I guess it makes sense that since collecting CDs and Records were a big part of my teen years, I'd naturally be interested in attending concerts. When photography came into the picture, photographing concerts was the next obvious step for me to take. What could be better than taking the feeling of a show home, so you can look back and remember that one of a kind performance?
Below is Oasis at Virgin Music Festival 2008 in Toronto Canada. Though I didn't get a picture of the moment it happened, an audience member got on the stage and tackled Noel Gallagher, throwing him into one of the monitor speakers, breaking several of his ribs. The concert stopped for a few minutes before he came out a finished playing the show. The rest of the tour was postponed several months.
I was attending the festival alone since none of my friends really cared about music or paying for it. I remember going to Virgin Festival early and strategically picking one of the several stages to stand at with hopes of getting real close to the stage. I got about 3-5 'rows' from the front, though everyone was squeezed together so I was right up in the action. I recall seeing a wave of photographers come in between the security facing the audience and the stage. They all had media passes around their necks and SLR cameras, much like mine. I remember feeling just as interested in them as I was in the band themselves. I was wondering what lenses they were shooting with, cameras, and I took note of where everyone chose to stand, since they weren't restricted like I was.
Below is Against Me! at Virgin Music Festival 2008 in Toronto Canada.
Years later in like 2015 I think, I finally scored an opportunity to be a festival photographer for a media outlet! I'll be posting more about that in later photo bio's since I'm posting chronologically along with how you can easily score an opportunity like this yourself. Now I've shot a whole whack of festivals and a bunch of different shows in Toronto and Chicago.
Below is Shad at Virgin Music Festival 2008 in Toronto Canada
The next post is about a completely different genre of photography that strangely enough started the same weekend as Virgin Festival. Artistic Nudes! Oddly it was also just a week in to beginning college. A very exciting and new time for me.
Below is the Foo Fighters at Virgin Music Festival 2008 in Toronto Canada
Stay tuned for more Photo Bio's in the coming days! More exciting work to come!
This post reminds me of my first concert gig. It was a doom metal concert, I only had a nikon d5000 the kit lens and a speedlight, the club was full of smoke and they only had magenta lights. I am still impressed i got some decent images out that day
Exactly! I only had a kit lens and the cheapo 75-300 f4-5.6 canon ef-s lens. Still got some okay results.