rapturedmind photography » summer breeze open air 2009

Volbeat – Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Daniel — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 23:54:18 +0000

Volbeat are quite a phenomenon. Not so long ago I was shooting the Band in the middle of the night on the smallest stage on a festival. Now they are playing the headlining position and the place is so full that from the front to the back, from the right to the left the only thing you see are people. Unfortunatly I saw the Band in the last couple of years too often and so I knew their set forward and backward.

Shooting Notes
The light on the Band was for the most part pretty good and at least Mister Poulsen had a spot on him nearly all the time, so shooting with ISO 800 at f2.8 and 1/500 of a second gave me a nice exposure. Getting a shot of the drummer was impossible do to the steep angle looking at the stage, also Thomas Bredahl kept a bit back so it was hard getting a shoot of him, too. Michael Poulson was for most parts limited in his movements by him having to stay close to his micstand. This meant that getting him framed was easy, even though a vertical was out of question.

Volbeat - Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Psychopunch – Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Daniel — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 23:51:29 +0000

Rock’n'Roll was up next with Psychopunch. The guys from Sweden were a nice break between all those Metalbands playing the entire day and at least soundwise your ears got to relax a little bit. Showwise the Band was up top along the best of the festival and quite entertaining for the whole crowd.

Shooting Notes
Shooting at 1/400 at f4 with an ISO of 200 it was no problem dealing with the lightning conditions. This is actually the first concert I got into one of my own concertshots… check out the second image of the post.

Psychopunch - Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Deathstars – Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Daniel — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 23:50:46 +0000

I’m not really into Russian Death Pop, but that is what the Deathstars are giving their audience. Dressed in Black uniforms and with pretty make up on, they made the girls in audience quite jumpy. For a lot of people this was the last band playing, so there was quite a big crowd gathered to watch the last Gig of the festival.

Shooting Notes
Shooting the small stage this evening was no fun. As before the light was pretty bad and consisted of 90% backlight, so I had to bump the ISO up to 1000 and needed a flash to light up the front of my subjects.

Deathstars - Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Vomitory – Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Daniel — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 23:49:29 +0000

And again it was time for some serious ass whooping. The Deathmetal guys of Vomitory are always a blast to watch. Not only are they playing quite a catchy tune, they are also fun to watch… well, at least if you are able to make out a face somewhere between all this hair.

Shooting Notes
The light in the tent was for most parts of the shows really great. I don’t know why, but there was a crispness to the images when looking at them afterwards on the Screen, that was just great. I was shooting at ISO 800 at f2.8 with a shutter speed of 1/160 with flash to get some light in the faces of the band.

Also check out my Summer Breeze free print give away…

Vomitory - Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Voivod – Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Daniel — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 23:48:19 +0000

Even though Voivod are one of those classic Metalbands, that should be on everybodys list to see, I couldn’t deal with them. Maybe it was just to late in the evening or it just wasn’t my cup of tea. At least the rest of the crowd seemed to enjoy them, even though after Volbeat finished their set, the place was draining by the minute.

Shooting Notes
Shooting Voivod was aweful. No only was the Band backlite for 90% of the shooting time, but the lightdesigner seemed to be endorsed by stage smoke machine companies. Naturally I had to put a flash on my camera to get some good shots. ISO was up at 1000 and I was shooting wide open at f2.8 with a shutter speed between 1/100 and 1/160.

Voivod - Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Life of Agony – Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Daniel — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 23:44:46 +0000

Last year I got a chance to see Life of Agony on stage and the gig was ok, nothing more. So I wasn’t really excited about seeing them this eve. This changed pretty fast as the Band entered the stage and started playing. I don’t know why, but the sound and the atmosphere was so much better today then the last time I saw the Band, so the gig was so much more enjoyable.

Shooting Notes
Bumping the ISO up to 800 combined with an aperture of f2.8 got me a shutter speed of 1/500 with was really needed to get guitarplayer Joey Z and bassplayer Alan Robert, which where moving around quite a lot, sharp, espacially when shooting with the Canon 70-200 f2.8 at full 200mm.

