concert — And Everything Else

Man… being around a band for most of their lifespan. Especially one that has now gone on for ten years. Didn’t think I’d ever say that.

Descendants of Erdrick recently celebrated their tenth anniversary. I’ve been around this band for damn near nine years of it and it has certainly been an adventure. I can definitely say they have changed my life for the better. With demonstrable proof. But that is a very long story… maybe which I’ll share in the future.

DoE put together an anniversary show with our friends DJ R.O.C.K.M.A.N., the Masters of Unlocking, and ABXY. MoU and ABXY were each missing one member but they put on some solid performances. Amanda Lepre did a small acoustic set of her solo material. And of course Descendants of Erdrick had a great show.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve shot any sort of musical performance. But I had fun with this and got some good photos out of it.

This was the event that really got me into doing concert photography.

With being involved with the nerd music scene for a little over a year I still wasn't really well versed in what all was out there. While MAGFest was a great introduction there was a lot more out there that I was not aware of.

It was a rather random thing for me to go to Nerdapalooza. Our friends Descendants of Erdrick were invited to play as were the OneUps and Brentalfloss. I originally hadn't made any plans to go. But somehow through having a bunch of money saved up along with a good chunk of time off available I decided "What the hell? Why not?"

A lot of my event coverage experience up to this point had been with video. But I didn't think video was going to be an option here. I had actually been to The Social before since I had seen a number of shows there when I used to live in Florida. It really wasn't the best set up for video plus I didn't know how many people were going to be there. But I wanted to capture it in some way. Since I had the Canon Rebel T3i's I decided I'd go do some photography.

I'm glad I did.

It was a different experience than MAGFest. Split between The Social and The Beacham (which I didn't know had a connecting hallway until this) there were sets going on all the time. So sometimes I'd have to choose between seeing some new talent and someone I was familiar with. I did find some new music I really liked and became a fan of.

Plus everyone was in one hotel. So there was a lot of hanging out until way in the morning. Never thought I'd be in a room playing in a beer pong tournmanet while DJ Cutman was DJing through a clock radio. Or just hanging out in front of the hotel drinking with members of the bands or other attendees just talking about random shit. I'm not sure how our livers survived really.

Since this was the moment that got me started in concert photography I figured it would be to go back and talk through some of my favorite pictures along with discussion on how my shooting methodology evolved since then.

Adam WarRock (performing with Tribe One)

ISO 3200, 1/80 shutter spped, Canon 18-55 f/5.6

Now that I look at this image now I'm a bit surprised I was able to get this one at 1/80. The lighting in The Social wasn't always the best so more often than not I'd have to go even lower on the shutter speed. But Adam also moves around a lot so I needed to strike a balance between the two. This one was a bit of a lucky shot with how the light behind him frames him well but yet there was a light also in front of him so you could see his eyes and it gives good detail to his pose. I also liked how there's a good sense of balance in the framing.

The OneUps

ISO 3200, 1/60 shutter speed, Tamron 55-200 f/4-5.6

I loved how there's just enough light to bring out Will's face but yet everything else is in darkness. It's a good example of the "concert portrait" style that would define my concert photography for a number of years.

ISO 3200, 1/60 shutter speed, Tamron 55-200 f/4-5.6

While not a technically perfect picture since there's a tad bit of blur due to the low shutter speed there's something about this pic I just like. I think it's a mix of Mustin's expression and how he's into what he's doing along with the fact that you can see his hands on the keyboard in the reflection of the sunglasses.

Dual Core

ISO 3200, 1/50 shutter speed, Tamron 55-200 f/4-5.6

Another kinda lucky shot. The pin spot just hitting his eyes works here and there's just enough light to show the rest of him. But pretty much everything else falls into darkness just highlighting him.

Random Encounter and Descendants of Erdrick

ISO 3200, 1/50 shutter speed, Tamron 55-200 f/4-5.6

The funny bit is that this photo was actually taken during the sound check before they performed. Careless was paying attention to how the other members of the band sounded. There's something about his look on concentration that just makes it for me. And I also think the framing is really good.

Canon T3i, ISO 3200, 1/50 shutter speed, Canon 18-55 f/5.6

This pic just screams CONCERT. Random Encounter and Descendants of Erdrick did a collaboration set and in the middle they were all on stage to perform "Dancing Mad" from Final Fantasy 6. Bringing the crowd into the shot along with having a wider view of the stage and band members was a good choice.

Those Who Fight

ISO 3200, 1/50 shutter speed, Canon 18-55 f/5.6

I love this photo of Titan. His pose being rendered into silhouette along with a bit of over exposure from the wash light itself and the composition just speaks to me.

Amanda Lepre (performing with Brentalfloss and the Cartridge Family)

ISO 3200, 1/80 shutter speed, Tamron 55-200 f/4-5.6

The fact that Amanda is wearing all black could have led to some problems depending on the lighting. But here since she was doing main vocal duties on "Metroid: Fight For Love" there was a pin spot light on her which helped. The green wash in the background also helped bring her out. Amanda tends to be really expressive when she sings and the combination of those things led to a good shot.

Looking Back

One thing that was painfully obvious while I was going through photos for this article... holy fuck was I terrible about composing "in camera". Admittedly given this was my first go around at doing this sort of thing but when I was going through them I really had to wonder what the hell was I thinking. For example the bulk of the photos were shot in vertical orientation. Even with almost six years passing since I did this I quite frankly have no idea why I shot so much that way. Thankfully I've gotten a lot better about that.

Another piece: knowing more about the capabilities of my camera. Especially with the ability to shoot in RAW format. I had originally purchased three T3i's for video purposes such as shooting Amanda's "Slay The Dragon" video. I wouldn't come to understand that capability until later. Though with certain bits maybe it was a good thing I wasn't aware of that at the time.

Lastly... posting way too many photos. I talk about this quite a bit in my article The 1% but given my editing methodology now I certainly would not have posted as many as I did. I think part of that was that I was considering this exercise as doing some event journalism for 8BitX. But now I sure as shit would not have put out as many as I did. Which going back to my point about not being aware of RAW shooting maybe it's a good thing I didn't know about it. I would have ended up "saving" more photos and posting them.

Going back to my start of concert photography life has been an interesting thing. There's definitiely some bits here that I would carry forward for some time such as using a zoom lens for my "concert portrait" style. I would also eventually adapt my editing style to where it would be really close to what I saw on stage. Which is pretty close to what you see here.

Funny how a bit of a last minute trip would put me on this path.

Ten Years of Adventuring: Descendants of Erdrick