November 14, 2008 – Opening up for Secondhand Serenade and Cute Is What We Aim For, Nick Santino, a.k.a. A Rocket To The Moon, delivered a tight, upbeat set of crunchy riffs and heartfelt vocals that had his lady fans crushing, cutting a rug, and crying all at once. Santino's set drew heavily from Greetings From EP, including performances of highlight tracks “Dakota” and “Fear of Flying.”
This shot was actually shot during CIWWAF's set, which also called back members of Automatic Loveletter. Nick took the opportunity to get up close and personal with some of his fans, and vice versa.
Photographer's Notes:
This was a short and simple set. I used just one SB-600 as the remote, with a little of the SB-900 commander unit being used as flash.
The deep color washes used during the performance were the biggest challenge here, as balancing with flash meant a little bit of juggling, as well as plenty of experimentation. For some images, such as the second to last shot, providing hot shortlighting proved the best option for creating a contrast to the heavy red-magenta washes that were in rotation for Nick Santino's set.
Without the aid of flash, this was have been a pretty grim set to photograph, so its use was a very welcome option.
The Nikon D3 and Nikon 24-70mm took care of this performance. Due to the tight space on stage and high speaker monitors walling in the stationary Santino, the classic midrange left me wanting for very little else.
