Last Saturday I spent the night at Burn, it's a night club for live music where people dressing strangely is the norm, sometimes girls are mistaken for guys and the Tequila they serve has a hint of Mexican meths. Just because it comes out of a Tequila bottle does not mean it is Tequila. It was the finale of the "Battle of the Tributes" and a friend of mine was doing vocals for the Pearl Jam tribute band. Fun was had and sing alongs sung. Through it all were a small group of young photographers capturing the moments. I know one of them and his images are pretty good, I can see him reaching the highest of heights should he choose to continue in the music realm. Watching them stoked the fire to continue scanning my images.
REM was the first concert I ever shot. A few weeks before the concert I had approached a local music based website about the possibility of photographing the concert for them and provide some images for their concert review. I didn't hear anything back. That was until two days before the concert. The email went something like this : "Our photographer bailed on us, I have a ticket, you can shoot and then stay for the rest of the concert". My reply, simply "Yes". I learnt a lot about photographing from "the pit" in that single concert. Rule 1 - do as security says. Rule 2 - no flash. Rule 3 - and this to me is the most important - do not follow the artist from one side of the stage to the other, you will miss many photo opportunities by chasing others. The concert has just started, the artist has a lot of energy, he/she must engage the crowd with in the first song to hype everyone and some artists like showboating for the photographers. Pick a side and stick to it, you will get your close ups and you will get your pull backs. Michael Stipe is a strange yet entertaining character. It rained during the Durban concert, it always rains during Durban concerts. Between one song break he looked into the crowd, focussed on a guy wearing a yellow unbuttoned raincoat and said "thanks for wearing that, you made my night".
My favorite local, South African, artist to shoot is Kahn Morbee from The Parlotones. His face emits a million expressions, his makeup enhancing them. Some people speak with their hands, Kahn seems to speak with facial contortions.
Avril Lavigne is one of the more memorable concert experiences I've enjoyed. Firstly because I was highly impressed by her live performance. I'd surmised that her recordings were digitally enhanced etc etc, she put those assumptions to rest. Second being that I bagged a number useable frames. The lighting at most concerts is not up to par, the lighting at this venue is always miserable however this time my exposures were more than half decent.
In a pervious post I hinted at a South African band who pulled a preMadonna and cut the pit time to one song. It may have just been their management, but it was Tweak and I got two frames. This being one.
Inspired by the mexican meths and tributes at burn on Saturday,my house is attempting to strum an out of tune christmas cracker guitar every night in hope of whooing a young las one day.
ReplyDeleteAlways keep it real
IAN