November 17, 2008 – Welcome to Crushville, population 15,000. Playing well into their third decade, Metalllica brought the pummel-fest as the World Magentic Tour came to the big house of the Scottrade Center in St. Louis.
James Hetfield and crew brought the sonic destruction to a legion of fans, from die-hards sporting shirts that dated back to the Reagan administration to youngsters who may well have been throwing up the devil horns for the very first time.
Photographer’s Notes:
I don’t know about you, but for big shows like this, I shoot a lot. I enter arena-mode and start cranking. Like 2-3 times as much as I might for a normal three-song shoot.
The band played in-the-round on the floor of the arena. When I saw the stage from the media-holding area at the edge of the floor, I was a little surprised that it wasn’t larger.
Overall, the size was relatively manageable, especially considering that the first-three songs seemed to stretch out for a good 15-20 minutes.
The first song started out in almost complete darkness, with singer James Hetfield lit by a constrasty uplighting and a background lattice of green lasers. This initial lighting scheme made picking on a subject an automatic decision, since Hetfield was the only action in town.
The second and third songs gave way to beautiful white light, with various tints thrown in during their duration, but nothing too bad. The second song of this set was essentially pure, abundant white light and the easiest to shoot. Overall, great lighting.
Needless to say, the choosing a subject was made much more difficult in the second and third songs, with one subject multiplying to four – and not just four in one place or side, but scattered all over the sprawling stage.
Microphones were set up at 10-12 stations around the perimeter of the stage, and Hetfield made the rounds for his vocal duties. The other members of the band also covered plenty of stage, though not to an unreasonable degree. Despite large monitors forming at the edge of the stage, there were generally large enough gaps that they weren’t terribly problematic.
Naturally, drummer Lars Ulrich was in the most stationary position, seated at his kit at the center of the stage, and acted as the one constant during the first three songs.
I shot this performance with the Nikon D3 and D700, using the 24-70mm f/2.8, 14-24mm f/2.8, and 70-200mm f/2.8. Of these three, the 24-70mm was the most utilitarian, though that didn’t stop me from trying to stick the 14-24mm on as much as possible.
The 70-200mm f/2.8 was the least used of the three, but did come in handy for tighter shots of James Hetfield and for picking up Lars Ulrich. With the exception of Ulrich, the band was relatively close most of the time, so shorter focal lengths excelled in this shoot.
As an aside, Metallica have one of the most massive photo passes I’ve ever seen. As a fellow photog suggested, “They might as well have given us t-shirts.” I think Metallica’s pass even beat’s that from The Police, which was previously the reigning champ in my stack.
Update:
Here’s a shot of the enormous photo pass from the show, alongside some other passes for reference:
The Morrissey pass (third from the left) is what most concert photographer’s would recognize as a regularly-sized pass. One size up, and there’s the pass for The Police’s 2007 reunion tour, which was previously the biggest pass I’d received.
The Metallica pass weighs in at about 2.5 times as large as the standard. It’s a little bigger than my Nikon D3. I’ve also included Interpol’s press pass for their 2007 tour as references to show the full spectrum.
End Notes:
This set was fun. And by fun, I mean awesome.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 3:23 am and is filed under Music Photography and tagged with 2008, death magnetic, hard rock, heavy metal, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Lars Ulrich, live, metallica, Music Photography, photography, Robert Trujillo, tour, world magnetic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Welcome to ishootshows.com, the premier site for music photography featuring daily concert coverage, portrait features, and photo advice from professional music photographer Todd Owyoung.
My name is Todd, and I love the rock show. My work has appeared in publications such as Rolling Stone, SPIN, the New York Times, Alternative Press, Metal Hammer, Entertainment Weekly, and Billboard Magazine. I'm available for worldwide travel for editorial and commercial assignments.
