The music! Wow. Almost all of the bands there definitely 'brought it'...'it' being whatever it is that makes an audience member think; "Wow, this band/singer definitely wants to be on this stage, and loves performing!" A couple didn't really seem to so much, but I won't name names (it could have been jet-lag)
Some of them really liked the camera too. The guys from Alesana, Story of The Year...wow. Thanks for the poses. Young Guns were just plain fun. All Time Low was tricky (singer loves his mic and lead guitarist just constantly RUNS around the stage. Haha.
Yellowcard were definitely the stand out for me. Definitely going to get their music now. Love that they have a violinist in the band. So rare!.
Down to the actual 'shooting environment'.
It was set up fairly similarly to the recent Youth Alive event (both were at Riverstage)
Nice deep photo pit, of course the stage is the same height/location. The only reall difference is that there were two stages, a temporary one was just to the side of the main stage. One band would play on the big stage, then after their set the smaller stage would start up, then back again.
Was pretty good - meant there was rarely any 'dead time' between acts. The audience was like a slow moving wave between the two stages.
Weather was just about perfect. Warm, not a cloud in the sky, nice glaring sun...hehe. I managed to only get slightly sunburnt, probably becauseI didn't venture out into the crowd very much. The mob I was shooting for didn't require crowd shots so I didn't take many. I hate bothering people.
Turned a bit cool in the evening but I didn't care - I warmed up during my dash over the Goodwill Bridge to the Convention Centre Southbank for Alice Cooper.
Everyone was lovely and clean when I showed up at 10:30am. By midday we all reeked.
Bands, security, shooters, crowd especially. I think that's when everyone really started getting into it - when they all realised "Heck, my makeup is ruined anyway - might as well DANCE!" The general mood gets more fun then. Everyone picks up on a carefree, fun, happy crowd.
I'll be honest...I took too much equipment.
Speedlight - unnecessary. The few crowd shots I did were during the daylight - and couldn't use the flash for anything on stage.
50mm 1.4 - never took it out of my bag. I'm so used to shooting at places like the HiFi - with poor lighting, that I take it everywhere 'just in case' Well the lights at SWCR were enough that it wasn't required, and the 50mm focal length was covered by my 24-70 - which is the lens I used most.
Batteries - not that they're heavy....but I brought three and only used two.
D90 - this was my back-up body. Doesn't weight much without a battery in it, but I didn't need to bring it anyway. In hindsight.
Basically it was just D700, 24-70 f2.8 and 70-200 f2.8 and my new 32GB CF card all night. Could have taken the smaller LowePro afterall! Probably better to be prepared though. I am definitely a 'Boy Scout Photographer' Prepared for anything... tiny roll-on sunscreen, 2 Snickers bars, iPod, Sharpie... everything but the kitchen sink.
I recall one funny incident. I was desperate for some water, so I went to scoop some out of the big bins of water the security guys use for the crowd. One guy saw me, stopped me, and went and got me an actual sealed bottle of CHILLED water from the crew's stash. So grateful to him.
Well taht's about it for now, I have a pile of editing awaiting my attention.
Young Guns
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