal was the official tour photographer for Led Zeppelin, Queen, Bruce Springsteen and The Who, and has also extensively shot The Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Michael Jackson and many more.

In this interview, weíll talk about his new book Exhilarated and Exhausted, which is a complete retrospective of his more than 40-year career. This is the first time Neal has allowed unrestricted access to his legendary archive ñ considered one of the music industryís most significant and extensive photo collections.

Join us on this journey through Time and listen to Neals stories about sex, drugs and rock n roll.

Today guest is my buddy Anthony D'Angio formerly known as Flex.

When we met online the first time a couple of years ago Anthony was crushing it in the country music scene. He was working with the most famous artists in this genre and flew to Nashville every 2-3 months.

In this interview, we’ll talk about how everything began. Anthony will share a behind the scenes look at how he built his own brand “Get-flexed” and how his path evolved to becoming a climber and landscape photographer.

Today guest is Seattle based music photographer Iron Mike Savoia.

Mike is one of the official photographers for music Caribbean cruises such as Monsters of Rock, Moody Blues, Cruise to the Edge and others like Def Leppard, Celtic Thunder. In this interview, we will talk about how it feels like to photograph your favorite bands in shorts on a party ship.

Mike will reveal his secret to beginner photographers when it comes down to get access to shows. This is an approach I only heard once during the previous 36 episodes, so make sure to not miss it.

And we’ll dive deep into social media and how you can get best out for your own concert photography work.

Let’s be honest with you. When I got the confirmation that Scott Kelby is joining my show I couldn’t believe it. I had to read the email from his assistant twice, before I realized that this is really going to happen.

When I started my journey as a beginner photographer I was overwhelmed with all the gear choices and settings. I didn’t have any clue where to start unless I found Scott Kelby's book series “The Digital Photography Book”. They are so well written and easy to follow. Not only started my photos to look way better than before, but his books started my passion for photography. Since then I am following Scott on social media, read some of his 60+ books that he published and see him as a mentor not only as a photographer, but also as an entrepreneur. Scott is exactly the type of overachiever I am looking up to,

This episode is jam-packed with insider tips on photography, business and music and Scott will share some entertaining stories that are not only funny, but you can learn a lot from someone who is one of the best photography teachers on this planet.

Today’s guest is England based music photographer Lukas Curtis.

Luke is one of these guys, like myself, who likes to share his thoughts about photography and how to get started.

We will talk about why you should shoot for free, especially in the beginning to build your portfolio. Luke is going to talk about how to deal with negativity. Some people might blame you for not asking for money. But, sometimes it´s better to think out of the box. And Luke will reveal his approach when it comes down to build your portfolio.

My guest today is Melbourne based music and street photographer John Raptis.

John built a strong brand identity and we are going to focus on this important aspect in this epsiode.

Nowadays it’s not enough to shoot only great photos, rather you have to build your own brand. Which is definitely not easy.

Therefore we’ll talk about the best approach to get your first logo, the key ingredients every brand needs to have, how you can self-publish your photo books and what you need to take care of, that you’re not sued by any bands.

In this episode, I am chatting with Jack Lue who started his music photography career as the first photographer of Guns N Roses back in the 80’s.

Jack will share his stories back in the days of Sex, Drugs and Rock N Roll, we’ discuss how the music business changed and why he shot all 73 bands on the Vans Warped tour in one day.

Today´s guest is Igor Vidyashev, better known under his brand name RockXposure: The fine art of Rock Photography.

Igor is the ideal example of someone who found his passion later in life. In his earlier years, he was building nuclear cruisers and submarines in Russia and it took almost 50 years for him to realize that photography is his real mission in life and he successfully completing a formal education in prestigious New York Institute of Photography.

In this interview, Igor will talk about his magic business plan that allowed him to get in personal contact with artists such as Zakk Wylde, the crazy story on how he met one of the best music photographers around (Neil Zlozower) who became his close friend and touring on Rock cruises in the Caribbean. Igor also built his own business, where he teaches photography and sells his own merch.

To get more info about Igor Rockexposure including some of his best shots, his favorite gear, and his courses go to the show notes pages: htbarp.com/igorrockexposure

In this episode, I sat down with Raul Soria Jr. to talk about the music photography scene in Hawaii. Is it really the paradise that I would have thought of? Beautiful beaches, pretty girls, and the cocktails?

