On Friday night, the annual Channel 933 Summer Kick Off concert was held at Sleep Train Amphitheatre in Chula Vista. I was there covering the show. There are plusses and minuses to these type of shows. On the plus side, you get to shoot a lot. The lineup on Friday night was as follows:
- Icona Pop
- Jessica Sanchez
- Emeli Sande
- Olly Murs
- Cher Llyod
- The Wanted
- Trey Songz
- Demi Lovato
- Ne-Yo
- Zedd
That’s a lot of shooting and even with the 2 song limit for most acts, there was plenty of shooting time. And since there are so many acts, there is very little sitting around, a nice bonus.
On the negative side, the show started early which meant that for most of the starting acts there was no real stage lighting which can lead to pretty drab images. Without some contrast and pop, everything can look a little flat.
The other downside is that just about every act had a different set of rules. Some were the difference between 2 songs and 3 songs and another was from the soundboard. Some of these rules were only decided on right before showtime. It’s not a big deal, but it does keep the tension running higher than it should.
On the technical side, I used the Nikon D4 and D700 for most of the pit shooting and the Nikon D5200 with the 300mm f/4 for the soundboard stuff. Worked like a charm.
I consider myself a professional concert photographer. I get hired to shoot events, I have written the top rated book on concert photography, I teach about concert photography at Photoshop World and I have a concert photography training video on Kelby training. One of the things I do is try to find the shots hat other people took at the same event as me. I am always interested in what they saw, what they captured and what I missed. It is especially interesting when the photographer has more access than I do. So here is the link to the galleries on the Chanel 933 site. http://www.channel933.com/photos/main/ Just look for Summer Kick Off galleries. Most have a combination of meet and greet and live images.
Here are a few select images from the show.
I do a lot of sports-related photography and I do the same thing after a game–go look at what the wire guys or staff photographers shot of the same game and then tuck that info away in my head on where I might be able to position myself better or use a different lens the next time around. Great advice and great photos.