Tonight I shot my first concert.
It took a lot of getting used to and getting my settings right when I first started shooting to be comfortable in the photo pit. I am pleased with the photos so far, as I am sitting here going through deleting, editing and sorting.
I got to the venue, checked in, so to say, at will call and then made my way to the front and waited for the opening act, which was a band called Strange Babes. Admittedly, the whole first song I was nervous and because of that it led to me fumbling around with the wrong settings and it took a minute to get them where they needed to be. One big thing was that I had to be okay with the bad pictures and move on to get the next one, not stare at my camera and be bummed about one that the lighting flooded the screen (the lighting moves around and changes so much that I could take the same shot literally less than a second apart and have a totally different shot). To keep moving on and to keep getting usable shots, I would only glance at the image display and make sure it looked decent enough (lighting and composure of the shot) and not worry about much else right then and there. It was fast paced, as I was only allowed to photograph the first three songs.
I was more ready for the second act, White Sea, as I wasn't nervous about my settings anymore and had more of a grip what was going on. I moved around and got different shots, I got in and I got out. After I was out of the pit I stood off to the side and clicked through my pictures to see how I was doing. Not too bad, but I could do better.
While waiting for The Naked and Famous to come on, the two other photographers that were there for the night came and talked to me and made acquaintance. (I handed out my business card.) Then when The Naked and Famous did come on, I was the most at ease I had been all night comfort wise and was up to the challenge of getting good shots.
Before the show started I was talking to one of the security guards and asked him about The Social, since I will be shooting there Thursday night. He told me how to get there from where I was and after The Naked and Famous I walked over and looked around. It's a much smaller venue and will be a different kind of shoot. I'm up for the challenge.