Assignment photos on SoundSpike.com
news feature – http://www.soundspike.com/news/article/2106-the_psychedelic_furs_news/
gallery – http://www.soundspike.com/photos/795-the_psychedelic_furs_in_seattle.html

One of the fun things – though, is not just my faves – but my most popular images – over time. Honestly, they are often not my absolute faves, nor technically best – but there is something about the images that make people look again, and again, no? Whether it’s just the popularity of the artist(very common – they don’t call ’em “pop” stars for nothing!) or great SEO, or luck – whatever it is, it’s kind of fun…

Also – it takes a lot for the newer images to break through – but the ones that do – also a surprise… I would say the winner of those this year – probably LIGHTS and maybe Never Shout Never?

Never Shout Never aka Christofer Drew Ingle – 2010 – teeny bopper fans were lined up literally around the block for this guy…the average age was probably between 13-15 – and girls were fainting in excitement and likely dehydration in the crowd leading up to and during the show…

A couple things I use to gauge popularity are flickr stats, blog/site stats, and google rankings of various images. On the latter – SEO on the first 2(flickr/site) directly impact. Doing it right in those places leads people to find my images who would otherwise never know to look there… And that’s great – otherwise, it’s just my friends looking – which is great – but you know, we all want world wide fame…ha ha!

I have done pretty well on google for sometime – even before I shot much live… Google likes me I guess;) Even now, I am not the most prolific shooter in Seattle – far from! But, for various popular searches, my photos turn up with frequency.

Oh, and I finally have images when you search my name >>google: elisa sherman<<…yay me (total vanity moment – apparently this isn’t true for everyone, and hadn’t until recently shown up for me!)

Of course – all that is to say, if the subject is popular – then they get googled – and if you label / SEO things well – you get that perfect storm – all the labeling, indexing, etc doesn’t matter if no one cares about the subject – I mean there is the art of it, sure…but that only goes so far, and honestly, it’s just my friends or photog followers that look at my photos because they’re cool/pretty… Fans, press, bands, etc, all are looking for more particular subject matter. So for that reason – I practically obsessively google shows I shoot after, to see if my images are scoring high in google/google image searches. They usually are…either from flickr, or my site – photosbyelisa.com, photoshelter, facebook, twitter, the pub am shooting for, etc. I don’t care how they find them – only that they find them. They are out there – and that’s the whole point, no?

All of this search bits – and whatnot, is maybe just a vanity project, who knows – but if nothing else, it shows me what is actually popular – and feedback, emails etc I might get from bands or other interested parties, reinforce for me that it does matter.

Will I ever be a rock star of a photographer? Who knows – as in actual pursuit of music, luck has more than a bit to do with that…I mean, there are a milieu of gorgeous, iconic images of live music out there. It’s hard to stand out, get noticed, etc. But, I’ll continue to shoot rock stars, because they inspire me. They are the epitome of drama – amongst the glowy flashing lights and fog…They sing, they play, they bang (drums, etc, lol) to the masses that throb and cheer for them…then they turn into regular people, but always with a little twinkle in their eyes, because they are rock stars when they are up on that stage – whether in front of 5 people or 50thousand. My mission is to capture those in between moments. Not to match everyone elses images – and not to be the technical best.

Will I ever be most popular? Maybe not! But google will still love me, and that’s ok with me;)

Some of my most popular music images (2006-2010) – what do you think?

Kate Voegele – 2009 – perhaps best known for her turn as rising star on TV’s “One Tree Hill” – had fans lined up hours before the show…played to a packed house at Neumo’s.

Bat for Lashes – 2009 – performed in near darkness most of the night – so I decided to find the drama and go black and white with the set – eclectic performer – and she seems to have quite a following – on top of the interesting stage name!

A couple oldies – quality is definitely in question – but, again, it’s not necessarily the best photos that get noticed, it’s who, what, where when…but good ones keep em coming back!

Storm Large – 2006 – Some of my most earliest favorite music images are of Storm – all shot with my old Olympus point and shoot…she’s gorgeous, expressive, and well excessively photogenic. This one gets the most hits still from the archives…Also, one of the first times my images were used for anything – in this case, accompanying an interview with said Ms. Large.

