Switchfoot @ SDSU 2014
Andrew Shirley
Andrew Shirley
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Nov, 2014Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken at a Switchfoot concert in an outdoor venue at San Diego State University. It was a hometown show, both for the band and myself, for which I traveled 8 hours from out of state. I am an amateur photographer and bands are my favorite subject. For this event, I had been lucky enough to get a front row seat at almost the last minute.Time
It was a cool and overcast November afternoon when the doors opened for the concert. During the opening acts there was some heavy rainfall, but for the headliner, it was almost perfect. This particular photo was taken on November 1st, 2014 at 9:36 PM.Lighting
This was my first outdoor concert and it was at night. The week before making the trip, I researched what types of settings to use with my particular camera. I played around with my settings a lot as I shot this concert. The stage lighting changed pretty fast at times and when the back red spotlights combined with the forward bright spots, I found the effect gave Mr. Shirley this fantastic halo and I had to capture it.Equipment
This photo was shot on a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5. The flash was off. No other equipment was used.Inspiration
I love taking concert photos. In fact, the only reason I attend concerts is to get a chance to capture the energy and passion of music artists as they play live for the audience. It's a moment to capture something that cannot be heard just on an album, but can be seen. Every artist and band member has a different way they express their love for music and performing. To capture even just a little of this emotion is rewarding.Editing
The only post-processing I did on this photo was to re-size and put a watermark on it.In my camera bag
I don't carry much in my bag. In fact, for this concert, I had my camera out and my pockets carried extra memory cards and batteries. Since this concert, I bought a small camera bag, but the contents are the same, just a little easier to reach.Feedback
The best tips I can give from my experience in shooting concerts as an amateur are: Take a lot of photos. Burst shooting is your friend. Research your camera and venue. Find people who have given advice for shooting in similar places with the same or similar camera. Play around with your settings from beginning to end. You won't always know what the result is going to be until you get back to a computer to look at the photos at a larger size. Be prepared. Look around the stage and try to pick out visuals that you like or think will be an interesting composition. Get a memory card with the fastest write speed your camera can handle.
