After the Dillinger Escape Plan's devastating set, post-hardcore rockers Thursday closed out the night properly with a hugely intense performance. I went into the show with one image in mind. This is my execution of it.
While there are more images from this show that I liked, the above is my favorite and nicely sums up the gig for me. Sometimes, all you need is one. The opportunity came during an uncharacteristic blast of white light from the back of the stage and Geoff Rickly dominating the monitors. Then the third song ended and my time in the pit was up.
Having photographed Thursday on the 2009 Taste of Chaos tour, my main goal for this show was to capture Rickly's intensity during his vocal delivery.
Photographer's Notes:
With three songs and a lot of activity on stage, Thursday was a nice and challenging shoot. I made this image with the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 at 24mm. The exposure was 1/80 at ISO 3200 and f/2.8.
I had been using flash for this set, but as soon as the lighting flared up like this, I turned off the commander flash and went fully ambient.
When using flash, I think that it's very easy to marginalize ambient light, which makes it very important to keep an eye on the stage lighting – not only to know how to balance it with flash, but also when to turn off flash entirely.
