ishootshows.com

Thrice

Todd — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 03:24:36 +0000

November 16, 2008 – Supporting Rise Against, post-hardcore rockers Thrice laid into smoldering performance amid a stage of deep color washes and kaleidoscopic backlighting.

Photographer’s Notes:

Aside from the deep washes, the lighting for this set was great. Epic backlighting with loads of smoke and gobo’ed spotlights kicked in with full force for the third song, which capped off the three-song limit nicely.

Relatively long songs made this shoot a little easier as well, and afforded more time to work with the spastic bursts of LED lighting that came from the sides of the stage.

The D3 and D700 rocked the f/2.8 trifecta for this one: 14-24mm, 24-70mm, 70-200mm. Overall, I favored the wider lenses, which seemed to suit the lighting schemes best to my eye.

Thrice @ the Pageant -- 2008.11.16

Sammy Hagar

Todd — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 06:10:59 +0000

November 19, 2009 – In a raucous, celebratory performance, Sammy Hagar electrified fans with a set fitting of an American rock icon with 40 years of work experience kicking ass and taking names. When the Red Rocker hit the stage, he brought Cabo Wabo with him: it was party time.

Photographer’s Notes:

Sammy Hagar came out rockin’ like a true pro. While he moved around quite a bit, this was still a light and fun shoot.

Sammy was backed by a three-piece band, and the stage was graced by three spotlights from the balcony. While Sammy’s white capri pants created an exposure issue with the uneven illumination from the spots, I always side with skintones in instances like this.

One very nice thing about this show is that, unlike many gigs with spotlights in a club like the Pageant, there was still a nice, atmospheric treatment to liven up the background. Liberal use of water hazers saw to that.

The biggest challenge for this set was probably Hagar’s movements on stage. He didn’t stay still for long, and while he was at the mic, his custom stand proved to be it’s own unique obstacle.

For the most part, I shot Hagar most when he moved out from his mic stand on the right or left, where there were gaps between his monitors and those of his guitarist and bass player.

As usual, the D3 and D700 worked in tandem for this set, along with the 14-24mm, 24-70mm, and 70-200mm.

Sammy Hagar @ the Pageant -- 2008.11.19

Portraits: Novella

Todd — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 06:30:22 +0000

The boys of metalcore band Novella have been making a splash on the scene, from playing Warped Tour to a public beef with The Devil Wears Prada. In between all the notoriety, I caught up with the guys for a photo shoot downtown at a posh hotel.

Here are a few shots from the session:

After the full group portraits, we did a few individuals just for fun, with one common theme: getting up close and personal at 14mm.

Photographer’s Notes:

Overall, the band went into this shoot with an interest in images with a lighter feel than some of the other shots they’d had done. They were over the dark and dingy look they’d had in the past, and keen on a slightly brighter look

All these shots were made with a simple three-light set up. We used an SB-600 into a 60″ umbrella as the key light, with two bare SB-600s for kicker and fill.

I shot this set with the Nikon D3, Nikon 14-24mm, and Nikon 24-70mm. A Nikon SB-900 was used as the commander unit.

End Notes:

Big shout out to the guys of Novella for being great subjects. Thanks to Dave Mullis for assisting and consulting on this shoot.

Novella -- Portraits

Metallica

Todd — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:23:53 +0000

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 minutes.

The first song started out in almost complete darkness, with singer James Hetfield lit by a constrasty uplighting and a background of green laser. This initial lighting scheme made deciding 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. 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, 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.

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.

Metallica @ the Scottrade Center -- 2008.11.17