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The Alphabet of Photoblogging is an A-Z 26 day long series about what to look for when doing nightlife photography and what to do to get your photo taken. For the rest of the alphabet and more info click here.

If the party you are shooting has a sponsor you need to get lovely shots of people with that product.  People drinking delicious Dewars, people partying next to a Motorola banner or people rocking whatever free giveaway some sponsor wants hipsters to have.  Doing this is sort of bullshit, I mean, I don’t really instinctively think of photography on those terms.  The thing is, when you get those good product shots, you get hired back, and you get better paying gigs.  It is the difference between getting $50 from a DJ to shoot his party to getting $750 from Absolut to shoot their exclusive event.  Plus there is an art to making products look amazing.  Try to think of it that way and maybe you won’t feel like the sell out you are.

The Alphabet of Photoblogging is an A-Z 26 day long series about what to look for when doing nightlife photography and what to do to get your photo taken. For the rest of the alphabet and more info click here.

Drag queens are the best. The always look awesome and they love getting their photo taken. And if you are on their good side they are the nicest and most optimistic people you can possibly meet. That being said… DON’T post a bad picture of one… they will hunt you down! Okay, maybe not, but it is not a good idea to piss off a drag queen… they will sass the hell out of you and you don’t want to get sassed… trust me on that one. Anyway, they have the best make up, the best outfits and the best poses… shoot them well, they deserve it.

I do have one question though… why are drag queens always so fucking tall?  Aren’t there any men below 6″ tall who want to feel like a lady once in a while?   What gives?

The Alphabet of Photoblogging is an A-Z 26 day long series about what to look for when doing nightlife photography and what to do to get your photo taken. For the rest of the alphabet and more info click here.

Lots of times bands show up at parties.  Either on stage our in the crowd and no matter how shitty of a pop punk or emo band they are it is probably best to take their photo because someone will care about it for some reason.  Also magazines like buying photos of bands and publicists will give you free tickets to shows if you shoot their bands.  I can’t remember the last time I paid to se a band.  Take good photos and they will put you on the list.  If you are in a band and I try to take your picture, just be in it, don’t be a fucking douche bag and act like you are better than that.  Nothing pisses me off more than some dude in a band talking down to me because he thinks I give a fuck that his band played the Warped Tour or some bullshit like that.  Kill yourself, you just play guitar.

The Alphabet of Photoblogging is an A-Z 26 day long series about what to look for when doing nightlife photography and what to do to get your photo taken. For the rest of the alphabet and more info click here.

Whoever is trying to get you to stop smoking never ran a photoblog.  I love taking pictures of people smoking.  I love freezing the smoke in mid puff.  The trick is to get them not to actually inhale, but just have them hold the smoke in their mouth and let it out very slowly.  I used to shoot this so much I had to intentionally cut back because all of my main images were of people smoking and it got a bit repetitive.   The other thing is, I seem to shoot better outside of clubs and most people smoke outside in NYC so they tend to look better anyway.  You might get lung cancer, but at least you look pretty doing it… I mean isn’t that why you started smoking in the first place?

The Alphabet of Photoblogging is an A-Z 26 day long series about what to look for when doing nightlife photography and what to do to get your photo taken. For the rest of the alphabet and more info click here.

One thing I look for when shooting is good tattoos.  I am sure not every photoblogger is as tattoo conscious as I am but I am a pretty big tattoo fan and when I see a girl in a low cut top with a bad ass chest piece I will make sure I get that shot.  Even if it isn’t the greatest shot a cool tattoo will save a bad photo.  When I was much younger and I didn’t know as many people with tattoos I used to photograph all my friends work and it was actually a pretty popular feature of this website back in the day.  Now a days everyone I know has some dumb tattoo, but when I see something great I always get that shot.  So show me your chest piece!

The Alphabet of Photoblogging is an A-Z 26 day long series about what to look for when doing nightlife photography and what to do to get your photo taken. For the rest of the alphabet and more info click here.

If you go to enough parties you WILL see people in their underwear. There will be frighteningly skinny dudes in American Apparel boys briefs, there will be go-go dancers in bikinis and there will be a lot of people who just took their clothes of for no reason. You NEED to take pictures of this. People want to see half naked people, even ugly people. Trust me, as horrifying as naked fat men are, people will click on the thumbnail to see him almost as large as life. While some people might shy away from actual nudity, everyone wants to see people in their underwear. Ipso facto if you get into your underwear people will take pictures. This is important to note for two reasons: 1. If you want to be seen on the internet, getting half naked is a good bet. 2. If you don’t want your friends and coworkers to see pictures of your drunk ass dancing pantless on a bar stool, you should probably keep your clothes on. Because some photobloggers are not as nice as I am and they won’t take down your picture no matter how much coke you offer them.

