Tour photography has been a dream since I first started working in the music industry way back in 2021. It felt like such a distant thought. Like a land beyond a fog, I didn’t know how to clear. When Connor agreed to bring me on, that fog finally lifted.

The route was hectic, we’d be going from New York to Seattle in just about 23 days - October 25th to November 18th. I’m a little unsure how to recap the shows, but I’d like to go through the process of creating the tour coverage and how it evolved over time.

Prologue

In the summer, I’d taken photos at Osheaga and it was the first time my process for photography felt locked in. This was true for my gear, the shooting and the editing process. I shoot almost exclusively on an 85mm attached to my Canon 5DMKIII. Additionally, I use a fisheye adapter by lens-whacking onto the 85 to achieve my wide angle shots. It keeps me nimble and I’m spending a minimal amount of time adjusting my lenses. However, Osheaga was grand, large light rigs, pyrotechnics and massive space, not to say it didn’t have its own issues. I think I’ll recap that here someday too. So while the scale of the show allowed me to fine tune the way I took photos, an intimate tour with rooms no bigger than 350 cap, along with unknown lighting rigs from show to show. The challenge really was:

Cover the night in small spaces
Highlight the way I like to take photos
Make sure the coverage feels familiar, but unique per night

Passion Mango’s current rollout is all in black and white, captured by Luke Beach Bown. This became easy to follow so I knew the main photos would be black and white as well. So I decided the videos would be colour to create a consistent language for the audiences to follow along with. So off I went.

New York - Oct 26th, ‘25

I turned 25 on this tour! Right on our first show at the Sultan Room in Brooklyn. This was easily the hardest night of coverage for the show; I hadn’t seen the band perform in a while, and I didn’t know the format of the set list. To be specific, the crowd engagement moments, song transitions, solos etc.

The lighting changed far too frequently that night, and I wasn’t quite able to manoeuvre around the sold-out room nearly as much as I wanted to. I was also selling merch, so I didn’t know how much I would be able to leave the stand or not. It meant the coverage from the night became a test rather than me really pushing the boundaries. I came away from the show neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. The coverage had been acquired and for the most part they got the mood of the night well enough. Although this remained the only show I never got a photo of Zak, our drummer, and I vowed that would never happen again.

Boston - October 28th, ‘25

A long travel day and another exploration. The venue, Sonia, in Cambridge was almost a gym with a bar in it. The lighting was dimmer than NYC but more focused I’d say. After a drink, merch set up and testing my settings, I was ready to move for the show. Passion Mango always went first on the lineup; this also meant no one came to our table for merch during the show, I knew I could move freely for those 30 minutes. Once the lights dimmed, I was ready to push my limits and see what I could capture.

Boston became another experiment but I could push much further. I was slowly memorizing the beats of the show and knowing where to be was starting to become easier. I also used the fisheye far more, lending itself to hazier images and being able to frame subjects within frames. Although, shooting with autofocus became much harder as the lens was hunting far more frequently not knowing which point to focus for. I also started using the fisheye on my iPhone for video and that brought a brand new depth to the coverage. I’d found some key alphabets in the language for my tour coverage. I had a lot of space to move, which was convenient for me to get all around the stage. Zak and I built a good rapport from this show on, he would always know when I was on stage. I really enjoy capturing every band member in their element as there’s so much energy they’re all bringing to the show that highlighting just the singer becomes a somewhat tired exercise.

Philadelphia - October 29th, ‘25

We almost missed sound check with the roads being as difficult to navigate as they were. Travelling in an RV means navigating tight roads becomes quite the challenge, let alone through the traffic of New York State.

This was by far the dimmest venue I have ever shot at, besides the Biltmore in Vancouver. I had to ask the lighting tech to make it brighter twice, although I’m not sure that entirely helped my case. Johnny Brenda’s was a beautiful venue with high ceilings with balcony access. A cramped environment with an 85mm isn’t an ideal shooting condition, and each photo was a war of attrition; I was adjusting my settings constantly with each photo I took. I don’t tend to adjust my ISO; it’s usually left at 200 however, I was pushing well over 1000. Venues like these made me very grateful for the fast lens and the full frame sensor, so I could maximize what little light we did have. I used what I’d learned from the previous shows for the framing. If the conditions were better, I would’ve been even happier with these photos. I only ended up exporting twelve photos because the images were genuinely that dim. In the moment I remember choosing to focus on taking more videos to compensate. Looking back, these were the only collection, where the blacks in the image didn’t match the rest of the tour. I’m nitpicking, but it’s something that did irritate me for the rest of the trip.

