Friday night I photographed Warrant and Skid Row in concert. Pretty good lighting, intimate venue but no photo pit. Sounds pretty standard… What made this a really fun shoot for me was that I got to shoot with my buddy Scott Diussa for the first time…. Well, the first time at a show we didn’t control. Know I know some of you are wondering exactly what the hell I am talking about.
Let me explain…
Scott and I teach the Concert photography pre conference workshop at Photoshop World. We have both been shooting concerts for a long time but have never been in the photo pit at the same time. When Scott Kelby put the Concert class on the Photoshop World workshop schedule, he introduced us and thought it would make a great match. He was right. It turns out that Scott Diussa and I are a few days apart in age, have very similar shooting styles and while out musical taste is not identical we both love shooting live shows. We spent hours on the phone before our first class and put together a program that we are really proud of. It is something that you just can’t get anywhere else. We spend a few hours in the class room going over setting, photo credentials, and photo pit etiquette, then do a live shoot with a band, and go over how to photograph each member. Then it’s back in the class room for some post production and workflow stuff.
One big difference between us is that Scott plays guitar and I don’t. But that usually means I get to photograph him playing at some point.
We have taught this workshop six times and the feedback has always been fantastic. Honestly, it is just nothing you will anywhere else. Scott Diussa and I have even turned parts of the class into a Kelby Training class that you can find on Here. And after all that, we had never shared a photo pit until Friday night.
Scott works for Nikon Professional Service and was in San Diego as part of the instructor team that teaches the Nikon School Multimedia class. More on that in a later post. So when Scott told me he was going to be here, I immediately started to look for a show we could shoot. It turned out that Warrant and Skid Row were playing that night. After quite a few emails and requests and favors from friends (Huge thanks to Allen) we were finally approved to shoot the first 3 songs, no flash of each band.
As for gear, We both were shooting the Nikon D4 with the 24-70mm f/2.8 and the 70-200mmf/2.8 lens combo. I also had a Nikon D700 and a 16mm f/2.8 lens which got some use during Warrant but none during Skid Row.
So one of the best parts for me was to see what Scott captured. I got him to send over a couple of the shots.
I totally missed these shots. I didn’t get one closeup of this guitar, and checkout that ring!!
Here are the rest of my Warrant Photos
After the first three songs from Warrant, we went out and grabbed a quick bite to eat. One of the real bonuses of a show in a casino with a sports bar downstairs. It was great to catch up with Scott but the funniest moment was when a guy walked up to the table, saw all the Nikon camera gear and asked which Canon he should upgrade to. We just looked at him like he had and extra eye or something. Not the question we were expecting.
Back at the venue for Skid Row and e could immediately see that the crowd had increased and that the front of the stage access for Warrant was gone. Hey, we just roll with the punches.
All in all, it was a really fun night. One of the more enjoyable evenings out.
Here are the rest of the Skid Row shots.
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