Just yesterday I had to go back and find some pictures from awhile back and came across this fun one I blogged many years ago, even before blogging was a household word.
At the time I was hired buy a midwest newspaper to go photograph Gary Puckett— aka Gary Puckett and the Union Gap. He was performing along with a whole bunch of fabulous “oldie” acts out at Raley Field in West Sacramento.
Though I was only there for Puckett I stuck around for the day long show and had a blast photographing them all.
In those days I had a super wide angle lens for my camera, which I took everywhere and it’s what I used do do “selfies” before it was a super trend. And I called my selfie project “101 horrible photos of myself with famous people”. 🙂
And these guys, in their day, were UBER famous!
In 1968 Gary Puckett and The Union Gap had six consecutive gold records and sold more records than any other recording act— including the Beatles!
BJ Thomas is a five time Grammy Award winner and won the Academy Award for Best Song in 1970— Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid movie soundtrack.
And then there’s Jack Ely who sang “Louie Louie” with The Kingsmen, that HUGE one-hit-wonder in 1963 that everyone believed to have racy lyrics, but it didn’t! I’m sad to say I just found out Ely passed just this past April at the age of 71.
Being a professional photographer has been so much fun and so rewarding. What a great life it has been because I’ve had the pleasure to see, do and have the most remarkable experiences. The business and the tools of photography are changing so much and so fast but I’m still managing to keep up, whew! It’s good to take a few minutes out now and then and look at where I have been as well as reflect on where I am going.