When Is Familiarity Important? Three Part Series - Part TWO

Concert photography is like gambling in a casino - the odds are mostly against you. However, there are those times that if you know the game well enough and see an opportunity to come up and have the nerve to follow through - the payoff is huge.

My favorite band to shoot is Roger Clyne and The Peacemakers. Local act gone national, great rock-n-roll and it's always a good time. I've seen RCPM tons of time but I have just started photographing them seriously.

Although I've seem them a lot it wasn't until I saw them as a photographer did I realize how hard this band was to photograph. With every shoot I started to realize how the stage presence and gestures were dictated by the song or tempo. Roger has a great stage presence and is very energetic (someone commented on a photo of mine and said it was trying to photograph a moth in a bright light.) After a while and after watching and after missing shots - it all clicks. Ok here comes the song (Mekong) ok he's probably going to do this...ok here's this song (Counterclockwise) I should be positioned over here a little.  Believe me it makes getting shots like this one (taken on 11/21 in Tempe, AZ) a little easier. Going back to the initial gambling analogy - you're able to stack the deck in your favor a little.

I've never shot soccer before - let alone kids soccer (or kids for that matter.) I was bored one day and I wanted to take photos and I ended up in Snedigar Park in Chandler, AZ. It was hot that day and I decided on setting up in a corner under a tree with a telephoto lens. (Truth be told I never use my telephoto lense - I don't know why.) After reviewing my action shots which were good - not great I saw this photo. A picture of a bunch of kids waiting for play to start. 7, 8 and 9 all in a row. That's what makes the shot. If I was little more familiar with kids soccer or more specifically I may have shot a great action photo - but this is what I came away with. A numeric composition.

Next post will deal with something that I briefly familiarized myself with a left with making a great photograph.