Hi2u!

[Analogy]

I’m fairly new to still photography, but I’ve been shooting video as my job for years so I figured I’d see what it was like on the other side of the fence. Kind of go back to fundamentals. I got a 30D in December and I’m slooowly working to build my lens kit, starting with a very old 35-80mm zoom my friend gave me for free and a 100-400 L zoom he was getting rid of. Next on the list: 10-22mm zoom. I loooove the wide angle look.

Anyway, I had a picture lying around that worked for the V-Day theme and Elsinore came back and told me to join this forum, so I did. =D

You can check out my picasa gallery here: http://picasaweb.google.com/stephan.ahonen/

I’ve mostly shot local rock bands that my band was playing with, but you can see my “art” shots in the album appropriately labelled “Art”. Funny how that works. In the “DEMO Acoustic Show” album I let my bass player use my camera a bit and he got a photo of my playing a snare drum. So that’s what I look like. =D

[Saldo1981]

Nice photos. I haven’t tried to shoot any bands yet, come to think of it I don’t know if I could bring my camera into any of the venues around here. I added you to my favorites as I use the screen saver and set to pull photos from my favorites because it’s always fun to see random photos.

[Analogy]

Generally, if you don’t actually see a sign saying no photographs or video, you’re all good. To be safe I generally try to ask the band’s permission and offer them copies of the photos and I haven’t had anyone turn me down. A few bands have even used my photos for their Myspace pages and web sites.

[Saldo1981]

I’ll have to check the venues and if it’s allowed I will have to get in the mindset of photography not how many jack on the rocks I can drink before I can’t walk. I just don’t want to risk the camera like that.

[Analogy]

Ha. I don’t mind taking photos while I have one or two in me. This photo here was taken after about two Vodka Sevens. I wouldn’t try doing much handheld though. It’s not so much that I’d drop the camera (I got a hand strap for it), but that the shots would come out all shaky. These venues don’t give you much light to work with at all.

[staplermofo]

Holy crap, you guys do stuff sober? Doesn’t it make your heads hurt?

/hasn’t been sober since the rehersal for his kindergarten graduation

[Analogy]

I’m the guy who’s more likely to be the designated driver. I really don’t like the feeling of being drunk, and there’s not much alcoholic that I like the taste of anyway. So I take photos instead. =D

[Elsinore]

Sorry I missed this thread and your other one earlier–Welcome Aboard 🙂 What kind of music do you play? Band/live music photography is definitely not my forte, so anyone who can pull that off has my admiration. And wow, 100-400L? Is it just crazy awesome??

[Analogy]

Sorry I missed this thread and your other one earlier–Welcome Aboard 🙂 What kind of music do you play? Band/live music photography is definitely not my forte, so anyone who can pull that off has my admiration. And wow, 100-400L? Is it just crazy awesome??

Kind of an alternative/indie rock sort of thing… We have a web site here.

100-400L is crazy awesome indeed, if you have enough light. It’s not as fast as I’d like (f/4.5-5.6) for these usually badly-lit musical venues. Some are better than others, but I’m pretty much always having to go all the way up to 3200 ISO, and my shutter is never as quick as I’d like it to be. I’ve had to learn to pick just the right moment when the performer freezes a little bit to hit the shutter. In really dim venues I won’t even bother zooming past 100mm because I can’t afford the light loss from zooming in. In retrospect I probably should have gotten a 70-200 f/2.8 and a doubler. Oh well. For now I’m focusing on expanding my wide angle capabilities and getting some fast primes in the 35-80mm range.

I just got back from playing a gig (which was why I couldn’t enter this week’s farktography contest until a few hours after it went green, boooo), I’ve got photos of the other bands up here. 34 keepers out of 154 shots, which is pretty typical… Most of the rejects are from shooting several shots of the same composition and only keeping the best in the series. As I’ve gained experience I’ve had to reject fewer and fewer shots due to camera shake or subject movement, mostly due to better judgement of how much movement will end up being acceptable at whatever shutter speed I’m at.

[Analogy]

A little more on getting into venues with your camera… Last night I went to one of the biggest clubs in town with my camera to get some shots. This venue has a no-camera policy, unlike most of the venues I’ve been to. What I did was show up on a night that a performer I’d previously shot was performing. I knew that this guy appreciated my photos the last time I shot him, so I asked him to get me on the guest list in exchange for more photos, particularly photos of him performing in a much larger venue. When I showed up at the venue I told the bouncer I was there shooting promotional photos for that performer and pointed to my name on the guest list. I’m in!

Having a big professional-looking camera in your hand, preferably with a hefty lens is a good Jedi Mind Trick in any situation where you want to gain access to a lightly secured area, i.e. any area where credentials aren’t required or are loosely enforced, but are still guarded. It’s always worth a try, especially since the worst they can really do is not let you in.

[powerplantgirl]

Yeah, I used to get into concerts for free that way, Analogy.
My friend WAS a photographer for a magazine so I always was his “assistant” on these shoots. We got to stand inbetween security and the stage for some amazing concerts. I had no idea what I was doing, so I just held various camera stuff in my hands and enjoyed the show.
When he couldn’t go, I took his camera and a copy of his magazine and pretended to know what the hell I was doing. “No, I don’t write the articles, I just take the pics.” Every time I would get in. The pics came out like crap too since I was more interested in seeing the band then actually getting good pics. Even got on some buses…
Ah wasted youth. I probably could’ve learned something from that instead of just wasting it…

[swampa]

I’m going to have to try that approach in the future! Now to make friends with a music photographer 😛

I have been shooting from just behind the mosh pit or up in the stands for most of the concerts I have been too recently (for concerts where they say no cameras, I find cargo shorts provide enough pockets to hide the body and a few lenses :P)

[monkeybort]

heh, crotchal region.

[Analogy]

The only concert pics I’ve ever taken was at a Heart concert way back in about 1979. I smuggled a kodak instamatic in my crotchal region. 😯

I take it tight pants weren’t the fashion at the time? Or do you mean a more… internal crotchal region. 😯

[Elsinore]

ROFLMAO “crotchal region” is my new favorite phrase 😆

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