The Magic Show
01.2.2010
Ringy ringy. At 4:30pm on New Year’s Eve, my buddy Tyler called me to let me know he had been asked at the last moment to play a 30-minute set at an NYE party that night. He wanted to know if I could come out and shoot it. He said he would go on at 8:15pm (which means at least 8:30 in concert time). I had a party I was going to at 9, but shooting Tyler is so much fun that I told him I’d come out. I showed up in my business formal wear to shoot him. Tyler played the show with his regular drummer, Caleb Crosby, and since his full band wasn’t there, they decided that anytime the two of them play future shows together, they’ll be known as The Magic Show. Magic it was, my friends!
When I shoot, I don’t really enjoy the concert as a regular attender. I’m so focused on trying to SEE what’s happening that I don’t hear much. But occassionally in shows, something so incredible happens that I get almost swept onto the stage with the artist. Song number three of The Magic Show’s set was that incredible moment. It was captured on video by someone at the show. If you feel like it, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed by watching the video. I’ve put a link to it at the bottom. I think I’ve listened to it 15 times today.
- Caleb (the drummer) rocked his 20″ crash cymbals for hi-hats.
- This shoot was incredibly challenging for me. Watching a show at 12th and Porter is total eye candy. Their lights are fantastic. For spectators. But for photographers, it’s a challenge. The opening acts of any show there usually have one nearly static light pattern. That seems like it would make shooting easy since it removes random light movements, but it doesn’t because it’s so severely backlit. Only a few white light cans light the artist’s face. I’m learning that you have to take the light you’re given and do your best with it. It’s also teaching me that I need to understand EXACTLY how the metering works on my camera. Metering is a way the camera determines how much light is available. In backlit situations, you want to use Spot Metering so that the camera takes a light reading from a very small area (and therefore all the background lights don’t overshadow (literally) your subject and make them look shadowy). This show taught me in actuality what I suspected beforehand – I have more to learn about and experiment with metering.
- I’m learning that there’s a difference between editorial photos and performance photos. Many (not all) publications print very conservative pictures of artists. They’re standing at the mic or looking out to the audience. Performance photos are the ones where people say, “That is so sick!” Intense facial expressions, unusual angles, creative use of light, etc. I need to be good at both – capturing the “normal, standard concert moments” that publications would use and the perfect moments that convey the concert’s emotion.
- Small stages mean monitors will probably cover the entire front of the stage. While it may be difficult to get shots without monitors in them (and it’s sometimes even desirable), I’m seeing that photos without monitors are more engaging to me. While objects between the camera and artist can sometimes create context, I’m finding it’s often a barrier between the viewer of the photo and the artist. The picture of Tyler standing on the amp is a good example. I think that shot would have been “bigger” if the monitor wasn’t there.
- One technical note on editing. I’ve been on Flickr studying concert shots. One thing I notice is that people will edit their photos to black and white when the color in a photo is not right or when the shot was underexposed (too dark). For a while, it seemed to me like a cheap cover for a poorly shot photo. But I’ve been experimenting with looking at all my Winners (the ones I choose to edit) in black and white to see if they’re more engaging B&W.
- Tyler is singing into a vintage microphone that has a real dirty, gritty sound. The audio from the video below is directly from the soundboard at the venue.
Throughout 2009, I shot a crazy number of photos but never posted them. For 40 consecutive days, I'm going to post these shoots. Something new every day!