The Nowherenauts contacted me back in April for a contracted shoot of their performance of their headlining show at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn.
With packed house and tons of energy, this gig was one I had a blast shooting, even if it meant fighting through a thick crowd to nail my shots.
Photographer's Notes:
Cameras Used:
- Nikon D3
- Nikon D700
Lenses Used:
This shoot with the Nowherenauts was contracted by their label. While they're a young, new band, it's fantastic that they have a great team surrounding them who believe in doing things right for them – including photography. It was a pleasure photographing their gig.
Overall, this shoot was pretty nice from a technical standpoint. This was my first shoot at the new Knitting Factory in Brooklyn, but I came away nicely impressed by the setup and lights.
While the lights weren't ultra bright, the treatment was overall relatively consistent. I shoot around 1/250 at ISO 3200 and f/2.8 for much of the show.
The Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 was my main lens for this show, but I still used the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 for some tighter shots of singer Sophie and Tony on drums.
For everything else, the midrange zoom was perfect for this kind of club show with a relatively low, 10-meter stage. Anders on bass and Hunter on guitar were especially fun to shoot wide at 24mm
End Notes
For me, this is a special set and a special band. For one, while they're a young group, they bring such a positive energy to the stage, I'm excited to see them perform again.
Furthermore, the Nowherenauts are flying me out for another shoot this weekend to do another live music shoot as well as set of band promos. For me, this is huge just in terms of a band not only wanting to “do it right” by hiring a photographer, but believing in me, appreciating the work and bringing me back into the team.
The Foo Fighters are playing a gig the same day in St. Louis as the Nowherenauts are playing in NYC this Saturday, and I passed up an editorial assignment to cover the ‘Nauts over the Foos in a heartbeat. Never gave it a second thought.
I think that it's easy to get caught up in a race of shooting all the biggest bands and “getting the shot” for the tour of the month club, but ultimately this is a trap. Shooting arena shows isn't the goal.
Sometimes, the Dave Grohls of the world are just means to an end in getting back to shooting in a small club, no photo pit, packed in with the crowd and loving every minute of it.
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