rapturedmind photography » Concert

Skull Fist – Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle – 17.09.2011

Daniel — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 19:22:25 +0000

Skull Fist from Canada started the evening with their Set. They didn’t really fit in with the rest of the Bands, but nonetheless the visitors seemed to enjoy the show quite a bit and started cheering soon. Another reason for that might have been ‘fanclub’ the Band brought and that screamed enthusiastically from the first minute on.

Shooting Notes
This was one of those sets, that make me always have a 50mm f1.4 in the bag. It was so dark and there where only a couple of spotlights on the Band. I was shooting at f1.4 and ISO 1600 with a shutter speed of 1/100 to get at least a little bit of light into my camera. If it would have been allowed, I would have gotten my flash out of the bag to get some light into the faces of the artists and counteract the mostly colourfull lightwash.

Beatsteaks – Köln, Palladium – 02.12.2011

Daniel — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 02:20:16 +0000

Long before the show, the Palladium in Köln was sold out and everybody seemed quite excited to see the Beatsteaks live again. I haven’t had the pleasure too often, but I can only say, that the Band is a blast to watch and I was quite excited for the show myself. As expected the Concerthall was packed up to the roof and within minutes after the Beatsteaks show started, the crowd went wild cheering and jumping.

Shooting Notes
This was the first night I was out using the Canon 5D Mark II on a concert, also bringing my trusty Canon 40D. So I was able to use my Canon Ef 24-70 f2.8 on the full frame body and had the Canon Ef 70-200 f2.8 IS on the crop-camera for a little more reach. During the whole Show I had to adjust to some major changes in exposure do to the lightshow and the fact, that Singer Arnim Teutoburg-Weiß was all over the place. When the lights flared up on the stage, I could shoot easily at ISO 800 at f2.8 and a shutter speed above 1/400 of a second while I had to go to ISO 3200 and 1/160 the compensate for the dark edges of the stage. This combined with the constant movement of the musicians made it quite a wild and fun shoot.

Beatsteaks - Köln, Palladium - 02.12.2011

Bochum Total 2011 – Friday Preview

Daniel — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 01:29:39 +0000

Even though it was really really crowded today, it was a lot of fun shooting at the Bochum Total. So watch out for the full sets with shooting notes in the next couple of days.

Juli – Dortmund, FZW – 24.11.2010

Daniel — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 16:55:26 +0000

Being able to shoot Juli this week was something I really wanted to do for a long time now. I’m a huge fan of the Band and so when the opportunity came up I just couldn’t pass it. After being away for 2 years now, the Band played in smaller venues then during the ‘Dieses Leben’ Tour and so they were in the FZW in Dortmund, which is a really nice and comfortable club. The first Minute into the set it was clear that the Audience would enjoy this evening. The Band played an intense and great show with an awesome sound and a great lightshow.

Shooting Notes
Even though watching the lightshow from a distance was great, shooting in this light was pretty tough. The Band relied on LED lights which were blasting over the stage from the sides with little frontlight which was mostly focused on Singer Eva Briegel. With those LED lights, you had to be really careful with setting your exposure, because every little mistake resulted in blown out highlights and purple fringing that couldn’t really be fixed in post processing. Only good thing about this light was, that it was at least bright enough to shoot with a fast shutterspeed and lower ISO. I was using ISO 800, just bumping it up to 1250 when shooting Guitarplayers Simon Triebel and Jonas Pfetzing at the side of the stage, when they went out of the direct beam of the LEDs, and a shutter speed of 1/250 and up. The Aperture was set between f2.8 and f4 changing it during the set, trying to get the intense light under control.

Juli - Dortmund, FZW - 24.11.2010
Juli - Dortmund, FZW - 24.11.2010
Juli - Dortmund, FZW - 24.11.2010
Juli - Dortmund, FZW - 24.11.2010
Juli - Dortmund, FZW - 24.11.2010
Juli - Dortmund, FZW - 24.11.2010
Juli - Dortmund, FZW - 24.11.2010
Juli - Dortmund, FZW - 24.11.2010
Juli - Dortmund, FZW - 24.11.2010
Juli - Dortmund, FZW - 24.11.2010
Juli - Dortmund, FZW - 24.11.2010
Juli - Dortmund, FZW - 24.11.2010
Juli - Dortmund, FZW - 24.11.2010
Juli - Dortmund, FZW - 24.11.2010
Juli - Dortmund, FZW - 24.11.2010
Juli - Dortmund, FZW - 24.11.2010
Juli - Dortmund, FZW - 24.11.2010
Juli - Dortmund, FZW - 24.11.2010
Juli - Dortmund, FZW - 24.11.2010
Juli - Dortmund, FZW - 24.11.2010
Juli - Dortmund, FZW - 24.11.2010

Mikroboy – Dortmund, FZW – 24.11.2010

Daniel — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 16:55:15 +0000

Opening for Juli this evening at the FZW in Dortmund were Mikroboy. The Band from Berlin/Hamburg playes Indie Musik with a little electronic edge to it. With their sound the fitted great along the little more pop oriented Juli. The Band played a great and fun show to watch and I definitely had a lot of fun shooting them.

Shooting Notes
The stagelight was really nice and even though I had to deal with the same LED Spots coming from the side of the stage I later would curse when shooting Juli, the light was a bit brighter then with the headliner. Also during some parts of their Songs, the Band got white light on them from the front and the back, making it a lot easier to deal with the greens and blues that dominated during their gig. I was shooting at f4 most of the time, using a shutter speed of 1/250 (and up) and an ISO setting of 800. This allowed me to get the Canon 10-22 out and take some wide angle shots.

