Cheers to A Shot of Bailey’s, Like the Liquor
Courtesy of Bailey Willis, A Shot of Bailey’s Media
The air vibrated with the hum of anticipation and the buzz of the crowd as the dark-haired girl weaved her tall frame through the sea of concert-goers. The laminated badge hanging from her neck marked her as a volunteer – “cooler duty” – but the camera hidden beneath her jacket betrayed her real intentions.
Her heart pounded in sync with the bass when the opening chords shattered the air. A deft sidestep past a distracted security guard, and she was in the photo pit. Adrenaline surged as she crouched near the barricade, camera in hand, pretending she belonged. In reality? She had no idea what she was doing.
Lights exploded in a kaleidoscope of colors, illuminating the artist in sharp, fleeting angles, a perfect backdrop for the electric chaos brewing on stage. She raised her lens.
Click.
The shutter’s rhythm matched the energy of the drums, the crowd’s screams blending into her pulse. She framed the lead singer mid-leap, the guitarist lost in a blistering solo, and the raw emotion etched into every sweat-drenched face on stage.
At that moment, the world narrowed to the viewfinder. Time bent and stretched, the beats guiding her every move. It wasn’t just music anymore. It was motion, light, and life.
By the final encore, her cheeks hurt from grinning. The “cooler duty” she’d abandoned felt like a distant lifetime. Here, among the roar of amps and the fire of stage lights, Bailey Willis knew she’d found something that made her feel alive in a way she hadn’t known before.
Born in Michigan and raised in Texas, Willis is a newcomer to live music but a seasoned photographer, discovering her passion and talent through high school photo classes. Soon after, she fell in love with the craft of capturing moments and realized she could make a living from it.
She transitioned from wedding photography, which she disliked despite the good pay, to portraiture and sports photography at the YMCA. Now a full-time automobile photographer, she found her stride diving into music photography. When she crowd-surfed into the music ocean, she made waves and has been doing so ever since.
Willis has always had a knack for the arts. Ever since she could remember, music had been her safe place. She’d spent countless hours with headphones on, lost in the melodies of her favorite bands. So, with very little musical ability through singing or playing an instrument, she discovered a new way to live the music – one frame at a time. Through her camera, she found a way to tell the story of the music without being onstage.
Bailey Willis was a woman with a plan. It was just a matter of putting that plan into action for her benefit. After her immediate love connection with concert photography, she began frequenting shows with her camera as her plus one. But it just wasn’t enough.
“I sat on it for a little bit because I feel like the scene is very gatekeep-y,” Willis said. “Nobody wants to tell you how to do it. Nobody wants to give you their secrets. Nobody wants to take you under their wing.”
Thankfully, the odds were on her side when she contacted the photographer for country band Whiskey Myers and asked for tips about breaking into the field. A two-hour phone call landed her first photo pass to one of the band’s shows in Austin. That series of events introduced her to several local venues she could get into without needing media credentials.
During this time, she worked at a camera store and had a connection with a Canon representative who set her up to shoot a hardcore show in Fort Worth. There, Willis fell in love with the hardcore scene and the energy of heavy shows.
“I said to myself, ‘Oh, this is hardcore music.’” Willis said. “‘This is f—ing sick, and I want to do this forever.’”
Over six years, the 29-year-old has shot hundreds of shows all over the country. It’s only fair to say Willis has developed her unique style in that time. She aims to “give the person consuming her images ‘FOMO.’" Her inspiration stems from mutual scene photographers such as Liam Gillin, Dookie Meño, and James Coffman, who have worked with big names in the modern rock scene like The Story So Far, Superheaven, and Underoath.
“I love when I look at photos and go, ‘Damn, I wish I was there.’” Willis said. “‘I don't even know who's playing, but I wish I was at that thing right now.’ And that pushed me to think about that consciously when I’m shooting. Every shot I take, I want to make it look like if you weren’t here, you should’ve been.”
While all her work is exceptional, she takes the most pride in her wide-angle shots and black-and-white photography. Yet, behind every stunning image lies the unseen effort that brings it to life.
Willis’s day begins at 4 a.m., editing photos from the show she left just hours earlier. By 7 a.m., she’s at her full-time job, which wraps up between 1:30 and 3 p.m. She then spends the afternoon editing in a coffee shop before heading to the next show at 8 p.m. It’s a grueling cycle but entirely worth it for her.
“People see that, and they appreciate that,” Willis said. “There are a lot of people that don’t work hard that just want it handed to them, and it’s not gonna f—ing happen.”
If this seems like a lot now, Willis’s pre-show routine is sure to spark a mild sense of anxiety.
She ensures her bag is ready the night before, packed with a 24-70 mm f/2.8 lens, a 70-200 mm f/2.8 lens, and a 14 mm f/1.8 lens. Additionally, she includes extra batteries and matches the number of SD cards with the number of bands playing – one for each artist – as an additional security measure to keep from hitting any bumps down the road.
Willis arrives at the venue two hours early, securing a prime parking spot and giving herself ample time to scout the area. She relies on a carefully crafted shot list to make the most of her limited time in the photo pit. Her sure-fire method ensures she gets a variety of styles and angles for each band member before the strict three-song limit is up.
Between songs and sets, she sends her favorite shots to her phone, edits on the spot, and shares sneak peeks on her Instagram story, tagging the bands. Doing so lets the artists and concert attendees quickly discover her work during and after the shows.
