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Preview: Awolnation @ Pop’s

Todd — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 06:00:44 +0000

Here’s a quick preview from Awolnation’s really, really sold out show at Pop’s this past weekend. The over-capacity venue was truly heaving with Awolnation rocking the stage, complete with tons of crowd surfers enjoying the electro rock of this group.

Photographer’s Notes:

Cameras Used:

Nikon D3
Nikon D700

Lenses Used:

Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8

Full set and shooting notes coming up next!

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Photos: Sleeper Agent @ The Pageant

Todd — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 22:23:18 +0000

Reunited with pals Cage The Elephant for their late 2011 tour, Sleeper Agent kicked off the night properly – and photogenically. Lots of lush atmosphere during their set made this a fun shoot despite a wall of monitors along the front of the stage. The fact that singer Alex Kandel often put a boot up on the wedges certainly didn’t hurt, either.

Photographer’s Notes:

Cameras Used:

Nikon D3
Nikon D700

Lenses Used:

Nikon 50mm f/1.4
Nikon 85mm f/1.4

I shot Sleeper Agent’s set exclusively with Nikon’s f/1.4 primes – the Nikon 50mm f/1.4 and Nikon 85mm f/1.4. Surprisingly, these two worked out pretty excellently for this show. Part of this was due to the stage height of the Pageant and a big stack of monitors lining the edge of the stage limited the need for wider fields of view – the mid and tight frames of the 50mm and 85mm, respectively, worked well.

As a result, the compositional limitations of the stage actually lessened the shortcomings of shooting with fixed focal length lenses.

If you want more Sleeper Agent, check out my photo set from their March 2011 set at the Pageant, also supporting Cage the Elephant.

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Photos: Owl City @ The Pageant

Todd — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 06:00:58 +0000

Backed by a great lighting array and a full band, Adam Young, AKA Owl City, put on a great live show. One of the highlights of the show was seeing Young rock out on his guitar for this live show, considering how electronic his studio albums are. Unless you’re Daft Punk, it’s almost always more fun to see a musician wailing on six strings than it is to see them mashing keys or twisting dials, and this show was no exception.

Photographer’s Notes:

Cameras Used:

Nikon D3
Nikon D700

Lenses Used:

Nikon 85mm f/1.4
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8

Owl City’s show was bright! Even with my “slow” f/2.8 24-70mm zoom, I was shooting at ISO 800, which is almost unheard of for club shows like this. I approved.

Adam Young actually moves around the stage quite a bit during the first couple songs, so the abundant white light was very welcome. One interesting aspect of this show was that it wasn’t just spotlight – there was a nice split between the boring/bright look and a much more moody, atmospheric look, which I thought was a great mix.

The Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 was just about perfect for this set, and I used it for almost everything in this set. The range was excellent for Young’s stage-front performance with just enough reach to get him toward the middle of the stage. In addition, the fast focusing of the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 was essentially for Young’s rocking-out moments with his guitar.

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Photos: Dillinger Escape Plan @ Pop’s

Todd — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 06:00:40 +0000

The Dillinger Escape Plan are one of my favorite bands to photograph. Show after show, they prove themselves on the stage as one of the best live acts on the planet. And not through an elaborate stage production, but seemingly through a force of will to pretty much annihilate themselves on stage every single night.

I’m a little surprised that the band aren’t in full body casts after their relentless touring schedule, but that fact is probably just another testament to the group’s commitment to deliver 100% for their fans. These guys are pros.

At any given moment, someone’s climbing a speaker stack, jumping off a wedge, or kicking something over. By the end of the show, all three happening at once is almost guaranteed.

Hit the jump for photos of one of the most physically and sonically brutal shows around: the Dillinger Escape Plan.

Photographer’s Notes:

Cameras Used:

Nikon D3
Nikon D700

Lenses Used:

Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8

I love photographing the Dillinger Escape Plan. There is never a single dull moment in their show – the only problem is that all the awesome stuff usually happens in some hazy nightmare world, halfway between relentless strobe lights and complete darkness. This show was a little different.

While there were still plenty of short-duration lighting effects, but the light for Dillinger on this tour didn’t feel quite so crazy.

Still, photographing these guys is probably the closest thing I can imagine to being a war photographer without actually having to dodge bullets. Spin kicks and guitar necks, maybe, but not bullets.

Big thanks to Jessica and all the guys of Dillinger. Next stop: Terminal 5, NYC.

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Photos: Chevelle @ Pointfest 29

Todd — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 05:00:05 +0000

Chevelle always put on an intense, grinding set, and their performance at the big stage of Verizon Wireless Amphitheater for Pointfest 29 was no exception.

Photographer’s Notes:

Cameras Used:

Nikon D3
Nikon D700

Lenses Used:

Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8

Chevelle are always a tough but interesting shoot, due to the intensity the trio brings to the stage. They just rock out. This energy is both a thrill and a challenge to capture.

Aside from Bush, Chevelle received one of the more lush stage treatments of Pointfest, with plenty of haze to pick up the nice backlighting effects.

This set is actually a good example of just how far the right bit of haze will go in terms of making a treatment look alive. Without this haze to pick up the backlighting, the stage would have looked desolate.

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Simply clicking through either B&H or Amazon.com here for your purchases helps me bring you free content like the photography tips and gear reviews regularly posted on www.ishootshows.com, and naturally it doesn’t cost you a cent more. If you do grab some gear, drop me a line! I’d love to hear about what you picked up.

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