Mikroboy - Dortmund, FZW - 24.11.2010
Mikroboy - Dortmund, FZW - 24.11.2010
Mikroboy - Dortmund, FZW - 24.11.2010
Mikroboy - Dortmund, FZW - 24.11.2010
Mikroboy - Dortmund, FZW - 24.11.2010
Mikroboy - Dortmund, FZW - 24.11.2010
Mikroboy - Dortmund, FZW - 24.11.2010
Mikroboy - Dortmund, FZW - 24.11.2010
Mikroboy - Dortmund, FZW - 24.11.2010
Mikroboy - Dortmund, FZW - 24.11.2010
Mikroboy - Dortmund, FZW - 24.11.2010
Mikroboy - Dortmund, FZW - 24.11.2010
Mikroboy - Dortmund, FZW - 24.11.2010
Mikroboy - Dortmund, FZW - 24.11.2010
Mikroboy - Dortmund, FZW - 24.11.2010

David Garrett – Köln, Lanxess Arena – 31.10.2010

Daniel — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 15:10:46 +0000

On short notice I got to go out this last sunday and was able to shot something a bit different to my normal routine. David Garret, the violine Virtuoso, was playing the Lanxess Arena in Köln. Knowing Köln and the trouble you can have trying to get a parking space I left two hours before the show started. Getting there wasn’t that big of a Problem, but the last 1km took forever… felt a bit like Disneyland. You think you are close to finally getting on the ride, but then another room opens up with another set of rows to get through. In the end everything worked out and I had a blast shooting David.

Shooting Notes
With tickets priced over 100 Euro for the first couple of rows and flame throwers at the edge of the stage, it was expected of us photographers to stay at the side of the stage, shooting at a really shallow angle. You also had to pick a side of the stage to stay during the show. With this in mind I was shooting the 70-200 for the whole show, most of the time on it’s max zoom setting. Trying to avoid camera shake and motion blur I bumped the ISO up to 1250 at f2.8 to get a shutter speed high enough to compensate for the movement. Lowering the ISO only to compensate for the exta amount of light coming from the flame throwers at the end of the three Songs.

David Garrett - Köln, Lanxess Arena - 31.10.2010
David Garrett - Köln, Lanxess Arena - 31.10.2010
David Garrett - Köln, Lanxess Arena - 31.10.2010
David Garrett - Köln, Lanxess Arena - 31.10.2010
David Garrett - Köln, Lanxess Arena - 31.10.2010
David Garrett - Köln, Lanxess Arena - 31.10.2010
David Garrett - Köln, Lanxess Arena - 31.10.2010
David Garrett - Köln, Lanxess Arena - 31.10.2010
David Garrett - Köln, Lanxess Arena - 31.10.2010
David Garrett - Köln, Lanxess Arena - 31.10.2010
David Garrett - Köln, Lanxess Arena - 31.10.2010
David Garrett - Köln, Lanxess Arena - 31.10.2010
David Garrett - Köln, Lanxess Arena - 31.10.2010
David Garrett - Köln, Lanxess Arena - 31.10.2010
David Garrett - Köln, Lanxess Arena - 31.10.2010
David Garrett - Köln, Lanxess Arena - 31.10.2010
David Garrett - Köln, Lanxess Arena - 31.10.2010

Ahab – Summer Breeze Open Air 2010

Daniel — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 14:11:47 +0000

By now it was 3:30 am and I was exhausted from the long day, but I really wanted to see Ahab. With their latest Album ‘The Divinity Of Oceans’ the Band released a masterpiece of Doom Metal, so hard, crushing and slow, but still filled with so much energy and suspense, that it is hard to stand. I was curious to see how this would work out on stage, especially at this late hour. All doubts got swept away as the first cords rang through the tent and the last survivors of the day were in for an awesome show.

Shooting Notes
Well, Ahab are a Doom Metal Band and so there wasn’t a lot of action on stage. I was shooting the 24-70 as well as the 70-200, for some close ups, at f2.8, ISO 1000 and a shutter speed between 1/100 to 1/250 of a second, throwing in some flash from time to time, to get some light into the faces of the guys, because the light was, again, pretty moody and dark.

Ahab - Summer Breeze Open Air 2010
Ahab - Summer Breeze Open Air 2010
Ahab - Summer Breeze Open Air 2010
Ahab - Summer Breeze Open Air 2010
Ahab - Summer Breeze Open Air 2010
Ahab - Summer Breeze Open Air 2010
Ahab - Summer Breeze Open Air 2010
Ahab - Summer Breeze Open Air 2010

Suffocation – Summer Breeze Open Air 2010

Daniel — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 14:11:40 +0000

Suffocation were the first Band for us to see at the Summer Breeze Open Air 2010 and started the whole experience weekend. Except for slight variations in the length of their playtime and the short interruptions in which Frank Mullen adressed the crowd, the show was pretty much the same as a couple of weeks before at the Death Feast Open Air. Well, that doesn’t mean that it was bad… just that we got to enjoy it twice.

Shooting Notes
This being the first gig to shoot on the Festival I had to get back into shooting mode and needed a couple of minutes to ajust to the conditions in the tent. As pointed out before it was dark in there. On the first eve I was still shooting at ISO 1000 (not wanting to bump up the ISO higher) at 1/160 and f2.8, using a flash to get some front light going on. The 24-70 and the 70-200 were my weapons of choice here.

