Exercise: Capturing the moment.

Outline: While photographing a comfortable situation, concentrate on shooting bursts of activity, from which you try to capture a best moment.

One of the best things about photographs is that they last a lifetime. You can capture that one moment and can share it with anyone. The only thing is having the ability to capture it and this is why I will always have a camera with me.
Music concerts, gigs and festivals are a great example to share for this exercise. I will always try to capture any music event I go to just for the memory of the experience. I have two cameras that I use for this purpose alone and most venues have strict rules about camera equipment. I have a Nikon Coolpix S9100 which is my everyday compact camera. This one I can take to pretty much any gig. It has a nice 18x wide optical zoom which is good for attempting to get good stage shots but it almost always needs to have the flash raised. Even in daylight indoors, this camera will cause image blurring with the slightest of movement. I also have a Fujifilm Finepix S4000. I keep this ones for festivals mostly as it has a 30x superwide zoom and so great for stage shots from the crowd, but I cant get into many indoor venues with this and have even had it confiscated at a Birmingham venue!

Anyway, most artists will have a very energetic stage performance and will always try to give the viewer something. I would love more opportunities to be able to get in the photo pit to be able to capture more and not have disturbance from the crowd, like heads and arms at the bottom of my shots. But while watching the performances, its always a mixture of equipment and timing to be able to capture those bursts of activity.

Sonisphere Festival 2011 was a great opportunity for 'moment capture' photos.

These images were taken during the set by Australian rockers Airbourne, where frontman Joel O'Keefe likes to liven up their set by climbing the stage rigging and performing from 'on top' of the stage!

Joel O'Keefe climbing the stage rigging

I managed to capture a photo of Joel actually climbing the rigging. My trusty Fujifilm with a good zoom lens allowed me to capture this with no distractions.

guitar solo from the top of Saturn stage

Again, this in itself is a great moment captured thanks to the superzoom capabilities of my camera. But even though these are both great images, my 'best' moment of this set has to be:

A Typical Airbourne set

I love this image and has to be one of the best moments of this set. Even though all three of these pictures depict the same moment, this shows the detail and scale of exactly what is happening with the inclusion of the stage in the image. Just by zooming out to wide angle with my camera from the last shot (above) it takes the image to a whole new level. It really has a 'wow' factor and I am really happy with this image.

During another set of ,again Austrailian, rockers Parkway Drive, I took plenty of photos to capture their great stage presence. I took numerous photos during the set in the hope of getting one or two good ones.

Winston McCall mid perfomance

Parkway Drive performing at Sonisphere 2011

These first two images are my standard gig images that I have many of. The artists on stage in various positions, with or without instruments and they will recall the memory of the performance as any photograph.

This is my best moment photograph for a separate reason.

Winston McCall's giant leap!

I love this image because it doesn't depict a certain moment of the show, not like my previous example. I love this because frontman Winston McCall just happened to do a huge leap off the speaker just as I took the photo and it created this awesome shot. It was pure chance that this moment happened. It happens a lot in rock gigs so not a memorable or unique moment by any means but as it happens so fast, you really need to be ready and waiting watching through the viewfinder for the entire set to try and capture this if and when it happens. I have included this here as I love the fact that I completely unknowingly at the time caught such a great image.



Conclusion: The images above are all about being in the right place at the right time for me. As well as having a camera handy in the first instance. Watching music performances are always good but isn't the key to a good photographer capturing these amazing moments? I find gigs are always unpredictable. You dont know moments like those above are going to happen beforehand. It's just taking the opportunity and being prepared to capture it when it does. I have missed loads of opportunities for a 'moment' shot of the past few years purely because they happen so fast and I'm not ready and waiting with my camera. So do I take thousands of photos and miss most of the performance to capture something great and not miss the opportunity? Not at all. I tend to give myself a limit, like the 3 song rule of only photographing during the first three songs, to get a load of shots but then plenty of time to go wild and enjoy the gig later. If something does happen during the rest of the set, sure I'll attempt to get the camera out to get it but it cant be the be all and end all of photography.