Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/03/15

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Subject: [Leica] Re: concert shooting (was Leica Camera-Handling)
From: "Dave Fisher" <tekapo@golden.net>
Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2000 10:00:53 -0500

> From: Jeremy Kime <jeremy.kime@bbc.co.uk>
> Subject: RE: [Leica] RE: Leica Camera-Handling
>
> Jeff,
> Whilst I would love to be close enough for a point and shoot to give me
> interesting photos, the reality is that they won't unless you can get up
to
> that front rail, as I'm sure you know.

Without a flash, and most concerts will not allow them, you need to get very
close to the stage. I am not a big guy, so I have had to use social skills
to elbow my way to the front and get complete strangers to cover for me. I
tend to befriend girls, they're less aggro about my presence, and trade my
business card for their addresses and a promise of a photo for their
assistance. You'll be quite surprised how accomodating they can be with this
sort of deal. I've shot over 400 concerts and probably close to a thousand
bands/artists (a small handful of my concert photos, nearly all of them shot
from the audience in a clandestine nature with an old Nikon snuck past
security, is on my website, if anyone's interested.) I don't take too many
concert shots any more, it gets too exhausting waiting up to five hours in
impatient and hostile crowds for bands to take the stage after 2 am, then
having them hit the stage with nothing but backlighting, and then getting
kicked in the head by crowd surfers. It's happened more times than I care to
think about. As an aside, I should mention that my decision to buy a
rangefinder was made at a John Cale concert 5-6 years ago at a small club
where he was playing solo accompanied by his piano. I was up close to him,
and the Nikon mirror was making a clearly audible noise that Cale could
hear, and I think it pissed him off. That nailed it for me.
- ------------------------------------------------
DGF PHOTOGRAPHY
http://home.golden.net/~tekapo