Meghan Patrick

ParkJam Festival

7 days of glorious music! ParkJam Festival is a new festival that started this year in London Ontario. Pretty much ParkJam was born by mixing two other events together… those two events were Trackside (an all country based festival that happened annually in London at the Western Fair Grounds, and another event called Block Party. This was the first year for Parkjam and it seemed to have gone very well. This festival is a multi-genre festival, 7 nights long with genre’s such as: EDM, Rock, Alternative, Hip Hop, Punk and Country. the break down was like this:

Rock Night - Main Stage:
The Glorious Sons, Cold War Kids, Texas King, The Beaches

Side Stage: The Honest Heart Collective, Kasador, Goodnight Sunrise

Country Night - Main Stage:
Brett Kissel, Meghan Patrick, Aaron Goodvin, JoJo Mason

Side Stage: Genevieve Fisher, Melissa Megan, Patrick James Clark

Pop Night - Main Stage:
98º, O-Town, Aaron Carter, Wannabe

Side Stage: Saveria, Trading Alaska, Chad Price

Alternative Night - Main Stage:
The Offspring, MXPX, Reel Big Fish, Seaway

Side Stage: The Anti-Queens, Snacks?, The Filthy Radicals

Hip-Hop Night - Main Stage:
Ice Cube, Method Man & Redman, Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Maestro Fresh Wes, Haviah Mighty

Side stage: Sum-01, Ngajuana, Lola

EDM Night: Deadmau5, Diplo, AC Slater, Feed Me, Ookay, Atilas, Frank Walker, No Mana, Eddie, No Fone

EDM night is 2 nights Long with Diplo headlining one night and Deadmau5 headlining the other.

Tonight is my last night shooting can’t wait to get some shots of Deadmau5. So far this festival has been incredible, so many bands, so many different types of people and music there was something for everyone which has made it so awesome to attend. The line ups moved fast, gates opened on time, everything was well organized .. even bathroom waits were very minimal. Really hoping this festival will continue on annually and continue to grow, but as I said.. being the first year, the turn outs were pretty good and I can only see it getting better and bigger year to year. Parkjam has a strong backing and well rounded individuals on the team to make sure amazing bands are brought in to make this festival solid.. can’t wait to see what next year brings and hopefully Stage Pass Media will have access to shoot again!

HUGE thank you goes out to everyone at London Music Hall and Parkjam for allowing Stage Pass Media access to capture all the amazing talent.. thank you to Demetri and Mario for the hook up, thank you to all the security staff for making everyone feel safe, all the volunteers for coming out night after night, without all their help this thing couldn’t happen.. and of course.. thank you to all the bands that came out to show everyone what they do!!! feeling incredibly thankful for the opportunity. See you all next year!

The Glorious Sons

The Glorious Sons @ Parkjam Festival 2019
@kevinv1981 - Stage Pass Media

Cold War Kids

Cold War Kids
@ParkJamFestival 2019

@KevinV1981 - Stage Pass Media

The Beaches

The Beaches
ParkJamFestival 2019
@Kevinv1981 - Stage Pass Media

Brett Kissel

Brett Kissel
Park Jam Festival 2019
@Kevinv1981 - Stage Pass Media

Meghan Patrick

Meghan Patrick
Park Jam Festival 2019
@kevinv1981 - Stage Pass Media

Aaron Goodvin

Aaron Goodvin
Park Jam Festival
@Kevinv1981 - Stage Pass Media

JoJo Mason

JoJo Mason
Park Jam Festival 2019
@Kevinv1981 - Stage Pass Media

Reel Big Fish

Reel Big Fish
Park Jam Festival 2019
@kevinv1981 - Stage Pass Media

Seaways

Seaway
Park Jam Festival
@kevinv1981 - Stage Pass Media

MXPX

MXPX Park Jam Festival 2019 @kevinv1981 - Stage Pass Media

MXPX
Park Jam Festival 2019
@kevinv1981 - Stage Pass Media

This is where I would put in The Offspring, but due to legalities and contracts that were required to photograph them, I am no able to post the images here as it is my personal site, Stage Pass Media does not have it’s own site quite yet.. Soooooo.. if you’d like to see the Offspring images, you will have to check them out on the Stage Pass Media Instagram account. @stagepass_media.