Suffocation - Summer Breeze Open Air 2010
Suffocation - Summer Breeze Open Air 2010
Suffocation - Summer Breeze Open Air 2010
Suffocation - Summer Breeze Open Air 2010
Suffocation - Summer Breeze Open Air 2010
Suffocation - Summer Breeze Open Air 2010

Maroon – Summer Breeze Open Air 2010

Daniel — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 14:30:03 +0000

The choice between seeing Maroon or Dark Funeral was pretty easy for me, not being that much of a Black Metal fan any longer. Having seen the Band a couple of times before, I knew that I could expect a great show. With their latest Album ‘Order’ the Band released a fantastic album, which was so much fun to hear live.

Shooting Notes
By now it was completely dark outside, so the lightguy had to turn up the spots on stage. Unfortunately there was so much red light, that is was messing with all my pictures. To counterbalance that, I was using a flash dialed back about 1 1/2 stops. Do to that I was able to shoot at f2.8, ISO 800 and a shutter speed between 1/160 and 1/250. Maroon would have been a great Band to get the 10-22 out of the bag, but it was just to dark to deal with the aperture of f4.5 (it’s a nice lens, but what really annoys me about it, is the changing aperture over the zoomrange).

Maroon - Summer Breeze Open Air 2010
Maroon - Summer Breeze Open Air 2010
Maroon - Summer Breeze Open Air 2010
Maroon - Summer Breeze Open Air 2010
Maroon - Summer Breeze Open Air 2010
Maroon - Summer Breeze Open Air 2010
Maroon - Summer Breeze Open Air 2010
Maroon - Summer Breeze Open Air 2010
Maroon - Summer Breeze Open Air 2010
Maroon - Summer Breeze Open Air 2010
Maroon - Summer Breeze Open Air 2010
Maroon - Summer Breeze Open Air 2010
Maroon - Summer Breeze Open Air 2010
Maroon - Summer Breeze Open Air 2010

Guerrilla – Köln, MTC – 16.01.2010

Daniel — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:37:20 +0000

If you want to see a really good live Band, most of the time you don’t have to look in the distance, because their are unbelievable great Bands right in the neighbourhood, especially in my area, where there are three main population boiling point connect. This eve I was invited to attend the record release party of one of my favourite Bands, so I was heading towards cologne to see Guerrilla. The Band plays quite a catchy tune and their last album was an absolute blast, even though the release is quite a while back now. The location I was heading to was a small basement club near the center of cologne. So the place was packed pretty much from the start on. Unfortunatly the Bands singer wasn’t able to attend the show, so the Band borrowed about every singer the area had to offer and so every two songs there was a new face on stage. Unfortunatly the sound was absolutly awful the first couple of songs, while the Band played the tracks of the new album. Luckily they fixed the soundproblems after that and the rest of the show was really enjoyable and the true strength of the band came through. Energetic riffs and an intense live show, that’s what I was looking for.

If you want to check out the new record, go to the Bands Webpage and download it there. ‘Kickstart Revolution’ is free of charge and for me one of the best Albums I’ve listened to in quite a while.

Shooting Notes
I’ve had to shoot in a lot of little clubs before, but what I got to deal with this eve at the MTC was miserable. Overall the club was nice, but they literally just had 4 lights aimed at the stage. It was so bad, that my camera wasn’t able to focus most of the time. So I got my flash out, not only to get some light into the picture, but also to use the AF-assist light that comes with it. Working at ISO 1250 to 1600 with a wide open aperture of 2.8 and a slow shutter of 1/60 I was able to get at least some ambient light into the picture. I shoot this set with the 24-70 at the wide end most of the time and even that wasn’t wide enough. Sometimes it just doesn’t work as you wish, but I think I got at least some nice frames out of it.

Guerrilla - Köln, MTC - 16.01.2010
Guerrilla - Köln, MTC - 16.01.2010
Guerrilla - Köln, MTC - 16.01.2010
Guerrilla - Köln, MTC - 16.01.2010
Guerrilla - Köln, MTC - 16.01.2010
Guerrilla - Köln, MTC - 16.01.2010
Guerrilla - Köln, MTC - 16.01.2010
Guerrilla - Köln, MTC - 16.01.2010
Guerrilla - Köln, MTC - 16.01.2010
Guerrilla - Köln, MTC - 16.01.2010
Guerrilla - Köln, MTC - 16.01.2010
Guerrilla - Köln, MTC - 16.01.2010
Guerrilla - Köln, MTC - 16.01.2010
Guerrilla - Köln, MTC - 16.01.2010
Guerrilla - Köln, MTC - 16.01.2010
Guerrilla - Köln, MTC - 16.01.2010
Guerrilla - Köln, MTC - 16.01.2010
Guerrilla - Köln, MTC - 16.01.2010
Guerrilla - Köln, MTC - 16.01.2010
Guerrilla - Köln, MTC - 16.01.2010
Guerrilla - Köln, MTC - 16.01.2010
Guerrilla - Köln, MTC - 16.01.2010
Guerrilla - Köln, MTC - 16.01.2010
Guerrilla - Köln, MTC - 16.01.2010
Guerrilla - Köln, MTC - 16.01.2010
Guerrilla - Köln, MTC - 16.01.2010

Crucified Barbara – Essen, Turock – 17.12.2009

Daniel — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:37:13 +0000

Girls, Girls Girls… or as the knowing call them: a fist full of metal… god I have to stop those cheesy wordplays.
Well, Crucified Barbara were up on stage this eve and they rocked the house like nobody I got to shoot in Essen before. They even got the ground in front of the stage vibrating, a thing Death Metal Veterans Krisiun tried, but haven’t succeeded with. The girls didn’t stand still for a moment and especially Klara Force was whipping her hair from left to right without a pause. Strong Songs, great Sound and a lot of energy. That’s what I call a great gig.

