Saturday, August 21, 2010

Vexfest part 2

This is a continuation of yesterdays post. The last band I photographed was called Jordan Depaul and the Reputations. I photographed this band a lot. I was feeling more comfortable photographing by this point and I really got into the music and wanted to stay and keep photographing. The whole group had so much emotion that I had a lot of images that worked well. The biggest problem I had was shooting around the poles which ruined quite a few shots and the sun was going down behind the band a slight amount giving a little back lighting. 

I was very happy with this shot. I had tried to nail this shot several times throughout the set with out luck and the last one I tried I finally got it. I think it might have been improved by have the drummer included but he was further back and it might have unbalance the image. I did have to crop this image though so I did not nail it perfectly. I had also gotten another photographer on the left side of the image shooting toward me. I think the line works very well and leads you through the image nicely.


The lead singer was full of emotion while singing. I thought these two images were the best composed though. The first image has a great depth of field leaving only the singer as an important subject. The second image also has a good depth of field but not as good. I think the second image is great because of the tilt to the image. it really gives you a feeling of looking up at the singer.


The bass player was not as emotional while performing. He reminded me of Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones, he may not be screaming and making faces but you can see in his face that he loves what he is doing. I think these images work well because they show that. He is focused on playing and it shows that he is enjoying himself.



This guitarist was all over the place. He was moving and having fun and I had fun trying to get interesting shots of him as he moved around. He was very animated. I think if I had a tripod with me or even a monopod I might have been able to get a few great action shots of him playing. The biggest problem I had with photographing him was he was very close to a pole which kept getting in the way. 


The other guitarist was also very animated. He was smiling a lot and made a great subject. He was the hardest to photograph because the poles blocked me from shooting across the stage and equipment boxes made it hard to get a good view from the side he was on. I am happy with both images. The composition in the top image works great and the bottom image just needs that pole cropped out to improve greatly.


The drummer was almost as hard to shoot because of the equipment on stage was blocking a lot and the other members were moving in front of him often. I managed to get a few shots around the members and I shot a lot from the sides of the stage. I wish I would have caught the second image a split second earlier to catch the drumstick though. The microphone also takes a lot away from the image. The first image i though would be horrible when I took it because I couldn't shoot over the speaker enough but I think it worked better that way. It is far enough out of focus that it is barely recognizable but provides a good weight and framing to the image.

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. - Scott Adams

2 comments:

  1. Great shots Grant! I hope the band gets a chance to use some of these.

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  2. I am glad you enjoy the images and always welcome comments and criticisms. I have not tried contacting the band about the images. I mostly just shot them for the experience. I learned so much from just trying it.

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