Photos: Ben Folds @ The Pageant

I’ve photographed Ben Folds twice before in the past, but his most recent performance at the Pageant was the first time I caught the prolific piano man with a backing band as well. As if the assortment of instruments on stage before the band walked out wasn’t an indication enough, Ben Folds and his crew storming the crew and running around for what seemed like five-minutes straight marked a dramatic change of the show to come.

Photographer’s Notes:

Cameras Used:

Nikon D3

Lenses Used:

Ben Folds standing on a piano with his arms outstretched – a great photo op for sure, but in the halflight of the band’s intro, tough enough to catch. I used just one body for this show, as there wasn’t that much action – I didn’t really mind changing lenses all that much, as the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 did most of the heavy work.

Ben Folds’s piano was set back a good three-meters or so, but close enough that the range of the telephoto zoom was almost perfect on the full-frame Nikon D3.

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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 Sunday, February 6th, 2011 at 12:01 am and is filed under Music Photography and tagged with ben folds, images, music photography, photography, piano, st. louis, the pageant. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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Creative Photography says:

February 6, 2011 at 6:03 am

Photos: Ben Folds @ The Pageant http://bit.ly/hkKgs7

shaun photo news says:

February 6, 2011 at 6:31 am

Photos: Ben Folds @ The Pageant: I’ve photographed Ben Folds twice before in the past, but his most recent… http://goo.gl/fb/0fdlb

groovehouse says:

February 8, 2011 at 1:29 pm

Nice shots, he’s a tough one to shoot when you’re in the pit and he’s behind the keys… but did you get mocked by him? =)

http://groovehouse.org/wordpress/?p=2042

tim king says:

February 16, 2011 at 9:42 am

I’m assuming you’re the resident photographer at the pageant…how do you like shooting concerts? Your images are awesome, but I’ve always wondered how the stress level would be for something like this…do you get bothered from drunk people in the front row? Loud noise? I’d be curious to know your thoughts!

Todd says:

February 18, 2011 at 10:07 am

Hey Tim,

I love shooting concerts. For me, concerts aren’t stressful – they’re thrilling. There is a sense of high energy and competition at times, but these only drive me to make the best images I can.