lonesome tiger photography: Happy 2nd Birthday To Me!

Chris Cornell, formerly of rock bands Soundgarden and Audioslave, performing a live solo concert in Zurich, Switzerland

Wow! Another year? Already?! Two years ago last Wednesday, I started my webpage and went from compact to shooting concerts with my SLR. My first year was amazing, and so was the 2nd...

Dan Nelson performs live with metal band Anthrax at Schüür in Lucerne, Switzerland

Lita Ford plays for the fans at Bang Your Head!!! festival in Balingen, Germany

Again, I've collected my favorite shots from last year in this post. They're sort of random, but I'm pretty damn proud of them!!!

Japanese rock band Dir En Grey plays a concert in Zurich

Scott Ian of Anthrax playing live at Schüür in Lucerne, Switzerland

So, what happened in the past 12 months to the tiger?

Chris Cornell performing live at X-Tra, Zurich

Goodbye Fairbanks from Berne play Volkshaus Zurich

Rob Caggiano and Scott Ian of Anthrax rock out live in Lucerne, Switzerland

I started MondayMorningRocks. To help you rock over rocky starts into the week, you get one of my photos every Monday morning.

Singer Chris Cornell playing a live show

Close-up photo of Enjoy Destroy's live set at Volkshaus Zurich

I gave my homepage @ lonesometiger.com a facelift. The wonderful smugmug is now hosting it, and I love their service! Thanks to them and their great tools, you can now also view galleries with fancy slideshows on my homepage.

Duff McKagan's Loaded at Schüür Lucerne

Escape the Fate make a KISS reference during their live show at Give It A Name festival in Zurich, Switzerland

Hey, have a look at the new page, it now even has a picture of me! Taken by myself with the help of some big window, a ladder, a reflecting piece of cloth meant to keep your car's steering wheel from melting in the sun, an old desk lamp, a shutter release cable, and the white wall in my living room.

Duff McKagan

Enjoy Destroy

Working more on the homepage front, I translated it to German, which is now the default, and also started a German translation of this blog - guck mal!.

Duff McKagan's Loaded

I shot my first festival at Give It A Name Switzerland thanks to my friends at leech*redda. I also got invited by them to cover an acoustic show by Lagwagon frontman Joey Cape - hope they really do release the live LP they recorded that night, cause the pics bloody deserve to be released (and the show was awesome!!!)!

Papa Roach play live at X-Tra Club

Beatallica, the perfect mix between The Beatles and Metallica, play a live concert

To get easier access to photo passes, I joined party photo portal LUS as a concert photographer (and I strictly only shoot concerts! No way I'm going to shoot parties...). They got me in for my first show at Hallenstadion, where for the first time in my concert shooter career I wished for a *longer* lens. Anastacia was wonderful, and I suffered gadget envy when one of the agency photographers showed up with a lens longer than my best friend stands tall.

Thanks to Ursi at Schüür, I also got to shoot two bands that I'd have killed for to see live when I was a teen. Anthrax with then-new-now-former singer Dan Nelson totally killed it (and if I were you, I'd kill still today to see them).

Under Oath live at Volkshaus Zurich, Switzerland

Give It A Name festival Zurich

Killer number two I got to shoot at Schüür was Duff's Loaded. If the man knew how many posters of his former band I had in my room when I was 12, he wouldn't have shaken my hand at the meet-and-greet after the show. Legend!

UnderOath playing at Give It A Name festival in Zurich

What else... like all the cool kids (and Oprah), I got myself an account on twitter.

My 2nd festival followed in summer when I got an invitation to shoot Lita Ford right from the stage at Bang Your Head!!! festival (thanks a ton Bumblefoot for fries, friendship, and fun!!). Shooting with an Access All Areas pass was awesome, because the stage stood high enough for the photogs in the pit to wish for broomsticks to tie the cameras to to get a decent shot. And Lita's show deserves to be show, she looks awesome!!! Her new album "Wicked Wonderland" is about to come out, can't wait!

Rock band Thursday play in Zurich, Switzerland

I bought a ton of new gadgets and gear. Among others, I finally got myself some decent earplugs (fitted for my ears). And tons of other stuff that I hope to write about in the near future (harrrrr.... there's tons in the pipeline...).

I spent summer playing with said gear and forming new alliances. I'm loading my guns for year three. Wonder what I'll be writing in 365 days from now, but I'm pretty sure I'll be as amazed at what happened in such a short time as I'm now.