However, even when you over-plan, some things still go wrong. Willis has multiple slip-ups in her venture to learn how to shoot and edit videos for her clients. There’s a learning curve with anything new, and it takes a while to get around it, but she thinks you should be patient.
“Everything’s a learning experience, and we’re in a creative industry where everyone’s doing everything differently, so there’s really no right way to do it,” Willis said. “You just have to be able to accept that you’re going to f— up and be able to learn from it and move on and do things differently the next time.”
Willis’s attitude toward being unable to do something well showcases one of her best qualities – the ability to adapt to adversity when challenges arise. She admits that one of the hardest things about shooting concerts is figuring out how to portray the energy of the shows through still images, so she constructed methods of illustrating the feeling of the artists’ sound. This hiccup is where Willis can flex her creative muscles.
She incorporates different artistic elements into the photos – like shutter drags, GIFs, and gradient maps – to transform them from a boring still to an image that gives you a visual of the energy of the performers and the crowd.
“Your creativity is the biggest part of it,” Willis said. “You can push a button all day, but you’re the one with the control to do whatever the f— you want with it because it’s your art. People think too much about what everybody else is going to think, and it literally does not matter. Who gives a s—?”
As stated, Willis has shot hundreds of shows throughout her career. She has accumulated a portfolio of her favorites, whether photos or memorable moments from the shows.
One unforgettable experience comes from a small show at Tulips in Fort Worth featuring Parker Cannon, the lead singer of The Story So Far, and the pop-punk band No Pressure – one of Willis’s all-time favorites. While Cannon typically keeps a reserved presence on stage with The Story So Far, he unleashes his wild side with No Pressure. Willis had the chance to witness it firsthand.
Bodies pressed shoulder to shoulder in the small, narrow venue, the air thick with heat and the metallic tang of spilled beer. She adjusted her camera strap, threading toward the photo pit as the crowd erupted in a deafening roar.
Cannon had just bounded onto the stage, his energy crackling like a live wire. He was everywhere – leaping off amps, screaming into the mic, his face inches from the crowd one second and halfway up the drum kit the next. His vocals bled into the guitars' roar and the drums' thunder. She caught flashes of chaos through her lens: the sweat dripping off his brow, the outstretched hands of the crowd.
The impact came like a freight train as she framed the singer in her viewfinder. A crowd surfer’s boot collided with her chest, sending her sprawling backward into the unruly crowd of fans behind her.
She laughed, breathless and exhilarated. Her finger found the shutter again, capturing the circus around her. Another surge from the crowd, another wave of bodies, and still, she didn’t stop. The music rattled her bones, the lights stung her eyes, and her heart pounded in rhythm with the drums. She had never felt more alive.
No Pressure at Tulips, Courtesy of Bailey Willis/A Shot of Bailey’s Media
“I was having the best time of my life,” Willis said. “It makes you want to cry because it’s just so sick. I like that heavy energy in a crowded room where you feel like you're a part of something – those are the best f—ing shows. Getting to photograph that and trying to bring that feeling to a photo is so much fun.”
Given the quality of her work, many bands have sought out Willis for photos, each with a unique image they want to express to their audience. As a result, some might see her portfolio as scattered, lacking a cohesive theme—a concept that some photographers might consider almost blasphemous.
However, variety is what she aims for. By mastering multiple photography and editing styles, she demonstrates to potential clients that she can deliver whatever they need. Willis advises newcomers to focus on building a diverse portfolio and making valuable connections.
“What makes you stand out from all the other people that are going to be in the photo pit shooting for a publication that’s just going to give them the link at the end of the day?” Willis said. “You've got to have value in your work before you can expect somebody else to.”
That sentiment of motivation has gotten her nominated for “Best Local Photographer” in the Fort Worth Weekly. It’s also what initially drew Fort Worth rock band Dispositions to hire her as their touring photographer.
The band had worked with many photographers but never had a consistent one until they met Willis. After attending one of their shows and sending them the photos, they quickly decided to take her on tour – the rest is history.
Courtesy of Dispositions and Bailey Willis
“Bailey is by far the best photographer I have ever worked with, no question,” said A.J. Tate, the drummer for Dispositions. “She takes no s— and gets the job done fast. She’s a hell of an individual, and we could not ask for anyone better.”
For this up-and-coming superstar of a photographer, the future isn’t just bright—it’s a dazzling masterpiece waiting for her to photograph it. The path ahead glows like a perfectly exposed frame, full of light and limitless possibilities.
In the next few years, Willis envisions herself on tour with a big-name band, whether they hire her or she sneaks onto the bus. The only thing holding her back, she says, is her lack of video skills, but she’s working on it. She figures if she’s going to claim a spot on the bus, she has to be able to play multiple roles.
Bailey Willis may still be climbing up the ladder, but her work is already turning heads, each shot proof of her ability to freeze the passion and the raw emotion of live music into something timeless. She’s carving out a space for herself in a world where the beat never stops one shot at a time, proving that the best view of the stage isn’t always from the spotlight—it’s often from behind the lens.
“In our own way, we're making art out of their art, what they’re doing on stage,” Willis said. “I want people to look at it and think, ‘Wow, that show looks so fun.’ And that's hard sometimes when you're at a tiny show with ten people. Then again, it’s kind of your job to make it look like it was a good time. That's the whole point for me. That's the mindset I go into every show with.”
Check out Bailey’s work here!