About Touched By Fire Photography:

Touched By Fire is a collection of work by artist Jane Bush consisting of live concert photography, artistic creations, and other photography work. Jane has been creating art since she was young enough to draw and paint, and ventured off into other mediums as her education and experience grew. She is experienced in illustration mediums such as drawing, portraiture work, fine art painting and digital art painting. She has always been a music lover and had a growing passion for live photography, venturing out to photograph gigs in early 2009. She quickly went from photographing local bands to national acts, and has had her work published for such sites as buzznet.com and notesfromthepit.com. She has photographed such artists as The Academy Is.., The Yeah Yeah Yeah's, Peaches, Taking Back Sunday, and many more. She looks forward to photographing more live acts in the new decade as well as continuing to create more artwork in the future years.

  • yes and amen to that!


  • Archive: April, 2009



    Buzznet Exclusive Photos: Chris Cornell live @ Pop’s

    Tuesday, April 28th, 2009
    Rock legend Chris Cornell overlooking the ecstatic crowd in  St. Louis @ Pop's

    Rock legend Chris Cornell overlooking the ecstatic crowd in St. Louis @ Pop's

    I’m about a week late on this, so forgive me. For those of you who haven’t checked it out yet, there’s a set of Buzznet Exclusive photos of Chris Cornell’s show in St. Louis I took on April 21st. The review of the show is as follows:

    Chris Cornell made quite an epic entrance as he took the stage on April 21st in St.Louis, and was more than well received as longtime loyal fans packed the house to the brim @ Pop’s nightclub, making it quite an intense and intimate show! From the moment he walked up the platform following the rest of his band to the first notes he sung opening with Part Of Me, it was very clear that Chris Cornell had not lost his fervor in his live performances after all these years and doesn’t plan on stepping down anytime soon.

    Chris belted out everything from new material off of his latest release, Scream, to his cover of Billie Jean, to the earlier Soundgarden classics such as Spoonman, Outshined and encored with BlackHole Sun. He even broke out Temple Of The Dog’s Hunger Strike and asked the audience for participation to fill in for a missing Eddie Vedder’s vocals. As you can imagine, the crowd went crazy with nostalgic bliss and responded with nothing short of enthusiasm! His intense presence onstage has less to do with theatrics as it does his interaction with the crowd and vocal range. Performing a total of 26 songs spanning over a career of nearly 2 decades proves that not only is his live performance an intense trip down rock memory lane but a validation that no matter what he does, Chris Cornell can pull it off and still be one of rock’s most versatile vocalists. Witnessing it and capturing it all was quite a thrill. Special thanks to Kron & buzznet, and Ryan Kelley @ Pop’s for making it all possible.

    The Hottness live @ the Fubar

    Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

    I know, I’m overdue for a blog post. So here it is…(and there are several more coming your way this week).
    Wilmigton, North Carolina is home to southern metal/punk band The Hottness, who by all measures brought the house down on April 7th at The Fubar in St. Louis. There is a certain appreciation I hold for an incredible live metal band simply because I’ve seen plenty of bad ones live. These guys exceeded beyond what I consider to be a great live metal band. In all their visceral presence, they made for a great band to photograph as well, even with the challenging pink/red lighting that night. Their personality and crunching live act still made for some great shots. If you haven’t checked this band out yet, you seriously need to get over to their myspace and check them out. They weren’t even the headliners of the evening and they definitely stole the spotlight that night in terms of both photography and live performance. You can check out the entire gallery of shots I was able to salvage here on flickr.

    King Thief live @ Pop’s

    Monday, April 20th, 2009


    St. Louis’ own King Thief brought their intense presence and punk-pop cabaret to the stages of Pop’s on March 6th. Their devout following responded to the quintet with equal energy as the band as they ripped through familiar tracks from their new album The Inferno. I took my 50 mm and took advantage of having full access to the sides of the stage as well as the front. Pop’s lighting can be quite colorful and with King Thief’s theatrical neon lighting set up, it wasn’t a challenge to get some great shots. Check out all the shots of King Thief here on flickr.

    Seattle’s Best: Jimi Hendrix Memorial Photos

    Saturday, April 18th, 2009
    Just part of the large gazebo style gravesite of late rock legend Jimi Hendrix

    Just part of the large gazebo style gravesite of late rock legend Jimi Hendrix

    While I frequent Seattle several times a year, this was the first time I was able to stop by the gravesite of the late, great rock legend Jimi Hendrix. It is something that even my photographs don’t have words for. It’s amazing to say the least as lyrics and carefully crafted artwork of Jimi adorn the 3 tiered gazebo-like structure. At any time of the year you can see the flowers, incense, and guitar picks among other items that fans have left there. Devoted to his work, female fans of past and present show their adoration by leaving kisses on the marble faces of Hendrix at this site. Thankfully it was a sunny and pleasant day when I took these photos (and they say it always rains in Seattle! pffft!) The entire flickr photo gallery is here. A quick preview:

    Jimi Hendrix Memorial

    Jimi's Message Of Love

    Jimi Jimi Jimi

    If you look closely, you can see the remains of lipstick from fans who’ve visited. More concert photos and catching up to do….

    Good Drummer Photos: Lola & Tony live @ The Fubar

    Wednesday, April 8th, 2009

    Many concert photographers forget how important drummer photos are
    So a very dear friend of mine saw my portfolio and suggested I needed more drummer photos. Given some of the venues I’ve shot, The Fubar in St. Louis is one of my favorite small venues given its intimate setting. However, it’s space is challenging when it comes to getting decent drummer shots given to the small stage. Thanks to pop duo Lola & Tony, I was able to finally get several rewarding shots of drummer Tony. Inspired by such artist as The Dresden Dolls to Ben Folds, their versatile sound is fun and infectious to witness live as they opened for Meg & Dia on April 2nd.
    Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get many decent shots of Lola, due to the poor hot pink lighting to the left of the stage where she sat and played. Hopefully next time, guys. View the photos from the entire gallery.

    Meg & Dia live @ The Fubar Photos

    Sunday, April 5th, 2009

    The Frampton sisters, AKA Meg & Dia put on a powerhouse live show on April 2, 2009 at St. Louis’ Fubar. While they are very high energy through out their performance and always a pleasure to photograph live, the house lights were not kind as they produced a very high exposure with their hot pink filters. A lot of post production work went into making the band members skin tones even and balanced. I’m not sure if it was at their request to have pink lights or not, but the Fubar usually has excellent lighting for a smaller venue.
    If you haven’t experienced Meg & Dia live, you should definitely catch them this year on the Vans Warped Tour. You’ll find yourself bouncing to their lively rock songs and especially their cover of Blind Melon’s “No Rain” and Sublime’s “Santaria”.Check out the entire 47 shots I captured from Friday night’s show right here on flickr.