First Three Photographs #1- my best three concert photos from Arrested Development's gig

This is the first in a loose series of blog posts that'll showcase three of my favourite images from a particular gig I’ve shot, together with some commentry and stories behind the taking of each shot. Some of the gigs will be recent while others will be from my archive but hopefully each will show something of what concert photography is actually like.

First up is in fact the most recent gig I’ve shot - hiphop masters Arrested Development who were performing in one of Newcastle’s most famous music pubs, The Cluny. (Click on any of the images above to expand them.)

The Venue

Based in a former flax spinning mill dating from the 19th century in the Ouseburn Valley area, The Cluny now shares the space with artists, offices and recording studios. The live music performance space is a bit unusual: low ceilinged and letter-boxed shaped with the stage at the short end, it has a raised level running down the length of one side of the room, which gives it a bit of a lopsided feel but provides good views over the heads of the punters on the main part of the floor in front of the stage. The stage area itself is quite tight, about 20 foot square, which is fine if it’s just you and your guitar but definitely a squeeze if there’s eight of you, as there was going to be with Arrested Development.

Another important point worth noting is that there isn’t a photographer’s pit in front of the stage. Which is great for fans as they can get right up close to the stage but it’s a nightmare for any photographers as you’re elbow-deep with the said fans and having to jostle your way through them if you want to change position during the concert (which you definitely do).

Which is exactly what happened.

The shoot

Normally, I’d be looking to cover off some close shots of the performers from the pit before gradually moving back into the crowd or up beside the sound guy, using different lens focal lengths to capture the audience view or long shots to show the whole band performing. This time, I decided that once the room filled up - as I knew it would, as I’d checked at the door on the way in and knew it was sold out - I’d never be able to move freely so I positioned myself almost at the front at the stage and off to the side; I’m generally not a fan of photographs taken directly below performers as this usually means the angle of view is really distorted and you end up shooting directly up the performer’s nose, which isn’t the most flattering angle for anyone.

 Anyway, once the show got going, I made the best of being hemmed in by a really enthusiastic crowd. The lighting was good, with a minimum of red/blue (every concert photographer’s nightmare) and there was very little smoke so everyone stayed visible. 

The band themselves were great to photograph - very animated and engaging with the audience, which is what you need to stand a decent chance of producing anything interesting. Sadly, I could really only photograph lead singer Speech and singers Tasha LaRae, Fareedah and 1Love because with the stage being as narrow as it was, I didn’t really have a view of the rest of the band arranged directly behind them, which was a pity as I make a point of trying to capture individual shots of each member of a band. 

Fareedah is a brilliant dancer and this being prime hiphop, both she and Speech were moving around the stage (as well as bouncing up and down) so my shutter speeds had to be high enough to make sure they stayed sharp while they were. Consequently, this meant I had to bump up my ISO to around 2600 to compensate, which is higher than I usually like to work with but could deal with the additional noise in post processing. I was even able to use the crowd around me to add a bit of atmosphere to some of the shots by crouching down and using my 14-24mm wide lens to incorporate their outstretched arms to add to the composition. When you're this close to the stage, this is one of the best concert photography lenses.

Best of all though, the First Three Songs rule wasn’t in force so I could photograph all of the gig…

Click here to see my full set of images from this gig

And if you want to hear how good Arrested Development are, check out the playlist below: