FUSE-IN, Detroits Electronic Movement Festival Concert -10 photos, plus link

During Memorial Day weekend, I was one of the official FUSE-In photographers. There was a team of five photographers for the weekend, with 3 of us shooting all 3 days. It was a busy 4 days with the festival itself running from Noon till Mdnight- Sat, Sun, and Monday, along with events at other clubs on Fri, Sat, and Sunday. It was sensory overload, and a photographers paradise at the same time.

Below are just a few pictures that I thought represented the weekend well. There are over 620 shots from the weekend that I have on my site in 7 galleries. All EXIF data is on my site if you are interested.

All the events can be viewed here http://www.ekreating.c​om/gallery/index.php?g​roupid=1


Junkie XL- performing @ Blue, DJ and Producer

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A nice variety of good shots make it look interesting

Nice images. Were these performances on a stage? Were you allowed free access to stage/front row/backstage? Were you allowed flash? Flash sucks, of course, but sometimes there is simply no choice, sigh. Did you use a monopod? How was the stage lighting? Mostly curious as I do a lot of Live Performance work but have done very little "festival" shooting. I will be spending three days shooting at Live Oak Music Festival over Father's Day weekend in Santa Barbara, California.

Hey Eric, are you from around Michigan?
I’m purposing a POTN meeting at the races August 28th. Details here:
Michigan, Ohio, Sarnia, Ontario Race weekend.
Hope you can make it!

Nice shots1

The dancing girl photo is fantastic, love the grey smoky tint to the background!

Thanks for the feedback. Yes these performers were on stages. There was 5 stages in all with each of them having there own vibe, light setup, etc. The main stage was an ampitheater that had a capacity around 30 thousand, plus and undergound stage that was very packed also. Here is an aerial shot of the entire area.

http://www.claytonstud​io.com/Images/HrtPlzaA​erial2.gif

Yes I had a full access media pass, since I was working for the Promotions com[any. I got to shoot from on stage, behind stage, and anywhere I wanted. but soem acts we had to stay behind a white line on stage. There was some limited shooting for the headlining acts, that limited phototography for the first 3 songs, and 2 artists that would not allow any photographs or video .

I was allowed to use flash, but only used it about 40% of the time, since I wanted to capture ambient light and the stage lighting. It was pretty dark in some area and had to use flash for the close up people shots. I think i had over 3000 actuations for the weekend. Some shots were a total loss, because I moved from one stage to another every 20-30 minutes and forgot to change ISO and other settings. It was allot of tiral and error but thats the beauty of digital. No monopod was used, but I did have the camera supported on speakers, railing when I could, but limited.


I am guessing that there was maybe 20 other photographers with media credentials plus 5-10 viedographers. For the main acts, it was busy on stage, and I got in took 5-10 shots and left.

The shots at the club Bleu and the Works, are really tough lighting, it is dark and very little ambient light.

I did not use a monopod at all, I used all three lenses I had and carried them in sling bag across my body. It is not made for photography, but works well for wallking around and storing 2 lenses and 2 extra batteries. Since I had mu all access pass, I was able to put my backpack with everything in it, in a room where all the artists, DJ's, and a few other photographers stored the gear. There was so much technical gear in this room, it was heavily guarded, since many of the DJ's brought in thier record cases with their entire set, own turntables, effects boxes, and if this was lost, the performance was ruined.


If you have a few minutes take alook at my site and you will see the full stage setups and get a sense of the festival atmoshphere.

http://www.ekreating.c​om/gallery/index.php?g​roupid=1

I hope that helps.

I took a quick pass through your website. I don't think the images here do justice to your total work, which is clearly excellent. Wish I had some suggestions or tips to share, but I think you are well beyond anything useful from me. Love the aerial shot ... makes the place "real", particularly that amphitheater, WOW.

I currently have two threads here, one from a Steve Winwood concert at https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=77599 and one from a Chaka Khan concert https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=77592 both shot at the Chumash Casino Resort. Very different in many ways from FUSE-IN. There are only about 1200 people (I keep meaning to ask how many it seats). Your observation about the differences in what the artists allow in the way of photography is inline with my experience: some want no pictures (although since I work for the casino that hasn't happened to me yet), about half the big names have a three song limit and the other half seem perfectly comfortable without limits. If their lighting people do a good job from the start and they have a good "performance" to go with their music, I can knock out 300+ frames in three songs with about 30 good images and feel like I've done a good job ... as with Chaka Khan as they were top class. On the other hand, Steve Winwood's people were very relaxed, as was he, but while the music was very good, the "show" was flat and my 500+ frames yielded about a dozen good images but without much energy. Certainly having the equipment noted in my .sig is a huge help ... I have found setting the frame rate at 3 fps, targeting something and shooting through the light changes often yields unexpectedly good results ... again the case with Chaka Khan.

I am about to add the 300mm f2.8 IS L USM to my lens set as I think it will be perfect for the head shots from the front row and super for stage width shots from the back on a tripod with the 1.4 TC, but those 'back of the room shots' are very tough under the three songs rule. Of course, since I am the ONLY photographer allowed I'm not sure why they have such a rule at the casino, sigh.