Raul gives us an insight into his world living on a small island and why a lot of rockstars play in small clubs whereas they normally perform on the big stages everywhere else. He’ll talk about meeting Kirk Hammett all the time and how the community of music photographers and promoters work together to keep the local music scene alive.

Today’s guest is Paul Miles, an Australian based music photographer. Back in the 90’s he was the first who built a webpage dedicated to his favorite band Mötley Crüe and is now known as world’s first #1 historian for the band. The band liked his page so much that they invited him to join their tours.

In this episode, we’ll also talk about his two books “Sex Tips from Rock Stars” where musicians share their private stories and “Before I hit the stage”.

To get more info about PaulMiles including some of his best shots, his favorite gear and the links to his books go to the show notes pages: htbarp.com/paulmiles

This time I interviewed Julian David Stone about his adventures as concert photographer starting back in the 80s’. His approach to concert photography was a different one than most of us are going for He sneaked in his camera gear taped to his legs or hidden in a specially prepared navy coat. In our interview, he shares his favorite stories such as when he was hiding his lens in a big bottle of hairspray of his female friend to get into his equipment into a Prince concert and much more.

I do not recommend to sneak your gear into concerts nowadays, cause you can get blacklisted easily and your concert photography career might be over before it even starts.

However, the 80’s were a different time and it’s hilarious to hear Julian's stories.

We’ll also talk about his successful kickstart campaign of his book “No cameras allowed” which includes a collection of his rare shots of bans such as The Police, Prince, Ramones to name a few.

To get more info about Julian David Stone including some of his best shots, his favorite gear and the links to his upcoming book go to the show notes pages: htbarp.com/julianstone

I’m excited because today´s guest is the singer of Vintage Trouble Ty Taylor. I first met the band in the backstage area of the Ottawa Blues Festival back in 2014 when I was touring with Shantel. Then I was working with VT on stage in the front of 120 000 people when they were playing as support act of AC/DC in Austria and I got one of my most favorite shots from this memorable event.

I wanted to have a look behind the curtains of a raising Rockband such as Vintage Trouble. How is it to become a star overnight (cause this is what happened)? How can someone personally deal with these challenges?

In order to learn more about it, I got in contact with Ty and ask him to be a guest on my show. Fortunately, he agreed and I caught him in the backstage area of a venue in Milwaukee, minutes before they hit the stage.

In this interview, we're going to talk about how everything started for Vintage Trouble, his personal view on life, the importance of building a community and why he appreciates the work of concert photographers.

To get more info about Ty Taylor and Vintage Trouble go to the show notes pages: htbarp.com/tytaylorvt

Todd Spoth is a Houston based music and entertainment photographer who is specialized covering Hip Hop music. Most of the interviews so far covered the Rock and Heavy Metal genre and therefore I thought why not interview a Hip Hop photographer.

Todd client list includes brands such as Canon, Elle Magazine, Forbes, Fox Sports, NFL, Red Bull, The New York Times and he serves on the board of directors for the American Society of Media Photographers. So, this guy knows what he is talking about when it comes down to photography.

Today’s guest is music photographer Silvy Maatman, She is touring with the most famous hardcore bands such as Sick of it all and Biohazard to name a few.

Silvy is giving us a behind the scenes look when touring with those bands and she is going to reveal some of her crazy Rock N Roll stories.

I had the pleasure to chat with Detroit based music photographer Mr. Scott Legato. In this episode, it´s all about shooting for an agency. And Scott is not working for any agencies but for the biggest out there: Getty Images. With more than 50 000 photos on Getty, Scott is one of the hardest working guys I know of.

He will reveal his complete workflow and gives insights when working with an agency. Scott will teach how to sell your photos and his 3 rules every concert photographer should know about.

In this epsiode, my friend Nici Eberl joins my show. She is a fellow Austrian photographer who moved to London and she was one of the first followers of my project HTBARP.

Nici started from scratch and told me “I kept watching the photographers in the photo pit and dreamed of being one of them, but I never felt good enough and was too shy to present my work.”

After following my project for a while and completing my academy www.shootingtherockstars.com her life changed dramatically and she said “After completing Matthias' training I became the house photographer of the O2 Forum, got published in Kerrang! and had over 300 bands in front of my lens.”

My guest in this episode is Brooklyn based portrait and music photographer Ebru Yildiz.

Ebru will talk about her approach when she is shooting portraits and I can guarantee you, it´s great stuff and you`ll learn a lot from her. She will give us a

She will give us a behind the scenes look at her book „We´ve come so far“, a project where Ebru was working and shooting concerts for 75 days in a row! When I first heard about it, I couldn´t believe it.

