Tony Bennett @ the Fox Theatre — 2007.10.27

At 81-years old, Tony Bennett still knows how to work a crowd. Backed by a four-piece backing band, the legendary jazz singer graced the Fox Theatre with standards and original tunes spanning his over half-century of performing.

Bennett was all smiles for the show, and seemed to genuinely relish his time on stage and in the spotlight. And for someone who has been performing with such endurance as he has, it seems only natural that he would be at home in front of a crowd. While his voice is no longer what it was at its peak, Bennett’s charm and style won out in his performance, and Tony Bennett laying down classics is still simply just that.

The silver-haired singer seemed to have all the moves down to muscle memory as he sailed through the first three songs, holding the mic in his left hand with expert control while gesturing expressively with his right.

Photographer’s notes:

Despite all the necessary safety measures, like having a copy of the confirmation and an emergency contact number, shooting Tony Bennett’s performance still proved a mild difficulty in receiving credentials at the venue. With no photo passes and no list, security was out of the loop, as was the production coordinator. While the former was not that big of an issue, the latter proved troublesome, since she was also listed as the emergency contact. Still, everything worked out and I was granted access to shoot after Bennett was into his second song.

For this quick one-and-a-half song shoot, the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR lived on the D2X, and it’s range was perfect. While I don’t often use the lens for stage-front concert photography, with a fifth-row shooting restriction, the telephoto range of the zoom was just perfect for the singer, particular at 150mm and above.

With relatively bright spotlights on Bennet throughout his performance, exposure was relatively easy: 1/200 second at f/2.8 and ISO 1250 (HI-0.7 on the D2X) was used for all shots.

About the author: Todd Owyoung is an internationally published music photographer specializing in concert photography and band portraits. He also grills a mean steak.

Contact Todd for image licensing and assignments wherever the rock show lives. You can also get in touch with Todd via Twitter.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 31st, 2007 at 10:18 pm and is filed under Music Photography and tagged with crooner, jazz, pop, singer, standards, tony bennet, traditional pop. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.