It’s no secret that I am a dead head or at least used to be when the Grateful Dead were playing. Since the death of Jerry Garcia, the remaining members of the Grateful Dead have continued to play and tour both together and solo. Last week, I went up to the Belly Up Tavern to check out Mickey Hart and his current band as they stopped here on their current tour. As a photographer, this band and venue makes for a difficult shoot. There are a lot of band members, a lot of gear on stage, no photo pit, low lighting and it seemed not much thought to the visual experience of the crowd.

Still, by positioning myself close to the soundboard, I was able to shoot over the crowd and could capture Mickey  and some of the percussion instruments he plays. Thats when I started to notice a bunch of other photographers in the crowd doing their best to drive the paying concert goers crazy. Holding their cameras overhead and generally being annoying. But thats another blog post.

Since I was already at the soundboard, I thought it might be a cool shot. I really liked the way this came out and am glad I took the time to make it. The rest of the three songs were spent looking for new angles which was tough. As for the three song rule, I’m good with that, so I don’t need security consistently tapping me on the shoulder telling me that I had to stop after three songs…. during the first song. I follow the rules.

All photos taken with the D4 and the D5200 with the 70-200mm f/2.8 and the 50mm f/1.8