Exercise: Close and Involved.

Outline: Using a wide angle lens  and use it close to people and try to achieve a sense of putting the viewer right in the situation.

I will be using gigs as an example again to compare to the previous exercise, 'standing back'. Standing at the barrier in a music event produces much better images as you appear to be right in the action of the performance and can get some excellent 'full length' shots as you dont have any of the disturbances between you and the artist as with the longer focal length. Indoor music venues tend to have terrible lighting as well and I find standing at the front and using a shorter focal length is better here as you will capture any available lighting from the stage as well.

Curse of The Defiled

As a downside though, I always feel slightly exposed this way and feel as though i 'shouldn't' be photographing the artists if you like. Probably because they can see you are taking photos as can the security at the front and I always feel as though someone will come up to me and say I'm not allowed to.
Artists will always expect fans to take photos at their gigs, especially with mobile phones now having some exceptional camera abilities but it goes back to my personal comfort level. I always feel slightly uncomfortable and very aware of how many photos I'm taking. This makes me feel like I dont want to take too many as though I am taking advantage of the opportunity of being at the front, even though I'd probably take twice as many from the back, and I dont want to annoy the artist more than anything.

Stitch D of The Defiled

Conclusion: As I would love to do gig photography as a profession, I have noticed through this exercise alone that this is something that I really do need to address and work more on my confidence levels.I always feel intrusive being in peoples face with a camera but in the gig environment, as a professional photographer, that is what I would be there for. As a profession, I would need to be in the photo pits and compete with other photographers to get good shots at a shorter focal length than the barrier so, as this is my biggest issue with working at a short focal length, I need to attempt to address this and build up my confidence as much as I am able.