Face~Cover Band: Bruce In The USA

[Noni]

Not Bruce Springsteen...but if you squinted, or had a beer, you'd swear you were listening and seeing Springsteen and the E Street Band.

Bruce In The USA played at a charity event I attended for the 4th. I almost didn't bring my camera; and boy, am I glad I did. Here are some of my more favorite shots from their performance. (Several posts of such...)

Enjoy!

Best-
Noni

[Noni]

More...

Enjoy!
Noni

[Noni]

And Matt, the Springsteen guy.

Enjoy!
Noni

[Noni]

Last one...

Enjoy!
Noni

[Maureen Souza]

He's cuter than Springsteen , IMHO. Nice pics.

[Noni]

Thanks, Mo. And yes, he's a doll. A sweetheart, too; all of them were.

The Charity I support has some serious connections - and until I got right up under the stage, I wasn't at all sure they hadn't pulled off the surprise of the century. ROFL! I got to chat with them afterwards, and man, they are a good group of people. Conditions were sorta hard for a newbie like me - late afternoon sun, big kleig lights with colored filters, a white tent, lots of metal (reflections/flaring) and movement.

Glad you liked them - it was fun challenging myself and really trying to remember all the things I've learned here.

Best-
Noni

[DwightMcCann]

Aha, Noni, these should be in Urban Life! That's where concert/live performance images go. If you had put them there I would have seen them. I don't look in People very often because it is generally babies, people's kids or weddings and I'm simply not very interested!

Now, I know I do Live Performance/Events ... and most of these revolve around bands ... but, I wouldn't know Bruce Springsteen if he bumped into me in the supermarket ... although I do think he lives here. I rarely know any of the groups I shoot before I shoot them, although Willie Nelson and B.B. King were exceptions! I'm not a big music person strange as that may seem.

I think your first two images are a little soft. I think all the images are very similar ... between knees and head. Would be nice to have a headshot of one or two of them. If I am seeing most of an instrument, such as a guitar, I prefer that the end not be cropped off. I would like to have seen one wide angle, sorta get the gist of the whole group. I hope you take this all as constructive criticism. I think if you go back to the Q&A thread and maybe check out Steve Parr's, JF's and Benny's stuff you'll also get a sense of what most of us like. Event photography is very difficult. And everyone wants something different. You don't get to control anything! It's not like family pictures, or weddings or portraits or landscapes or macros or glamour or bird pictures. It is pretty close to Sports, which is another forum I check out very regularly. BTW, what camera and lenses are you using?

[Noni]

Urban life, huh? Well, see? I have no idea what I'm doing.

I think your first two images are a little soft. I think all the images are very similar ... between knees and head. Would be nice to have a headshot of one or two of them. If I am seeing most of an instrument, such as a guitar, I prefer that the end not be cropped off. I would like to have seen one wide angle, sorta get the gist of the whole group. I hope you take this all as constructive criticism. I think if you go back to the Q&A thread and maybe check out Steve Parr's, JF's and Benny's stuff you'll also get a sense of what most of us like. Event photography is very difficult. And everyone wants something different. You don't get to control anything! It's not like family pictures, or weddings or portraits or landscapes or macros or glamour or bird pictures. It is pretty close to Sports, which is another forum I check out very regularly. BTW, what camera and lenses are you using?

Brilliant thoughts, Dwight. Thank you. I see what you're talking about with the similarity...I can do better than that. As for soft, yes, I think I see what you mean in the lady's shot - which, btw, is my least fav of the bunch - but I'm not sure what you mean with the first one. Maybe I'm just blind tonight...

As for a headshot - yes, I agree, but that meant I'd have to be on the stage with them, and that was off-limits. Maybe next time...and there is another event coming up that I can shoot - a live concert - so I'm learning now, and maybe I'll get to show you some improvement after that show.

As for the equipment, as I said, I wasn't going to bring my camera. But then I did, but only the nifty fifty, as I wasn't expecting this opportunity to be present; just some shots of family and friends in the picnic before hand. So it was just the 20D and the nifty fifty...nothing else. All handheld, as well. And I wish I had brought other lenses - I have several, I just didn't expect to be wanting to use them. And yet another lesson learned...

Thanks, Dwight. I really appreciate the critique, and have learned a bunch.

Best-
Noni

[DwightMcCann]

Noni, I shoot head shots from the front row area ... but I certainly sympathize about having only your nifty fifty! No wonder the images are similar ... you were certainly very constrained! So while I think my suggestions apply, there's not much to be done in these circumstances.

[Noni]

Originally Posted by DwightMcCann

Noni, I shoot head shots from the front row area ... but I certainly sympathize about having only your nifty fifty! No wonder the images are similar ... you were certainly very constrained! So while I think my suggestions apply, there's not much to be done in these circumstances.

]

Quick question for you: when shooting head shots from the first row, are you using ambient lighting, or do you use flash, fill or otherwise?

And which lens would you suggest I take? I've got coverage all the way through 400...no wide angle, however; but I figure I can get to the back of the club and 'zoom' in that way...might compress things a bit, but it's worth a shot.

So any suggestions for a club setting? That's next weekend, and I think it will be a fun experiment to see if I can't take your suggestions and improve myself and technique.

Thanks again - I really appreciate all your help.

Best-
Noni

[DwightMcCann]

Noni, Whenever ambient light is adequate it is generally far superior to flash, even fill flash, although I can see the if flash is allowed that it might work well.

I would suggest you take wide angle, normal and telephoto! If you look at the work done by the club photographers here you will see they tend to rely heavily on wide angle, so you may want to consider picking up such a beast ... advice on what to get can be found in the Equipment Talk section.