Thursday, November 4th, I headed up to the Hollywood PArk racetrack to catch up with one of my favorite bands and photo subjects: Steel Pulse. I have shot Steel Pulse many times over the last few years and they are by far one of the best bands to shoot. I might be a little biased here since I have had the honor of meeting the band and I get more than the “first three” when shooting.
The real lesson here is that I earned the right to shoot the whole show by my behavior the first few times I shot the band and more importantly my behavior at other concert shoots. The Steel pulse tour manager asked me to follow a set of rules. I did and the results were that they saw some great images and realized that if they let me do my thing, I would stay out of the way and everyone ends up happy.
The Hollywood Park show was no exception. I was given all access but asked to follow a couple of rules, the biggest one was to stay out of the middle of the photo pit…. no problem.
The biggest surprise of the night for me what that Amlak was now set up on the other side of the stage from where he was on previous tours. Now while his placement gave him a little more viability to the audience, he became tougher to shoot because the head of his bass would get hidden when he turned to his left. This was all about timing…. waiting for when he turned back towards the right…
David is always a blast to photograph. After so many shows, i have begun to wait for the moments that I know are going to happen… and they always do…
Selwyn Brown is one of the hardest members of the band to capture since he hangs out behind that double keyboard stack. Now there are times when he does take center stage and knowing that makes capturing him out from behind the keys a matter of timing.
All in all, it was a great show and I eagerly look forward to 2011 when I hope to see Steel Pulse visit Southern California again. There is one thing that I hope you all do. Go here http://www.holdon4haiti.org/spnewletter1.html and read what is going on in Haiti, then head to http://www.holdon4haiti.org/buy.html and donate some money and get a great new song.
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