"LIVE" Rock Band Shoot Tonight 10/17/09

"Devil You Know"

10/17/09 - Well I'm making final preparations for my LIVE stage shoot tonight for my clients "Devil You Know" who are one of New Jersey's hottest cover rock bands and are presently on their "Ripped & Hammered Tour" playing in NJ-NY-CT. Preparing for a shoot in front of a live audience can be tricky and you'll want to have a game plan before you go in so you don't look like your lost before you even get started. Most people who don't shoot for a living have no idea how much goes into an ON LOCATION photo shoot but most of your planning will take place on the fly once you arrive at the venue and see what actual space provides you with so you can get your creative juices flowing. Shooting a job like this can be very exciting even for a seasoned veteran and forces you to be at the top of your game come show time.

I'll be trying some innovative off camera lighting techniques with them tonight utilizing some specialty lenses.

Gear / Lenses I'll be Packing:

• Nikon 10.5mm f/2.8 Fish Eye
• Lens Baby 3G

Along with my favorite fast low light lenses:

• The mighty Nikon 50mm f/1.8 Prime
• Tamron Di II XR 17-50mm f/2.8 Wide Angle
• Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Di XR 1:1 Macro Prime
• I might even try some shots with my walk around Nikon 18-200mm VR from a distance

* Lighting & Fill will consist of (2) Nikon SB-900's and (1) SB-600 shot off camera utilizing Pocket Wizard Plus II's at various angles around the stage and maybe one behind the band for some silhouette shots too. The SB-600 will have a HONL Photo 1/4" Speed Grid attached for concentrated lighting & I'll use one SB-900 with a HONL 5" Speed Snoot & the other SB-900 maybe a small 'Lumiquest' soft box with  both SB-900's with HONL Color Effects filters attached (1 Red - 1 Green) to match the stage lighting and throw some color casting into the mix off the instruments. It's always good to have a PLAN of attack before you head out to a live shoot like this so I go through a half dozen cocktail napkins with chicken scratch & diagrams on them so i have a basic idea of what i want to do once I get to the venue. Preparing for a shoot like this is half the battle and if you have a battle plan drawn it makes life a lot easier but 9 times out of 10 things change once you get there and find out what the area you'll be shooting in will throw you like mirrors & reflective material around the stage, usually very DARK walls with little reflective value, tables & chairs in the way, crap hanging form the ceiling and the list goes on. But at least if you go into the job with a IDEA of what you want to do then you'll go home with more hair in your head rather then pulling it all out 5 min. before show time LOL

OK My Battle Plan is written, Gear bags - tri-pods & lighting mounts are packed, 12 sets of batteries are charged, lenses & sensors are cleaned and all gear has been tested. It's time to Rock & Roll in a few hours and now I'm getting that happy giddy feeling I always get just before an exciting shoot like this. The funny thing is that I'm all nervous now thinking about how I'm going to pull everything together and going over everything in my head how I planned it but once I get to the venue and put that camera around my neck I get this calming feeling over me and everything just comes second nature like I'm a robot and everything works out fine. They say that's the sign of a good professional but I say that's a sign that I've done my job, prepared properly and now it's not WORK but fun time. The WORK part of the job is the preparation & planning, shooting is the pay off and the time we as photographers live for just like a football player gets ready for the big game on Sunday. You never get to see what those guys go through during the week just the rewards of all that time they put in on the practice field.

In the end that's what my clients get, those unique images & snap shots of frozen time forever stamped into digital media, enhanced by the lights & motion of the world around us & captured by an electronic device and the push of a button at just the precise moment bringing joy, laughter & emotions to all that view them. That is the art of PHOTOGRAPHY and I just love it !

* Stop by the Band's "Devil You Know" Website to check these rockers out and Check back here next week for the story on how tonight goes along with some of the images I capture tonight with the full gallery being posted on my web site Bill Pador Photography in about a week.

* REVIEWS COMING SOON *

I mentioned HONL Photo Professional Light Enhancement System above, I'll be writing a full review on the entire line of products soon. They have a great portable light enhancement system for flash guns using a simple yet effective design so that pieces are able to be used together, alone or combined on numerous flashes on your set. The entire system can be had for around $200 and it packs nicely into your gear bag. Consisting of 1/8" & 1/4" Speed Grids, Snoot / Reflectors, Speed Gobo / Bounce Cards, Color Effects Gel Kit which is all tied together using a really cool non-sticking Velcro Speed Strap.

* I'll also be reviewing (2) Lenses: Nikon's 10.5mm f/2.8 Fish Eye & Tamron's 17-50mm Di XR Wide Angle both wonderful fast pieces of glass that should be in every photographers gear bag in my opinion.
* Finally I'll do a write up on the Absolutely Fantastic "SECONIC" L-358 Light Meter w/Pocket Wizard Transmitter Option. This light meter is a photographers dream, very user friendly, easy to operate / quick 20 min. learning curve, affordable cost effective and has wireless operation using the optional RT-32N Pocket Wizard Module