Ha Ha Tonka

Music Photos: Ha Ha Tonka

If Ha Ha Tonka are playing your city, grab your camera and your dancing shoes, because these guys bring a great show to the stage.

I didn't know what to expect from this four-piece, but I came away completely entertained by their set of foot-stompin' indie rock.

Music Photos: Ha Ha Tonka

Music Photos: Ha Ha Tonka

Music Photos: Ha Ha Tonka

Music Photos: Ha Ha Tonka

Music Photos: Ha Ha Tonka

Music Photos: Ha Ha Tonka

Music Photos: Ha Ha Tonka

Photographer's Notes:

The lighting for Ha Ha Tonka was pretty sweet, once you got around the fact that there was a metric ton of haze laying over the stage and that the backlighting was what could only be described as relatively ferocious.

I say relatively, because there wasn't so much in the way of light coming from the front, so, when exposing for the band members, the background atmospherics shifted to the bombastic.

A huge aid in this photographic approach was the little Nikon 50mm f/1.4, which I shot nearly wide-open for this whole show. All the images in the main set above were shot with the small-but-mighty 50mm.

For me, Brett Anderson on guitar was one of the most fun aspects of shooting this gig, as he frequently came out from behind his mic stand to rock out. And, more often than not, he seemed to be backed by a heavily atmospheric lighting, which wrecked havoc on even the D3's AF system.