There is something very cool about shooting a great band in front of a hometown crowd. It is especially cool when the show takes place in a smaller theater and the band shows off their latest project. On Tuesday night I photographed Switchfoot, a San Diego based band at the Balboa Theatre where they played their new movie “Fading West” before performing live. The movie is a combination documentary, travel movie surf epic and concert film. Mostly it is a great view into the band and what went into the new movie.

Photographing at the Balboa Theatre is always a challenge. There is no photo pit and the seats go right up to the stage so the photography is usually done from the two aisles. The second issue is that you can’t cross from one side to the other except at the back of the room so it takes a while if you want to change position.

My gear for the shoot was my standard, Nikon D4 with the 70-200mm f/2.8 and the D700 with the 24-70mm f/2.8. I worked from the right side, to the back of the room, up the right side and then reversed the process.

I also trued to shoot a wider than I usually do. It’s all part of working those landscape orientation shots that I usually shy away from. Worked out pretty good this time resulting in my favorite shot of the night.

The movie was awesome, the performance was stellar and the energy of the hometown show was the icing on the photography cake.