A few more popular oldies, Daughtry – 2007 & Blake Lewis – 2007 – both of American Idol fame…no wonder they are popular!

INXS – 2006 – Of course, I can’t leave out some of my most popular to date images are due to what got me started in all this – INXS – 2006-2007 Switched on Tour, front row again and again…Who by the by, are getting together once again, dropping a re-imagining of their hits performed by contemporary artists – Original Sin, and back in league with their 2005 RockStar INXS winner and new lead singer, Canadian, JD Fortune – in this world, a little bit of INXS must fall! The following image of said INXS newcomer, JD Fortune – was a great subject, and no wonder, this is what enticed me to shoot rock stars!


And then there are the images that get noticed – the following have all led to something beyond just that days shooting…usually from the unexpected subjects!

Foxy Shazam – 2009 – this my first piece of CD artwork – the band contacted me, and had to have it! They were a surprise needless to say…fun for sure – and I was at the show(Sounds headlined) to shoot the second opener, Semi Precious Weapons


Toad the Wet Sprocket – 2010 – a surprisingly popular set…perhaps not so surprising? They have been around a while, and it was a short tour – so a very limited amount of images…lot’s of hits when they went live on SoundSpike, as well as feedback from the band that they were some of their favorite photos. They clearly love what they do – and their fans appreciate them! Their fans have been around for a while, and they prove that not every popular muso requires a teen audience…

Psychedelic Furs – 2009 – this images featuring their drummer (who I didn’t get any shots of at the 2010 show) has been used by the band in their newly launched website. Definitely Pretty in Pink!

Next up, in a week or so – 2010 Year in Review – my fave images, and thoughts on the year and next, coming, soon-ish;)

One of the fun things – though, is not just my faves – but my most popular images – over time. Honestly, they are often not my absolute faves, nor technically best – but there is something about the images that make people look again, and again, no? Whether it’s just the popularity of the artist(very common – they don’t call ’em “pop” stars for nothing!) or great SEO, or luck – whatever it is, it’s kind of fun…

Also – it takes a lot for the newer images to break through – but the ones that do – also a surprise… I would say the winner of those this year – probably LIGHTS and maybe Never Shout Never?

Never Shout Never aka Christofer Drew Ingle – 2010 – teeny bopper fans were lined up literally around the block for this guy…the average age was probably between 13-15 – and girls were fainting in excitement and likely dehydration in the crowd leading up to and during the show…

A couple things I use to gauge popularity are flickr stats, blog/site stats, and google rankings of various images. On the latter – SEO on the first 2(flickr/site) directly impact. Doing it right in those places leads people to find my images who would otherwise never know to look there… And that’s great – otherwise, it’s just my friends looking – which is great – but you know, we all want world wide fame…ha ha!

I have done pretty well on google for sometime – even before I shot much live… Google likes me I guess;) Even now, I am not the most prolific shooter in Seattle – far from! But, for various popular searches, my photos turn up with frequency.

Oh, and I finally have images when you search my name >>google: elisa sherman<<…yay me (total vanity moment – apparently this isn’t true for everyone, and hadn’t until recently shown up for me!)

Of course – all that is to say, if the subject is popular – then they get googled – and if you label / SEO things well – you get that perfect storm – all the labeling, indexing, etc doesn’t matter if no one cares about the subject – I mean there is the art of it, sure…but that only goes so far, and honestly, it’s just my friends or photog followers that look at my photos because they’re cool/pretty… Fans, press, bands, etc, all are looking for more particular subject matter. So for that reason – I practically obsessively google shows I shoot after, to see if my images are scoring high in google/google image searches. They usually are…either from flickr, or my site – photosbyelisa.com, photoshelter, facebook, twitter, the pub am shooting for, etc. I don’t care how they find them – only that they find them. They are out there – and that’s the whole point, no?

All of this search bits – and whatnot, is maybe just a vanity project, who knows – but if nothing else, it shows me what is actually popular – and feedback, emails etc I might get from bands or other interested parties, reinforce for me that it does matter.