Shooting Notes
Covering a gig inside the Turock in Essen is always a bit strange. As many other times before, the light was mostly coming from behind the artists with a little bit of frontlight on the singer at the middle of the stage. So shooting with an aperture of 2.8 and ISO 800 was necessary. Do to the fact, that there was quite a lot of movement on stage, I got my flash out to get some light in the faces and to get my shutter speed up to 1/160. Next to that the motto of the eve was shoot a lot to pick the best moments at the end, when the light was right.

Crucified Barbara - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Crucified Barbara - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Crucified Barbara - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Crucified Barbara - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Crucified Barbara - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Crucified Barbara - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Crucified Barbara - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Crucified Barbara - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Crucified Barbara - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Crucified Barbara - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Crucified Barbara - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Crucified Barbara - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Crucified Barbara - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Crucified Barbara - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Crucified Barbara - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Crucified Barbara - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Crucified Barbara - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Crucified Barbara - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Crucified Barbara - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Crucified Barbara - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Crucified Barbara - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Crucified Barbara - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Crucified Barbara - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Crucified Barbara - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Crucified Barbara - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Crucified Barbara - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Crucified Barbara - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Crucified Barbara - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Crucified Barbara - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Crucified Barbara - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Crucified Barbara - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Crucified Barbara - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Crucified Barbara - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Crucified Barbara - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009

Bonafide – Essen, Turock – 17.12.2009

Daniel — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:36:56 +0000

With Bonafide there is finally a Band, which delivers what the name predicts. Old School Hard Rock as the early Ac/Dc played it… well, if you name yourself Bonifide you better don’t play Free-Jazz. Overdriven riffs and a fist full of blues was in the air as the Band started playing. The audience seemed to enjoy it, even though I was more excited about the main act of the evening. I just need more distortion… because in distortion I trust.

Shooting Notes
Covering a gig inside the Turock in Essen is always a bit strange. As many other times before, the light was mostly coming from behind the artists with a little bit of frontlight on the singer at the middle of the stage. So shooting with an aperture of 2.8 and ISO 800 was necessary. Do to the fact, that there was quite a lot of movement on stage, I got my flash out to get some light in the faces and to get my shutter speed up to 1/160. Next to that the motto of the eve was shoot a lot to pick the best moments at the end, when the light was right.

Bonafide - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Bonafide - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Bonafide - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Bonafide - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Bonafide - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Bonafide - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Bonafide - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Bonafide - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Bonafide - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Bonafide - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Bonafide - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Bonafide - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Bonafide - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Bonafide - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Bonafide - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Bonafide - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Bonafide - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Bonafide - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Bonafide - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Bonafide - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Bonafide - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Bonafide - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Bonafide - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Bonafide - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Bonafide - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009
Bonafide - Essen, Turock - 17.12.2009

Every Time I Die – Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle – 09.12.2009

Daniel — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:04:03 +0000

Every Time I Die is a bandname that I heard a lot before, so I was quite excited to see the Band finally live. Even though the crowd was a bit slow so early during the day, the guys laid down a great show. With a crushing sound and a lot of energy this set turned out to be quite enjoyable.

Shooting Notes
Getting along with the light this evening was quite hard. In Flames brought quite a big lightrig and blasted the stage with light. Unfortunatly there seemed to be only two options in the repertoire of the lightdesigner. It was on or off – so the exposure went from nearly black to surface of the sun in moments. This made it quite hard getting the camera setup right. But even when you nailed the exposure you still had to deal with the fact that most of the time the artists were lite only from one side and the other side of their body disappeared into darkness.

Every Time I Die - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Every Time I Die - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Every Time I Die - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Every Time I Die - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Every Time I Die - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Every Time I Die - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Every Time I Die - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Every Time I Die - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Every Time I Die - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Every Time I Die - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Every Time I Die - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Every Time I Die - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Every Time I Die - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Every Time I Die - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Every Time I Die - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Every Time I Die - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Every Time I Die - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Every Time I Die - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Every Time I Die - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Every Time I Die - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Every Time I Die - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Every Time I Die - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Every Time I Die - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Every Time I Die - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Every Time I Die - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Every Time I Die - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Every Time I Die - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Every Time I Die - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Every Time I Die - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Every Time I Die - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Every Time I Die - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Every Time I Die - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Every Time I Die - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Every Time I Die - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Every Time I Die - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Every Time I Die - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009

Heaven Shall Burn – Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle – 09.12.2009

Daniel — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:07:49 +0000

Heaven Shall Burn don’t tour a lot… or at least it was that way not long ago. With their last album ‘Iconoclast’ and the live dvd ‘Bildersturm – Iconoclast II’ they seemed to be around quite a lot. Hey, I don’t want to complain and to be honest I’m quite happy about that. Those two last outputs of the Band are so extremely good, that I can’t help starting to headbang, even when I think about them. Seeing the Band live, makes that experience even better. Heaven Shall Burn are always a blast to watch and that was no different this evening.

Shooting Notes
Getting along with the light this evening was quite hard. In Flames brought a big lightrig and blasted the stage away with it. Unfortunatly there seemed to be only two options in the repertoire of the lightdesigner. It was on or off – so the exposure went from nearly black to surface of the sun in moments. This made it quite hard getting the camera setup right. But even when you nailed the exposure you still had to deal with the fact that most of the time the artists were lite only from one side and the other side of their body disappeared into darkness.
When Heaven Shall Burn began their set, shooting started to get hard. The light wasn’t as even as it was before with Everytime I Die and there seemed to be just a mix of blue and purple spots. Using an ISO of 1250 I was close to my unity-gain ISO and I didn’t want to go higher, even though one or two stops more would have helped controlling the ambient a bit more, but the noise would have gotten out of hand. So I kept the shutter speed at 1/160 most of the time and the aperture was at f2.8. I was shooting most of the set with the 24-70 and got the 70-200 out for the last song, to get some close-ups.

