Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds performed cozy-feeling acoustic set at Farm Aid, joined by special guest Willie Nelson for the 2009 benefit concert.
Photographer’s Notes:
This performance by Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds during the Farm Aid 2009 benefit concert was one of the lucky catches of the event. As I mentioned in the posts for Willie Nelson and Neil Young, press photographers were divided into two groups.
For Dave Matthews’s performance, I was in the second group to shoot, which left songs three and four. During the third song, Dave Matthews performed with longtime friend and collaborator Tim Reynolds. For the forth song, Dave was joined by on stage by Willie Nelson, which made for a fantastic photo opportunity.
Like all the performances for Farm Aid, space was very tight, and for the most part, wherever you came into the pit when filing in with press was where you stayed. This situation was especially true for the larger performers of the night, and Dave Matthews was no exception.
All the music photographers were fairly closer to the stage, the front of which was lined with monitors, so one challenge of photographing Dave and friends was constantly contending with these obstacles during composition.
In my previous experience photographing Dave Matthews, I knew that he tends to have the neck of his guitar relatively high, so I decided to go slightly to his left for this performance. As luck would have it, that also meant a nice clear view of Willie Nelson as well.
I photographed this set with the Nikon D3 and 70-200mm f/2.8 as my primary combo, with the 24-70mm on the D700 as back up.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 at 2:14 pm and is filed under Music Photography and tagged with concert photography, dave matthews, dave matthews band, images, live, music photography, photos, tim reynolds, willie nelson. 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.
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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.
Sweet photos of Willie, Dave & Tim…brings back great memories of my first ‘real’ photo assignment/ first time shooting next to an Owyoung brother. My take from that day was OK, but probably more importantly, the experience led me to check out this site which has helped my concert photo skills tremendously. Thanks Todd!
Hey Matt,
Thanks for the comment and the kind words. Farm Aid 2009 was a great event, and one of the most fun aspects was meeting up with music photographers from around the country, all in a more relaxing atmosphere than say, Lollapalooza or any of the big festivals. I’m very happy if anything I post here has helped you with your photography. Cheers, and good luck in 2010.
Nice shots. It’s nice to see that some of my photos are starting to resemble a pros. Thanks for all of the hard work you put into this sight.
Hey Aaron,
Thanks for the comment, glad to share what I can. Cheers.
It is sad how much you oversmoked me on this one.
I usually aim for optimal-smokage – not over or underdone, but I had a fire under my butt for this show, what can I say.
Todd-
Way to capture many of Dave’s faces! I swear he plays like a man posessed. =-_)
On the subject of Gear, when you carry two bodies like you did here, are you using a Spider holster system or anything like that? Seen anyone using that system at all?
Hey Ryan,
You’re right – Dave is definitely a man of many faces, that’s for sure. Regarding using two bodies for my live music photography, I use the Black Rapid “Double Strap,” which is a harness system drops down each camera on its own strap – one on my left, one on my right. In this way, it seems different than the Spider holster since the two cameras are tethered.
Ah, I see. What’s your take on Spider system?
[...] concert if you haven’t seen them already. In addition to his solo set, you can see images of Willie Nelson performing with Dave Matthews at Farm Aid as [...]