Redman & Method Man

Redman & Method Man Park Jam Festival 2019 @kevinv1981 - Stage Pass Media

Redman & Method Man
Park Jam Festival 2019
@kevinv1981 - Stage Pass Media

Ice Cube

Ice Cube
Park Jam Festival 2019
@kevinv1981 - Stage Pass Media

DEADMAU5

DEADMAU5
Park Jam Festival 2019
@kevinv1981 - Stage Pass Media

Concert Photography, Stage Pass Media

You may have noticed, you may have not noticed.. but photography for me has been slowly changing.. and with in the last year.. the last 6 months of this year, so far.. a lot has changed. I love photography.. I have since grade 12, but one thing I’ve always struggled with, and a lot of photographers struggle with, is stress and anxiety. Personally, the anxiety comes from living up to the clients expectations, taking them and posing them, lighting them, editing them and coming up with a finished piece that they love as much as I do. Lately I’ve been told I need to work on my “confidence” .. but it’s not really confidence.. it’s providing someone who is paying me their hard earned money, which usually comes from a job they don’t want to go to everyday but have to.. and delivering them what they were expecting.. it’s hard to deliver something to someone and meet expectations when you can’t read their minds.. I want them to be happy and you just never know if they will be or not.
Since day one, well.. college when I went to Fanshawe College in London Ontario, I always told myself and my teachers “ I won’t work with people.. I’ll work for National Geographic or just shoot Commercial product stuff, food or Landscapes “. National Geo is every photographers dream.. yet 1% makes it .. if that.. I eventually started out photographing girls I knew.. then went into family stuff… then boudoir.. then wedding assisting.. then wedding solo stuff, but as time went on I found dealing with people never got easier.. my stress actually got worse and my love of photography started to disappear, it was feeling more like work.
Fast forward to now… I had the opportunity to photograph some concerts… well for those that don’t know, concert photography is where I started. Embassy Hotel in London Ontario hitting up Punk and Emo shows with a crap Pentax … whatever it was DLSR and a kit lens trying to get the shots. Once I shot my first concert after … 20 something years of not shooting concerts, I felt “home”. There was not stress, just pure fun, challenging lighting, waiting for the moments to unfold, emotion to erupt. Getting into concerts is TOUGH… not like back in the embassy days when you could just walk in with your camera and shoot. Now you have to send out emails to bands, Venues, Promoters, record labels.. apply for media accreditation and hope you get in. I’ve been very very fortunate that Live Nation has approved me for some shows under my personal photography “Kevin Vyse Photography”, from what I’m told it doesn’t normally happen, you usually have to be with a media outlet. Let me tell you though, I have been turned down my fair share as well.. actually A LOT.. but that is part of the game. After seeing some people at shows and seeing that they are shooting for Media Outlets I started to think about how it would be a little easier if I shot for an outlet.. Outlet’s wern’t taking photographers on though, they had their team and that was it… so… If you can’t join them… start your own outlet? That’s exactly what I did.

Stage Pass Media was born roughly a year and a half ago.. outlets wern’t taking on photographers at the time and I decided I’d give starting my own a shot. I sat down with a pencil, a beer and my thinking cap on to come up with a name.. a few stupid ones crossed my page.. didn’t like them.. then one day I was thinking about being at a concert shooting… what did I see.. well.. a stage.. you need a pass to get in, and i’m doing media. it didn’t come together quite that quick but that was the jist of it. Did a quick google search to see if the name was being used.. it wasn’t so I contacted a graphic design artists and told them what I was doing, what the name was and he drew up a few mock ups … didn’t like what came up first .. we talked more and something clicked .. he did something up pretty quick and I knew right away that was it!

Stage Pass Media watermar.png

Now the hard part was to get the name out there, get the social media stuff set up and get the “likes” and “impressions” up so I could get into shows more. I started the Instagram, the Facebook and the Twitter accounts. Every show I was accredited for I would post the images and try to get people to like them.. liked record labels, promoters, bands… anything to help, to get the work noticed…. now lets get this story going so it’s not pages long… Today, Instagram is the main home of SPM (stage pass media).. I mean I do photography.. Instagram is based around photo and video so it just makes sense.. Facebook is there but it’s tough to figure out what to post on there and with working full time it’s tough to have the time to manage all of them. Part of me thought it was a good idea to bring on other photographers to help out but long story about that short.. it just didn’t work out so now Stage Pass Media is my baby.. it’s just me and my camera’s and after some long hard thinking.. I’m going to keep it that way .. Stage Pass Media has opened a lot of doors in a short time. I’ve had SPM for almost a year and a half and I’ve met some awesome people and bands. Country music was a great starter for me, they let me in with open arms and was easier to get into than rock shows and I mean, I love country and the people .. they’re like a family and so nice! I have to give a shout out to Kelsi Mayne because if you’ve followed my concert work, Kelsi gave me my start pretty much.. because of her hiring me to shoot some images for her I was published with Big Valley Jamboree as I shot her promo image for the Festival out in Camrose Alberta. Also I was published with SiriusXM after I shot Kelsi’s image for their Top Of The Country Competition. Another big thank you goes out to Aaron Allen as he hired me and gave me the opportunity to photograph a series of album artwork for him for the release of his new song “Good Tattoo” which is now available on Streaming Sites such as: Apple Music and Spotify. When you search Aaron Allen - Good Tattoo on there the image that pops up is my image! it’s crazy! So with out those two I wouldn’t be published in music .. plus they are amazing people and so are their bands.. I love all of them and very grateful for all of them and the time we get to spend together at shows.

