About Brett

Almost born with a camera in my hands, I obtained my first camera at the age of 8. A polaroid back and white instamatic. Amazed and intrigued from an instant picture coming from a box after fanning the stiff cardboard like print to dry in the air. Polaroid film cartridges were expensive for an 8-year-old. Every Christmas, birthday, holiday etc. I would ask for Polaroid film. In 1972 while listening to my folks radio I heard this mesmerizing music for the first time …..“Led Zeppelin” coming from my folks radio. It was the most pleasurable sound Id ever heard. From that point forward I was hooked on Rock and Roll, but from that point forward I listened every chance I got. I suppose in the same way today’s youth play video games non stop all day.

Jimmy Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Stones, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, CCR, Aerosmith, RUSH, AC/DC , Van Halen and continuing through the next generations interpretation of Rock and Roll today.

My next camera I got as a Christmas present in 1972. A Polaroid Color instamatic camera. It was amazing. Now all the rich colors that I had imagined on the black and white polaroid were coming to life. Exposing countless packages of polaroid color film cartridges. Black and White film was expensive, But Color Film cartridges were breaking the bank. As much as I enjoyed the instant gratification of the polaroid, a change had to be made.

In 1973 a new camera was released by Kodak. The 110 instamatic film camera. It was cheap, small and easy to take with you. The film cartridges were cheap so a couple skipped school lunches afforded a lot of 110 film cartridges. However there was a catch. The film had to be developed in order to receive prints. no matter what, I took pictures of everything. I remember hearing a duo called Seals and Croft on the radio about 1972 but wasn’t that keen on them until A song called “ Summer Breeze’ hit the radio and I was hooked . It was the summer of 1973 . My birthday being in the summer felt like the perfect opportunity to ask my Mom to buy “US” tickets to see them live at the Richmond Coliseum. The good old days when a concert ticket was about $ 5.00 , General Admission. She said with a question in her voice, “OK ”? If that’s what you really want. Upon entrance , We sprinted to the front of the stage. Camera in hand and in 4 pockets , copious numbers of 110 film cartridges clanking together. The show, spectacular ! I came away with about 200 pictures on 10 used film cartridges I couldn’t see. I couldn’t wait to have them developed and printed. Many more lunches were missed to get all 10 cartridges developed at the local Peoples Drug store. ( Now CVS). The pictures were Amazing. Some blurry, some over exposed, some under exposed but the vast majority came out awesome. ” Best Birthday Ever “

After the Seals and Croft show I had to photograph every show I could get into.

Kodak came out yearly with new iterations of the new and improved 110 camera. I would generally buy the upgrade if the funds allowed. I photographed just about everything I thought was interesting. The Dog, the house, the car, pretty much everything. That includes bands in Local small venues as well as the larger acts if/when I could get in.

Fast forward to High School, photography was a class being taught in my freshman year, It was a full immersive dive into photography. The exposure triangle, composition, and development. Nothing I had ever heard of before. But I was dying to jump in feet first. The first requirement was a DSLR 35 mm camera . What? That just sounds expensive. My folks will never agree. After months of whining and making “deals” that I knew I could never live up to, they broke down and Bought me that Pentax K-1000. and a 35mm lens. Film was a couple bucks a roll. I could develop my own black and white film and make prints in class. Wow , life was good!

After learning the camera I was still very interested in taking photos of all my favorite Bands in the late 70’s through 80’s. to today. Sometimes they would let you bring a camera into a venue , sometimes not. It was a crap shoot. So most of the time you would hide your gear under your coat or shirt. Now as concerts, festivals, events and bands got huge like U2 I would duct tape the camera body and lens to my back , under a shirt and my sister would stuff her purse full of 35mm film cartridges. It took me years to finally figure out why everyone always wanted my empty 35mm canisters. It finally came very clear at a party why those canisters were so popular.

Thank you for taking the time to read.

Brett K. Miller Concert Photography