I’ve been planning to write about my favorite photographers since this summer, so this is a story I’ve been dying to share with you all!
Who’s Lesley Keller, you say? She’s one of my favorite photographers!
She’s a 30-year-old New Yorker that works in Internet Marketing. Her passion is music, so she loves to help promote artists she likes, and tries to expose people to new musicians and bands. She even tried to teach herself to play the guitar. She’s pretty good at teaching herself new things, and she’s a quick learner. She’s pretty shy, and it takes a while to get to know her. I haven’t gotten there yet, myself. But hopefully I will, someday. Her photographs are great, and I am sure that you will be enchanted by them as well, once you’ve taken a look at her work.
I asked her about how she first got into photography, so here is what she said.
It kind of started after I saw my favorite band at a music festival called Bamboozle. My favorite band is called MUTEMATH.
I was allowed into the festival with my less than average point and shoot camera, a Panasonic Lumix TZ3. Thankfully, it was hot and sunny, more than favorable conditions to get a worthwhile photo out of that crappy camera.
Megafaun @ Mercury Lounge 9/24/11
After I came home, excited and energized by their performance, I thanked and congratulated the band on their Facebook page by posting some photos of the show.
Hours later, I received an email from their tour manager, Jordan Mattison, that he and the guys loved the photos I took and wanted to post them on their official website.
I was completely elated – my all time favorite band loved what I did and thought it was worthy enough to represent them on their site. I immediately sent the photos to Jordan, and was so proud and happy when they were posted for everyone to see.
From that time on, I said to myself if MUTEMATH thought the photos I took with my crappy little point and shoot camera was good enough to post on their website, then perhaps I should give it a real shot. I had always loved photography, but I never really gave it a proper go, until then. They gave me the nudge that I desperately needed.
MUTEMATH @ Mercury Lounge - 8/25/11
I managed to scrape together some money for my first SLR camera, a Canon T1i… and some lenses to go along with it. Since then I’ve been learning as I go. A lot of trial and error mostly.
Right now, I work for free, and I still feel as if I’m enthusiast. However, in time I hope I get good enough to hopefully start charging for my services.
The link on their site is long gone but here are the photos that were posted: http://www.flickr.com/photos/39852160@N05/sets/72157623998932594/
If you like what you see, and want more awesomeness, give her a like on her FaceBook page!
