October 16, 2008 – Fingers flying over the ivories of his grand pinao, Ben Folds performed to a sold out crowd at the Pageant.
Photographer’s Notes:
Press were allowed to photograph the first 30 seconds of Ben Folds’ first three songs, for a total of 90 seconds of allotted shooting.
While I had heard about such restrictions for other artists, I was quite surprised to hear about it for this show as I checked in with the venue personnel.
Ben Folds’ piano was positioned halfway to the back of the Pageant’s relatively deep stage, with a speaker monitor at the right side. Due to the configuration, I relied primarily on the Nikon 70-200mm to close the distance, though the Nikon 24-70mm was used as well for a few wider angles.
Rather than change lenses in the very short shooting windows, I used two camera bodies for this shoot, the Nikon D3 and D700, which was a huge boon.
Lighting for this set was reserved, with washes of blue and red, while Folds was lit with warm, faintly orange light for much of the first three songs. Exposing for a bright frame helped cut though some of this effect, aided by the high ISO performance of the new Nikons.
This entry was posted on Thursday, October 16th, 2008 at 11:59 pm and is filed under Music Photography and tagged with 2008, ben folds, ben folds five, live, music photography, nikon, pageant, photography, piano, pop, rock, tour. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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You totally nailed the 90 seconds, well done on the close ups
Is there a certain reason why there is this rule?
Hey Jessie, thanks! Glad this set works for you. Naturally, more time would have been better, but one has to work with restrictions sometimes.
I’m not sure why the restrictions of this show were in place.
It would seem more reasonable and simple to allow one full song, or at least a full 90 continuous seconds, for a show like this.
If photography is to be considered a necessary evil, consolidating the shooting time would seem to diminish the impact, while breaking it up prolongs whatever effects it may have.
Did you realize anything inside the first 30sec. that you quickly set yourself up for during the second 30sec frame?
Also which plugin is that which houses the photos in a strip and then pops them out & back upon clicking? It’s nice… as is your entire Blog here!
Hey Jeff, good question. I had the rough angles that I wanted, so more than anything, I was up hoping for decent lighting during each 30 second window.
The image viewer I use is called Highslide, and it’s embedded via another plugin called Crossroads.
Re why three thirty-second bursts — Do you ever get the feeling people just like to make life more complicated?
I want to say that just *cannot* be why some shows are such a hassle, but then again I come into contact with a lot of people who seem to love drama for drama’s sake, with egos flying everywhere…
Bloody hell, when did I turn into such a concert photography conspiracy theorist? (Answer: last night, at the Jay-Z show.)
Oh well. You made 90 seconds look really good!
Hi Rachel,
The one thing that comes to mind regarding the 30-second windows is that someone wants to give photogs the benefit of different lighting schemes while still limiting total time.
Security guards were joking that they’d be watching me with a stopwatch in one hand in a taser in the other.
Three lots of 30 seconds?? That truly is bizarre.
You did amazingly, considering!
Hey Kate! I’d heard of 30 seconds for very large arena shows, but not for smaller club acts like this. Really strange.
Thanks for the feedback!
That is such a bizarre rule. The togs in the pit must have been climbing over each other in those 30 second slots.
How do they time something like that? Does a big security guy stand at the edge with a stop-watch and raise a flag or something?
Surely you stayed in the pit for the remainder of the 3 songs, so what’s the harm in taking shots at those times?
anyway….good job on the shots.
Hey Bob, thanks for the comment.
The band actually limited the number of passes for this show pretty severely, so other photogs weren’t too much of an issue. The biggest thing limiting mobility, aside from time limit, was that the pit was incredibly narrow. Just going from one end to the other took a minute or two because one had to squeeze around the supports of the barricade.
This time limit was imposed basically on the honor system, so to speak. I know the guys who work the venue and the last thing I want is for them to get hassled by a tour manager because I’m misbehaving.
Just posted the shots from Ben Folds. Here’s to 90 seconds! http://tinyurl.com/57cznk
Nice work within the restriction, and the stage setback. The last one is my fave – he looks like he was enjoying himself.
Hey Doug, thanks for the feedback on this set. Ben Folds did let out a few grins while playing, I was glad I got one in a frame.
Beautifully done, Todd–especially considering the restrictions. The angled one is great, it almost looks like he’s pushing his piano uphill.
Bummer about the restrictions, but there was a female photog in the balcony with us schlepping a HUGE tripod and EOS1D around. Not sure how she got away with that, and security was talking to her a lot, but she kept shooting–mostly the crowd.
Hey Woody, thank you for the comments. I wonder if the woman shooting from the balcony was with the band. Was she shooting for the whole show?
You can do more in 90 seconds than most people can do in a full hour of shooting. I especially love the third to last. Amazing.
You can do more in 90 seconds than most people can do in a full hour of shooting. I especially love the third to last. Amazing.
Geez, Tasha, I don’t know about that, but I’m trying here. :)
I appreciate the kind words! There were some gobo’ed spots in back that were shot forward toward the audience at one point (the start of the second song, I think) that created some nice backlighting.
ben’s been recording songs on specific dates this tour for iTunes live (couldnt log in today to see if STL was one), and he does a TON of multimedia stuff. wouldn’t surprise me if the photog in the balcony was with the tour or maybe the Point (who sponsored the show) — the pageant security wouldn’t let people get away with having a tripod in the balcony like that, although i saw a ton of kids with cameras in the front few rows.
nice shots, todd! :) my review is here:
http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/atoz/2008/10/show_review_setlist_photos_ben_folds_pageant_st_louis_october_16_five_way_to_normal_2008.php
Hey Annie! Thanks for the info. I bet it that photog was shooting for the band/tour. As far as I know, the Point rarely sends out photographers for individual shows and mostly covers bigger events like Pointfest,
It’s always funny to have crazy restrictions or contracts for the accredited photographers, but then to turn around and see a multitude of cameras in the crowd.
Those are some weird shooting limitations. I love #3. Super cool wide angle!
Hey Keith, thanks for the comment. #3 is 24mm on the D700.
[...] Folds was relatively close to the stage, unlike the last time I photographed the musician at the Pageant, so the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 and Nikon 70-200mm covered [...]