Holy moly this was a busy month overall. I had a week with 8 gigs, 2 af them 10 hour jobs, compressed into 7 days. Not complaining, all great gigs and being very busy as a freelancer is a luxury these days - but there is something weird in the universe where one week will attract a landslide of bookings and the next week will have none! I am so grateful for the variety of events and concerts I get to work. September was everything from concerts to outdoor sound system parties to conferences to Vocal Choir Ensemble performing in a church to ‘Ragnarock’, a brilliant school-concert for 4th to 6th graders. It was also cool to catch Counting Crows, used to listen to them a lot 15-20 years ago, and even though as Adam Duritz said during the show “make no mistake, we are f#cking old!” they can definitely still play and sing.
Finally, I just posted a large photo essay of the Summer tour with The Minds of 99:
…in between all the gigs I had a few wonderful days in a Summer house again with family, weather was great and the ‘Vest Sjælland’ area of Denmark is just so gorgeous and perfect for riding!
If you are new to this series, catch up by reading part 1 and part 2.
The exciting day has finally arrived, you are prepared and ready to arrive at the venue!
Arriving
You have already (in part 1) asked for the schedule for the day and perhaps arranged transport, so you know when and how to arrive. If it’s a tour/festival, often I will jump in the bus with backliner/stage/foh crew or with the band. If it’s a local venue, I will ride my bike :) Regardless, I love arriving as early as possible, I want to see and capture some of the production setup as well as the sound rehearsals. And I just love being around production crew and see them, it is fascinating to me.
Scouting
I spend a lot of time scouting the venue and stage setup, this is going to be my workplace and I don’t want to figure out how to get to the balcony or into the pit during the show. Know all this beforehand, scout it by wandering around the entire venue during setup and rehearsal. Obviously if it is a venue I know I don’t need to figure out how to get around, but the stage layout will still be different with each show.
Stage layout. This is really important - walk around on stage before and during the sound check to figure out where the lights are, the screens, backdrops, cables and figure out where you can be on stage and still be hidden and not in the way. And talk to the production manager, band and crew as well about where to stand on stage during the show. As you walk around the stage, especially talk to the backliner tech crew, they need to work on stage during the show and as a photographer you are basically a liability, foreign element that could really screw things up, so make sure to chat with them and ask them where it’s ok for you to be :) A few tips:
Don’t stand on cables, while a lot of them are pretty solid, it’s just a bad habit
Don’t stand in front of lights, audience will see a nice big silhouette of you
Don’t stand in stage left or right directly where the backliners need to go to and from the artists with guitars etc.
Don’t block the view of the people mixing monitor feed, they need to be able to see the artists.
And definitely never get in the way of the band!
Oh don’t stand highly visible on stage ‘chimping’ the pictures you just made, get in, get your shots, get out of the way if you need to check the pictures and settings. As photographers we probably notice this more than most, but I still so much hate to see a band photographer just standing there visibly ‘chimping’
Yeah, it’s a maze for you to solve and it’s way better to figure all this out before instead of during the show! Stages can be really dark and hazy during the songs, so you really need to learn the layout of everything so you can find your way around blindfolded almost.
Festivals have added challenges in getting around so scouting is extra important. For some reason, no one seems to consider photographers when they design these monster festival stages and especially the area behind and around the stage! Getting from the stage into the pit can be easy, or can involve a long round trip of all the way to the rear of the stage, down the load-in ramp, around trucks, under and over big wires and cables, through a forest etc - so definitely test this during changeover! And during the scouting, say hi to everyone in security and introduce yourself, that way they know who you are during the show.
I love the setup and sound check, it is a great time to check out all the great angles in the venue and also make some cool behind the scenes pictures. Here is an example of a behind the scenes tour photo essay.
And it is vital for checking and adjusting….
Your shooting plan/script!
You made this in part 1 yes? Or maybe you are just making it on the day because you were booked one day or one hour before (it happens!). Regardless, you will make a few last minute checks and adjustments during the sound check, you might discover things you want to change or the band might have decided to change a few things or add a crowd surf or something. This is why I make my plans in Google Sheets, it’s really easy to make notes and changes on my phone during the day.
Ok….then it’s dinner and waiting for doors and showtime and then …
I will save this for part 4 next month. I also feel like I am probably forgetting stuff, so do comment or send me any questions you might have!
Thank you for reading, feel free to share this with anyone, and comment or send me suggestions and questions. See you next month!
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