Washington DC - October 30th, ‘25

On the road, I remember telling Piers, rhythm guitar, that I think the crowd in DC would be electric. Nothing more than a hunch. After a bizarre safety meeting with the venue manager at DC9, I walked the room and this became a key process moving forward for all future shows. Knowing the space and prepping myself.

The crowd was awesome. We all felt the electricity that night, it was the first show where I’d finally found my groove with the shooting process and the edits that would come together. The band would engage with me when they saw me; I didn’t miss any major beats of the show. Right place, right time. I never thought DC would party that hard.

Atlanta - Nov 1st, ‘25

The Masquerade is one of the coolest venues ever. An old mall, converted into 4 venues that get bigger in size, themed after the afterlife: Altar, Hell, Purgatory, Heaven; can’t wait to go back. The Halloween show didn’t disappoint. Atlanta was stunning. It was another show where I’d hit my stride and the coverage from the night was making more and more sense as we went along. Knowing the set list and the beats made life far easier. I would typically take most of my photos during the first 15 minutes, and focus on video for the remaining chunk. Clean Slate and Boy became priorities to film, and this was the first night I took the stage to film Boy from behind the drum kit, something I would continue to do for every remaining show. Oh, and the boys dressed up as Gru and the minions; there’s an inside joke somewhere I’m forgetting.

Nashville - Nov 2nd, ‘25

The basement and a basement it was. Wow, this was a small venue, and it was jam packed with folks wall to wall. I knew this was going to be a monumental challenge for me and my 85mm. There wasn’t room to breathe. It was a show like this that made me feel safety in my process. Walk the room, check my angles and check the lights during sound check. A small mental guide of the places and points I wanted to hit because I knew that navigating the crowd was going to be tricky. It was Music City after all and we were glad to play another sold out show. I wasn’t too unhappy with the results.

Dallas - Nov 4th, ‘25

Long, long, oh so long drives through the middle of America. We stopped briefly in Memphis and saw Graceland on the way. This began a series of venues where we honestly had no idea what to expect from the crowd or from the venue itself. Whenever we’d arrive, we’d think it was strange and it would turn out to be awesome. Ferris Wheelers BBQ was exactly that: a BBQ with a ferris wheel in the back. This was the only place that had a true stage and I was never at a deficit for lighting. It was a welcome change of pace. Although, I was used to walking around a room and I was suddenly back to navigating a barrier and having to walk a lot farther to get from one side to another. This was another night that felt like I was in the flow state and it was a joy to capture this night. But little did I know danger loomed ahead for me.

I took my favourite photo of Piers this night from the entire tour (first image) he looks like a movie star. Though LA has a close second.

Denver - Nov 6th, ‘25

Time started to become hazy at this point. Long drives became a blur of Americana. We had most of the day in Denver, and the venue was again strange at first but amazing at night. Ah yes, danger. I had been charging my spare batteries every night. I have two official ones from Canon and two discount batteries I’d gotten from Montreal. Lo and behold, the dummies had stopped charging, the official charger simply wouldn’t charge them no matter what I did. I found this out mid way through the set when my camera died and not a single one of my batteries were charged. Goes to show, never overlook the gear or to always stop and check everything was functional, something I had stopped doing since Atlanta. I switched over to shooting as much video as possible, and thankfully I’d still gotten enough photo coverage for the night. Some of my favourite mood photos were from this show.

Salt Lake City - Nov 7th, ‘25

Hands down the best audience we had. I finally managed to charge everything I needed and I had the pleasure of shooting Nat Lefkoff, the openers as well. It was freezing cold and Utah is beautiful. Lovely place and lovely people. I don’t have much to say really, there were lots of other photographers there. It was a night well worth capturing through my eye. Got my favourite video of tour that night too. One of my top 3 photos of Connor was in SLC. My second fav photo of Zak was here as well. Salt Lake was a good time. Oh, and Connor finally spotted me; something he’d been trying to do since Boston.

