Taking the stage alone to low lights and warm applause, Glen Hansard picked up his worn Takamine, walked to the edge of the stage, and unassumingly set the evening’s intimate tone in its opening bars.
Joined by Markéta Irglová, the couple reprised their musical roles from the award-winning film Once, charming a sold-out house at the Pageant.
Backed by members of Hansard’s long-time band, The Frames, Hansard and Irglová delivered a crafted setlist that wove a tight orbit around their breakout soundtrack.
While Hansard kept to the same beaten-up acoustic which he played in Once, Irglová play much of the night at her piano, occasionally taking turns on lead vocals and acoustic guitar.
Unsurprisingly, one of the night’s most rewarding performances was the duo’s rendition of their acclaimed arrangement “Falling Slowly” drew the most revered and affecting responses.
Photographer’s Notes:
Tickets for the show had gone on sale within a week of the duo’s Oscar win for “Falling Slowly,” which easily explained the quick sell out, but I was still blown away by the turnout for this show.
On arriving to the venue, I was greeted by two surprisingly long lines at both of the Pageant’s entrances, which revealed just how anticipated this show was, even after the awards-ceremony glow had worn off.
At the box office, I was told that the shooting time for this event was the first two songs from the crowd. As expected for such a show, there was no photo pit, so I shot from the GA floor.
While I only arrived half an hour before doors and found myself at the end of a very long line, I was able to grab a piece of stage in the front row, as luckily most of the early birds took advantage of the seated options for this show.
Lighting:
Lighting for the first two songs was relatively low-key, but with enough small accents to liven up the Pageant’s house treatment.
Yellow backlighting complimented two dim spots trained on Glen Hansard, while a semi-circle of small LED strips cast a warm glow on the ensemble on stage.
Light from the front was generally warm and faint compared to the backlighting, which flared up to compliment the arrangements.
Exposure:
I shot at f/2.8, 1/160, and ISO 6400 for nearly the entire set, dipping down to 1/125 on a few occasions.
Due to the relatively slow nature of the performance, I shot at slower shutter speeds than I would at a rock show, rather than increase the ISO.
I should also note that these images were processed with +0.3EV to +0.7EV exposure compensation, resulting in a final image brightness that is easily a stop over the actual scene.
Lenses & Equipment:
I shot with the Nikon D3 and Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 almost exclusively for this set. The range of the telephoto was perfect for this set given my position and distance from the performers.
The Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 filled in for just a few wider frames, but I could have easily brought only the telephoto zoom.
16 Comments Add your own
1. Amy | May 8th, 2008 at 1:02 am
Fantastic set, Todd!!!
Any chance you’re taking concert photography pupils?? xD
2. Todd | May 8th, 2008 at 9:32 am
Hey Amy, thank you. I would have loved to move around for this show, but given the two-song limit, I opted to shoot from a static position rather than spend time pushing through the crowd.
I would have loved to get a shot of Markéta at the piano.
I’d love to do concert photography workshops someday.
3. Fielding | May 8th, 2008 at 11:51 am
I would be there for a workshop..
But as always Todd great job especially if you were only there for two songs. Love the shot of her smiling..
4. Todd | May 8th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Hey Fielding, thank you for the feedback, nice to hear from you. I had positioned myself for shots of Glen at the expense of Markéta, but I’m glad she had some time at the mic for the couple’s first song together.
Will keep you posted if workshops ever come together!
5. ww | May 8th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Wonderful shots Todd. What’s your AF setup; servo? single-shot? center point and recompose?
You have good timing.
Cheers!
6. Todd | May 8th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
ww: Thank you. I use AI servo (continuous) using the center point and do focus-recompose, though I do use other AF points as well. It just depends on the situation and which is faster for the given subject.
7. Chris | May 9th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
(Hope your posts can take some html, haha)
Favorites are the green and purple dots, with the purple ones being my absolute favorites. I love the expression on his face in those 2 photos. The yellow dotted one I found very distracting with the red dot behind his face, and the yellow chord poking out. Any idea on what that red dot is?
Amazing regardless — it must have been terribly hard shooting from a crowd, especially with a longer tele. Did you get bumped at all?
8. Chris | May 9th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Hey — sorry to double post. Guess the html didn’t show up. Here’s the link: http://i29.tinypic.com/v9vfq.jpg
9. Todd | May 9th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Hey Chris, thanks for the selections, nice to hear about which ones work for you.
On that one you marked with the yellow dot (fourth from the left in the full-gallery), that’s a red pick in his mouth.
Shooting from the crowd wasn’t ideal, but it worked out alright. I got in a satisfactory position for Glen, so it was just a nice bonus that Markéta sang lead on their first song together. If she hadn’t, I wouldn’t have had any shots of her.
It was a super mellow crowd and people were very polite in the pit. Still, it was tight enough that moving around would have been extremely difficult and disrupted far too for many, since it was a very quiet show.
10. Cameron | May 20th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Looks like Entertainment Weekly used one of your shots.
http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2008/05/swell-season-li.html
Since there’s no credit to you, what kind of arrangements were made (if any)?
11. Todd | May 21st, 2008 at 12:08 am
Hey Cameron, thanks for looking out! I hadn’t realized a shot ran on Entertainment Weekly’s blog, so I appreciate the heads up.
After reading your comment, I was fully prepared for inquisitive outrage, but I was relieved to see that there is a credit at the bottom of the page, near the permalink.
So, it would appear that everything is sorted out. But again, I greatly appreciate the notice.
12. Chris | May 21st, 2008 at 12:15 am
Are you not mad they used the photo without your permission, though? That credit is terribly small, I feel you deserve much more due than what you received?
13. Cameron | May 21st, 2008 at 12:36 am
That credit is very small and hard to notice, but you can’t really complain about that.
As far as the permission, I’m assuming Retna is a photo service Todd works with so, there’s technically no permission to be acquired from him directly?
14. Todd | May 21st, 2008 at 8:18 am
The image was paid for, and Cameron is correct – my direct permission is not necessary, which also why these things can come as a surprise!
In these instances, I think that it’s acceptable that credit is treated as it is.
15. Chris | May 21st, 2008 at 2:09 pm
I thought you hosted and did your own things with your images… you work through a company, though? If need be, we can switch this to e-mail, I’m just interesting on how you know you got paid but didn’t know they were using the picture.
16. andy stenz | June 16th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
sorry, i just saw your comment on flickr about the lighting at the milwaukee show…
it was dark, that’s for sure. the opening band was basically in red light only for their first 2 songs. i was using that to get some test shots for settings and thought i was sunk because all i ever got was red/orange-ish blobs.
for the swell season it started off dark for glen (he came out to the apron of the stage and did the first song acoustically). then marketa came out and they added some blue light in the back but not much in the way of bright front light for their faces. the third song brought some more light but i didn’t have the fastest glass there (i’ve since bought some more lenses) so i boosted the ISO and got some ok shots.
the overall feel of the show was sorta dark and mellow. the did bump the lights a few times later, but we had a 3 song limit so it didn’t matter much.
speak up
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