Live music at Folsom’s Twilight Concert Series with Two Step featuring Ryan Hernandez

As a frequent concert goer (and photographer, at times), my favorite live music venues in Sacramento not only include the newer Golden One Center, Hard Rock Live, and the classic outdoor Toyota Amphitheater, but I also really enjoy smaller venues like Harlows and Ace of Spades for a more up close and personal experience with the music. A few days ago, I had the opportunity to photograph a very talented local musician, Ryan Hernandez, playing sax, fiddle and flute for his Dave Matthews Tribute Band “Two Steps” at Folsom’s Zittel Family Amphitheater on historic Sutter Street. I’ve known Ryan for a few years now, through the weddings and events industry, as he is highly sought after amongst many of the event coordinators in Northern California. It amazes me how talented and versatile he is playing any instrument! In fact, he just taught himself to play saxophone as a pandemic hobby through 2020. I was asked to photograph him last year at the Twilight Concert Series in Folsom, but I already had an event booked for the week… so was really excited to find he was playing again, and closing out the summer line-up as being the last band on the last night for 2023.

Oddly enough, my photo career started on Sutter Street in 2002 when I used to work for Gail DeMarco’s Masterpiece Photography (later named XSiGHT Photography, but that’s another story), and one of my very first assignments was to photograph Papa Roach’s music video being filmed on the Rainbow Bridge just down the street from the studio. Though I was just aiming to grab a couple snaps for Sutter Street, that experience really grasped my attention at wanting to be a photographer for the rest of my life… fast forward 20+ years, I haven’t really been able to be the concert photographer as frequently as I hoped, so when I have a chance to grab the (real) camera for some amazing band pics, I jump on the opportunity!