May 31, 2009 – Touring for their fifth album, The Hazards of Love, the Decemberists brought their roaring, indie rock juggernaut to the Pageant in epic two-hour set.
Photographer’s Notes:
This was an interesting show to photograph for a few reasons, but primarily for the lighting. Most of the usable light on the band came from underlighting at the front of the stage. A long strip of LED arrays made up one component, while incandescent cans also added to the mix.
The arrays of LEDs effectively added another foot or so to the height of the Pageant’s ~5-foot stage, limiting clear shooting angles to some degree. Due to the added height, I found myself backing up a little more than I might have otherwise in order to shoot from less acute angles.
From a photographic point of view, one thing I would have loved to see to contrast the relatively strong backlighting was more/heavier backlighting. The exposure differential between the uplighting and the rest of the stage lighting just didn’t hold up.
Still, one somewhat remarkable thing about this show was the presence of a photo pit at all, in contrast to the band’s show last year, where a dedicated shooting area was absent.
Singer Colin Meloy has a very close mic position, so I found that the best shots of him came from a little timing to catch the phrasing where he sang farthest from the mic.
The 24-70mm and 70-200mm on the D3 and D700, respectively, did the trick for this show. The f/2.8 of these lenses were just fine for the lighting, and, due to the limited lines of sight, the range of focal lengths was certainly appreciated.
The rules for this set were first three songs, no flash.
This entry was posted on Sunday, May 31st, 2009 at 10:57 pm and is filed under Music Photography and tagged with colin meloy, decemberists, images, live, music, Music Photography, photographer, photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Dude, that’s your version of LED lighting?!
There were three or four meter-long strips of these LEDs. So, yeah. That’s my version!
Great shots, Todd.
Was the stage very high or did you choose this angle from a lower position?
I am looking forward to shoot them again, they’re a bunch of very nice guys too.
have a good week,
Vale
Hi Vale,
As I mentioned in the notes, the stage itself is roughly five-feet tall, or just under a meter tall. With the lighting arrays at the front, the effective height was just a hair over a meter or so.
All things considered, I’d loved to have shot with a three or four foot stage. Thanks for the comment.
Just posted shots from tonight’s Decemberists show. LED uplights = eerie, dramatic. In other words, perfectly fitting. http://is.gd/LbOz
Nice work on this set. What ISO were you shooting at?
Hi Craig, thanks for the comment. I was shooting between ISO 1000 and 2500 for the most part.
@toddowyoung Hey Todd, all beautiful photos, but http://bit.ly/YPaGK is spectacular! (From: http://is.gd/LbOz)
Tres cool Decemberists pics from @toddowyoung: http://bit.ly/ITAeS
Cool that you noted Colin Meloy’s timing. I find one of the most useful things in performance photography is to stop for a second and get a sense of the performer’s timing — if you can afford the time, which can be difficult at three songs — because it can help you anticipate the best shots.
Great set.
Hey Rich,
Colin sings really, really close to the mic, so much so that it basically looks like the foam windscreen is his nose. The cleanest shots, for me, came when he’d draw back a little bit, creating more separation between him and the mic.
One tricky thing is that the up lighting was changing colors and intensity, so that the most interesting expressions didn’t necessarily coincide with the best treatment.
Thanks for the comments on the Decemberists post! http://bit.ly/16VCOZ Next up: Yeah Yeah Yeahs tomorrow night.
Love the shots, Todd. It’s a pity you were run out of the pit before Shara came out and tore the stage to ribbons.
Hey Jason,
I know! Shara is such a captivating presence on stage, I would have loved to get a few shots of her. I was just going to add something about this to the shooting notes.
was robyn hitchcock/venus 3 the support act for this gig? i hope to shoot this tour next week in boston.
No, Blind Pilot opened.
Hey Todd,
well, I must say I was completely astonished by this set. Fantastic from start to end. And that first shot … nice way to present the set ;)
Brilliant as usual.
Cheers,
Daniel
Hey Daniel,
Thanks for the kind words, I appreciate it.
@bergmanj A soundboard shoot for the Decemberists? Strange, they even had a photo pit for the show I shot l10 days ago: http://bit.ly/16VCOZ
they had a fantastic light show, but unfortunately made us shoot from the soundboard, which was easily 50 rows away. also the 3 song rule meant no good shots of shara worden who was a great performer. nice shots, todd. esp like the 2nd Moen shot (drummer).
Hey Tim,
Interesting, I heard the Boston show had a soundboard shoot. It’s too bad that we didn’t get Shara given the setlist for Hazards, but I guess those are the breaks. I’d seen some shots of her around, so maybe that photographer had other access.
I was surprised at the availability of the photo pit for this show, as last time there was no barricade to speak of.
Thanks for posting notes on their stage setup, Todd! I just shot these guys (from the crowd, on the rail) yesterday and the info on the uplighting helped quite a bit. Granted, it was outdoors and about half of their set was pre-sunset, but the info still proved useful. I purposefully took up a spot on the side of the stage to help with the “mic intimacy” of Melloy, to good effect too.
Great shots too, they’re so expressive! You really were able to capture their emotive moments.
Hey Erik,
Thanks for the comment, I’m really glad to hear that the shooting notes helped you in your concert shoot! I think you definitely chose wisely with your position – Meloy loves the mic.
Hey – Im shooting the Decemberists this week. Im thinking of the D90 w/Nikkor AF-S 70-300mm 1:4.5-5.6G VR ED and/Nikkor AF 50mm 1:1.4D. Thoughts please?!?! I will be in the pit. Its my first “real” rock show…so I dont wanna screw it!
Thanks
Please check these out…Let me know what you think.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ourht/sets/72157621824047747/