Turned 3!!!

Der Graf of Unheilig at Greenfield Festival in Interlaken

Elton John performing at a concert at Hallenstadion in Zurich, Switzerland

Yes, it's that time of the year again. It's time for the annual "yet another year of lonesome tiger" picture loaded post. So buckle up, and assume some sort of bracing position, because for the rest of this post, I'm just gonna write about me, me, and, well, me.

Killswitch Engage showing off their muscles at Greenfield Festival

Skin of Skunk Anansie sings during the band's concert at X-Tra Club

The last 365 days started with a boatload of shows that I covered for 20 Minuten Online. I became a regular visitor to the major venues in town shooting my "3 songs only". You know you hang around there too much when the dudes from the photo agencies start greeting you with "you again!".

James Hetfield of metal veterans Metallica performs at Sonisphere festival Switzerland

Singer Pink during her show at Hallenstadion Zurich

I got to shoot Elton John and P!nk, and Europe and Nena, and the Cranberries and 30 Seconds To Mars. And a bunch more.

Alice In Chains live in concert at Sonisphere Festival Switzerland

Danko Jones playing a concert at Greenfield Festival

Following the freezing time came the time of festivals: I covered Greenfield, Sonisphere, and OpenAir St.Gallen. At least the latter was sunny....

Joey Belladonna of Anthrax at Switzerland's Sonishpere Festival

And shooting so many bands gave me a great excuse to buy some new camera gear: New to the family (since back then) is my beloved Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 :) . These last days, Nikon's been announcing new stuff like crazy, but I'm still trying to save my money for when they announce the D4. Ok, enough of the camera geekness.

Sonisphere Festival Switzerland - and that was *before* the fans were allowed in...

Another year, another milestone. My first year was all "trying to figure out how to get photo passes, scrape togethere the courage to actually ask for them, and shoot shows more or less regularly". That, and getting a decent camera (upgrade from Canon 20D to Nikon D3 *grin*).

La Brass Banda live at Openair St.Gallen

Juliette Lewis in concert at Greenfield Festival in Interlaken, Switzerland

The second year I dedicated to becoming really good at what I'm doing. Kinda easy if you got a D3, but still a lot of work. Seems I didn't do too bad; right at the end of year 2 I got my deal with 20 Minuten Online.

Jared Leto of 30 Seconds To Mars interacts with fans during the band's live performance at Openair St.Gallen

Year number 3 brought me tons of shows in big places, awesome light, a lot of exposure on 20 Minuten Online, and a couple of pics in the newspaper (Switzerland's biggest - yay, $s!). I got to cover said festivals, which was like a huge training camp for me (loved it!!).

Ian Astbury of cult band The Cult sings live in Zurich, Switzerland

Live concert of Coheed and Cambria at Greenfield Festival, Interlaken

And, as usual, the question remains what I'll be writing about in 365 days from now. All I can say now: Working on it, and determined to continue kicking serious a**!!!

The Cult play a live concert

Derrick Green of brazilian metal band Sepultura during the band's live concert at Greenfield Festival

Robb Flynn of rock band Machine Head during a live concert in Zurich, Switzerland

Jared Leto and his band, 30 Seconds To Mars, at Volkshaus Zurich

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.

Metal veterans Anthrax (singer Dan Nelson and guitarist Scott Ian) perform live in Lucerne, Switzerland

Pop singer Anastacia waves at her fans in Zurich

Stage setup for Duff McKagan's Loaded at Schüür Lucerne

Fucking WOW. It's a hell of a ride, so stay tuned for exciting stuff to hit this blog...