Heaven Shall Burn - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Heaven Shall Burn - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Heaven Shall Burn - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Heaven Shall Burn - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Heaven Shall Burn - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Heaven Shall Burn - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Heaven Shall Burn - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Heaven Shall Burn - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Heaven Shall Burn - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Heaven Shall Burn - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Heaven Shall Burn - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Heaven Shall Burn - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Heaven Shall Burn - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Heaven Shall Burn - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Heaven Shall Burn - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Heaven Shall Burn - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Heaven Shall Burn - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Heaven Shall Burn - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Heaven Shall Burn - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Heaven Shall Burn - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Heaven Shall Burn - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Heaven Shall Burn - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Heaven Shall Burn - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Heaven Shall Burn - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Heaven Shall Burn - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Heaven Shall Burn - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Heaven Shall Burn - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Heaven Shall Burn - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Heaven Shall Burn - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Heaven Shall Burn - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Heaven Shall Burn - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Heaven Shall Burn - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Heaven Shall Burn - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Heaven Shall Burn - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Heaven Shall Burn - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009

Killswitch Engage – Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle – 09.12.2009

Daniel — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 13:15:12 +0000

When Killswitch Engage entered the stage, the crowd in the venue went wild. From the first moment on the Band gave everything and justified their position as co-headliner without a doubt. Next to being great musicians the Band is quite entertaining… led by the man who single-handedly brought the cape back into Metal (as Anders Fridén of In Flames put it so adequate). Even Singer Howard Jones had to shake his head in wonder a couple of times listening to Adam Dutkiewicz.

Shooting Notes
Getting along with the light this evening was quite hard. In Flames brought quite a big lightrig and the stage was blasted with light. Unfortunatly there seemed to be only two options in the repertoire of the lightdesigner. It was on or off – so the exposure went from nearly black to surface of the sun in moments. This made it quite hard getting the camera setup right. But even when you nailed the exposure you still had to deal with the fact that most of the time the artists were lite only from one side and the other side of their body disappeared into darkness.
This set was shot at ISO 800 and f2.8, but the shutterspeed varied quite a lot. Most of the time I was shooting at 1/200 to 1/320 but for some pictures I went as high as 1/1600 or low as 1/60 trying to deal with the light.

Killswitch Engage - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Killswitch Engage - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Killswitch Engage - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Killswitch Engage - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Killswitch Engage - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Killswitch Engage - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Killswitch Engage - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Killswitch Engage - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Killswitch Engage - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Killswitch Engage - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Killswitch Engage - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Killswitch Engage - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Killswitch Engage - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Killswitch Engage - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Killswitch Engage - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Killswitch Engage - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Killswitch Engage - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Killswitch Engage - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Killswitch Engage - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Killswitch Engage - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Killswitch Engage - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
Killswitch Engage - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009

In Flames – Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle – 09.12.2009

Daniel — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 20:51:22 +0000

Seeing in Flames live in concert is always a blast. The location was packed and with a great sound and their energetic show everybody was enjoying it.

Shooting Notes
Getting along with the light this evening was quite hard. In Flames brought quite a big lightrig and blasted the stage with light. Unfortunatly there seemed to be only two options in the repertoire of the lightdesigner. It was on or off – so the exposure went from nearly black to surface of the sun in moments. This made it quite hard getting the camera setup right. But even when you nailed the exposure you still had to deal with the fact that most of the time the artists were lite only from one side and the other side of their body disappeared into darkness.
I shot this set exclusivly with the 24-70 and my Canon 40D.

In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009
In Flames - Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle - 09.12.2009

Sonata Arctica – Dortmund, FZW – 02.12.2009

Daniel — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:15:17 +0000

Finally it was time for Sonata Arctica to enter the stage. The last time I saw the Band is now quite a while back, so I was excited to hear some new material. I don’t know if it was just me, but as soon as the Band started playing I got bored pretty fast. Somehow there was no energy in the show and the band was pretty slow. Also the setlist seemed to just contain midtempo songs. The people in the first couple of rows disagreed with me though, judging by their cheers, so I guess it just wasn’t my day. I was staying for another couple of songs after I got out of the pit shooting the Band, but decided then to leave, because I couldn’t get into the mood of the show.

Really big thanks goes out to Jani of ‘Dice of Fate’ who got me set up this evening and Antti Hokkala and Pasi Kauppinen of Winterborn to arrange the Pass!

Shooting Notes
The light in the FZW was just weird. As I entered the hall, I was still in a happy mood looking at the stage, because it seemed to be quite bright and the lightrig looked pretty good. As soon as the show started and I was in the pit, I had trouble getting my head around the light. It was actually way darker then I suspected and there wasn’t that much front light. I was shooting wide open at f2.8 and a shutter speed between 1/125 and 1/160 which was pretty much on the verge I like operating on, also the minimum ISO I was using was 800 and I had to bumb that up a lot of times to 1600 to get enough light on the sensor (normally I try to stay at least below 1250 to not get over the Canon 40Ds Unity Gain ISO). This on the other end meant quite some work in postprocessing getting the noise in the images under control without destroying the sharpness and details in the files.
I was using the Canon EF 24-70 f2.8 for the most parts and got the Canon EF 70-200 f2.8 out during the last song to get some nice close-ups. The IS was a lifesaver here, shooting at the long end of the lens with really steady results. There are a lot of people that question the necessarity of image stabilization when doing concert photography… I’m always the opinion that it is worth the extra money, especially at small clubs.