Phoenix - Nov 10th, ‘25

Not the biggest fan of the city, a big fan of the crowd. I had really hit my stride. Since Passion Mango went first, I would set up merch and my gear. I would get in position as the show started, shoot as much as I thought necessary, run back to the booth as soon as the show ended, sell the merch rush, edit all the photos during Nat’s set and then upload. I had a preset pretty much dialed in from all the other shows. Most of my editing process was selections and removal of as many distractions as possible. I would typically shoot between 200-300 photos, and cull that down to 15-30 photos to edit, depending on how tough I was being on the selections. From there I would only choose another 10-12 photos to post along with the videos of course. Everyone except Luke and Josh was sick so we really pushed through that night.

My favourite photo of Zak was from Phoenix (first) and my favourite photo of Luke, bassist, (second).

Los Angeles - Nov 11th, ‘25

LA was sold out. Most of us were recovered from sickness, I’m sure all the In-n-Out burgers had something to do with it. We played at Zebulon and it was a venue that gave me amazing access right behind the stage to access the viewpoint behind Zak.

I want to shout out Jasmine, she came up to me at the merch table and when we introduced ourselves to each other, she told me she knew who I was and had been keeping up with all the tour photographer. Jasmine, if you ever read this somehow, you made my day, and that was such a special and gratifying moment. I had a lot of struggles with my settings that night, but adversity was certainly overcome. I had more issues with video than photo.

My favourite photo of Josh, lead guitarist, came from that night (first). Along with my third favourite photo of Connor (second). And my second favourite photo of Piers as promised (third).

Sacramento - Nov 12th, ‘25

Sacramento was a tight venue, the lighting was harsh and the stage wasn’t significantly higher than the floor itself. The crowd was there for their hometown hero Nat Lefkoff. We had an audience member pass out right before Boy and the boys handled it very well. The show went on. It was a challenging night, it was show 3 of 4 shows that were back to back and I was really struggling to find moments that felt new and different, but somehow the lighting really allowed me to remove vast portions of the background and really sculpt the image in a way I wanted. I was expecting the photos to turn out poorly after the set, but I really found them in the edit.

Fatigue is a real factor during a tour, and I was really feeling the effects of it at this show.

San Francisco - Nov 13th, ‘25

The venue was underground and it felt like a beautiful speakeasy. It wasn’t, but imagine it would’ve been in the past. It was a real challenge getting around this venue. They were pumping so much smoke and red light, that it was possibly the worst show I had while trying to adjust my settings. For the first time since Philly, I really had to push my settings and my editing. This time to retain detail, because the highlights were so crushed or overwhelming. Making it all look cohesive was a larger challenge than anything else.

Zak had a mic in front of him that was the bane of my existence.

Portland - Nov 16th, ‘25

There was nothing to write home about. Although this show had the venue with the deepest space, so taking crowd photos was going to be easy! Except the lack of a crowd, so it was back to work creating mood and atmosphere. Portland was a tough crowd and a tough show all around in my opinion. Like I said, nothing to write home about. Although seeing familiar faces was nice. Luke’s parents, friends and family came to show. Along with Josh’s band mate Micah. Also, Piers’ girlfriend Holly came down too!

Seattle - Nov 17th, ‘25

Seattle rocked. It was a great ending to three weeks on tour. It felt like 3 months while we were in it, but it was gone in a blink. I learned a metric fuck ton. To pace yourself, to work hard and to not stop pushing yourself. Always check your gear.

Next time I go on tour, since I won’t do merch I really want to push myself to get even more coverage. Moments in the green room. Moments on the road. Crowd interactions. Crowd reactions. I’m deeply inspired by Daniel Broadley’s coverage from the recent OASIS tour and my guiding star in concert photography Henry Hwu. Someday, I’ll take photos of grand stages. For now, a dream came true, capped off in Seattle along with my favourite photo of the tour and my favourite photo of Connor (first). We do save the best for last don’t we?