Will I ever be a rock star of a photographer? Who knows – as in actual pursuit of music, luck has more than a bit to do with that…I mean, there are a milieu of gorgeous, iconic images of live music out there. It’s hard to stand out, get noticed, etc. But, I’ll continue to shoot rock stars, because they inspire me. They are the epitome of drama – amongst the glowy flashing lights and fog…They sing, they play, they bang (drums, etc, lol) to the masses that throb and cheer for them…then they turn into regular people, but always with a little twinkle in their eyes, because they are rock stars when they are up on that stage – whether in front of 5 people or 50thousand. My mission is to capture those in between moments. Not to match everyone elses images – and not to be the technical best.

Will I ever be most popular? Maybe not! But google will still love me, and that’s ok with me;)

Some of my most popular music images (2006-2010) – what do you think?

Kate Voegele – 2009 – perhaps best known for her turn as rising star on TV’s “One Tree Hill” – had fans lined up hours before the show…played to a packed house at Neumo’s.

Bat for Lashes – 2009 – performed in near darkness most of the night – so I decided to find the drama and go black and white with the set – eclectic performer – and she seems to have quite a following – on top of the interesting stage name!

A couple oldies – quality is definitely in question – but, again, it’s not necessarily the best photos that get noticed, it’s who, what, where when…but good ones keep em coming back!

Storm Large – 2006 – Some of my most earliest favorite music images are of Storm – all shot with my old Olympus point and shoot…she’s gorgeous, expressive, and well excessively photogenic. This one gets the most hits still from the archives…Also, one of the first times my images were used for anything – in this case, accompanying an interview with said Ms. Large.

A few more popular oldies, Daughtry – 2007 & Blake Lewis – 2007 – both of American Idol fame…no wonder they are popular!

INXS – 2006 – Of course, I can’t leave out some of my most popular to date images are due to what got me started in all this – INXS – 2006-2007 Switched on Tour, front row again and again…Who by the by, are getting together once again, dropping a re-imagining of their hits performed by contemporary artists – Original Sin, and back in league with their 2005 RockStar INXS winner and new lead singer, Canadian, JD Fortune – in this world, a little bit of INXS must fall! The following image of said INXS newcomer, JD Fortune – was a great subject, and no wonder, this is what enticed me to shoot rock stars!


And then there are the images that get noticed – the following have all led to something beyond just that days shooting…usually from the unexpected subjects!

Foxy Shazam – 2009 – this my first piece of CD artwork – the band contacted me, and had to have it! They were a surprise needless to say…fun for sure – and I was at the show(Sounds headlined) to shoot the second opener, Semi Precious Weapons


Toad the Wet Sprocket – 2010 – a surprisingly popular set…perhaps not so surprising? They have been around a while, and it was a short tour – so a very limited amount of images…lot’s of hits when they went live on SoundSpike, as well as feedback from the band that they were some of their favorite photos. They clearly love what they do – and their fans appreciate them! Their fans have been around for a while, and they prove that not every popular muso requires a teen audience…

Psychedelic Furs – 2009 – this images featuring their drummer (who I didn’t get any shots of at the 2010 show) has been used by the band in their newly launched website. Definitely Pretty in Pink!

Next up, in a week or so – 2010 Year in Review – my fave images, and thoughts on the year and next, coming, soon-ish;)

They have just launched their own official site – and I have the pleasure of having one of my photos featuring the drummer – on the new site: http://thepsychedelicfurs.com/index.html

Original photo –

For more photos on the Psychedelic Furs, check the set from this last year –
[flickr-gallery mode=”photoset” photoset=”72157622276974011″]

Yes, the answer to on Facebook friends question: They are still alive…

Seriously though, they are a group, that whilst playing the songs from their heyday, harks back to why New Wave music, etc, was so cool…and is. Because it sounds great.

The guys, still in relatively fine form, are back…alas, all dressed in black w/no backdrop or stage lights – thanks(not), but at least good front lighting to capture some of the fun…

Believe it or not, the drummer was actually the most well lit of the bunch!

They are currently on tour with Happy Mondays, coming to a theatre near you…

I caught up with them at one of the tours inagural shows at the Moore…

Photos are featured on LiveDaily.com’s Gallery Spotlight:
http://livedaily.com/news/20137.html

Here are a few…

Flickr sets:
Psychedelic Furs – http://www.flickr.com/photos/emswazzu/sets/72157622276974011/detail/
Happy Mondays – http://www.flickr.com/photos/emswazzu/sets/72157622276827895/detail/

xoxo
~Elisa