Sonata Arctica - Dortmund, FZW - 02.12.2009
Sonata Arctica - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Sonata Arctica - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Sonata Arctica - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Sonata Arctica - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Sonata Arctica - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Sonata Arctica - Dortmund, FZW - 02.12.2009
Sonata Arctica - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Sonata Arctica - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Sonata Arctica - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Sonata Arctica - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Sonata Arctica - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Sonata Arctica - Dortmund, FZW - 02.12.2009
Sonata Arctica - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Sonata Arctica - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Sonata Arctica - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Sonata Arctica - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Sonata Arctica - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Sonata Arctica - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Sonata Arctica - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Sonata Arctica - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Sonata Arctica - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Sonata Arctica - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Sonata Arctica - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Sonata Arctica - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Sonata Arctica - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Sonata Arctica - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Sonata Arctica - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Sonata Arctica - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Sonata Arctica - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Sonata Arctica - Dortmund, FZW - 02.12.2009
Sonata Arctica - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Sonata Arctica - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Sonata Arctica - Dortmund, FZW - 02.12.2009
Sonata Arctica - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Sonata Arctica - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009

Delain – Dortmund, FZW – 02.12.2009

Daniel — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:14:13 +0000

I got to confess, that I never heard of Delain before this show. As the Band entered the stage, I was thinking to myself ‘please, not another one of those female metal princess again’, but as soon as the show started, I was convinced pretty fast. There also seemed to be quite a lot of people in the audience wanting to see Delain for the noise and the cheers went up pretty dramaticly compared to the winterborn show. The band seemed to be enjoying the evening too and was giving the audience great feedback. While shooting the Band I was quite busy and wasn’t concentrating much on the emotions coming of the stage, but as I was looking at the frames afterwards, I couldn’t help noticing the intense glow coming from singer Charlotte. I don’t don’t know what that girl was doing during the day, but those pictures turned out so great that I was stunned looking at them.

Really big thanks goes out to Jani of ‘Dice of Fate’ who got me set up this evening and Antti Hokkala and Pasi Kauppinen of Winterborn to arrange the Pass!

Shooting Notes
The light in the FZW was just weird. As I entered the hall, I was still in a happy mood looking at the stage, because it seemed to be quite bright and the lightrig looked pretty good. As soon as the show started and I was in the pit, I had trouble getting my head around the light. It was actually way darker then I suspected and there wasn’t that much front light. I was shooting wide open at f2.8 and a shutter speed between 1/125 and 1/160 which was pretty much on the verge I like operating on, also the minimum ISO I was using was 800 and I had to bumb that up a lot of times to 1600 to get enough light on the sensor (normally I try to stay at least below 1250 to not get over the Canon 40Ds Unity Gain ISO). This on the other end meant quite some work in postprocessing getting the noise in the images under control without destroying the sharpness and details in the files.
I was using the Canon EF 24-70 f2.8 for the most parts and got the Canon EF 70-200 f2.8 out during the last song to get some nice close-ups. The IS was a lifesaver here, shooting at the long end of the lens with really steady results. There are a lot of people that question the necessarity of image stabilization when doing concert photography… I’m always the opinion that it is worth the extra money, especially at small clubs.

Delain - Dortmund, FZW - 02.12.2009
Delain - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Delain - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Delain - Dortmund, FZW - 02.12.2009
Delain - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Delain - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Delain - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Delain - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Delain - Dortmund, FZW - 02.12.2009
Delain - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Delain - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Delain - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Delain - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Delain - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Delain - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Delain - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Delain - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Delain - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Delain - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Delain - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Delain - Dortmund, FZW - 02.12.2009
Delain - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Delain - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Delain - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Delain - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Delain - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Delain - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Delain - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Delain - Dortmund, FZW - 02.12.2009
Delain - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Delain - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Delain - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Delain - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Delain - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009

Winterborn – Dortmund, FZW – 02.12.2009

Daniel — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:12:29 +0000

The opening act this day was Winterborn from Finland. I got their Cd a while ago via the record company and enjoyed it quite a lot. So I wanted to check them out as I heard they were playing in the area. This was also the first time I got a chance to shoot in the new FZW concerthall in Dortmund.
The show started this evening pretty much on time and as the guys of Winterborn entered the stage, the place was nicely filled with people. The Band played an energetic set, that was a lot of fun watching and listening too. The sound wasn’t the best though and there could have been a little better balance between the guitars and the rest of the Band. It was hard for the band opening for the young crowd, that came out to listen to Sonata Arctica, but by the end of their set, there were quite a lot of people in the audience cheering for the band. I guess that means mission accomplished.

Really big thanks goes out to Jani of ‘Dice of Fate’ who got me set up this evening and Antti Hokkala and Pasi Kauppinen of Winterborn to arrange the Pass!

Shooting Notes
The light in the FZW was just weird. As I entered the hall, I was still in a happy mood looking at the stage, because it seemed to be quite bright and the lightrig looked pretty good. As soon as the show started and I was in the pit, I had trouble getting my head around the light. It was actually way darker then I suspected and there wasn’t that much front light. I was shooting wide open at f2.8 and a shutter speed between 1/125 and 1/160 which was pretty much on the verge I like operating on, also the minimum ISO I was using was 800 and I had to bumb that up a lot of times to 1600 to get enough light on the sensor (normally I try to stay at least below 1250 to not get over the Canon 40Ds Unity Gain ISO). This on the other end meant quite some work in postprocessing getting the noise in the images under control without destroying the sharpness and details in the files.
I was using the Canon EF 24-70 f2.8 for the most parts and got the Canon EF 70-200 f2.8 out during the last song to get some nice close-ups. The IS was a lifesaver here, shooting at the long end of the lens with really steady results. There are a lot of people that question the necessarity of image stabilization when doing concert photography… I’m always the opinion that it is worth the extra money, especially at small clubs.

Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 02.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 02.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 02.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 03.12.2009
Winterborn - Dortmund, FZW - 02.12.2009

Debauchery – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009

Daniel — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:52:58 +0000

After the great shows Path of Golconda and Laid in Ashes just played the Death’n'Roll Band Debauchery had a hard time keeping up and getting the audience on a similar level again. Also do to some technical difficulties the sound wasn’t tight and so, even though the Band really tried their best, in my opinion the gig didn’t come close to the shows I’ve seen before.

Shooting Notes
Shooting at the Helvete Club always requires using flash, do to the fact, that the light they got isn’t really bright and you would end up with shutter speeds of 1/20 or slower, even wide open, to get all the ambient light in the picture… naturally that is no option, do to the fact, that those shots would be completly unsharp. So using a flash, bumping the shutter up to 1/60 at ISO 800 and f2.8 made everything work out. Also shooting from the sides to the middle of the stage was necessary, because the lightrig was not really wide and concentrated to the center of the stage. When shooting to the sides you would end up with a picture just lit by flash with no stage light included. You had to watch out a little because the lightguy was going a lot of times for an really intense single colour wash (mostly red) and together with all the stagesmoke it was hard to focus and really cut through with the flash. Do to the really low celling you could bounce the flash really nicely and got a great fall-off towards the feet of the artists. Not a thing for every picture, but nice to get some different shots.
Also, when shooting Debauchery, one of the Bandmembers played an amp with an extra bright blue LED which illuminated half the stage and gave a nice cast from the sides which helped to outline the guys. If you take a closer look at the pictures you see it.

Debauchery – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Debauchery – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Debauchery – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Debauchery – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Debauchery – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Debauchery – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Debauchery – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Debauchery – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Debauchery – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Debauchery – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Debauchery – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Debauchery – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Debauchery – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Debauchery – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Debauchery – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Debauchery – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Debauchery – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Debauchery – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Debauchery – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Debauchery – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Debauchery – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009

Status Quo – Düsseldorf, Philipshalle – 24.10.2009

Daniel — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 16:26:40 +0000

The mainact of the evening was Status Quo. With about 5000 fans screaming for the Band, the show started under a good star. Energetic and with a smirk on their faces, the Band seemed to enjoy the show and was interacting with the audience during the whole time. Especially Bandleader Francis Rossi was pulling one face after the next, but never seemed to miss getting into the rockstar poses in between. I thought the Sound was quite enjoyable and the guitars got quite a lot of dirt in the mix with a lots of intensity, a thing, that I hadn’t expected.
I shot this show for virtualnights, thanks goes out to Michael.

Shooting Notes
The light this evening was awesome. I can’t remember the last time I had this much light on a stage in a concerthall… I definitly have to go and shoot those big events more often. I got the ISO up to 800, which was more like ISO 400 do to the good light and was shooting with a shutter speed of 1/250 to 1/640 at apertures of 2.8 up to 3.5 matching the shutter speeds. There was not a lot of thinking involved setting up the camera and I could concentrate on framing the guys on stage. The only thing I had to watch out for was ajusting the shutter speed when the bandmembers stepped away from their mics and a bit to the side out of the beam of the spots. The light was about 2 stops darker, so you had to pay attention to chance settings as soon as they started moving.
I was shooting this set with the Canon EOS 40D and the EF L 24-70 f2.8 and the EF L 70-200 f2.8. Again I wished for a nice wide angle lens or at least a full frame body to really use the 24mm to get a bit more of the atmosphere in the shot. The first Song was shot completely with the 24-70 and in the middle of the second Song I switched over to the 70-200 to get some close ups. Not one second to early, because we got thrown out of the pit right after the second Song.

Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Status Quo - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009

Kansas – Düsseldorf, Philipshalle – 24.10.2009

Daniel — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:49:41 +0000

I was really excited to go and see Kansas. I got to confess, that I started listening to classic rock just lately, so the package this eve was something new to me, for my normal shooting routine includes mostly Metal and HardRock Bands. But nonetheless it was really a great show and finally to hear Songs like “Carry On Wayward Son” or “Dust In The Wind” was a blast.
I shot this show for virtualnights, thanks goes out to Michael.

Shooting Notes
After the lady at the door needed about half an hour to get me my ticket, I was to late to get to the entry of the pit right in time. Putting on the 70-200 and getting right in between the people, I got the chance for about half a song to snap a couple of fast shots of Kansas before the first-three-songs-limit was over. Zoomed to 200mm shooting with f2.8 and a shutter speed between 1/250 to 1/320 and burst mode enabled I blasted away and got me a nice set of images, before I could enjoy the rest of the show.

Kansas - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Kansas - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Kansas - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Kansas - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Kansas - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Kansas - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Kansas - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Kansas - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Kansas - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Kansas - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Kansas - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Kansas - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Kansas - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Kansas - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Kansas - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Kansas - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Kansas - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Kansas - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Kansas - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Kansas - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Kansas - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Kansas - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Kansas - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Kansas - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Kansas - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009
Kansas - Düsseldorf, Philipshalle - 24.10.2009

Path of Golconda – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009

Daniel — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 16:43:42 +0000

Path of Golcanda is one of those Bands, that put out one top level album after the next, but never seem to be able to find a label to support them. With Yonah Records they finally found a partner to get their music, which is already known quite well, to even more people. Celebrating this deal was one of the reasons for the Band to play tonight, as well as the fact, that the new album ‘Return’ is about to be released (13.11.2009).
The last time I saw the Band live was three or four years ago, so I was quite happy to finally see them again. With their massiv sound and brilliant songs, they made the eve quite enjoyable. Even though the little stage seemed a bit to small for all those big guys, which gave them little room to move, they really rocked the house. The place was packed by now and the people really went crazy. Playing a lot of old Songs, the Band also introduced a couple of new Songs during the show, so waiting for the new album to come out, became even harder.

