Take them there

This weekend I got a chance to shoot the Orange County Music Awards. This was going to be a dark venue with a lot of other photographers. So how do you decide how to shoot a situation like this. Be different. There were about a dozen photographers at the foot of the stage, and while I did get some shoots there I spent most of my time else where. If we were shooting big name stars people would want tight head shoots of the artist taken from the front. Even then there was going to be a lot of the same kind of picture with the only difference being who's camera it came out of. I went for a different look. I wanted to show what it was like to be there. By talking with the stage hands and bands I was able to get some shoots on stage. And by not taking to anyone I was able to get a shot or two from the cat walk. I had a full load of gear with me. Two camera bodies, Nikon D300 (amazing in low light) and a D200. Two SB-800 flashes set to remote to use for band shoots off stage. For lenses I had a 50mm F/1.4 for speed in the low light. I had a 70-200mm F/2.8 for tight shoots of people on stage. I had a Sigma 8mm fisheye and a Sigma 10-20mm ultra wide for area and setting shoots. And just to round things out I had a Nikon 18-200mm VR to be able to work faster by having a zoom. I almost always shoot with two camera bodies to have lens options without having to stop and reach in the bag to get the right lens for a given situation. For this picture I got the blessing to hide behind the drummer during the song. Tip, if you ask toward the end everyone is starting to relax and they have seen you be careful to stay out of the way and act professional your more likely to get them to say yes. Ask right before the curtain goes up when everyone is running around like a chicken with their head cut off and you will get a no. I used the 180 degree fisheye to take in the whole stage. I pulled the hue just a bit red in iphoto as there were a lot of blue stage lights and i wanted the purple contrast.