Concert Photography: Why I like it...

While many photographers shoot a wide range of subjects, myself included, they all have one particular subject that they consider to be their favorite.  Whether is landscapes, weddings, cars, boudoir, etc..., we all tend to gravitate towards a specific subject for one reason for another.  For me, it's concerts.

You never know what you're going to get as far as lighting.  Even if you see the same band over and over, their lighting is never the same.  I'll use a set of images from a Lucky Costello show that I shot at 1904 Music Hall in Jacksonville, Florida, to demonstrate what I mean.  The venue may have crazy lights sitting on the stage, as in this image:

This is Gerry, the guitarist for Lucky Costello.

Other times, or in the case of this show, a few moments later, the lighting will be almost non-existant, as shown in this photo of the drummer:

Adam, the drummer for Lucky Costello

But, just because the lighting isn't crazy and look super-exciting, don't stop shooting.  This photo of Adam is one of my favorites from that show.

And it's not just lighting.  Some venues really like their fog machines and will use them to the point where there's no point in photographing anything because all you're getting is images of fog.  It would be like holding a white sheet in front of your camera and just taking photos of that for an hour.  :(  Other times, though, the fog can produce some cool images, such as this:

Lucky Costello at 1904 Music Hall

The other great thing about shooting concerts is that if the band doesn't move around too much and you find you're getting a lot of repetitive looking images, you can turn around and shoot the crowd.  Lucky Costello is famous for drawing a fun, eclectic crowd.  There will also usually be a few people with LED hula-hoops.

Stephanie watching Taylor hoop

Part of the crowd watching Lucky Costello

I've also learned not to put my camera away until I'm back in my car after the show.  Had I put it away before I left the venue, I would have missed out on this awesome shot of Taylor hooping in the alleyway next to the venue.

Taylor hooping outside

The rest of the photos from this show can be seen here on my site.

These are just a few of the reasons why I love photographing concerts.  What do you love to photograph?  Leave me a comment and let me know.