Imagine shooting concerts for 75 days in a row without any break. This is crazy and therefore I love this interview so much because Ebrus story shows what you can reach in life when you´re passionate about a project and you pour in the hours.

We will also discuss how to self-publish a photo book (a topic that I also discussed with Alexander Hallag in Episode 6) and we will show you which strategies work best.

Today I have the pleasure to talk to Norwegian heavy metal photographer Kenneth Sporsheim. He is one of two photographers for the Nordic issue of Metal Hammer, and he is also the Nordic ambassador for brands like Pentax, Lexar and Lowepro.

In this interview Kenneth reveals insights on working for one of the most prestigious Metal magazines, he shares awesome stories about taking Portraits of bands such as Turbonegro, Slayer or Anthrax and give tips on how you can become an ambassador for famous brands too.

Today´s guest is New York based wedding and music photographer Brian Friedman.

I first bumped into his name a couple of years ago when I was reading his article on F Stoppers on how he went from part time to full time music photographer. Brian shared his 7 top tips including “You have to believe in yourself. When you do this dreams can and do come true”. I totally agree on this, because I had similar experiences and therefore I wanted to have Brian on the show to discuss this topic in more detail

In addition Brian gives us a reality check on how the photography business really works and why we all have to hustle in order to be successful. He will share his stories when he met celebrities such as Lady Gaga and Barack Obama and he will explain why you should find your own vision.

Today´s guest is San Diego based music photographer and author Alan Hess.

He is the author of “All Access: Your Backstage Pass to Concert Photography“ which was published in 2012 and is the first instructional book about concert photography. In total Alan published 16 photography books and in this interview, we’ll talk about the challenges as a music photographer, the complete process from starting writing to marketing his books and how he became part of the Photoshop World Instructor Dream Team.

Today's guest is Justin Sullivan the driving force behind one of my favorite bands New Model Army. Having him on my podcast is a dream come true, and I am so grateful that he sat down with me to do this interview.

The first time when I got to know New Model Army was when they were playing at the Forestglade festival in Austria. I was 15 years old and was fascinated by their music and their performance. Even my parents who picked me up from the concert liked their music and we visited New Model Army shows together in the next upcoming years.

I had seen NMA in concert for more than ten times and this year it happened that we worked together when they were playing a show in Vienna. This event was one of the experiences when you know that all the struggles you go after as a concert photographer are all worth it.

Working together with a band that helped me through the good and the bad times in the last 20 years and then getting the opportunity to work with them is the most rewarding feeling you can get as a music photographer.

In this interview, Justin talks about the successes and struggles in the last 36 years of New Model Army. He gives insights into the life of a professional musician and how to survive in the music business nowadays. It´s an inspirational journey from someone who has a deep understanding of the music scene and a life experience we all can learn from.

Welcome, today's guest is Toronto based Electronic Dance Music photographer William Selviz. I am really excited to have him on the show, cause we shared a similar story. William dropped out from school in order to live his passion and found his way into the entrepreneurial life. He founded an online music magazine called “rendrd” where he provides a platform for upcoming musicians, photographers, and writers to get their career going. In addition, he shapes the electronic music scene in Toronto with his passion for his project.

What I love about his story is that he, like me, just did something nobody expected from them. He jumped into the cold water, figured out a way to be successful and stick to his plan.

With this interview, I want to give you the proof that also you can live your dreams when you find your mission in life and be consistent with your work. Being self-employed (in any field) is a marathon, not a sprint. You’ll have bad times and you’ll have a good time, but the most important point is to believe and trust in yourself.

Let’s William share his thoughts in the interview.

Today's guest is music photographer Brad Moore who started his career as an assistant for Joe Mc Nally and Scott Kelby. Brad learned all about lighting and photoshop and is one of the few who had worked with mentors such as Joe and Scott. So this guy definitely knows what he is talking about.

In this interview, we’ll talk about transitioning from a job as an assistant with a monthly income to become a photography freelancer, the challenges when building your own brand and we talk about the business side of our industry.

In this episode, I´ll discuss with Per Ole Hagen how to deal with rights grabbing contracts and how the guys in Norway deal with those stupid restrictions.

So, let´s think about it. When bands like FooFighters and Megadeath using rights grabbing contracts all over the world, but they drop them in Norway, we sure can learn from our colleagues.

