Photos: Valient Thorr @ Pop’s

Photos of the hard rock band Valient Thorr performing on February 20, 2011 at Pop's in Sauget, IL. (Todd Owyoung)

I'd heard good things about Valient Thorr – some people chiming in that they were in fact the more fun to shoot than both Motörhead and Clutch. Bold, bold words. And yet, true.

Photos of the hard rock band Valient Thorr performing on February 20, 2011 at Pop's in Sauget, IL. (TODD OWYOUNG)

Photos of the hard rock band Valient Thorr performing on February 20, 2011 at Pop's in Sauget, IL. (Todd Owyoung)

Photos of the hard rock band Valient Thorr performing on February 20, 2011 at Pop's in Sauget, IL. (TODD OWYOUNG)

Photos of the hard rock band Valient Thorr performing on February 20, 2011 at Pop's in Sauget, IL. (TODD OWYOUNG)

Photos of the hard rock band Valient Thorr performing on February 20, 2011 at Pop's in Sauget, IL. (Todd Owyoung)

Photographer's Notes:

Cameras Used:

  • Nikon D3
  • Nikon D700

Lenses Used:

Everyone has heard of hair whips. I venture to say that seeing Valient Thorr will change your definition of hair whips entirely. And by hair whips, I really mean beard whips.

Relatively speaking, this shoot was pretty well lit, but I still cranked it up to ISO 6400 to get enough stopping power at 1/250 for Thorr Himself's raging stage antics. With the Nikon D3 and D700, ISO 3200 is of course cleaner, but the difference is so marginal compared to the potential motion blur that one stop gives, it was an easy decision.