PS. Why haven’t I been to a liquor and lingerie party since college? Let’s bring that back into my life.

The Alphabet of Photoblogging is an A-Z 26 day long series about what to look for when doing nightlife photography and what to do to get your photo taken. For the rest of the alphabet and more info click here.

Once in a while you are going to be at a party and a fight is going to break out. This makes for excellent photos if you can get the shot right. The thing is, that is not always a good thing to shoot. Bars don’t want anyone to know there was a fight there. Fight complaints go a long way to fucking up a liquor license renewal. Bouncers hate it too. Because of legal issues no one should want photos of them fighting on the internet, and I am positive the person who lost the fight doesn’t want those pictures online. With all this in mind I try not to put up photos that people don’t want up. I always take down anything that I get complaints about, and I don’t want to piss off bars and promoters who are paying me to shoot their parties. So, if a fight goes down, I put my camera away. I might miss some good shots, but in the long run it is probably the better idea.

That being said, if people are play fighting or wrestling on the floor, get that shot, those are always great.

And FYI if you ever see me in a fight and you have your camera… take photos, I want copies for my myspace page… but I am funny like that.

The Alphabet of Photoblogging is an A-Z 26 day long series about what to look for when doing nightlife photography and what to do to get your photo taken.  For the rest of the alphabet and more info click here.

The first time I ever went to a goth party I was so impressed. Personally I’ve never been one to dress like a lunatic to party, but I have always respected the hell out of people who do it. Freaks make for the best photography, especially when surrounded by a bunch of normal people who are terrified of them. Nothing makes me happier than walking into Lotus on a Tuesday night and seeing guys in striped button ups staring in horror at 6′6″ drag queens. For aspiring photobloggers out there, just make sure you are still composing well. Sometimes when I am shooting the craziest looking people my photography suffers because I am just trying to get the shot. People dress up want you to take their photo, take your time and get the shot.

The Alphabet of Photoblogging is an A-Z 26 day long series about what to look for when doing nightlife photography and what to do to get your photo taken.  For the rest of the alphabet and more info click here.

You only have so many options for the letter X, but luckily we don’t have to settle for Xylophones. One of the main reasons people come to my site, and a few others is because of nudity and sexuality. If you decide to start a photoblog you have to figure out what sort of stuff you want to put on your page. Some of us won’t shoot nudity at all, some shoot everything. The traffic your site receives and the type jobs you can get revolves around this. Because I show nudity I can’t use Google advertising. I personally chose to show nudity, but I don’t put up anything that I would consider sexually graphic. It is up to you, but make sure you think about it, especially if you are trying to get ad revenue from your site.

The Alphabet of Photoblogging is an A-Z 26 day long series about what to look for when doing nightlife photography and what to do to get your photo taken.  For the rest of the alphabet and more info click here.

This was the hardest letter for me to find an image for because I have so many good ones. There is no better photo than someone just screaming for no reason. Whenever I see anyone yelling I point my camera and take aim. Catching people like this consistently makes for amazing photos. Outside of photoblogging if I am taking portraits of people I always try to get them to scream at me as loud as they can. It makes for good photos and it breaks down some of the tension that is caused from a photographer/subject relationship. So if you see one of us nightlife photographers near you, just start yelling and I am positive we will take the shot. Just don’t yell at us… we just wanna make you famous.

The Alphabet of Photoblogging is an A-Z 26 day long series about what to look for when doing nightlife photography and what to do to get your photo taken.  For the rest of the alphabet and more info click here.

Halloween unfortunately for nightlife photographers can’t come every day. When it is around we all get tons of content and amazing photos. That being said, there are always costume parties and weird reasons for people to dress up. I am always looking to shoot those events. Sometimes there are just assholes dressed like freaks for no reason, and trust me, they get a lot of coverage. If you want to be blogged about on one of our sites, dress like a zombie every day and I promise someone is going to take your picture.

Starting tomorrow I am going to post one aspect of a party that I would look for if it showed up at a party and I am going to do it reverse alphabetically.  Each letter is going to have a photo from my Flickr page that links back to my account.  The idea is to provide you with some insight to what I am looking for when I go out, entertain you through amazing original content, and promote my Flickr account.  I hope to do it daily, but I am sure I will miss a day here and there.  Most of these pictures I have posted already, but these I am going to be posting with out logos, and if you click through there will be HUGE versions of them that you can use for your computer backgrounds or whatever the kids are doing with high res images these days.  My photos are still copyrighted so don’t go printing them commercially or anything, and if you use them on a website, link back to me.