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Tag: Photographer

  • Ken Settle, Detroit Photographer Spotlight

    I can’t say enough great things about Ken Settle, Detroit photographer. He was brilliant, kind, and generous with his talent. Thanks to Ken Settle, WCSX has been able to share hundreds of concert photos and their stories with our audience.

    A celebration of life is being held for Ken Settle at the Token Lounge in Westland on March 29th, at 4:30 pm, 2026. The full details are available on the Token’s event page.

    Ken’s passing was a really tough blow. I loved talking with Ken and sharing his stories and photos. He was such a gracious, humble person with unbelievably detailed stories behind the moments he captured on film. A few years back, I interviewed Ken Settle. Here are some pieces from that conversation.

    The Interview: Ken Settle, Detroit Photographer

    Do you remember the first rock n’ roll picture you shot?

    KS: My very, very first rock’n’roll photo was in May of 1971. The Bob Seger System was playing a baseball game in Southfield against the staff of the brand new WRIF-FM. Somehow, my sisters and I talked my dad into taking us to see the ball game. I felt very bad that my mom couldn’t come too. She had to be home and make Mother’s Day dinner for my grandma. I took my mom’s Mother’s Day card with me in hopes of getting Bob Seger to sign it!

    My dad let me use his decent camera to try to get photos. I spotted Seger walking back out onto the field–a pack of Marlboros in one hand and a ball glove in the other. I went up to him and shyly asked, “Bob…would you sign my mom’s Mother’s Day card”? “Sure,” he said with a friendly chuckle. “Let’s get this guy to sign it too,” he offered, pointing to Seger System drummer Pep Perrine. Pep signed the card and handed it back to me. I turned to Bob and said, “Let me get a photo!” I snapped one shot…which thankfully was in focus and properly exposed!

    Ken Settle

    Photo courtesy of Ken Settle, Detroit Photographer: Bob Seger – 1971 Bob Seger and crew played a ballgame against the WRIF crew.

    What is one of your all-time favorite concerts in Detroit, and why?

    KS: There are so many magical moments. Some of my best memories of photographing live music are the times when I photographed Bob Seger around the Detroit area before his platinum success finally came to him in 1976.  Photographing Bob playing at clubs like Uncle Sam’s in Redford in 1973, and The Rock’n’Roll Farm in Wayne in 1974 hold an incredibly special place in my archives as well as in my heart. 

    Chronicling Bob Seger in the early days gave me such a great look at the development of an iconic artist.   I remember photographing one of the earliest Silver Bullet Band shows.  It was at Cobo Arena in early October of 1973.  Bob and the band were playing the annual ALSAC charity concert at Cobo and opening the show for Brownsville Station. Silver Bullet drummer Charlie Martin had to play on Brownsville Station drummer Henry Weck’s double bass drum kit. Complete with the Brownsville Station logo emblazoned across the bass drum heads! It was done in an effort to save time in striking the stage between bands!

    Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band 1974 Ken SettleKen Settle

    Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band – 1974 Photo credit: Ken Settle, Detroit Photographer

    What’s one of the strangest concerts you ever photographed?

    KS: Well…the king of strange concert experiences would have to be just about ANY Alice Cooper show!  “Expect the unexpected” would have to be the operative motto!  Alice’s management has always let me photograph Alice’s shows in their entirety from beginning to end, with no three-song limit, which has been the norm for many years now. 

    For Alice’s Halloween show at Joe Louis Arena in 1987, Alice had countless helium-filled balloons bouncing overhead in the stage area, and he was piercing them with his sword, sending a ton of confetti falling all over the stage, the photo pit, as well as the first several rows of the audience.  What no one knew, though, was that a few of those balloons contained gallons of fake blood! There I was photographing Alice one minute, and the next, me, my cameras, and the first few rows of the audience were covered in gallons of sticky faux blood. I mean, I got NAILED! Covered from head to toe in the stuff!  Since I had no other clothes to change into, I got a lot of strange looks driving home after the show.

