The truth is, there is clearly NO reason to pull out your iPhone and hold it in front of your face the entire show. Sure, a shot or two for a quick personal memento makes sense. An astute capture of a rarely performed song or a personal momemnt is great – but the cool thing about most GPN shows that you need to remember is that there are PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHERS IN THE AUDIENCE. BY “PROFESSIONAL” I mean “BETTER THAN YOU” both in terms of experience, ability and gear.

One such case is Matthew Shelter from Stage Light Photography who I met at Tanglewood. I’ve seen his work from other shows quite often recently, specifically from the Newport Folk Festival, so I was thrilled when he gave me permission to run these shots.