Sometimes I find myself in a shooting situation that are a bit difficult, but like taking the opportunity to get a bit more creative. My wife and I recently took a little concert roadtrip with my parents to Omaha, Nebraska to see Grammy Award-winning rock and folk singer-songwriter and guitarist Kenny Loggins live at Bank of the West Celebrates America on July 1. The annual Independence Day weekend festival took place at Memorial Park and featured local cover band Finest Hour and Lincoln-based country group Dylan Bloom Band as the opening acts. The entire event is definitely one of the best produced that we have attended. It was expected this time around though as my parents and I made the same trip a couple of years ago to see Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo with Canadian rock band Loverboy.
The park is on a hill, which makes for a perfect seat anywhere you can find one. Of course, though, I like to be right up in all of he action. There was a railed off VIP section at the forefront, but we were able to get right up against it. You would think with the “gates” opening at 5am that it would be tough to find a good spot by showing up at 5pm. However, the park is so large that everyone is spread out nicely and we were able to sit just about anywhere we wanted. Although extremely close, I wish that I would have had a better zoom lens with me. I shot the concert with my Sony E 55–210mm f/4.5–6.3 Lens, so shots were a little wider and getting enough light was a little more difficult. It is an excellent option, but works best for me when I can be right up against the stage. Shooting from the side also made it harder to utilize the amazing stage lights. Regardless of the shooting situation, though, I was incredibly happy with how the images turned out for me. You can see the entire gallery here.
Because I was unable to get as tight of shots as I would have liked, I also had to work around the two cameramen set up at the front. I originally had a really bad spot and am incredibly grateful to another photographer who had a better view and let me squeeze in with him. I still had to work around the videographers a little, but decided to capitalize on the circumstance and use them in some of the photos. I really love how the one above turned out, how it shadows and blurs the cameraman in the foreground and highlights and focuses on Kenny Loggins in the background. I feel that it is almost like the “making-of” or a behind-the-scenes look at producing the concert.
This is one of my favorite things to do in a tough shooting situation. At one point I even started snapping shots of the sign language interpreter down front and at another point, I couldn’t get a clear shot on the keyboardist, so I made the stage truss part of the photo. During lots of other shows, I end up shooting with people in front of me and have to deal with hands and cellphones in the way, but this often lends itself to some awesome shots as well. I just enjoy trying to the make the most out of shooting situations and being creative with everything happening around me. Many times, I walk away with those images as my favorite or best shots of the night.