    Alice Cooper Halloween 1987

    Alice Cooper–Halloween 1987–Joe Louis Arena

    More Ken Settle Stories

    Ken Settle was the Detroit photographer who drove to an abandoned diner in Highland Park in the middle of the night to take this photo of Bono. (see full story: U2 Filmed a Video in Highland Park)

    Bono of U2 sitting in a booth at a diner when U2 filmed a video in Highland Park, Michigan.Ken Settle

    Ken Settle, Detroit photographer. He captures a still of Bono at The Hi-Liter Diner when U2 filmed a video in Highland Park, Michigan.

    Jimmy Page during Page and Plant World Tour: Palace of Auburn Hills 1995Ken Settle

    Jimmy Page during Page and Plant World Tour: Palace of Auburn Hills 1995

    Ken Settle was behind the lens of so many moments in Detroit’s music history; it’s truly unfathomable. He leaves behind a legacy of photos and history spanning more than five decades.

    Ken Settle Background

    His drive to get photos at live shows began with sneaking into bars to get pictures of the live shows. One of Ken’s first rock and roll photos was a picture of Bob Seger playing baseball with WRIF. Ken caught a lot of Bob Seger’s early days playing high schools, colleges, and at The Rock and Roll Farm. Through the years, Ken’s photos have been published worldwide. Rolling Stone, the original Creem Magazine, People, Playboy, and England’s Kerrang! are just a few of the publications that have featured Ken’s photos.

    Donielle Flynn

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  • Nxdia Gives Us ‘More!’ At Their Sold Out London Show

    Right before kicking off their European shows, Nxdia made a stop in London. Not only was London sold out, every single show on the tour has been, which is an incredible feat for any artist, especially as a first-ever headline tour!

    I Promise I’m Watching is a direct nod to their debut EP, I Promise No One’s Watching. The tour manages to create such an open, comfortable, and safe space. Curating a tour – and music, around coming out and the life experience of being queer, non-binary, and androgynous naturally draws in other people who are experiencing the same things and feeling the same feelings.

    Image Source: Toyah Ann for The Honey POP

    The setlist was everything from emotional hard-hitters like ‘Ambulance,’ and ‘Tin Man,’ to their biggest hits ‘She Likes A Boy,’ and ‘Feel Anything.’ Nxdia performed a cover of Katy Perry’s ‘I Kissed A Girl’ and all we have to say about that is bring back those pop-goes-punk albums. That was incredible – and such a fitting song, it sat perfectly in the setlist, and is obviously an LGBTQ+ anthem!

    Every once in a while, a show will just hit the spot and make you feel like you’re floating. The Garage is such an iconic London venue and Nxdia themselves said they were nervous when it was being suggested to them. This show really was something else, and there aren’t enough words in any dictionary to explain the absolute euphoria that was felt.

    Image Source: Toyah Ann for The Honey POP

    The perfect pop-punk vibes, emotions were flowing left, right, and center, and the feeling of community was so intense it may or may not have reduced us to tears. They honour their heritage by writing lyrics in Egyptian, merging them seamlessly with the rest. Not only is it a beautifully unique characteristic to have in music, but it even encourages people to learn a new language – or at least some phrases in a new language, only creating a more open and diverse fanbase!

    Being so loud and proud about your background, your journey, and your life is not something every artist can achieve. Nxdia has consistently grown over the years, from beautiful lyricism to this headline tour. The in-betweens consisted of performing at Bludfest, going viral many… many times, and perfectly curating such a memorable, admirable group of fans.

    We could go on and on about Nxdia, how proud we are to have seen them grow. But we are aware that we came with unseen photos for everyone to admire so… we’ll leave it here, for now! You will be hearing from us again very soon…

    Let us know your favourite Nxdia song by messaging us on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.

    TO LEARN MORE ABOUT NXDIA:
    FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | TWITTER | YOUTUBE

    Toyah Ann

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  • Aston Merrygold Makes London ‘Sweat’!