Ok ok.. this post has gone on way to long and no one is going to read all of it.. if you’ve made it this far… WOW! seriously thank you for reading all of this… long story short… I’m not going to say i’m not doing family portraits or weddings or anything anymore.. but right now, my focus is concerts and band promo - album artwork.. it’s what I love and I feel at home doing it.. I spend a huge amount of time at concerts… can’t get enough and now I’ve had the amazing privilege of being accredited a media pass to photograph a new MASSIVE 7 night festival in London Ontario called PARKJAM.. bands include: The Glorious Sons, The Honest Heart Collective, Goodmorning Sunrise, The Cold War Kids, The Beaches and Texas King. Brett Kissel, Meghan Patrick, Aaron Goodvin, Jojo Mason, Genevieve Fisher. The Offspring, MXPX, Reel Big Fish, Seaway. Deadmau5, Diplo. 98º, Aaron Carter, Lance Bass, OTown. Ice Cube, Busta Rhymes, Maestro Fresh Wes…… AND MORE!!!!!

So heres a few images of some of the amazing artists I’ve had the pleasure of photographing:

PUBLICATIONS WITH KELSI MAYNE & AARON ALLEN

CMAOntario's New Faces Showcase

They came, The Played, They conquered! 

Incredible weekend last weekend at the CMAOntario's in London Ontario. During the New Faces Showcase performers who are building in the country music scene had the chance to show everyone what they have during a free show on an outdoor stage. I won't lie.. every single act who performed was incredible in their own way. 

Of course.. with every concert you need to have head liners.. Headlining the CMAOntario's New Faces Showcase were two Canadian heavy hitters.. 

THE REKLAWS
and
MEGHAN PATRICK 

I will put their images at the end of this post so people will scroll through the New Faces Showcase performers .. we want to get them out there and get people interested. 

Performers: 

This woman and her band.... Phenomenal! With Kelsi's phoenix fire hair, beautiful smile thats always glowing up on stage and her powerful vocals, your attention quickly focuses on the stage. Great sound great stage presence with catchy songs and they are also great people to talk to. If you get the chance, make sure you check them out.. they are based out of Toronto On. 
 

Based out of Hamilton Ontario, The Redhill Valleys are definitely a band to keep your eyes on. With their amazing harmonies your foot can't stop tapping along with their original sound, great stage presence too.  

Josh David Band.. first off.. this guys voice! amazing voice with some nice grit, and some rocking country sound. These guys put on a great show, Josh is always moving and interacting with band members on stage which is always fun to watch. 

phenomenal sound coming from these guys, very catchy songs with awesome harmony vocals and some killer guitar solo's/leads, their song 'Minnedosa' is one of my favs. 

Brad Battle - web-13.jpg

Brads song 'Crazy Beautiful' definitely gets stuck in your head, very full sound, catchy, nice guitar solo's, stage presence is well done.. he does a really awesome cover of A Great Big World's - Say Something.. definitely a band to check out. 

HEADLINERS 

THE REKLAWS

If your into country music and you don't know this Brother and Sister duo... then you need to immediately stop reading this blog and head on over to their website, spotify, facebook, instagram... I don't care where.. but go check them out. The Recklaws are blowing up.. their song Long Live The Night is now the Thursday night Football theme song! stage presence is huge with these two always moving around the stage, Jenna is always dancing up a storm and getting the crowd pumped up and rowdy. If you see these two on any concert bill, just know you are in for an incredible show! 

MEGHAN PATRICK

You know Meghan Patrick.. you have to... if you don't, then your Canadian Country game is weak. This power house female country artist is outstanding! Powerful vocals, amazing songs.. phenomenal to watch on stage with her high knees and leg kicks.. swinging those golden locks all over it all comes together for an impressive show. Meghan cleaned up this year at the CMAOntario's Winning 3 awards: 

  • FEMALE ARTIST OF THE YEAR
  • MUSIC VIDEO OF THE YEAR - ' Country Music Made Me do It ' 
  • FAN'S CHOICE

In my opinion.. every one of these is much deserved, I love watching this woman perform! Congrats on the wins Meghan!