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Breathtaking, and very inspirational. I get to shoot these guys in march and i would be lying if i said i wasnt scared lol it will be my first huge gig. Hopefully the lighting will be as awesome as this show :)
Hey Randy,
Glad to hear you like these, thanks very much for the kind words.
Hey Chris,
Thanks for the feedback. This show was a lot of fun. Yes, the stage was in the round, just like Lil Wayne’s gig, just much, much larger! The good thing was that there was much more clearance between the barricade, so it was very easy to get around.
Celso,
Thanks again! Glad to hear it.
Daniel:
Thanks for the feedback. Rob was a spectacular subject in all truth, and put on a fantastic performance. The massive hair whips certainly didn’t hurt anything!
Jeremy:
While the spotlights were fairly contrasty, there was generally enough coverage from different directions to help fill in some of the shadows. Thanks for the comment.
Dan,
The response to this set has been amazing, I didn’t expect to get so many comments. People do love Metallica!
By all means, I hope you get a pass when they make it to you! I’m not sure how tight the tour is, but there were a fair number of photographers shooting. I think that the size of the band of course had a big hand in this, but you might as well give it a shot! Good luck.
Hey Christine,
Thanks for the comment. I’m sure you’ll do great with this show – the conditions are perfect for concert photography. Low-ish stage, bright lights, long songs, and a world-famous band for your entertainment (and shooting pleasure).
Hey Todd, sorry so late getting back. The shoot went ok. I put a lot of pressure on myself to get ‘awesome’ and came away with less than what I normally would have..lol. I put them up in my gallery (I am in between galleries right now so I am using myspace) if you want to see them. You are right about the pass. I thought I was entering a marathon it was so big..lol.
Hey Kevin,
No worries, I just caught up on a bunch of replies myself. Just had a look, I love this one. Rob just looks nasty in that shot – and I mean that in the best possible way. Look at that guitar face!
Thanks Todd..lol. I hate how myspace makes things blurry but I am glad you could see through that..lol.
Wow, there pictures are incredible, great work!
THESE*
Stunning images as usual Todd! I’m a fan of your work, and would love to break into concert photography. So far, I’ve only managed to sneak into a few concerts by (a) using some jedi mind tricks, or (b) getting in with my friends in a local band. I must say, it’s probably the most fun i have with a camera. Any tips on how to break into the scene? Thanks and more power man.
Ku from the Philippines
Hey Matt, thanks very much!
Hey Kumanahan,
Thanks for the kind words. Check out the FAQ on this site for how I started shooting shows. Basically, local shows are a great way to start, they’ll let you build a portfolio and approach publications, who can get you into bigger shows.
Check it out, hope it helps.
Thanks Todd, will do! :)
good god man, your pictures are insane! i don’t even really like metallica, and these blew me away.
your work is supreme.
Thanks, Pilar, I really appreciate the kind words.
Hi Todd,
Gosh! I have been slow at my browsing around here. I just saw this set.
It is fantastic!Awesome shots!
The pictures have an intensity that makes you fell like you were there.
You rock!
Todd, as I said to you on Flickr, these shots are incredible – I’ve never seen better shots of Rob. I’ve finally got my photo pass accreditation through for tonight and Monday’s shows in England and I am besides myself with excitement. Me thinks the fisheye is going to get a serious work out whenever Rob comes my way! If I can capture half what you did on this show I will be delighted. I dont think it can get better than shooting Metallica in the round! Cheers, Neil
Hey Neil,
Nice to hear from you. That’s excellent news that you got credentials to shoot. You’re going to absolutely love it, but you don’t need me to tell you that. How did the first show go? Please send me a link, I’d like to see your shots.
[...] not uncommon for me to blast through upwards of 500 frames. One recent instance of this was on Metallica’s recent tour, which created fantastic conditions for concert [...]
Hey Todd….
it’s amazing metallica shoot series….. they are my metal hero :p
i’m little courios about the metering system that you used for all of this picture….
and i’m really glad if u share to me……
thanks for that amazing picture Todd…….