January 23, 2017

If you asked me about the top ten shows that I have seen and photographed, this would be one of them, The Hunter Ronson Band at the Uptown Theater on April 18, 1975.

Ian Hunter was from Mott the Hoople and Mick Ronson was from David Bowie's band. It was a great, great show and Ian talked about it last time he was in Milwaukee.

I did blog #43 on this show way back on January 11, 2013. Since then, I have wanted to play with the photos some more and add a few more shots.

I have always loved Mick Ronson's shirt and it makes for a great photo.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

January 11, 2016

Today's blog is about a band that I thought would definitely not be performing anymore. After doing some research for today's blog I see that they are alive, well and performing around the world!

They formed in 1972 and in 1975 Al Kooper produced an album for them. The album did very well, they toured and were a little like Saturday Night Live with a mix of Firesign Theater comedy.

The stage show was a bit bizarre. Drugs and porn were referenced frequently in their costumes.

Fee Waybill and his character Qualude, was a big part of the stage show. He had huge hair and a guitar shaped like the letter Q.

Enjoy a look at this bizarre show that I photographed at the Uptown Theater in Milwaukee on October 9, 1975.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

August 13, 2012

Two weeks ago in blog #19, I had a story about myself and the band Queen with some color photographs that I took on March 7, 1975.  The response was wonderful from all of you and I appreciate the comments as always.  It made me dig into the archives a little further to find the black and white images from that show for you to enjoy.

We are spoiled in the digital world as a photographer in that we can switch from color to black and white very easily.  In 1975 you had to switch rolls of film!!!!!!!!!!  In digital, we can also change the ISO or film speed quickly and from photo to photo.  Wow, would that have been nice in 1975 because we were all using push processing on our film to get a faster ISO or as we called it back then, ASA.  I had to do special things in the darkroom in the old days and it was fun but you did not know what you were going to get right away like we do now.  It took a while to see what you photographed in the old days.

I miss the smell of fixer and stop bath in the darkroom and it was like being a magician sometimes.  The darkroom was a fun place to play and work with film, paper and chemicals.  Black and white versus color is like digital versus film.  They both work but are very different and people still argue over film being better and color being better than black and white.

What do you think and which do you like better, film versus digital or color over black and white?  It is a very personal choice I think and it will be interesting to see what you think.

All blog photographs are for sale at a special price of $30.00 for a limited edition 8 X 10 or 8 1/2 X 11 gloss print which includes shipping in the U.S..  This sale is just during the week of the featured blog.  Contact us soon.

Please visit me on Facebook or Twitter @ richzimmermann.com

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

July 30, 2012

In 1971, Queen, one of the world's greatest rock'n'roll bands was formed.  Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon traveled the world extensively touring through the years.

On March 7, 1975, I had the pleasure of photographing Queen at the Uptown Theater in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  The night before they played Chicago and the night after Milwaukee they played Madison, Wisconsin heading west. 

For me it was a very memorable show.  I was photographing from the orchestra pit in front of the stage which was filled with equipment cases from the band.  During one of the songs they used a fog machine to fog the stage.  The orchestra pit and the front of the stage were filled with fog.  It was beautiful and I tried to get the perfect shot by moving over to the left a little on my knees.  I proceded to fall about 4 feet down off of an equipment case going off the edge of the case!  I was fine, the camera was fine and no one saw a thing because of the fog!  It was worth it too because the shot was exactly what I was trying to get.

I just got back up and kept on photographing like nothing happened and I will never forget that incident.

All blog photographs are for sale at a special price of $30.00 for a limited edition 8 X 10 or 8 1/2 X 11 gloss print which includes shipping in the U.S..  This sale is just during the week of the featured blog.  Contact us soon.

Please visit me on Facebook or Twitter @ richzimmermann.com

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann