The blog of Nashville Entertainment and Commercial Photographer & Videographer Brad Moore
I had such a blast photographing Johnnyswim’s Christmas show at The Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville that I decided to do a photo story post over at Exposure.co to share my experience!
Here are a few shots to entice you to check it out:
View more photos from A Johnnyswim Christmas at Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville right here.
A huge thanks to Abner, Amanda, and the band for all their hospitality!
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My final day at Bonnaroo began back at What Stage once again with White Reaper.
Their backdrop was up in support of their new album, The World’s Best American Band.
Ryan Hater, aka MVP, was the most fun to shoot as he was the most energetic of the group. Plus long hair and rock music always make for a fun combination. I liked this moment where his hair was just out in front of his face enough to be clear of his eyes.
My next assignment was an unexpected one, but a cool peek behind the curtain at how things work for the Red Bull TV live stream from the festival. I got to go inside the broadcast truck and see what it takes for it all to run, switching from stage to stage and streaming past performances.
Above is a closer look from over the shoulder of the director.
After doing a quick edit back at the production trailer, I made my way back to The Other for the duration of my stay at Bonnaroo. Since I was staying here the rest of the day, I brought my laptop with me to download and edit between sets.
First up was Skepta, who is a British rapper and producer.
I was able to make my way backstage and get the above shot as the sun was starting to set. Sometimes my favorite shots are the quieter moments like these that happen behind the scenes.
This was another nice moment that happened while I was stage side. I can’t tell if he’s actually looking at me in this shot because of his sunglasses, but I like to think he is.
Next up was Borgore! This wound up being my favorite set of the whole festival.
And that’s because I was able to get on stage with him. I still don’t know if I was supposed to be on stage or not, but nobody stopped me and I didn’t volunteer to leave too quickly. I started off at a distance, as you can see from the above photo that was shot with the 70-200mm f/2.8.
I stayed stage side for a bit to get shots from that vantage point, and snagged this one of the crowd at twilight after sunset.
Then I made my move. I walked from stage side all the way up behind Borgore and held my camera up to get some shots then checked to see how they looked. I wasn’t close enough or high enough to get what I wanted with the 11-24 mm f/4. I was worried that I might be pushing my luck, but hey, go big or go home, right? So I stepped up onto the riser that Borgore was standing on and held my camera up again. Bingo. This was the right vantage point, but I hadn’t gotten what I wanted just yet. So I stepped down and waited for the crowd lights to come up again. As soon as they did, I stepped up and got the shot above.
I also wanted to get a shot from beside him as he did his thing, so I made a move to try for that. But as soon as I moved, so did he. So I moved again, and so did he. Finally, I got the above shot just before he moved again, but this time I saw him look back toward the other people standing backstage and give someone a look. I took that to mean he was looking for someone to get rid of me, so I stepped down before anyone could approach me. That’s what was happening in my head anyway. I don’t know if it was reality or not.
I stayed off the riser for a while, but still captured this moment of pyro going off between Borgore and the crowd.
After a couple of minutes, I saw the lights come up on the crowd again and jumped up on the riser to grab a quick shot. Thankfully, he put his hand up in the air at the same moment.
About 15 minutes after that last shot of Borgore was captured, Yellow Claw took the stage. Again, I started up the middle aisle toward the back of the crowd and shot for a bit.
I’ll admit, I was kind of addicted to shooting from this position. The lighting at this stage was just crazy good all the time, and this was the best vantage point to shoot it from. So I kept returning to it!
Eventually I knew I needed to get closer and get shots of the actual performers, so I went back up the the stage and shot for a bit.
I shot for a few minutes from in front of the stage, then made my way around back again to get on stage to finish out. Unfortunately for me though, the stage crew was using heavy machinery to remove gear from Borgore’s set, and I wasn’t allowed back onstage while that was happening. So, that meant my shooting at Bonnaroo had come to an end!
Thanks again to Kelly Garthwaite at Red Bull for bringing me onto the team, and to Jeremy Deputat and Jason Myers for being so gracious to the new kid, and to everyone else I worked with and met while I was there!
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Day 3 of Bonnaroo began for me around 1:00pm when I arrived on site with the rest of the team. My first shoot of the day was back at What Stage with The Front Bottoms. I arrived early to scope things out, thankfully, because the thrust that was there the day before was gone. This meant that the entire stage front was free reign for photographers rather than some of them being relegated to one side of the thrust.
You can stake out your spot if you want, but the reality is that everyone will be moving around during the allotted shooting time. And if you want to be respected by everyone else in the pit, you also show respect by making sure everyone is able to get what they need rather than hogging a spot the entire time.
My next scheduled shoot was a few hours later, so I went back to the production trailer and did a quick edit before grabbing lunch and heading out to shoot lifestyle/ambience photos.
Before leaving the production trailer, my assistant grabbed a few cans of Red Bull so we could give them to attendees who were willing to pose for photos for us.
I went up in the ferris wheel to take photos, but didn’t really get what I was hoping for. When I came down, there were a couple of girls taking selfies in front of the ferris wheel, so I asked if they would let me shoot some as well. While I was shooting them, this other friend of theirs came along and asked if I wanted him to lift one of them in the air. “Sure, why not?!” was obviously my response, which resulted in the photo above!
The Bonnaroo Fountain at Centeroo is iconic for the festival, so I went there in hopes of capturing shots of people cooling down in the mid-day heat. I climbed up on one of the benches on the outer perimeter and got my 11-24 mm f/4 as close to one of the sprayers as possible and fired off a few series of shots.
While I was on my way back to the production trailer to edit again, I walked by Which Stage where Rainbow Kitten Surprise was playing. That’s just one of the best band names ever, so I had to grab a shot from the back of the crowd!
After editing, it was time to get back to That Tent to photograph Joseph’s set. This trio of sisters put on an absolutely captivating performance!
I really liked the mirrored sunglasses that Natalie was wearing, so I probably shot too many photos of her!
Puffs of smoke kept coming out from behind the drummer, so I shot him until I got a frame where it was perfectly positioned to give separation between him and the darkness behind him.
After that, it was time to head back to What Stage for Future Islands. Lead singer Samuel T. Herring has become known for his impassioned and emotive performance, and he delivered on those expectations.
I had a couple of hours between Future Islands and my next performance shoot, so I set out to find some more ambience photo opportunities, especially since sunset was nigh.
As I walked toward the back of the crowd at What Stage, I spotted these two ladies taking selfies and got a quick shot of them.
I also saw that the sun was starting to set and grabbed some shots of What Stage with that golden light adding a lens flare.
From there I quickly made my way over to the Centeroo area near The Other and Jake & Snake’s Christmas Club Barn to get a golden hour crowd photo.
Once I was happy with the golden hour shots I had gotten, I went back to the production trailer to edit and upload before heading out to my first shoot at The Other stage. Little did I know that I was about to discover my new favorite place to shoot at Bonnaroo!
I wasn’t technically scheduled to photograph Matoma’s set, but I also wasn’t scheduled to shoot anything else until 2:00am. So I tagged along with Jeremy Deputat to check out the stage since I hadn’t been there yet.
This stage had a different vibe than the others I had shot at. While there were other types of performances here, it was primarily the EDM stage. Everyone there was just looking to have a fun time, even security! While the security at other stages was professional, they were also pretty stern and you could tell when they’d had enough. Here, security was dancing along with the music and passing out water to thirsty attendees. Plus there was a big aisle down the middle of the crowd, which allowed for shots like the one above!
I’m a sucker for a good silhouette, so this was one of my favorite shots.
After Matoma’s set, I still had plenty of time to kill, so I went back to the production trailer again to make sure I was 100% caught up with all of my editing and uploading, and double check all of my backups.
Finally, it was nearing 2:00am, so I hopped on a golf cart and made my way back to The Other.
(Side note: The Other was on the complete opposite corner of the grounds from our production trailer, and my first time using a golf cart during the festival was when I tagged along with Jeremy for Matoma’s set. This was LIFE CHANGING for me once I realized I could do this! I still walked to other destinations, but any time I went back to The Other from here on out, it was on a golf cart).
During the set, I shot from the back of the middle aisle and got stage/crowd shots for a few minutes.
And also up at the front to get closer shots of the infamous Marshmello helmet.
I shot for maybe 10-15 minutes and wrapped up since it was so late. Hopped back on the golf cart and went back to the production trailer to meet my editor and head to the hotel. When we got back, we worked in the lobby so I could do my editing and upload to the Red Bull Content Pool and the Dropbox folder others were pulling images from before calling it a night at around 4:00am.
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We arrived on site for day two of Bonnaroo around 1:00pm, and I started by shooting an interview with singer/songwriter and activist Angelique Kidjo and Red Bull’s Sal Masekela. When photographing interviews like this, my goal is to capture shots that show both the production involved in case the client has a need for it, as well as just photos of the interviewer/interviewee. Depending on the space I have to move around, I’ll use some mix of the 24-70mm f/2.8 and 70-200mm f/2.8 lenses.
From there, I went back to the Red Bull trailer to do a quick edit and check in with my editor before heading out for my first performance shoot of the day at What Stage (the main stage).
Since this was the first day of performances on the main stage, I arrived at the early to make sure I familiarized myself with the entry points and introduce myself to security. The stage had a thrust in the middle (, and I found out that most of the photographers would be stationed on one side of it. I made my way to the opposite side, because who wants to get the same shots everyone else is getting?
Francis & The Lights, of which Francis Farewell Starlite is the sole member, took the stage with a highly energized set. As the first act of the day on this stage, he really woke up the crowd with his performance. I mostly relied on the 11-24 mm f/4 as my wide lens for his set.
Part way through the second song, I heard someone say, “Oh, there’s Chance!” I pull back from my camera and look up in the stage side balcony, and sure enough, there’s Chance The Rapper looking on in support of his collaborative partner. Even though I was right at the stage, he was still a good distance away from me, so I used the 70-200mm f/2.8 for this shot.
I finished shooting Francis, then made my way to my next shoot.
This was my first time seeing or shooting Cold War Kids, and they didn’t disappoint. The only downside of shooting daytime outdoor performances is that the stage lighting doesn’t have much effect on photos. It’s pretty much all white/warm light from the sun. Thankfully, lead singer Nathan Willett is an energetic performer and gave the photographers plenty to work with.
After shooting Cold War Kids, I went into the artist hospitality area where various vendors are set up (as well as Danny Clinch and his backstage artist portrait area) in hopes of getting candid photos of artists hanging out. Brad Shultz from Cage The Elephant and his friends were more than happy to pose for a shot! I didn’t want to be right up in their faces, so I shot this on the 24-70mm f/2.8 in order to be wide enough to fit all of them in the frame without being right up in their faces.
Mario Cuomo from The Orwells also gladly posed for a shot, and gladly drank some Red Bull for his photo.
After getting a couple of candid shots, I turned the corner to Sal’s World, where he was interviewing Portugal. The Man.
Then I followed Sal out to this picnic table where he was joined by the legendary Preservation Hall Jazz Band for an interview!
After that interview, I backtracked to Which Stage again to shoot Tove Lo. Her set was one of the most entertaining ones I was able to shoot during the festival! With the sun going down, the stage lighting was much more effective than before. And she was constantly on the move, which made for a fun shoot!
I believe every photographer in the pit got a shot like this one, but who doesn’t like a good hair photo?
After Tove Lo’s set, I had a little time to go back to the Red Bull trailer once again and download/backup and edit/upload before heading out to That Tent for Preservation Hall Jazz Band’s set.
These guys were my last shoot of the day. Throughout each day, I tried to limit how many shots I took of each performance, but it was a challenge with this one! They were so great and full of energy, emotion, and expression that I didn’t want to take my finger off the shutter.
This was my earliest night of the week, wrapping up shooting around 10:0opm before heading back to the trailer one last time to edit and upload.
Next up, Day 3 of Bonnaroo!
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We began our first day the same way we wound up beginning all but the last day, with a team breakfast at Cracker Barrel (we went to Waffle House on the last day). These breakfasts gave us a chance to just hang in a relaxed environment and talk with one another, whether it was about life, photography in general, or specific things about the festival. Plus we were able to load up with fuel to face the rest of the long day ahead of us. After breakfast each day, we had a little time to gather ourselves and our gear before we loaded into vehicles to head to the festival.
Now, let me preface all of this by saying one thing… I know that my Bonnaroo experience was not that of people who were just there in attendance, nor was it that of photographers who may have been there covering it for a publication or media outlet, nor was it that of the people who were shooting for the festival. So, if you’re looking at any of this in hopes of finding out what Bonnaroo is like from any perspective other than covering it for Red Bull, this will only be somewhat insightful. The passes I had allowed me to do some things and go some places others weren’t able to go, but I was also not able to do some things or go certain places others were able to go. With that said, here’s how my first day at Bonnaroo went!
Upon arrival each day, we parked in whatever lot it was we were designated to park in somewhere behind What Stage (aka the main stage), then walked to the Red Bull production trailer. Inside the trailer was a flurry of activity that included everyone from us photographers and our assistants to editors, producers, and a bevy of other people whose roles I’m still not 100% sure of, but I know they were more important than me. I’ll just suffice it to say that there was a lot of people doing a lot of work alongside each other in a relatively small space, but we all had a lot of fun together throughout the event.
Also each day before heading out, I would grab some sun block and spray it all over myself, then suit up with the SpiderHolster belt and cameras with lenses (usually the 70-200 and 11-24. My assistant, Jordan, carried the ThinkTank shoulder bag with the 24-70, extra batteries and memory cards, etc, as well as a backpack with snacks, a clipboard with model releases, bandaids, and other random stuff. We also grabbed some cans of Red Bull in case we needed to stage some shots for marketing and branding purposes.
The first day allowed me time to wander around the festival grounds to see where everything was, roughly gauge walking time between stages and tents, and shoot some general lifestyle shots of attendees before we needed to photograph any artist sets. We did this for about an hour, finding people who were dressed, um, interestingly, or just straight up energetic and willing to pose for us.
A quick note on the stage and tent names at Bonnaroo. It takes some time to figure them out, but once you do, you still get them mixed up because they’re hella confusing! They are as follows:
There’s also the Comedy & Cinema tent with standups performing and movies being screened, sometimes with the director or star in attendance to answer questions. And the Silent Disco tent, where an emcee is playing and pumping music out to headphones being worn by attendees, but you can’t hear anything that’s being played without the headphones. And we can’t forget Snake & Jake’s Christmas Club Barn, which is basically home to a 24-hour a day rave.
For day one performances, I was primarily stationed at That Tent. I shot sets by Welles, The Orwells, Twiddle, The Lemon Twigs, and Turkuaz. The only band I had shot before was The Orwells, so I had an idea of what to expect from them, but no one else. The photo pits around the festival were all pretty decent sizes, but with the number of photographers there, they were still pretty crowded. But not uncomfortably so. Thankfully you could still move around to shoot from different angles, so I was happy all in all.
I shot all the sets I was assigned to, and then when there was time between sets, I would either go back to the production trailer to download and edit, walk around shooting lifestyle photos, or take a lunch/dinner break.
For on-site meals, Red Bull arranged for us to have meals in the artist catering tent. Everyone at the festival has a wristband (or multiple wristbands depending on the access you’re granted and whatnot). Each wristband has a different color “belt” on it which houses an RFID tag that gets scanned whenever you go into various areas. The color combinations of the wristbands and their belts also serve as visual guides for security to know where you’re allowed to go. So, when we would go to catering for meals, they would scan our wristbands and that would let them know if we were allowed to eat or not.
I finished shooting my last set a little after 2:30am, roughly 12 hours after I first set out to take lifestyle photos around the festival. Once I downloaded, edited, and uploaded, got back to my room, showered, and got ready for bed, I got to sleep around 4:30am.
Leave a CommentBefore heading to Bonnaroo, I wanted to make sure I had a good workflow in place that adhered to both Red Bull’s needs as well as my own. Here’s what I came up with…
CAMERA SETUP
First, I made sure the dates and times were synced up exactly between the two camera bodies. This is vital when you’re shooting an event with more than one camera body, as well as when you’re shooting with other photographers. If things aren’t synced up correctly, it can cause your editor and others huge headaches trying to keep everything straight and in order.
After that, I got all my settings dialed into one body, then copied those settings onto a CF card, put that card into the other camera, and loaded the settings onto that body. After that, I entered in my copyright and artist info into the metadata of each body. I also used the Canon EOS Utility to input “1” or “2” into the Instructions IPTC info on each camera. More on this in a bit.
Here are the basic camera settings that I use as a starting point. They may change depending on the situation, but this is always where I begin:
File Type: RAW. You want as much file/image information as you can get to work with to create the best image possible.
Shooting Mode: Aperture priority.
Auto ISO: If you aren’t familiar with Auto ISO, here’s how it works… You tell your camera the minimum shutter speed you want it to maintain, along with the maximum ISO you’re comfortable with it using. It will only raise the ISO as much as is needed to maintain the minimum shutter speed, until it reaches that maximum ISO. Once it reaches that, your shutter speed may fall below what you want it to be.
I usually set the maximum ISO to whatever the camera’s highest native ISO is, so 51,200 for the 1DX Mark II. And I normally set the minimum shutter speed to 1/250 for concerts, but I ended up bumping it up to 1/500 to make sure there was as little blur as possible.
Aperture: Wide open most of the time, which is f/2.8 on the 70-200mm and 24-70mm lenses and f/4 on the 11-24mm lens.
Focus Mode: Since there’s so much movement at concerts, I use continuous focus (AI Servo on Canon and AF-C on Nikon) mode all the time. If you use single focus (One Shot on Canon and AF-S on Nikon), you’re constantly having to lock focus every time someone moves.
Metering: If your camera allows you to lock spot metering to the focus point, use that. I think a lot of Nikon bodies let you do this, but only the 1D series in the Canon line allows for this. If you’re not using a camera that lets the spot metering lock into the focus point, just stick with evaluative (Canon) or matrix (Nikon) metering and keep an eye on your exposure so you can compensate accordingly.
White Balance: Auto white balance does a really great job in any of the current camera bodies. With concerts, the stage lighting varies so much so quickly, there’s not much point in trying to get a “correct” white balance because you’re going to be making adjustments in post no matter what.
Drive Speed: Continuous High. This can be a blessing and a curse with any of the top of the line camera bodies that shoot 10+ frames per second, because you’re pretty much guaranteed to capture the perfect moment, but you’re also shooting a TON of photos, and that eats up card space and hard drive space. As long as you’ve got those fast cards and lots of space though, why not?
COMPUTER WORKFLOW
I use Photo Mechanic to ingest images from cards. I’ve been using it since college to make selects after downloading, but I only just learned more about the power of Photo Mechanic to help minimize metadata input as I was researching during my prep for Bonnaroo. Basically, it allows you to use “variables” to automatically fill in lots of different information. It also uses “code replacements,” which allows you to set up custom codes to automatically put information in captions. Code replacements are mostly used by sports photographers, but I’m sure some of you could find other ways to use them. Here’s a YouTube playlist that I found particularly helpful to learn about variables and code replacements.
Here’s what my Photo Mechanic ingest screen looks like.
It shows what cards are inserted, and below that I have the Incremental Ingest box checked. This means it will detect if there are photos on the cards that have already been downloaded and only download new ones.
For Source Directory Structure, I have it set to ignore the folder structure on the cards and just copy everything to the destinations and folder structure I have set.
On Copy Photos, I’ve chosen “into folder with name,” and below that I have the folder name set up. If that folder doesn’t exist, it will be created, and if it does exist, it will be detected and photos copied into it. Those squiggly brackets/braces with stuff inside are the variables I mentioned before. I use a file naming and folder structure that always begins with the four digit year, then the two digit month, and two digit date, followed by a dash and the name of the project. These variables will automatically detect the date info and create it based on the metadata of the images.
At the top of the right column is the destination section. This tells Photo Mechanic where I want it to copy the photos, and also gives us an option for a secondary/backup destination. This is where those two G-Tech 1TB Thunderbolt G-Drives come in. I have it automatically download to both drives so I have an instant backup as soon as the download is finished.
Under Filter Files, you can choose to copy both locked and unlocked photos, and RAW and non-RAW photos. If you’re shooting an event and have time to chimp during it and make selects in-camera, you can lock those selects, then tell Photo Mechanic to only copy locked files. And if you’re shooting RAW+JPG, and you know the JPG is good enough to use out of camera, you can choose to only copy those so you can get them posted as quickly as possible. In my case, I didn’t have a ton of time to make selects in camera and was only shooting RAW, so I just copied everything over and made my selects on my laptop.
Next, you have the option to apply IPTC info to files upon ingest. To do this, you just fill out the IPTC Stationery Pad with all the info you want included, and it’ll copy to the files as they come in. This is another place that utilizes variables to automatically fill in lots of fields for you.
Then there’s the all-important Rename Ingested Photos As box. Again, here I used variables to fill in most of the file name. Here’s the exact text since it cuts off in the screenshot:
{iptcyear4}{iptcmonth0}{iptcday0}_Bonnaroo_{instructions}_{frame4}
Again, the first part is the full date, followed by _Bonnaroo_ and {instructions}. If you’ll remember from the beginning of this post, I used the Canon EOS Utility to input the numbers 1 and 2 into the camera’s instructions IPTC field. This just tells me which camera I shot the photos with and ensures I don’t have any duplicate file names if the four-digit frame number (the final variable shown above) happens to be the same at any time.
Lastly, I opted not to format the cards after ingesting them, but I did choose to unmount them when they were done so I could pull them and pop them back into the cameras. I didn’t format till the end of each day, with maybe one or two exceptions, and the 64GB cards were pretty much big enough for the amount of shooting I did each day.
After ingesting, I would go through the take and mark my selects, usually narrowing it down to 10 or fewer frames from each artist, and only a few from each lifestyle setup. I go through all the images at full-size and mark any that stand out to me with the number 1, which assigns them the color pink. Then I hide all the unmarked shots and go through the marked shots again to narrow it down further with the number 2, which marks them red. Then I hide the pink shots and if I still have more than 10 reds, I’ll go through again and either knock some back down to pink or bump them up to orange with the number 3. Once I’m down to 10 or fewer, we select those and drag them over to Lightroom to import.
I generally only bring over one artist at a time, so in the Lightroom import dialog I’ll add the artist name to the keywords. Once they’re imported, I add them to my Bonnaroo collection, then add the artist name to the Title and Headline, then adjust the caption accordingly. Did you know that if it’s a single artist, like The Weeknd or Lorde, the correct verb is “performs,” but if it’s a band with multiple members, like U2 or Red Hot Chili Peppers, the correct verb is “perform?” This has been “Fun Facts with Brad,” now onto our regularly scheduled programming…
Once that’s all done, we head into the Develop module and make adjustments till the photos look as great as they can. I don’t really have a formula for this to be honest. I basically just move all the sliders back and forth until I’m happy with the outcome. I tend to prefer colors that vibrate well off each other, bright highlights and dark shadows, a decent amount of clarity, and just enough of a vignette to make sure the edges aren’t distracting.
And then the final step, exporting! Above is the export preset I set up for myself, which keeps in line with all my preferred file naming standards and sRGB color space. I usually export in sRGB because it’s the color space with the least information. That sounds counterintuitive, but it actually means that the photos will look pretty similar across all devices. If you export in a larger color space, the images may display with odd colors if it’s a display that doesn’t support that larger color space. So sRGB is just a safe bet that my photos will most likely look great no matter where they’re displayed.
And this is the export preset I used for Red Bull. They have a slightly different file naming convention, and they requested files in the AdobeRGB (1998) color space, so this conforms to those requests. The only thing I had to do manually was update the start number of the sequence to make sure I didn’t duplicate any file names for them.
You may also notice I had a different presets for each day. Each day had its own folder, so I made these presets so I didn’t have to worry about it once I was on site.
From there, Red Bull would pull images from Dropbox for any social media posts they may have used them for, and then I would upload to their FTP to submit images to the Red Bull Content Pool!
Once I got back home, I downloaded and backed up all the images from the event to my server and backup server. I still have them on my external drives just in case I need them for anything, but I’ll delete them as soon as I need space for another project.
Okay, now that all the nerdy stuff is out of the way, we can move on to Bonnaroo Day 1!
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Back in April, I checked my email one day and found an email from a photo editor at Red Bull…
“Hey Brad, We’re filling up our photographer roster for Bonnaroo and are hoping that you are free and would be down to work with us on it. If you are interested and able to do it, let us know, and we can give you more details.”
Um, YES I AM FREE AND INTERESTED AND ABLE PLEASE GIVE ME ALL THE DETAILS THANK YOU!!!
Well, that wasn’t my exact reply, but it may as well have been. We exchanged a few more emails to go over logistics and whatnot over the next few months leading up to the event, and I was all set!
I had never been to Bonnaroo before, nor had I worked with Red Bull before. So I had lots of questions about what to expect, what photo gear I needed to be as prepared as possible, and what other miscellaneous things I needed to survive being out in the summer heat for four days. Thankfully, I had Drew Gurian on speed dial to help me with all of this! He’s been to Bonnaroo many times and has been working with Red Bull for years.
As some of you may already know, Drew and I go all the way back to my days of assisting Joe McNally. He took over the first assistant role with Joe after I moved on to work with Scott Kelby, and we’ve remained good friends since then. We often call each other to discuss navigating the freelance photographer life and bounce ideas off each other when we’re working on things.
Anyway, after chatting with Drew multiple times, I stocked up on memory cards, extra camera batteries, a cooling towel, sun block, and mentally prepared myself to walk upwards of 10 miles a day around the Bonnaroo Festival site. To some, that may not sound like a lot, but when you live in a city where the primary mode of transportation is getting in your vehicle and driving 20 minutes to get just about anywhere, it can seem daunting.
Here’s a breakdown of the gear I used at the festival:
I wanted to make sure I captured the best, highest quality images I could, so I got a couple of the blazing fast 1DX Mark II bodies from Canon. These, coupled with the “lens trinity,” set me up for success in the photo pits while shooting sets and around the festival grounds capturing lifestyle images. I used the 24-70mm f/2.8 a little here and there, but for the most part I stuck to the 70-200mm f/2.8 and 11-24mm f/4.
Over the past few years, I’ve had a certain brand of memory cards fail on me pretty reliably, so I made sure I had at least a couple of fast, sizable SanDisk cards to primarily use. At one point, I stuck the other brand of card in my camera (I had some as backups) and it immediately gave me a “card not readable” error, so I tossed it and put the SanDisk back in. Still had to use the other brand of card readers though as they’re the most available and affordable ones, but I had four of them just in case any of them failed.
I also mentioned making sure that the CF cards were fast. This is vital in an environment where turnaround time is a high priority. If you’re working in an area where you need to have images going up online as soon as possible, you don’t want to be the person who is holding everything up because you cheaped out on memory cards to save $30. When you’re purchasing memory cards, always look at BOTH the read and write speeds. Just because they say 120 MB/s or 800x instead of 160 MB/s or 1066x on them doesn’t mean that applies to both speeds. You may not see a noticeable difference when you’re shooting, but when you’re waiting an extra 10 minutes for your card to download and everyone else is done editing and uploading their photos, you’ll know why that card was so much cheaper.
After reading this guest blog from Adam Elmakias about wrist and back injuries, I sought out a SpiderHolster dual camera belt and found one that my buddy Pete Collins let me borrow. This took all the weight of the cameras and lenses off my shoulders and put it on my hips and legs. It took a little getting used to, but I eventually started getting the pins that attach to the bottom of the camera into the holster pretty quickly. If you haven’t used this before and want to give it a shot, just make sure your shirt stays tucked into the belt and doesn’t get in the way of the holsters! Pete also let me borrow the SpiderPro Hand Straps, which helped me keep a good grip on the cameras and alleviate some of the weight on my wrist when shooting.
Also, not knowing how many batteries I would be going through each day, I rented four extra Canon LP-E4N batteries from BorrowLenses.com to make sure I was covered. Thankfully, the new LP-E19 batteries that came with the 1DX Mark II bodies lasted all day every day. There was a day where one was down to two notches with one set left to shoot, so I put a fresh one in to be safe. But, it probably would’ve lasted through that last set without any problems. So, while I could look at the rented batteries as wasted money, I still feel like I did the right (and professional) thing by making sure I showed up with all the tools I needed to get the job done.
And, surprise to me, this was the first time I’ve ever had an assistant for shooting concerts! I didn’t know I was going to have one until I received the production guide about a week before the festival. So I touched base with him ahead of time to talk through expectations, what I did and didn’t know about the festival and what we would be doing, and to give him a chance to ask me any questions he had.
Our first day of shooting was Thursday, June 8, so the photo team all arrived in Manchester, Tennessee on June 7. Last year, the team had to make a 30-45 minute drive each way to their hotel and back to the festival every day. This year, Red Bull was amazing enough to put us up in a place in Manchester (next to a Cracker Barrel even!) so we didn’t have to make that drive when we finished each night anywhere between 2:00am and 4:00am. Once we all arrived, I went to dinner with the other two photographers so I could get to know them a bit before getting into the heat of the festival.
Next up… Bonnaroo Workflow
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It’s been a while since I shared anything on here, so I figured I would just do a general update on life since moving to Nashville.
First off, I’m loving it here. Nashville is a pretty fantastic place to live. I’ve been wanting to live here since my days of visiting the city when I was in college. That desire has only grown stronger in the past few years with more and more friends moving here. Every time I would visit, it just felt like home.
Plus, since finishing college, I’ve lived far enough away from my family that it was always an ordeal to come visit. Now I can make a day trip to see my parents if I want. I also wanted my niece and nephew to know their Uncle Brad in person, not just over video chat. It’s nice to have that technology, but you can’t go swimming with them or play with them or snuggle up and read a bedtime story together over an iPad. So being able to see them more often is great.
Nashville is just one of those cities that still feels like a small town, even though it’s definitely growing very rapidly. I’m currently sitting at one of MANY coffee shops here, and just across the street is an artisan chocolate company. One of the stars of the TV show Nashville came in, had a sandwich, and left completely unbothered by anyone (though it was very tempting to tell him I was a big fan, but I decided to let him enjoy his sandwich in peace). Just to paint a slice of life picture for you.
This is an incredibly creative city. There is no shortage of people making great art here, whether it be music, photography, food, videos, coffee, paintings, whiskey, or any number of other endeavors. There’s a reason there are so many coffee shops and co-work spaces in town. They’re always full of people getting caffeinated and staring at their laptops. You might walk in and think, “Why aren’t all of these people at work right now??” But they are. They’re just working for themselves. There’s also a good chance that they’re a musician, guitar tech, tour manager, bus driver or what have you that are home from tour for a few days before hitting the road again.
So yeah, this place has a certain allure that isn’t very common, which is why so many people are drawn to it. But that’s enough about Nashville. What have I been up to?
I am a full time freelancer now. What’s that mean? I work for myself, for anyone who will hire me, and I’m trying my hand at new stuff as well.
I still work with Scott and the gang at KelbyOne quite a bit. If you’re at one of his seminars, you’ll see me there working alongside him. I’m still managing Guest Blog Wednesday and New Class Thursday for his blog, and I’ll be assisting him on a few things at Photo Plus Expo this week. Can’t wait to see everyone there! Scott and I have a great relationship (probably better than ever now that I’m not around every day to annoy him constantly 😉 ), and I’m incredibly thankful for him and his continued support.
I’m still shooting concerts when I can. I’m not really shooting for anyone right now, so it mostly ends up being bands I’m connected to in some way, or I find a way in through a friend who is connected. I’ll go weeks without shooting sometimes, then I’ll shoot for three days in a row. So goes the ebb and flow of the freelance life.
I’m also assisting my buddy Robby Klein from time to time when he needs an extra hand on a shoot. So far I’ve helped him on shoots for Billboard, People, ELLE, and Curb Records. It’s always helpful to see how other photographers work, as well as network with other people in the industry. Being visible helps people remember you exist and they’re more likely to think of you when they need something you can provide. And most people here are just cool people and I like getting to know cool people. So it’s a win-win!
Video contains a profanity. Check out Matt’s new album American Wilderness on iTunes and Spotify!
Speaking of networking and creativity, I’ve also started partnering up with a new friend, Phil Barnes, on video work. Phil and I met when we both showed up at our friend Matt Hires‘ concert with the idea of doing a video for Matt. We hadn’t met before that night, and it seemed silly to me that we were each going to do a video for Matt, so I asked Phil if he wanted to work on it together. He said yes, so we planned out who would shoot what, then got together to do the edit the next day. A few hours later we were finished with our first video, and that was the beginning of Phil and Brad Make Videos. We’re just getting started with this, and I’m excited to see where it goes! Here’s another one we made for another Matt, but you can watch more on Vimeo or YouTube and keep an eye out for more in the works.
And somewhere in between all of this, I decided to go check out the Grand Canyon for the first time ever. My parents were on a trip out west and said I should come meet up with them, so I booked a flight for the next morning and made the trip!
So, that’s more or less what I’ve been up to. Working and networking in my favorite city, enjoying the delicious things it has to offer, making new friends, spending more time with family, and just enjoying life!
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It’s every concert photographer’s nightmare… The dreaded red wash of light. No matter how much we despise it though, it’s something we are probably all going to have to deal with at some point. So, what’s the trick to making our photos look decent when faced with this challenge?
Our goal here is to minimize “blooming” that red light tends to produce while still maintaining the gWhether you’re processing your shots in Lightroom or Camera Raw, your first stop is going to be the Profile menu in the Camera Calibration panel. Now, what you see and choose here is going to depend on what camera(s) you have.
Generally speaking, you’re probably going to see Adobe Standard, then Camera Faithful, Landscape, Neutral, Portrait, and Standard. You may see others depending on your camera or if you have other third party profiles installed, like VSCO. The trick here is to try each profile and see how it treats your images. In this particular case, Camera Neutral works the best for me, but a different profile may work better in another instance.
Once you’ve chosen the profile that looks best, you can further make adjustments using the RGB hue/saturation sliders. The secret here is to adjust the Red sliders sparingly and stick to the Green and Blue sliders. You can try them, but they usually do more harm than good.
Now that you’ve tweaked everything in the Camera Calibration panel, most of the heavy lifting is done. From here any other adjustments you make are most likely going to only make minimal changes.
Let’s go back to the Basic panel. Here we can play around with the White Balance temp/tint sliders and see if they can be of any help. Adjust to your liking, then move on to the other adjustment sliders. Increasing the Clarity can help with the red “bloom,” and decreasing the Vibrance can as well.
There’s also the HSL panel… You may see some improvement with minor tweaking of the red and orange Hue sliders (just be careful not to go overboard with these). And, of course, the red and orange Saturation and Luminance sliders can help as well.
Now, depending on how well (or badly) your camera handles the red light, you may either be satisfied with your image now, or it may still look terrible. If you’re in the latter scenario, it’s time to break out the secret weapon… Black and white.
There you have it… All of my tricks for dealing with red light. The settings and adjustments you see here were based on my example photo and not meant to be a fix-all for every right light image. You can try them on yours if you want, but your results will definitely vary from image to image. My objective here was to point you to the most useful adjustments and settings.
If you do find settings that are a useful starting point for your red light shots, you might want to create a preset so you can save time on your next edit!
Leave a CommentHere’s the scenario: You go do a shoot, download the images, go through the take, mark the selects, do your editing, and deliver the shots. The client loves them… But you don’t. Sure, they’re okay, but… They don’t quite send you to your happy place.
Sound familiar? If it does, I have some good news for you… You’re not alone.
I would guess that most photographers go through this, even the best ones. No matter how much we try to make the best possible images we can, not every shoot is going to result in a new portfolio image. You can plan all you want, put together your shot list, research the location, research your subject, make inspiration/mood boards, clean your lenses and sensor, and carry your lucky rabbits foot; but when you do the shoot, the shots are decent but not great. The client is happy, so you’re happy that you’re getting paid, but you wanted to come away with better shots.
Sometimes your subject just isn’t great. Or the location you picked days ahead of time fell through on the day of the shoot and you had to quickly find something else that worked. Or you were unexpectedly battling the harsh sun on what was supposed to be a cloudy day. Or you just flat out had an off day of shooting and don’t know why.
For me it’s concerts. There are so many things that come into play here that can make or break an image. How’s the lighting? If there’s lighting, is it always the same or changing a lot (to give variety to the shots)? Is the band doing fun and crazy stuff, or are they all just standing in one spot playing and not being very emotive? Is there so much going on that I don’t even know where to point my camera to try and capture peak moments? Can I get to the spot in the pit I want to be in, or are there twenty other photographers vying for position and I’m stuck where I’m at?
I get lucky sometimes and I’m in the ideal position as the guitarist jumps off her amp in the perfect light and my camera focuses and fires and I nail the shot. Other times I see it happening out of the corner of my eye and turn to try to capture the moment from the wrong spot and there’s so little light on her that my camera can’t lock focus and I get a blurry shot. Or a lot of the time I get what are, for me, mediocre shots of the singer with their mouth open and eyes closed standing in front of a mic. It’s a perfectly fine shot that you’ve seen it a million times, but you won’t see it in my portfolio.
But here’s the thing… You’ve gotta keep shooting. You have to push through those bad days to get to the good ones. I once heard Jay Maisel explain it this way to a photographer who was frustrated with his photography:
“It’s like, if I’m trying to be a well built body builder… If I go to the gym on Monday next week maybe or maybe Thursday, or just when I find a day, then it’s not going to happen. You have to go to the gym and work out. I don’t go to the gym and work out as a photographer, but I do the visual push-ups everyday. If you shoot once in a while you may get some nice pictures, and if you shoot very rarely you’ll get fewer. But if you shoot all the time, the number is going to go up.”
So don’t let a bad shoot or two get you down. Keep doing those visual pushups so you increase your chances of finding those holy grail shots that you add to your portfolio. When you get them, we’ll rejoice with you. And if you don’t, just remember… You’re not alone!
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