In a bittersweet performance opening the new Chaifetz Arena, The Starting Line played a one of their last performances before taking an indefinite break.
Led by Kenny Vasoli on vox and bass, the Pennsylvania-based four-piece ripped through a tight 45-minute set of driving, punk-tinged rock.
Despite being one of the band’s last performances, the band seemed in high spirits and delivered a high-energy show that gave nothing away of the break.
The Starting Line’s performance at Bamboozle in East Rutherford, marked the band’s last performance. Band members will pursue other projects, including Person L and the 76.
Photographer’s Notes:
This set was really pretty straight forward. First three, no flash. Due to the lighting situation, Kenny Vasoli was really the only prime subject for this set. The singer and bassist for the group was lit with a warm mix of light from the front throughout the set without much deviation during the alloted shooting time.
As such, I focused on Vasoli, picking up drummer Tom Gryskiewicz in a few shots, as he was a distant second for lighting on the large stage.
Lighting:
This set was lit with very simple schemes. Singer Kenny Vasoli got the lion’s share of the light, while the rest of the band was mostly subject to much weaker color washes and whatever was being blasted from the back. Overall, lots of mixed color lighting from behind, with reds dominating.
Exposure & Metering:
Due to the very constant lighting on Vasoli, I shot at a very consistent exposure for this set. 1/320 and f/2.8 at ISO 4000 did the trick for the majority of these shots.
Lenses & Gear:
I shot this set with the Nikon D3 and Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 for the first three, switching once to the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8. Due to the relatively low four-foot height of the stage and close proximity of Vasoli, the more modest midrange zoom did the trick for this set.
End Notes:
Check out the Starting Line’s cover of Big Time Sensuality by Björk for a chugging, three-chord spin on the pop-house classic.
8 Comments Add your own
1. Chris | May 7th, 2008 at 1:35 am
3rd from the top, and 2nd from the last from the photos loaded at the bottom are my favorites. I absolutely LOVED shooting this set. One of my favorite bands, and Kenny Vasoli was a very photographic subject in my mind — I like how he raised his hand a couple times and you caught those moments (I did a poor job). I agree — the lighting on the 2 flanking the sides wasn’t as good, but you did get a very nice tight shot of Tom. Amazing, as usual — I was just so awed with Kenny. I’m going to miss them when they break up.
On another note, I’ve realized something — when you take your pictures, do you rotate your camera some for the purpose of giving the photo a different angle?
(God I freaking love that 24-70. It seems to be very popular for you)
2. gui | May 7th, 2008 at 9:35 am
i just don’t like this one this time :
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2066/2462105798_a59e2a1c5e_o.jpg
3. Todd | May 7th, 2008 at 9:41 am
Hey Chris, thanks for your picks. I would agree, Vasoli had some nice gestures during the show. In fact, he raised his arm on so many occasions I had to cut a few of the shots because they were too similar!
What are you talking about with these angles?
I’m loving the 24-70mm so far. The funny thing is that I almost do miss that slightly extra reach of 55mm on DX.
Thanks again for the comment. I was hoping you’d see these, as it seemed you were into these guys.
4. Todd | May 7th, 2008 at 9:42 am
You win some, you lose some.
Thanks for the un-pick, G.
5. Chris | May 7th, 2008 at 10:36 am
Yeah man — I LOVE this guys. Definitely gonna miss em. Lol — I laugh at you missing the extra reach of the DX, where as I would do anything to shoot full frame for the wide angle. Guess it’s a give and take, ya know? Couldn’t you always just crop your sensor?
Speaking of 55mm, I just remembered — did you ever get my response to your email (which was a response to one of mine)? I know your uber busy, don’t mind that, I just wanted to make sure you got it.
Chris
6. Todd | May 7th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Hey Chris.
I simply shot so much with the Nikon 17-55mm that I knew exactly what it would deliver in terms of range, so using the 24-70mm on FF has taken just a little bit of adjustment.
I did get your email, thanks. I’ll try and hit you back shortly, though!
7. ww | May 8th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
Great shots Todd. How do you meter for these? I mean, Aperture Priority-spot-manual? or Shutter Priority-matrix-manual? or a mix of both?
And, since the stage is low, do you find yourself kneeling some of the time in the pit as to not get in the way of the paying audience? What’s the etiquette for photogs in that situation?
cheers!
8. Todd | May 9th, 2008 at 8:49 am
Hi, I use a system of metering that I outline in these two articles:
How-To: Metering & Exposure, pt. 1
How-To: Metering & Exposure, pt. 2
The stage is lower, but I just tried to stay at the front of the pit so I was well out of the way and not blocking anyone’s view. The pit for this show was actually pretty generously deep given the stage.
In general I just try to be as unobtrusive as possible, so long as I can still make the shots I want.
Hope this helps, let me know if you have any other questions.
speak up
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