I’d never seen As I Lay Dying before, but after their headlining performance on The Cool Tour, I came away mightily impressed. And, shooting the band’s full set, a whole lot more deaf.
Playing after no less than seven other bands, including Underoath, I wondered what As I Lay Dying would do to cap the night. My questions were answered with the best lighting of the night and a tremendous show from the the headliners, including frontman Tim Lambesis giving fans on the barricade fist bumps throughout the performance.
Photographer’s Notes:
This show with As I Lay Dying was just fun to shoot. Chaotic, loud, and crazy, but a lot of fun. It certainly helped that the band had some really interesting lighting effects in their production, but I’d like to think that their energy would have come through regardless.
Full-Set Shooting & The Importance Of Timing:
A lot of the most important aspects of covering this show involved timing and anticipating the peak moments. Timing for the band members’ movements, but especially for the lighting. Many of the lighting effects were very short duration treatments, with the lights flaring up for just a second, or flashing in time with the music.
Don’t let the lights fool you. More than half of the concert probably took place in darkness, punctuated by high-intensity, short-duration lighting.
One huge factor in photographing this show? Full-set shooting access. As I simply explained to the band’s tour manager after finishing a portrait shoot with the band earlier in the day, more time results in better images. That seemed like all the explanation he needed, and happily agreed to let security know.
For me, one of the best parts about full-set shooting access is the luxury of patience that the privilege affords. Shooting for 15 songs means instead of 3 means being able to step back, dodge some crowd surfers being pulled over the barricade, and think more critically about timing, framing, and basically just how to make the best images possible in the given conditions. Also, you get do-overs.
Cameras Used:
Lenses Used:
My main lens for this set was the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8, followed by the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8. Overall, the midrange of the 24-70mm was very useful and covered most all of the most essential framing for As I Lay Dying’s set. I pulled out the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 just for a shot of drummer Jordan during his mid-set drum solo.
End Notes:
Big thanks to Adam for the hook up, and for the guys of As I Lay Dying for being amazing subjects. Portraits of the band coming up soon, so stay tuned.
This entry was posted on Monday, July 26th, 2010 at 9:17 am and is filed under Music Photography and tagged with aild, as i lay dying, band, jordan mancino, josh gilbert, live, metalcore, music, music photography, nick hipa, phil sgrosso, tim lambesis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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I think you captured the intensity of the performance,excellent images Todd.
Hey Ian, thanks very much. Capturing intensity at a show like this is easy or hard, depending on how you look at it – it’s all there in front of you, but at the same time the lighting is incredibly challenging.
Rocking :) The wide angle shots totally sell this set for me, goes really well with the strong guitar stances and hair wipping. The final shot is awesome – crowd interaction and sweet flare up on Tim.
Quality stuff as always.
Hey Jim,
Thanks for the comment as always. Wide-angle and metal just go so well together, but I will say that the short lighting made focusing a real challenge for this show. Crazy motion, too.
That last shot of Tim was made during the final song, I think, when he was at the stage a lot of love to folks at the front.
Love that shot of the drummer. Nice work Todd.
Hey Rick,
Thanks a lot. Funny, the drummer had such crazy light at the back of the stage, together with the height and kit, he was a bear to shoot. Had some nice light during his solo, though, so that’s when I made that shot.
Great shots! As their personal friend, and also fellow photographer of them, I’m glad to see these amazing shots.
Can’t wait to see the portraits!
Hey Jonny,
Very cool – all of the band was really, really nice, and it was a pleasure shooting portraits of them. Thanks very much for the kind words.
Outstanding! This is one of your most impressive sets yet, which is sayin’ something.
Hey Kimberly,
Thanks very much for the kind words, I really appreciate it. I had a lot of fun shooting As I Lay Dying – even after shooting portraits outside all day, the band’s energy was infectious.
man, LOVE that last shot!
Hey Pat, thanks! Just some of the stuff three-songs-and-out never allows for.
Full-set shooting + metalcore + strobes + fist bumps = Photos: As I Lay Dying http://bit.ly/bDCcbr
RT @toddowyoung: Full-set shooting + metalcore + strobes + fist bumps = Photos: As I Lay Dying http://bit.ly/bDCcbr
RT @toddowyoung: Full-set shooting + metalcore + strobes + fist bumps = Photos: As I Lay Dying http://bit.ly/bDCcbr
RT @toddowyoung: Full-set shooting + metalcore + strobes + fist bumps = Photos: As I Lay Dying http://bit.ly/bDCcbr
Hey Todd,
it’s cool to see that we had the same idea for a photo of bassist josh (my attempt just a month ago http://www.flickr.com/photos/unki/4741558751/) :D
and your photos remind me that i’ll need a faster wide-angle zoom than my tamron 17-50mm 2.8 for the AILD show in november in my hometown…
kind regards,
jens
Hey Jens,
Ha, yeah – when Josh was at the mic, there’s only a few good angles on him! Do you mean faster as in focusing speed, or aperture? Because I used all f/2.8 lenses, just like your Tamron. Cheers.
yeah, a faster lens in focusing speed. Since I (‘m a Canon-photog) got the EF 24-70 2.8 I’m in love with the speed.
Todd, dont know if my advice helped at all but it looks like you got some great shots. My favorite shot is of Tim participating with the crowd during an obvious scream vocal, and the hands reaching towards him. I had the privledge of shooting them in a much smaller venue so I didn’t get the blessings of the great lighting.
One question, knowing how bright their lights are, how do you avoid the sunflare effect? I have always wondered this, i get it in about 40% of my shots.
Thanks.
Hey Joseph,
Thanks for the email about these guys. You’re right about Tim and crowd participation. He was giving fist bumps all night long.
I didn’t get too much flare – the lights weren’t direct, but rather mostly side lighting or from high enough that it wasn’t an issue. I got a little flare during Underoath’s set, but just a touch, as they had some strobes at the back of the stage.
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Interesting photos, the last one especially – perfect moment.
I agree with Ian, you captured the intensity of these guys. I find the only challenging thing about live performances is the lighting. How many photos did you take that night?
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