A Rocket To The Moon’s set opening for Never Shout Never was a hazy, dimly lit performance. The perfect fit for a couple f/1.4 primes.

Photographer’s Notes:

Cameras Used:

• Nikon D3
• Nikon D700

Lenses Used:

• Nikon 50mm f/1.4
• Nikon 85mm f/1.4

Dim, hazy lighting – the perfect opportunity to switch to a pair of f/1.4 primes. While fast primes have their own faults, they can excel at rendering this kind of lighting and giving a unique look to dimmer stage treatments.

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One shot of A Rocket To The Moon’s Nick Santino, performing with his band on the Love Drunk Tour with Cobra Starship and Boys Like Girls. Photographer’s Notes:

I shot this image with the D3 and Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 at 38m, f/2.8, 1/100, and ISO 3200.

There was very little front-lighting for ARTTM’s set, so I cranked up the ISO from my preferred setting of ISO 1600 on the D3 and lowered the shutter speed a notch below my normal comfort level. With low light photography, between noise, motion blur, and the limitations of your lens opening, something’s got to give.

End Notes:

You can see how I shot A Rocket To The Moon the last time they rolled through here in their performance at Pop’s.

November 14, 2008 – Opening up for Secondhand Serenade and Cute Is What We Aim For, Nick Santino, a.k.a. A Rocket To The Moon, delivered a tight, upbeat set of crunchy riffs and heartfelt vocals that had his lady fans crushing, cutting a rug, and crying all at once. Santino’s set drew heavily from Greetings From EP, including performances of highlight tracks “Dakota” and “Fear of Flying.”

This shot was actually shot during CIWWAF’s set, which also called back members of Automatic Loveletter. Nick took the opportunity to get up close and personal with some of his fans, and vice versa.

Photographer’s Notes:

This was a short and simple set. I used just one SB-600 as the remote, with a little of the SB-900 commander unit being used as flash.

The deep color washes used during the performance were the biggest challenge here, as balancing with flash meant a little bit of juggling, as well as plenty of experimentation. For some images, such as the second to last shot, providing hot shortlighting proved the best option for creating a contrast to the heavy red-magenta washes that were in rotation for Nick Santino’s set.

Without the aid of flash, this was have been a pretty grim set to photograph, so its use was a very welcome option.

The Nikon D3 and Nikon 24-70mm took care of this performance. Due to the tight space on stage and high speaker monitors walling in the stationary Santino, the classic midrange left me wanting for very little else.