Professional Concert Photographer In
Dayton, Cincinnati, & Columbus

In May 2023, we were in Nashville Tennessee to see night 3 of Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour at Nissan Stadium across the Cumberland River from downtown. The first two nights of Nashville concerts were beautiful and warm. Unfortunately, our concert was on Sunday and featured a 3.5 hour performance by Taylor preceded by a 5.5 hour thunderstorm delay. 70000 fans, and hundreds more workers were hunkered down in every nook and cranny of Nissan Stadium from 5pm until 10:30pm due to a nasty, hours-long string of thunderstorms.

As a professional concert photographer and long-time concertgoer, I have been trying to see all the legendary musicians before they stop touring.  To that end, I recently photographed Barry Manilow at Cincinnati’s Heritage Bank Center.  This August 2023 concert featured the 80 year old Manilow singing all of his hit songs during a nearly two hour show.  The stamina he still has to sing and move around the stage was astounding.

Ben Harper was the opening act at the 2023 concert headlined by The Chicks at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. This cool summer night featured an acoustic set, at least the three songs I got to photograph, filled with beautiful melodies and intricate guitar playing.

In the summer of 2023 I photographed Santana, a band made up of Carlos Santana and other world class musicians. The band puts out what I can only describe as a wall of music. The number of different instruments combine with Carlos’s amazing guitar playing to create beautiful music. The music is so good that was difficult for me to concentrate on photographing them. I just got too into the music.

As a freelance concert photographer in Dayton, Columbus, and Cincinnati, I love being surprised by a musician’s performance. P!NK’s 2023 concert at Great American Ball Park was a great surprise. I know her music, and I know she does acrobatics in the air. What I wasn’t prepared for is how intense this concert was.

At P!NK’s 2023 Cincinnati concert, Brandi Carlile put on a hell of a show. She was the opening act ahead of P!NK at Great American Ball Park in July. The majority of the crowd was in place to see Brandi perform with hundreds of people sporting Brandi Carlisle T-shirts.

Muna, a great women-led rock band, was the second musical act to open for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in June 2023 at PayCor Stadium in Cincinnati Ohio. They played to a mostly full NFL football stadium that was anxiously awaiting Taylor’s biggest ever concert. Their set was amazing to me, and I got to hear it the next night as well. I am in love with “What I Want” and can’t get enough of it.

Gracie Abrams was the first musical act to open for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in June 2023 at PayCor Stadium in Cincinnati Ohio. She and her band played to a slowly filling football stadium that was anxiously awaiting Taylor’s biggest ever concert. Her set was short and great as expected.

Since the day Taylor Swift announce the Eras Tour concert dates in November 2022, I have been anticipating attending both Cincinnati shows at PayCor Stadium. While Dave Matthews Band has been my favorite band since 1998, Taylor and all she stands for as well as her lyrics have had her at the top of my list for the last 5 years. I had seen her in Indianapolis a long time ago, Lexington in 2015, and Louisville in 2018. So when i saw she was coming close to home, I had to go.

In March 2023 I photographed the Blake Shelton concert for Cincinnati CityBeat, a great Cincy publication. I know his music but was unsure about my expectations. He put on a great show at Cincinnati’s Heritage Bank Center, and the stage was one of the coolest concert stages I have ever seen.