I came up in the pit.

A documentary eye, earned in low light

I'm Tara. I shoot live music and events — festivals, tour runs, club shows — stills and video, out of Sacramento and across Northern California and the Bay Area. A decade of it. Stage, pit, crowd, production, backstage.

Dark rooms, three-song limits and moments that don't repeat built a specific set of muscles: read a room fast, work in bad light, stay calm, keep shooting. That background led to editorial work, including photographs published by PEOPLE at BottleRock Napa Valley 2023 with access to the artist lounge, and to a year on the Burning Man media team working inside a credentialed production alongside other shooters.

What that means on a job

• Two bodies, so no lens changes on a three-song clock.
• Comfortable in a pit, at media check-in, and under tour photo restrictions.
• Happy on a larger media team, splitting stages and shooting to a shot list.
• Stills and video. Very little posing — mostly I document.
• Enquiries typically receive a response within 48 hours.

My work is for people, not categories — artists, crew, crowds, communities. LGBTQ+ affirming, always.

I also founded Girls in the Pit — a podcast and platform for the women, artists, photographers, and overlooked voices shaping live music. Building that community from the inside taught me something that informs every commercial project: the difference between photographing a community from the outside and actually understanding how it forms, sustains itself, and wants to be represented. Explore Girls in the Pit — my women-led music podcast, photography, and media platform.

Agencies, production companies, venues, promoters, labels and artists work with TaraLens when they want someone who already knows how a show runs — not a photographer who needs the rules explained at the gate. Portrait, family and celebration work continues on its own page.