Therefore this interview can be the basis for a paradigm shift in the concert photography business. For me it´s important that you understand exactly what those rights grabbing contracts are and why you should never sign them.

Per will reveal the Norwegian way on how to deal with rights grabbing contracts and talks about solutions and challenges in our industry.

Today's guest is Liverpool based music photographer and the founder of Shout about it Georgia Flynn.

As a follower of my How To Become A Rockstar Photographer Project, you know that it´s all about supporting people in our concert photography community and help them get to the next level in their career.

And this is exactly what Georgia is doing as well. With her project "Shout about it" she is helping photographers to promote their work online and right now she is building a worldwide platform. This was the reason why I sat down with her to discuss her ideas and talk about her upcoming exhibition project called "shout about it live", where musicians and photographers work together to spread the word of our awesome concert photography community.

Today’s guest is Los Angeles based Music Photographer Dustin Jack.

In our interview Dustin reveals his approach when it comes down to shooting portraits of Rockstars like Motely Crue, Tommy Lee and Zakk Wylde. We will get a behind the scenes look at his Phil X Show with more than 40mio views on youtube and we’ll talk about how he one the Photoshop Guru Award.

My guest today is Austin based music photographer Pooneh Ghana. She started her career by taking photos of musicians with cheap plastic cameras which she uploaded on flickr. This eventually led to her first festival assignment for a blog where she only used a polaroid camera for her band portraits.

Nowdays, her clients include NMA, Pitchfork, The Rolling Stone Magazine, Red Bull , VICE and many more.

In this episode Pooneh is going to reveal how to get into a tour bus and tour with bands, her approach on shooting backstage portraits on festivals and why she still shoots polaroids.

Zack Whitford is a Los Angeles based music photographer and known as the tourphotographer of one of the worlds biggest Rock bands Aerosmith.

Zack will share his story becoming a pro photographer, his experiences when working with Aerosmith and his approach to please everyone in the band with his photos. Furthermore we'll talk camera porn about the Fuji and Sony Mirrorless system and why he shot an entire tour with only a 35mm lens.

This interview is full of insights and I am grateful that Zack took the time and sit down with me for the show. So without further ado, let´s get straight into the interview.

Today, I am really excited, cause my guest is Zach from one of my favourite bands Portugal. The Man.

The reason why I brought him up is not only that I love their music, but I also started my music photography career with them. I met these guys in Vienna for my first portrait session 6 years ago. Man, was I nervous. It used off camera flash for the first time and honestly saying I haven´t had any clue what I was doing.  MY heart was pounding when they entered the large concert hall where they were playing a gig later on. Luckily everything went well and my portraits got published in one of germanies largest indie magazine.

This was the beginning of our relationship, and we started to work together very time hen they came back to Vienna.

Fast forward to 2017 Portugal the man released their new album “Woodstock” which kicks ass. Their single “Feel it still” got Nr.1 in the alternative Billboard charts, they played in front of 10 000 people a few days ago and they’ll start their world tour soon.

I had the great opportunity to sit down with Zach and discuss about his life as musician, which struggles he had on the way to success and why he has more cameras on tour with him than me as a professional photographer.   

Todays guest is Madrid based Heavy Metal photographer Javier Bragado.

I met Javier the first time in buenos Aires when we did our concert photography exhibition together with Matias Altbach and Dana Distortion (who I interviewed in Episode 5). Since than I become a fan of Javiers work and personally speaking he is one of the best out there.

We will talk about how he used myspace to get started as music photographer, what struggles he had to face in the beginning, how it feels to be on stage with Alter Bridge, his view on the music business and what approaches he is using to stand out in the crowded concert photography world.

Jason Miller is a London based music photographer and the global content and social marketing leader at LinkedIn.

For everyone who is not familiar with LinkedIn. In Jasons words it´s “a professional network, where you connect with your online professional identity.”.

You might ask now, “Why the hell has no one ever told me to use this platform?”

No worries, 99% of all concert photographers are not using LinkedIn to get in contact with band managements or promotors and so on.

Therefore I am super excited to have someone like Jason on the Podcast to reveal  the social media secrets for concert photographers that no one is talking about.

Todays guest is New York based music and lifestyle photographer Drew Gurian.

He got his start in the industry traveling the world with world-renowned photographer, Joe McNally for five years, as his first assistant and right-hand man. He was travelling close to half a million miles in the air, he assisted Joe with client shoots, workshops and conferences around the world, working with tens of thousands of people.

