Photos of Vexfest

I decided that another aspect of photography I wanted to try was concert photography. Luckily Youngstown has a yearly music festival called Vexfest. It was a free show with varying bands and since the festival is not too large, at least during the day, I was able to get pretty close to the stage without many problems.

The first band I photographed was called AGP. This was a band that moved around a lot so I had trouble getting a lot of shots because of poles. Both outdoor stages had lots of poles along the front that were always in the way. I think due to the more rock oriented music the crowd was pushed in tighter for the band so I wasn't able to get as close as I would have liked. Both images I like the cropping. They are close enough to cut everything else out but far enough away to not feel crowded. I definitely feel I captured some of the emotion of the music in these images. The first image would be a lot better if that darn pole was not there and the second image could be cropped a little better to eliminate the speaker stack on the right side of the image.

The second band I photographed was a Hip-hop group called DaKreek. I did not take as many images of these group because I am not a fan of hip-hop. I do know that my photography does not involve listening but it was really hot and I did not come adequately prepared with water so I took the chance to rest during their show. They were very energetic about their music and very into the crowd. I felt that this image captured the interaction they were trying to achieve with the crowd.

The third band I photographed was called Cease to Exist. They were another hard rock band that moved around a lot. I am very happy with the first image. The microphone stands give a nice frame to the image and the emotion is shown in the guitarists face. The second image I am mostly satisfied with. I would be happier if I had the guitarists eyes in the image. It works well but his face being turned about 30 degrees toward me I think would have made the image.

Tomorrow I will continue with the coverage with the final band I photographed.

Perishability in a photograph is important in a picture.  If a photograph looks perishable we say, "Gee, I'm glad I have that moment."  ~John Loengard, "Pictures Under Discussion"