Lil Wayne

January 8, 2009 – Fresh off the critical and commercial success of Tha Carter III, Lil Wayne returned to the Chaifetz Arena, headlining the I Am Music Tour with support from T-Pain, Keyshia Cole, Gym Class Heroes, and Keri Hilson, as well as special guest Mack Maine.

Photographer’s Notes:

Going into this performance, I was highly curious as to how it would stack up with Lil Wayne’s previous performance at the Chaifetz Arena in August of 2008. With Tha Carter III going strong right through the end of 2008, the I Am Music Tour featured a deeper bill and promised a much larger production than we’d seen before.

As news about the tour trickled out, it was confirmed that there was no pit access for this performance, which immediately changed the game plan going in.

For this event, I rented the Nikon 200-400mm f/4, a lens I’d used once before for Carrie Underwood. While f/4 is generally considered slow for concert photography, the bright stage lighting and spotlights accommodated the aperture just fine.

We were allowed to shoot from just in front of the soundboard, in the space between the mixers and the back end of the floor seating, roughly 100 feet back from the stage.

An elevated platform behind the soundboard was also an option, though this was very crowded with people allowed VIP access by the time Lil Wayne took the stage. While the higher elevation would have been nice, the closer position in front of the SB ultimately won out. Fans waving their hands in the air and holding cameras up were an issue, but one that could be minimized with the right timing and a little patience.

Regarding the range of the 200-400mm, I had some doubts whether it would be adequate on the full-frame sensor of the D3 given the distance, but in the end the range worked quite well. 500mm on the long end would have been welcome, but as it was, 400 was perfectly serviceable for the distance. The convenience of the zoom was a huge boon, especially when framing multiple subjects.

End Notes:

Overall, this shoot went better than I expected considering the distance. That said, it’s really hard to compare this shoot to Lil Wayne’s last show at the Chaifetz. For that gig, I shot from the pit and was allowed to photograph for the entirety of the set, which, needness to say, can’t help but spoil a gig shooter.

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 Monday, January 12th, 2009 at 9:18 pm and is filed under Music Photography and tagged with 2009, i am music, lil wayne, live, mack main, Music Photography, photography, rapper, t-pain, tour. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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11 Responses to “Lil Wayne”

1. doug says:

   January 12, 2009 at 9:40 pm

   Despite the distance restrictions, you still managed to get some good shots out of the set. Nice work.

   Reply
2. Todd says:

   January 12, 2009 at 9:51 pm

   Hey Doug, thanks for the kind words. While it was a 180º experience from the last shoot, this event did go better than I had anticipated, and I’m glad it worked out for a few shots.

   Reply
3. jason says:

   January 12, 2009 at 10:13 pm

   considering the distance i’m shocked at how damn sharp these photos are. what was your exposure range like? did you do a lot of cropping in?

   Reply
4. Todd says:

   January 12, 2009 at 10:23 pm

   Hey Jason,

   Thanks for the comment, nice to hear from you.

   The exposure for the first three songs here was f/4 and 1/500 at ISO 2000. I didn’t make any changes while shooting.

   I probably could have gone to ISO 3200 and 1/800, too, the lighting was pretty good for the most part.

   Most of the frames here are pretty much intact, I prefer not to crop at all when possible. For gigs like this, though, it’s a lot harder to keep that aesthetic!

   Reply
5. Melissa (Sarcomical) says:

   January 12, 2009 at 10:56 pm

   oooh, thanks for talking about your gear, too. great stuff.

   Reply
6. Todd says:

   January 12, 2009 at 11:36 pm

   Hey Melissa! I always mention the gear I use for shoots. Usually, it’s a little more varied than just one lens, but so it goes with soundboard shoots like this.

   Thanks for the comment!

   Reply
7. kenny says:

   January 13, 2009 at 6:06 pm

   hey todd-

   great set as usual…especially with that range!
   what do you think they would say about having one of those 2 foot foldable step stools in front of the soundboard?

   i was thinking about doing the show friday in NY and was wondering how easy LW’s people are to work with…any thoughts?

   Reply
8. Todd says:

   January 13, 2009 at 6:30 pm

   Hi Kenny,

   Thanks for the comment. The main concern of the tour was that, from the soundboard, the view of the stage not be obstructed by any photogs.

   Live Nation and/or the venue will have a media handler there to escort you, so whether you can use a step stool that tall depends on them, too.

   If you’re really worried about the crowd getting in the way, you can always use the platform behind the soundboard.

   Are you already approved for the set?

   Reply
9. kenny says:

   January 13, 2009 at 9:44 pm

   well i was approved for another show, but someone dropped the ball, so i put in for NY and was told it should be go and they would contact me back this week. so i hope i get the confirmation before friday because its about 3-3 1/2 from my house in Maryland. but i will be in nyc for the weekend, so it will be ok

   Reply
10. Todd says:

    January 18, 2009 at 11:52 am

    Did you end up photographing this tour, Kenny?

    Reply
11. Gym Class Heroes | ishootshows.com says:

    January 21, 2009 at 11:15 pm

    [...] 8, 2009 – Performing on the I Am Music Tour in support of Lil Wayne, Gym Class Heroes performed a quick-hitting set that included fan-favorites like “Peace [...]

    Reply