I am pretty excited that Drew found the time to sit down with me and discuss his photography approach when it comes down to portraits and concerts shots. We talk about his collaboration with Mumford and Sons, how to survive in the photography business and which marketing approach Drew takes to stay on top of the game.

Todays guest is Tim Thornton (guitarist and drummer of the UK band Fink).

I worked with Fink several times over the last 3 years and it’s been a fruitful collaboration. They used one of my concert photos in their live album “wheels turn beneath my feet”, I photographed their tourposter for their world tour in 2015 and I joined them for 3 days tour in Austria. Through these collaborations we became friends and I am excited Tim found the time to join my show.

Tim will reveal how he got started as musician and how Fink evolved from a students band to a successful indie band. We will talk about his life on tour, how he sees the music business as a musician and what factors are important for him when choosing to work with photographers.

Furthermore, Tim is also an author and we’ll dig into his first book „The Alternative Hero“,  which The Guardian titled as „The indiest book of all time“ and he’ll talk about his crowdfunding campaign to get his 3rd book out.

Todays guest is New Zealand based music photographer Alexander Hallag. 

Recently I ordered his book "Shhh...the music is talking” about the New Zealand Music scene and was hooked by his work. Therefore I invited him to sit down with me and talk about the complete process from starting with the book idea in mind to finally having an awesome 200 pages coffeetable book in hands. Alexander will reveal his challenges during this 5 years project and he will share his best tips on how you can self publish your book too.

Make sure to listen until the end of this inspiring interview, where we talk about our concert photography community and why we should support each other.

Todays guest is my friend and awesome music photographer Dana Distortion from New York. I met Dana the first time in Buenos Aires, Argentina, when we both were part of the Highlights exhibition in 2016. Sometimes you meet a person for the first time and you have the feeling you know each other already for a long time. This was the case with Dana and we became close friends.

This episode is the most inspirational (at leat for me) so far. Dana will talk about how to fight challenges as music photographer, but also as a human being in general. She will reveal what’S her motivation to do the things she loves the most. We’ll talk about why man struggle as much as women in the field of music photography and how she came up with the idea to use a step stool in the photo pit and by the way started a trend. Why she loves wearing Band T shirts, and how she started her own fashion label. 

I know Steve as someone who is really working hard to give back to our concert photography community and I guess this is also the reason why we connected instantly. Beside shooting Rockstars he is working at a Radio station and helped me to set up this podcast. so special thanks to you Steve for helping me out. In this episode we will talk about on how to deal with rights grabbing contracts, a topic that is getting more and more attention in the music business lately. Steve will reveal his point of view when it comes to photo pit etiquette and he’ll talk about his own podcast “Behind The Shot”.

Peter Neill is a London based music photographer and former IT professional. He is also Head of Content at "Be-Hookd", a social media agency that helps musicians with their social media presence. In this episode, Peter will talk about how he landed his first concert photography job for U2, how he felt when he was working with one of his livelong idols Queen and what he loves about when shooting for The Script. Peter will reveal his approach when shooting portraits and we`ll discuss why social media is becoming more important than ever for bands and concert photographers. Furthermore he'll talk his best tips for using Twitter and the importance of using the right hashtags.

Kevin RC Wilson is a New York based music photographer and former media and marketing professional. He also owns a tattoo studio and was the curator of an art gallery called “Sacred Gallery” for the last 7 years. In this episode, Kevin will talk about how his tattoo studio helped him to get in contact with bands such as Misfits, Jane’s Addiction and Lamb of God. Why you should never act like a fangirl/boy and how he landed his ambassador deals with companies such as Think Tank, Black Rapid and Carl Zeiss. Furthermore we’ll discuss the best marketing tips and social media platforms for concert photographers.

Going through hundreds of emails and comments, I realised that almost everyone experiences struggles in this industry. It´s hard to decide which equipment and camera settings you should use when starting out as concert photographer, it´s challenging to get Photo passes for the big shows, it´s almost impossible to shoot directly for your idols and making money as concert photographer seems to be a dream everyone is chasing but only a few photographers are able to achieve. This made me think. How valuable would it be to learn from the best and most influential music photographers on this planet? Hear their secrets, struggles, successes and crazy stories from their Rockstar life in order to help you kickstart your career as concert photographer. This was the reason why I started with my HTBARP Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes, and more at http://www.howtobecomearockstarphotographer.com/htbarp-0-why-i-started-this-podcast-with-matthias-hombauer/