Concert photography...

Concert photography…

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to take photos during a festival concert of Anouk, a famous dutch singer. First of all let me state that the concert was fantastic. As this opportunity was given as a pitch to see witch photographer she wants to take on her club tour next year, I wanted to stand out from my fellow competitors. So I took two Leica M9’s fitted with a Summicron 35mm f2.0 and a Summicron 90mm f2.0. For this occasion, I left my D3 at home as everybody will be using fast DSLR’s. (And besides, I’m exploring the possibilities of converting completely to the M system…)

Summicron 35mm, 1/90 sec f2.0, ISO 640

Also I decided to shoot everything in black and white to make it a complete series of photos that belong together. Much of my competitors use color or a combination of color and black and white. Again, this way I would stand out and besides, I really like the feel it gives.

Summicron 90mm, 1/250 sec, f5.7, ISO 640

Summicron 90mm, 1/60sec, f2.4, ISO 640

There were a few other photographers there using massive lenses, the big DSLR’s and every now and again when I was standing next to them I could hear the machine gun sound of a 9 frames/sec coming through my earplugs. (even when the concert was going). People looked strange at my little cameras and my small lenses. The manager of the band even asked me if I was still shooting film ;-)

Summicron 90mm, 1/90 sec, f2.0, ISO 640

Because I couldn’t go on stage, only stand at the side and in front, I was very happy having the 90mm with me. It made sure I could come in close enough. The fact that ( with a M9 combined with a 90mm) I had a lot of space next to the bright framelines in the viewfinder, made it possible to easily see the action coming.

Summicron 90mm, 1/90sec, f3.4, ISO 640

I know that if I would have used my D3, I would have had far more pictures than I have right now. But I also know that it would have been a lot of the same pictures, it would have been an immense extra work sorting them, it probably would have been harder to stand out but most of all, I wouldn’t have had so much fun taking them. My quest to learn how to control this camera, understand it, work with it and love it, is still going on… It’ll probably take me longer than I expected to fully master it, but I’m allready getting there. Each time I’m one step closer.