Ottofilm
The Fly
Hey gang -
Six years and a couple of weeks ago, I was taking photos with a cheap plastic camera at the second Oakland Popmart when someone in all black ducked out of a shot for me. I reached out my hand, he smiled and shook it, and kept going. When I met the man later in the parking lot, it turned out he was the head of U2 security, and he said he'd be fine with "real" cameras as long as there was no zoom lens. I said I wish I'd known as my tickets in LA weren't quite so good. He said bring the camera, find him, and he'd get me on the B-stage rail. My mental reply to this was: !!! I thanked him and said I'd see him in LA. I hadn't even mentioned it was going to be my Birthday, but he'd given me a great present.
At the LA show I managed to get myself to the B-Stage (turned out my seats didn't exist because of the mix platform being big, and they upgraded me) and when the man came by I asked if he was okay with the camera. He said yes, barely looking as he ran off to get the show started.
The pictures turned out well and I thought: I can't not share these. I had a little web space that came with my dialup account - a something dot com ~ otto type deal - and I spent a couple of weeks scanning photos at a friend's house and figuring out how HTML worked.
On July 4th, 1997, I posted the site and told a mailing list or two. Live photos were a bit rare on the web in those days, and I had 27,000 hits in the first 20 hours! I knew I was on to something people wanted to see...
Now, six years later it's got it's own URL (www.U2photos.com) and 2002 photos from 64 shows, both PopMart and Elevation. I'm honored at the response the photos have gotten and I'm glad for all the friends I've made in this fan world.
Thanks everyone...
otto
(Okay, a moment of something resembling commercialism, sorry: but I've got to pay for 22,000,000 downloaded photos SOMEHOW. I don't often sell prints of my photos - 10 are available normally but not the other 2000 on the site - but this weekend only, all POPMART photos are available in two sizes, at half price, as a thank you, and to help with server costs. Just visit any PopMart photo on the site and the details will be below the picture.)
Six years and a couple of weeks ago, I was taking photos with a cheap plastic camera at the second Oakland Popmart when someone in all black ducked out of a shot for me. I reached out my hand, he smiled and shook it, and kept going. When I met the man later in the parking lot, it turned out he was the head of U2 security, and he said he'd be fine with "real" cameras as long as there was no zoom lens. I said I wish I'd known as my tickets in LA weren't quite so good. He said bring the camera, find him, and he'd get me on the B-stage rail. My mental reply to this was: !!! I thanked him and said I'd see him in LA. I hadn't even mentioned it was going to be my Birthday, but he'd given me a great present.
At the LA show I managed to get myself to the B-Stage (turned out my seats didn't exist because of the mix platform being big, and they upgraded me) and when the man came by I asked if he was okay with the camera. He said yes, barely looking as he ran off to get the show started.
The pictures turned out well and I thought: I can't not share these. I had a little web space that came with my dialup account - a something dot com ~ otto type deal - and I spent a couple of weeks scanning photos at a friend's house and figuring out how HTML worked.
On July 4th, 1997, I posted the site and told a mailing list or two. Live photos were a bit rare on the web in those days, and I had 27,000 hits in the first 20 hours! I knew I was on to something people wanted to see...
Now, six years later it's got it's own URL (www.U2photos.com) and 2002 photos from 64 shows, both PopMart and Elevation. I'm honored at the response the photos have gotten and I'm glad for all the friends I've made in this fan world.
Thanks everyone...
otto
(Okay, a moment of something resembling commercialism, sorry: but I've got to pay for 22,000,000 downloaded photos SOMEHOW. I don't often sell prints of my photos - 10 are available normally but not the other 2000 on the site - but this weekend only, all POPMART photos are available in two sizes, at half price, as a thank you, and to help with server costs. Just visit any PopMart photo on the site and the details will be below the picture.)
Otto 
