I'm Still Livid. (Started 3/7/11-Posted 3/8/11)

This weekend was the Next Big Thing tour at Revolution Live. This was a 12 hour long battle of the bands concert. And the bands that didn't make it into the main venue had a "mini" show down the street at a bar called The (original) Fat Cats. Don't quote me on that, I'm not entirely sure of the bar name.

Now, I could have requested to photograph this show for the magazine, but I'm glad I didn't. I wouldn't have been able to get there when it first started, nor was I able to stay till the show ended. And writing a review for a show that consisted of 20+ bands would have been damn near impossible.

What I am not glad about is that I didn't have my camera. Why would I, Nick Morales, Concert Photographer, not have my camera at this humongous concert, you may ask? Well, months ago, before I joined OutLoud, I had gone to see the ska band Less Than Jake at Culture Room. I had my camera. What I quickly learned is "No Photo Pass, No Camera." I didn't like it, but it's venue rules, I dealt with it.

Now fast forward to two days ago. I'm not covering the show for the magazine, I don't have a photo pass, why bother bringing my camera, right? I go inside and within 10 minutes I found just as many girls with DSLRs and flashes popping left and right. Most of them were using flash and I have a feeling that their flash settings were too strong and just ruined the image. My friend's friend was there taking photos, and I'm sure her photos came out amazing.

I was absolutely furious. I wanted to be mad at the girls. I wanted to be mad at the venue. I wanted to be mad at Sandy.

But it was no one else's fault but my own. I should have done my research on this specific venue instead of just assuming. I could have called or emailed someone. Anything. If I'm going to have this be my career, taking that sort of responsibility comes with the job. It's sucks knowing that I missed hundreds of shots because of my own lack of initiative.

I know better for next time, but that really, really sucks.

It doesn't help that my glasses got broken in the pit and my ankle got tweeked again.