Shooting Notes
Shooting at the Helvete Club always requires using flash, do to the fact, that the light they got isn’t really bright and you would end up with shutter speeds of 1/20 or slower, even wide open, to get all the ambient light in the picture… naturally that is no option, do to the fact, that those shots would be completely unsharp. So using a flash, bumping the shutter up to 1/60 at ISO 800 and f2.8 made everything work out. Also shooting from the sides to the middle of the stage was necessary, because the lightrig was not really wide and concentrated to the center of the stage. When shooting to the sides you would end up with a picture just lit by flash with no stage light included. You had to watch out a little because the lightguy was going a lot of times for an really intense single colour wash (mostly red) and together with all the stagesmoke it was hard to focus and really cut through with the flash. Do to the really low celling you could bounce the flash really nicely and got a great fall-off towards the feet of the artists. Not a thing for every picture, but nice to get some different shots.

Path of Golconda – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Path of Golconda – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Path of Golconda – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Path of Golconda – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Path of Golconda – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Path of Golconda – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Path of Golconda – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Path of Golconda – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Path of Golconda – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Path of Golconda – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Path of Golconda – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Path of Golconda – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Path of Golconda – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Path of Golconda – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Path of Golconda – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Path of Golconda – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Path of Golconda – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Path of Golconda – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Path of Golconda – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Path of Golconda – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Path of Golconda – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Path of Golconda – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Path of Golconda – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Path of Golconda – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Path of Golconda – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Path of Golconda – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009

Laid in Ashes – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009

Daniel — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 16:18:59 +0000

Next up was Laid in Ashes. I would be lying if I said, that I like the Band. I love them. Starting from their debutalbum on, I’m a fan of the Band and when I got the time and the chance to see them I’ll go. The just got an enormous live presents and the show is up on the high end. Especially Singer Fabian is always a blast. Not only for his intense voice, but he is also always fun to shot, do to the fact, that he is constantly pulling faces. Jochen, the Bands regular Bassplayer, wasn’t here today, so Klaus of Execrate was helping out.

Shooting Notes
Shooting at the Helvete Club always requires using flash, do to the fact, that the light they got isn’t really bright and you would end up with shutter speeds of 1/20 or slower, even wide open, to get all the ambient light in the picture… naturally that is no option, do to the fact, that those shots would be completely unsharp. So using a flash, bumping the shutter up to 1/60 at ISO 800 and f2.8 made everything work out. Also shooting from the sides to the middle of the stage was necessary, because the lightrig was not really wide and concentrated to the center of the stage. When shooting to the sides you would end up with a picture just lit by flash with no stage light included. You had to watch out a little because the lightguy was going a lot of times for an really intense single colour wash (mostly red) and together with all the stagesmoke it was hard to focus and really cut through with the flash. Do to the really low celling you could bounce the flash really nicely and got a great fall-off towards the feet of the artists. Not a thing for every picture, but nice to get some different shots.

Laid in Ashes – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Laid in Ashes – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Laid in Ashes – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Laid in Ashes – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Laid in Ashes – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Laid in Ashes – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Laid in Ashes – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Laid in Ashes – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Laid in Ashes – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Laid in Ashes – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Laid in Ashes – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Laid in Ashes – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Laid in Ashes – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Laid in Ashes – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Laid in Ashes – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Laid in Ashes – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Laid in Ashes – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Laid in Ashes – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Laid in Ashes – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Laid in Ashes – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Laid in Ashes – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Laid in Ashes – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Laid in Ashes – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Laid in Ashes – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Laid in Ashes – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009

Exposed Guts – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009

Daniel — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 16:02:07 +0000

First Band of the day was Exposed Guts from Bochum. Normaly a foursome, the Bassplayer got lost on the way to the club and so the rest of the Band entered the Stage with a bit of delay. Do to that, their playing time was quite short and they really had to speed it up… well, when playing technical Death Metal, that comes naturally. Even though the Band seemed to have listened a bit to much to the old Death Records, I was stunned. They played an awesome set with unbelievable great Songs… Check them out! This is no suggestion, this is an order (Exposed Guts)!

Shooting Notes
Shooting at the Helvete Club always requires using flash, do to the fact, that the light they got isn’t really bright and you would end up with shutter speeds of 1/20 or slower, even wide open, to get all the ambient light in the picture… naturally that is no option, do to the fact, that those shots would be completely unsharp. So using a flash, bumping the shutter up to 1/60 at ISO 800 and f2.8 made everything work out. Also shooting from the sides to the middle of the stage was necessary, because the lightrig was not really wide and concentrated to the center of the stage. When shooting to the sides you would end up with a picture just lit by flash with no stage light included. You had to watch out a little because the lightguy was going a lot of times for an really intense single colour wash (mostly red) and together with all the stagesmoke it was hard to focus and really cut through with the flash. Do to the really low celling you could bounce the flash really nicely and got a great fall-off towards the feet of the artists. Not a thing for every picture, but nice to get some different shots.

Exposed Guts – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Exposed Guts – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Exposed Guts – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Exposed Guts – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Exposed Guts – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Exposed Guts – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Exposed Guts – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Exposed Guts – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Exposed Guts – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Exposed Guts – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Exposed Guts – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Exposed Guts – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009
Exposed Guts – Oberhausen, Helvete – 23.10.2009