William Beckett « Touched By Fire

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The Academy Is…celebrate the 5th anniversary @ The Metro in Chicago

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

Some bands are just so much fun to shoot it never gets boring, and the challenge of capturing their energy never grows tired. Such is the case with photographing The Academy Is… live. In the short time I’ve been an established concert photographer, I’ve been privileged to shoot the band twice and their lead singer, William Beckett, twice.

On February 6th, 2010, the band celebrated the 5th anniversary of their debut album, Almost Here, to a sold out crowd at The Metro in Chicago by performing the album live, save for a few exceptions when they performed such songs like Seed and Everything We Had from their sophomore Santi, and About A Girl and Summer Hair=Forever Young from their latest full length album, Fast Times At Barrington High. Seeing them perform and celebrate their 5th anniversary debut was truly a treat, and it was no wonder why they were as successful as they are with their always energetically charged performances and appreciation to their devoted fan base. Being from the suburbs of Chicago, it was also no wonder why they were playing a sold out show: Chicago is home to other well known bands such as Kill Hannah and the legendary Smashing Pumpkins, and the city’s fans are always passionate about the bands that break new ground for the music industry.

I can tell you as much fun as I love shooting the band, I also love watching them perform. I’m sure it won’t be the last time for either one of those experiences. Below are a few of the photos I shot from Saturday night’s performance, and the rest you can find in a gallery on buzznet.

Tags: Adam T. Siska, Almost Here, Andy Mrotek, Anniversary Show, artist jane bush, Chicago, concert photography, Michael Guy Chislett, Mike Carden, Photography, The Academy Is..., The Metro, William Beckett
Posted in Appreciation, Photography, music | No Comments »

Stealing is not a form of flattery, nor it is sincere.

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

William Beckett Tumblr Fanpage: "collecting" images without permission & reposting is also known stealing, also known as copyright infringement.

It has recently come to my attention that there several of my photos stolen that I took from 2 separate concerts of The Academy Is… and reposted on a Tumblr fan account dedicated to “William Beckett spam”. From what I gather the “spam” part being the person who owns the account “collects” photos of the band, concert images, etc. without the consent of the photographers/those who own the license to the photographs. You might think this is all well and good, but it’s not. In fact, it’s ILLEGAL!!! And why is it illegal? Because it’s COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT. I have fellow photographers who have had their concert/band photography stolen by these so called “fan pages” on Tumblr as well.

Look, I get it. You love the band, and you want to share your love with other fans via the internet with photos. However, it’s still illegal if you’re not getting permission from the photographer/owner of the copyrights. I own the copyright to these photos, and might I add that the copyright symbol isn’t just there for decoration! It’s MEANS I OWN THE COPYRIGHTS AS THE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE IMAGE.

When I became a photographer and started passionately engaging in myself in concert photography, I started to understand all the hard work it entails and why they have copyrights. The complacency in some people really bothers me when it comes to this matter. “It’s the internet, it happens,” or it’s a “sharing” community doesn’t cancel out the fact that you’re doing something illegal and will be facing legal consequences if you don’t respect the rights of the photographer. On another note, in the matter of “sharing communities” such as Tumblr, it’s just as simple as the things you learned in kindergarten: When you take something from someone, it’s not sharing!

So this means don’t repost my photos ANYWHERE. This means on your blog, your Tumblr, your photobucket, your livejournal, your flickr, your fan message board, etc. etc. etc. You get it.

If you run a fan website (meaning you own the domain and are respected as a sole provider in fan information by the band you are supporting and the band supports your site), then please contact me if you’d like to have my photos on your website, and I’m sure we can work something out. Otherwise, REPOSTING ANYWHERE WITHOUT MY WRITTEN PERMISSION IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED. I cannot stress this enough!

Tags: concert photography, copyright infringement, copyrights, Photography, The Academy Is..., William Beckett
Posted in Photography, music | No Comments »

William Beckett live @ Reggie’s Rock Club

Monday, January 4th, 2010

Mr. William Beckett, Chicago native, all smiles and rockin' the show at Reggie's for my new 70-200mm f/2.8 zoom.

Being a midwest native myself, it’s always a treat to shoot bands from the likes of Chicago, especially The Academy Is…, so it goes without saying that seeing an acoustic live show by William Beckett is always a must shoot experience for me as a photographer. Just shy of Christmas on December 19th, Mr. Beckett performed a special benefit show at the intimate Reggie’s Rock Club in Chicago’s southside. Since there was no photo pit barracade, the fate of my new 70-200 mm f/2.8 and the photography experience lied in the hands of my own resources and the friendly staff at Reggie’s (thank you, btw). The positive side to this was the access to just about any area of my choice, and the majority of my shooting took place on the left side of the stage. I also was given plenty of time to change lenses as there was no usual “3 songs then you’re out limit”, which hasn’t been the case when I’ve ever photographed TAI or William, which I have to say is both not only a privilege but an honor as well. Given that, I also used my 50mm prime and 24-70mm f/2.8 zoom.

As Mr. Beckett’s performance was a grade A story telling experience as always, he ripped through acoustic versions of everything from Winter Passing to The Fever (one he rarely performs live these days) to the wonderful Alkaline Trio cover he does of their song Radio. Special highlighted moments included him telling stories of the formative days of his band, The Academy Is…, on the rise and the support he got from Reggie’s and taking a swig of Jack Daniel’s straight (now that’s very midwest!) while stating it was his “Lil’ John ‘get crunk’ moment” that got a good laugh out of everyone in attendance.

It never seems to be a problem getting the approval of shooting either William or TAI, so special thanks to them and their management as well as buzznet.com. You can check out the rest of the photos in the gallery there.

A very Dylan-esque shot of TAI's William Beckett ready to rock Reggie's in his hometown of Chicago!

Tags: artist jane bush, buzznet, Chicago, concert photography, Photography, Reggie's Rock Club, The Academy Is..., William Beckett
Posted in Appreciation, Photography, music | No Comments »

The Academy Is acoustic show: Photography from last night’s show

Monday, March 9th, 2009

The Snakes & Suits tour proved to be an amazing one as William Beckett took the stage

The Academy Is was a blast hearing all the favorites in a small intimate setting of the Fubar in St. Louis! I was pretty overzealous with my memory cards, filling up a total of 600 photos and half of them were processed. You can see the entire photo gallery of all 291 captures from last night’s show here on flickr. Maybe this wasn’t exactly “savvy” to save all these photos as a professional photographer, but I figured I might as well make the exception this time since there was no usual “3 song” limit.