    Aston Merrygold Makes London ‘Sweat’!

    You are reading a post Aston Merrygold Makes London ‘Sweat’! that first appeared on The Honey POP and has not been approved for reposting. If you’ve enjoyed this post, you can follow The Honey POP on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.

    We spent One Night in London with Aston Merrygold!

    You are reading a post Aston Merrygold Makes London ‘Sweat’! that first appeared on The Honey POP and has not been approved for reposting. If you’ve enjoyed this post, you can follow The Honey POP on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.

    Toyah Ann

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  • Photographer Gavin Bond Offers an Insider’s Perspective on the Supermodel Era

    Photographer Gavin Bond Offers an Insider’s Perspective on the Supermodel Era

    Could Gavin Bond take these same photographs today? His answer, without hesitation, is no. The photographer—English by birth, a New Yorker by choice—knows that the era he captured in his book Being There is gone forever. Stella Tennant has died, as have Karl Lagerfeld and Vivienne Westwood. His photographic playground, the backstage of the catwalks of fashion shows, is no longer the place it was in 1993. Bond describes it as once having been an intimate and private zone, much like the “backstage of a theater,” reserved for models and the teams of assistants preparing them to walk the runway. It was a closed and secret space. Today, the 53-year-old photographer explains, “there are a lot of cameras with access to the dressing rooms and the models themselves are on their cell phones. Everything is on display, but there is less spontaneity.”

    In 1993, however, Bond was the one of the few to take his camera into this intriguing world. As a young student at London’s prestigious Saint Martin’s School of Art, he started shooting the fashion shows of his fellow students, including John Galliano. He eventually got to know a producer, John Wolford, who acted as a liaison between the students and fashion professionals. Bond learned that Wolford was close to Vivienne Westwood and the photographer took a chance and sent the designer some photos he’d taken of dancers in the dressing rooms at the Lido de Paris. Westwood was impressed and offered Bond access to her Anglomania show in Paris in March 1993, a chance to be up close and personal with her team and the models. Christy Turlington remembers: “Gavin appeared one day and it was as if he’d always been there.”

    Bond used a compact film camera on his backstage outings, a Bronica ETR-Si, small and discreet enough not to disturb his subjects. His photos from this period came to define his style: in place of staged fashion shots, he produced photo-reportage, bringing a journalistic approach that was reminiscent of the work of Frank Horvat. “The great photographers of the time were invited to fashion shows by the brands,” Bond recalls. “They only had access to the top models within a very defined framework and they had to produce something beautiful. I was free of all those constraints.” The photographs in Being There shine a light on the world of fashion at work: the subjects are vulnerable—some concentrating intensely and others joyfully euphoric. They often appear unaware that they are being watched by Bond’s lens. “There’s nothing worse than having a camera pointed at you to destroy a mood while you’re chatting or smoking between costume changes and alterations,” says Turlington. “In those days, before backstage was open to cameras, few observers were welcome.”

    The photos of the Vivienne Westwood fashion show attracted the interest of all the leading couturiers of the day. Bond would infiltrate the fashion houses of his friend John Galliano, then the head of Dior, as well as Karl Lagerfeld, Yves Saint Laurent, and Jean-Paul Gaultier. His shots, first in black-and-white and later in color, captured the golden age of supermodels from a unique angle. This period, now practically wrapped in legend, when Naomi Campbell, Tennant, Claudia Schiffer, and Christy Turlington were emerging, seems wonderfully intimate and familiar in Bond’s photos. “You had to be there,” as the photographer says.

    Being There, by Gavin Bond, is published by IDEA. Many of the photos in Being There were originally exhibited at Hamiltons Gallery in London, which continues to represent Gavin Bond. This gallery originally appeared in Vanity Fair France. It was translated by John Newton.

