January 8, 2009 – Fresh off the release of Thr33 Ringz, T-Pain brought the circus to town, mugging for the crowd and jumping on the mic with equal facility. With a hype man and a small army supporting cast, the master of Auto-Tune threw down a hyperkinetic set that was the perfect segue into Lil Wayne's headlining performance.
Photographer's Notes:
T-Pain delivered on of the more active performances on the I Am Music Tour, covering the entirety of the stage with every song. This high level of energy made the two songs of allotted shooting fly by and kept things interesting, despite relatively unvaried lighting.
Like the performances for Keri Hilson, Gym Class Heroes, Keyshia Cole, and Lil Wayne, I relied on the Nikon 200-400mm f/4 exclusively. The range of the lens generally proved to be quite good, especially when photographing T-Pain with his hype man, for which the horizontal frame at 400mm was perfect.
Though only a 2x zoom, the 200-400mm provided just enough flexibility to set itself apart for this concert. While a 500mm f/4 or 300mm f/2.8 with teleconverters would have provided more reach, the ability to easily adjust the frameing with the zoom was a very nice option.
