2009. Best…year…ever. (Part 3: August and Everything After)

Well August was a busy month. Didn't even realize how much so until I look back now. Started out with Kenny Rogers at Meijer Gardens. Las Vegas came to Grand Rapids that night. I think Kenny talked as much as he sang.

The next morning it was off to Chicago with Lindsay for Lollapalooza. And then it rained. Did I plan for this possibility and maybe bring rain gear? Not a chance. That would have made sense. I'm usually a lot more prepared for a shoot. Guess it didn't occur to me to check the weather report before I left. Many of the participants there made the best off it though.

I found a vendor selling ponchos though(it was very a popular place) and I was set. The rain stopped in time for Depeche Mode, thankfully.

Thanks to Brad Southerton we had a place to sleep every night. And I did. At least 4 hours each night.

There were some great surprises. LeAnn Rimes singing Beatles songs with Perry Farrell for example.

Or getting my daughter, Sarah, on the phone with the girls from Care Bears On Fire.

It stayed dry the rest of the weekend, thankfully. Oh, and there was the Playboy party at the hotel too. Not much to tell there. Ironic, eh? Most disappointing part of the weekend... Tool. If I did drugs it would probably have been cool. But instead, I was a quite sober photographer with nothing to take photos of. The singer, Maynard James Keenan stayed at the back of the stage with no lights on him. I was told he hates photographers and the way they set up the stage kinda makes me believe it. Unfortunate, because they were one of the bands I was really looking forward to getting photos of.

Justin Chancellor of Tool

Later in the month we also were privileged to witness our friends John and Karisa get married.

John and Karisa sitting in a tree...

In September we took in the Artprize scene,

Paper Airplanes and Melodies on Monroe

and we opened an art show of our own in Cedar Springs.

We were also able to take the kids on a trip to Cedar Point which seems to have been the highlight of their lives so far.

In October we made a trip back down to Chicago for Brad's birthday.

Luckily, we walked to the bar from Brad's apartment so no one had to end up like the woman we saw on the way down in Benton Harbor who took the wrong way out of the parking lot.

I also threw a party for Danielle's birthday. All of our friends came and Kenny got schooled on the Rock Band drums by my 12 year old daughter.

Also did photos of some young kid named Taylor Swift earlier in the month. I think she'll probably be big.

November was a busy month. Metallica, and Megadeth were the big concerts of the month.

This is the look Lars gives when he sees people actually buy CD's.

Dave Mustaine and his poodle-do

We also had the opportunity to photograph the rehearsals for the Civic Theater production of Cinderella,

and we got to shoot photos for Lou Musa for his DiAddario strings endorsement.

Next stop, full page ad in Guitar World magazine! (hopefully)

December was pretty slow photo wise with the holiday's and Sarah's birthday. We did find an abandoned building near here that was interesting to photograph though

Hallway in abandoned building.

Cassette tapes and catalogs in abandoned building.

and I got out once to do a little photo walk with Randall downtown GR.

In the shadow of Calder.

So that was 2009. I skipped over quite a bit. Neko Case, Chickenfoot, more art photos I didn't cover, and lots of local shows. It was a busy year.

Goal for 2010? To quit my day job and do this for a living. Anybody know of any job openings for photographers?