    Maxime Jacob

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  • This 35-year-old mom built a side hustle that brings in $230,000/month in passive income: ‘I work just 4 hours a day’

    This 35-year-old mom built a side hustle that brings in $230,000/month in passive income: ‘I work just 4 hours a day’

    In 2008, I started a photography side hustle from my dorm room. My goal was to become a professional photographer. It wasn’t easy, especially at the height of the recession, but I’m glad I never gave up.

    Today, at 35, I’m a self-made millionaire and run a wedding photography and education business, Katelyn James Photography. With my husband Michael, who joined as Chief Financial Officer in 2013, we’ve helped more than 100,000 people learn about photography.

    In 2022, we brought in $240,000 a month in revenue — 80% of which I put back into the business. Roughly $230,000 of our monthly revenue was passive income from online courses and training materials.

    I now work just four hours a day and shoot about four weddings a year.

    From $750 to $160,000 in one day

    In the first year of my side hustle, I was a full-time college student, but I still worked 40 or more hours a week.

    My rates started low: $750 for six hours of photographing and editing. As my skills improved, I started charging more. And by 2013, I was earning six figures.

    I was lucky to have a great mentor, Jasmine Star, who photographed my own wedding. I also took some online courses, attended workshops, and took on projects for free to build my portfolio.

    But there wasn’t a lot of affordable photography training out there, so I started sharing tips on my blog. About eight years in, I realized online photography education could be a scalable business.

    Through word of mouth and a consistent social media presence, I grew an email list of 7,600 photographers who wanted to learn from me. All the while, I developed outlines, designed a workbook via Adobe InDesign, and recorded and edited course content with help from a videographer friend.

    The majority of Katelyn’s income is from photography courses and training materials.

    Photo: Abby Grace Branding

    In November 2015, Michael and I launched our first online training program to teach photographers how to edit and streamline their workflow. The course cost $397, a price point that was far more accessible than a semester’s worth of college photography classes.

    Our goal was $15,000 in total sales. But the first day, because of the trust we built with our customers over time, we made over $160,000.

    Bridging the photography knowledge gap

    The success of my first course showed me that it was more valuable to make photography education accessible, rather than just shooting weddings and continuously increasing prices.

    We’ve created over a dozen downloadable courses, e-books and templates for various photography skills. Our resources are inspired by questions asked by our online community of over 70,000 people, and cover topics like posing couples and natural light photography.

    We also have a membership product, KJ All Access. For $29 per month, photographers of all experience levels get to follow me as I shoot events and handle all sorts of unpredictable situations — like wedding dresses getting covered in mud or weather delays.

    New videos are shot by my videographer, edited by me, and released each month. Members also have access to a library of past videos.

    Our goal is to change people’s lives

    I love my job. Being in complete control of our schedule has allowed my husband and I to spend more time with our three kids, and to pursue projects we’re excited about.

    This year, we co-founded a school geared towards entrepreneurial families called Acton Academy West End. We focus on equipping children ages five to eight with the tools to find their unique passions through hands-on activities.

    Whether we’re creating tools that teach photographers how to build a career that supports their family, capturing wedding moments, recording podcasts, or just simply sharing the ups and downs of our everyday life on social media, we want our life and our business to change lives.

    Katelyn Alsop is a business coach and founder of Katelyn James Photography. Over 100,000 students around the world have used her platforms to learn about photography and entrepreneurship. She is also the co-founder of Acton Academy West End. Follow her on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

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  • Here’s a Collection of Free iPhone Wallpapers With Unbelievable Photos From Burning Man – EDM.com

    Here’s a Collection of Free iPhone Wallpapers With Unbelievable Photos From Burning Man – EDM.com

    Photographer Jamen Percy wants to help you capture the magical moments of Black Rock City.

    Percy, a member of the Burning Man Documentation Team, has released a collection of free, downloadable wallpapers featuring stunning photography from the 2022 Burn. He says the collection, which features 50 images, is a “gift to the Burner community.”

    Gifting is one of the 10 Principles of Burning Man, a list of guidelines developed in 2004 by the event’s co-founder, Larry Harvey, that reflect “the community’s ethos and culture.”

    Rachel Freeman

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