rapturedmind photography » Köln

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

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

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