Gig Photography

I've been on here for a while but I've not seen much about gig photography. I love to shoot gigs but as I'm not a pro on the circuit I find it very difficult to get photo-pit passes. I play in a small punk band so I always shoot the other bands we play with but it's mainly limited to small venues with no stage. anyways, I'm always interested in how people shoot, their techniques and how they handle their cameras in different (often difficult) situations...

sometimes I take photos between the songs...

Here's one from the other night to start the ball rolling:

Band: The Front Bottoms
Venue: Hare & Hounds, Birmingham (small room)
Camera: Canon 5Diii
Lens: 28mm 1.8 / 50mm 1.4
1600 iso
f2
1/125
 

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great gig photos lewisshermer. i especially like how you captured the different emotions. i also would love to see more behind the scenes or some details.

i also take music related photos at small venues. i don´t care so much about gear (i am using a canon 500d, ef 50/f1.8 II, tokina 11-16/f2.8 and a diana f+), so i often have to keep the photos dark, noisy or playing with blur.
if you are interested you can take a look at a small selection of my photos via flickr, flickrriver
http://www.flickriver.com/photos/47999830@N05/sets/72157624788765726/
 
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I started with a 500D about 3 years ago. that and the kit 18-55 got me some of my favourite pictures, so yeah it's not about the gear. It's nice that in a small venue you can often get away with a bit of flash, especially if you know the bands or you've chatted to them before hand. If they know they're getting a free bunch of photos they're not going to be too pissed at you for shoving a camera in their faces to get good shots.

also, here's a point... when people have been shooting my bands, it's never bothered me if they've used flash. I don't think I've ever actually noticed. but then having seen flashes going off all day every day for the best part of 15 years, I don't really see them at all now. weird.
 
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Just checked out you guys pictures, good work everyone!

I've always thought it'd be great to have a proper website dedicated to band photography. Like so people can sign up, have an account and upload their band pictures. Then people could search for bands/venues/dates and all that shizzle. photographers could sell their work (or give it away for free), bands have easy access to images of themselves and people could order prints and posters of specific shots. who do I get in touch with to get that sorted? I'm no web designer... :(
 
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