Adam Elmakias is a Live Music, Tour, and Portrait photographer ,really anything music related, based out of San Diego CA. I have to say that this guy may be influencing more up and coming concert photographers today than any other person out there. When I started shooting live music Adam was one of the first people I followed, He has more social media followers than some of the artists he shoots – 187k on Twitter, 472k on Instagram, 132k on Facebook. Yeah, people like Adam. Part of that is the bands he shoots. He captures the images that a generation of fans love. He has shot for A Day To Remember, Bring Me The Horizon, Lindsey Stirling, All Time Low, and more.

As a tour photographer, Adam travels the world with bands, as their photographer. This can be one of the most stressful ways to make a living, but he can make it fun every day.

Music photography isn’t all there is to Adam. Many of the same bands he shoot live also have Adam handle their promo shots. He created the well known Lens Bracelet, and he has various other Elmakias branded march, He has his own Music Magazine called “Your Music Photographer”, He has taught a KelbyOne class. And my fave…. Adam does random free workshops. For a recent one in San Diego I was honored that he asked for me to come by, and the event was awesome. Young and old photographers walking around Balboa park shooting mini assignments – and the whole time Adam hung out and answered questions. I think that’s what is most amazing to me about this guy. He gives back, and not half hearted either. He is all in to help photographers. In this episode I talk with him about how he got into a very rare spot – behind Travis Barker of Blink 182 during a performance at the Forum in LA – and ended up with an iconic image.

Adam’s Work

Related Shots

During the show Adam mentioned he took lots of shots to get this one. He was kind enough to share a few of those, to help you understand how this type of shot happens. This is a great way to learn, and see why he chose the one he did from the sequence of images he took. Also it helps to see that even the best don’t get a winner with every shutter push.

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