December 17, 2008 – When the lights came up, all eyes were on Scott Weiland, the man in the thin, sharp suit.
Performing material from his solo album “Happy” in Galoshes, Weiland was backed by a full band, including his long-time musical partner Doug Grean on lead guitar.
Photographer’s Notes:
Compared to the last time I’d photographed Scott Weiland when he was fronting the recently reunited Stone Temple Pilots, this concert was a decidedly different experience.
Instead of a 20,000-capacity amphitheater, Weiland performed in a club venue 1/10 the size, with a proporiately reduced stage treatment. Gone were the multiple spotlights, programmable LED Pars, and massive LED screen of the STP tour; in their place, the house lights of the Pageant provided all of the events lighting.
Still, for all the stripped back effects, Weiland still proved to be magnetic subject on stage. My only regret for this show was that the lighting for the event was such a poor match for Weiland’s antics on stage.
While positioned at the mic stand, Weiland was lit from the front with hot frontlighting, which passed over him at the front of the stage. There, the backlights were turned on to relatively heavy effect, emphasizing the smoke at the back of the stage.
For most of the first three songs, Weiland seemed to start out at the mic stand, then move to the front of the stage after a minute or two, circling back to the stand by song’s end.
I shot this concert at ISO 3200 and 6400 due to the low light, also using relatively slow shutter speeds as a necessity.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008 at 6:23 pm and is filed under Music Photography and tagged with 2008, live, music, Music Photography, nikon, photographer, photography, scott weiland, stone temple pilots, tour. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Great photos as always. Doesn’t look like the lighting was dark. Nice job and Happy Holidays!
Hey Bryan, thanks for the comment. You’ll have to believe me about the dark lighting. The images appear “decently” lit due to the exposure I used, that’s all I can say. It was pretty rough shooting!
Love that second-from-last shot Todd. Love it.
Any comment on the show itself? Most of the reviews I’ve read were very dismissive of Weiland.
Hey Jason, thanks. The second to last shot is my favorite from the night.
I left after the third song, so I can’t really comment on the entirety of Weiland’s performance. What I did see was pretty off.
Nice Shots! 3200iso? I need a new camera. He’s here (Milwaukee) next month. I may get a press pass from the venue. Yes!!!
ISO 3200 on the low end, and that was being optimistic. However, it was a radio show and the band didn’t have a dedicated lighting setup. For the regular tour, it may be different.
Either way, Weiland is an excellent subject.
I always enjoy reading your synopsis of every show almost as much as I enjoy viewing your work of every show. Thank you for always being so generous in sharing your complete attention to detail in everything that you do and why you do it.
Hey Erin,
Thanks for the kind words, nice to hear from you again. I’m happy to share what I can, I’m glad you find the shooting notes interesting!
Hi Todd, {and Merry Christmas},
I forgot to answer a question you aksed me a short while ago as to why I prefer Canon over Nikon for my dog sporting photography. There was no particular reason. But now I think I’m leaning more toward Nikon for both. A friend of mine let me use her Nikon to shoot a training session one day and I loved the results. I’ll let you know what I end up with. Oh well…off to work now on Christmas night.
Hey Erin, thanks for the follow-up. Let me know how it goes with your camera choices!
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[...] and the folks at Live Nation for setting this up. Also, if you haven’t seen the shots of Weiland’s solo performance that I covered at the end of 2008, that performance truly provided a stark contrast to the lush [...]