Ok post gig round up.
Mistakes I made. Setting the ISO too low. I was shooting at iso1600 to begin with. Consequently my shutter speed was at around 1/40 or slower. Lots of blur for the first band, which is a shame as they were very good. I managed to salvage some of the slight movement ones by mono’ing them. Hides a multitude of sins, bish, bash, bosh. Job done.
Next mistake. Not checking the state of my lens. After about an hour, lots of lens smear. Anecdotally I think this was affecting the speed of my auto focus. Might be a load of nonsense, but when I cleaned the lens (for once having a cleaning cloth with me. More by luck than judgement) the autofocus seemed to me to be a lot more responsive.
Next Mistake: Not being ballsy enough. First couple of bands I was being nice and polite, swapping places with other photographers, so they could get my vantage point, trying not to get in the way of the fans (being over six foot tall, this is not always easy). Second band on had lots of fans up close and personal, and I was worried about a) upsetting them, and b) damaging my lens. By the third band all this went out the window, and I was weaving amongst the moshers, avoiding getting crushed by failing crowdsurfers, and knealing in a manner of spilt alcohol, getting those attractive up nostril shots.
Last notable mistake: not getting to talk to the bands. This is difficult on these shows where there are lots of bands on in short succession. You could be having a great chat with the musicians only to realise the next band are nearly through their set. I always try and track down the bands in the following days, and most tend to be on facebook. If I can I share a set from flickr. This is cool for me it’s quite gratifying when people give you good feedback, and the bands are often pleased to get photos from the gig to use on their pages, websites etc.
What has been nice at these gigs is some others taking photographers chatting asking advice (are they crazy, I don’t know anything, hahaha), comparing equipment etc. Photographers can be a lonesome species, even in the staid confines of local clubs, they tend to sit in uncomfortable church hall chairs, staring unblinking at a succession of images of steam trains and cut flowers, never actually talking about photography (oh no drifting into a rant, yikes, forgive me).
Well before this post meanders to far from it’s source, lets divert it quickly to it’s destination. I really enjoy gig photography. You get to hear lots of new music, some good, some great, some not so polished. I have a picture going into a local paper (apparently, although I don’t have any evidence of this), another photographer/promoter has given me a website credit on the band they promote, and another of the band has asked if I would like to help them do some promo shots.
If you love music, have a go, see what you can do. Above all else don’t get despondent if you get a lot of blurred photos. I delete far more than I can use.
Go and have fun with it!!
