Well, it's a new year and a good opportunity to breathe new life into the blog. 2012 closed quite well and I enjoyed a little rest during the winter - although not as much of a rest as I expected. I've had a lot of conversations with new clients but not as much time with my eye to my camera.
Time to rebuild those muscles and no better way to get back into the swing of things than a live show. If you are a loyal reader of my blog, you would have no way of knowing that the last show I shot was Wiz Khalifa because I didn't write anything about it. But you can't get much farther of a departure from the THC-laden spectacle of the Wiz-show than the smooth country-rock of +Grace Potter & the Nocturnals.
First a little inside baseball regarding photographing live concerts because I get a lot of questions regarding this kind of photography and I promised to eek in more information about what it is like to work this kind of event. Normally, I shoot concerts with about 3000-7000 in attendance. Typically, there is a gated aisle along the front of the stage separating the front row of standing general audience and the front of the stage affectionally referred to as "the pit" (Hi, I'm Chris, I work in a pit). Consequently, this is also where a lot of riser speakers are located which is why I always, always, always wear ear protection. Usually the stage is about 3-5 feet off the floor, which is great for the audience who wants to see the act, but can cause challenges for the photographers hunched in the trenches. This show, however was set up for 1000 people with a much lower stage and much more intimate feel - which is awesome providing amazing visual access to the acts - and a slightly increased chance of getting hit by a flying-v guitar from a leggy-blonde-lead-performer.
The opening act was a band I wasn't aware of prior to the show, Futurebirds. A local band made good from Athens, GA - practically in my back yard. They hit the stage soft at first and then raised the game with a lot of soulful and dynamic guitar solos and played their hearts out. This was their last show with +Grace Potter & the Nocturnals on this tour but was about to release a new album and I read the next day that they are joining Band of Horses on their tour so it looks like they are really on the way up and a band to keep an eye on... or ears out for... or whatever.
Here's some shots of Futurebirds' performance - more can be found on my website:
Grace Potter started the show solo on stage and set the tone with high energy. The entire act quickly moved to different tempos and postures and it forced me to move from one extreme of the stage to the other to capture what was happening. Which brings me to concert-shooting tip #2, do that thing I just said, move around, get different perspectives. Shooting from the same spot is boring and all the shots come out looking too similar. Variety is the spice of life so sprinkle some on your body of work.
Lens changes were also the order of the day depending on where I was shooting from. I pretty much get 95% of my shots from just two lenses: Nikkor 17-35 f2.8 and 70-200 f2.8 V1. I occasionally pop on my 50mm f1.8 when the light is so low on shows like this but I was so close, that angle of view was a little tight in most cases and not long enough in other so I didn't use it much.
Enough chatty-chat and onto the pictures. More can be seen on my website.
Tech Corner: As per usual, shot all this using my Nikon D700, my go-to camera for concert work. I use manual exposure settings with spot-metering to get the initial settings. I also manually set the white balance to 5500K. Why? Because even though concert lighting is constantly changing color and intensity, the colors that veer so far outside standard incandescent values that it is worthless trying to let the camera attempt to match what will never be able to (super-oversaturated reds and blues). And even though concert lighting seems to be a crazy and chaotic disco-show, it really isn't when you break it down. Periodically chimping your shots to make sure your exposures aren't blowing out is a good idea. But once I get my exposure set, I rarely need to to much tweaking.
Things to look forward to are future shows coming up soon including the Avett Brothers and then some stuff on the wedding side that I'm looking forward to in various spectacular locations around the south so stay tuned.
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