Life of Agony - Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Walls of Jericho – Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Daniel — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 23:41:33 +0000

There are a lot of great pictures of Walls of Jericho around and Bandfronter Candace Kucsulain as well as the rest of the Band seemed to bring a lot of energy along when performing live, so I was quite excited to shoot the Band. As expected the Band was giving everything from the moment they stepped on the stage and wasn’t standing still. With the crowd going wild in the back of your neck and an high energetic Band in front of you such a gig can be nothing else then a lot of fun.

Shooting Notes
With the sun starting to set behind the stage, I had to bump up my ISO to 400 and shoot with an aperture of f2.8. That gave me a shutter speed of 1/320 which was necessary to deal with the fast movement on stage. I was using the 24-70 most of the time with a bit of 70-200 in between for some close-ups.

Walls of Jericho - Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Vader – Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Daniel — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 23:34:30 +0000

If there is a Band out there that stands for Death Metal like no other then that is Vader from Poland. The guys around the Bands mastermind Peter are always a blast to watch and you can be sure, that you will have a good time. This was the first time I got to see the Band with the new line-up. Especially the new guitarplayer Waclaw “Vogg” Kieltyka caught my attention and I have to check out the other Band he is playing in (Decapitated).

Shooting Notes
I was using the 70-200 exclusively for this set. With the aperture at f4 and a shutter speed of 1/400 at ISO 400 there were no worries about the sharpness or fast movement. As always, the only think I had to face were the Bandmembers standing in the back of the stage.

Vader - Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Unheilig – Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Daniel — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:08:53 +0000

Unheilig are one of the Bands that don’t really fit into the normal repertoire at Summer Breeze Open Air, but unlike Lacrimosa, which played two years ago, Unheilig were able to rock the festival grounds, even though it was warm, bright and the middle of the day. The crowd that gathered in front of the stage was huge and as soon as the Band started playing the people went wild. Der Graf, Frontman and face of the Band, had the audience in his grip and you could tell, that he wouldn’t let go off them. With their great high energetic show the Band was probably in the Top 5 of this festivals performances.

Shooting Notes
Shooting Unheilig was actually pretty easy, at least getting a good picture of Der Graf. He stayed at the edge of the stage most of the time and was posing like mad for the audience. The others in the back kept pretty much to themself and moved not one inch away from their positions, which made it pretty hard shooting them.
The whole show was shot at a really low ISO setting with a short shutter speed and small aperture not having to thing about the light, because it was pretty early in the day.

Unheilig - Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Opeth – Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Daniel — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:52:12 +0000

With a bit of delay Opeth started their set this evening. In comparison to a lot of other artists today, all photographers were let into the pit right up from the start and their was no waiting. Well, at least until the show started. After a couple of minutes into the set, something broke down on stage and the Amp/Guitar of Fredrik Åkesson just stopped working completely. Even though he and his tec tried to get everything running again it took about 15 minutes until the show continued. Opeth being the headliner today at least got them in the position to keep on playing and finishing their set even though their regular stagetime was over.

Shooting Notes
Shooting Opeth is a pain in the butt. Most other Bands that played during the evenings got pretty nice light and you were able to get some good shots out of it. With Opeth that was not possible. The Band seemed to enjoy the really moody lightshow and was just backlite, in other words you had to use your flash to get some light into the faces of the Band. Also except for Mister Mikael Åkerfeldt, who had to be at his mic most of the time, the whole Band stayed pretty much in the back of the stage and you had no chance to get them into the frame.
The only thing that was quite nice, at least in my perspective shooting the Band, was when the guitar broke down. The whole stage was bathed in a nice warm light and we had the chance shooting some nice 70s style portraits of Mikael.

Opeth - Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Misery Index – Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Daniel — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 00:17:05 +0000

Misery Indey are just a blast. Not only did they play great Songs with a lot of energy and intensity, they also rule the Stage. The Bandmembers themself kept pretty much to their sides of the stage, but on those they were posing wildly. Especially Mr. Sparky Voyles was moving like crazy again and getting his hair moving. Checking the pictures later, I was a bit surprised to see his legs and shoes covered in white paint… apparently somebody was getting his livingroom in shape before he took off playing the show.
The Tentstage itself was full as hell and so crowded, that I had trouble getting to the front and into the photopit. Good thing the securties weren’t that strict and let us photographers our time shooting.

Shooting Notes
I was shooting this show mostly with the 24-70 to catch the fast moving actors on stage and get the great backlight into the frame. Do to the fact, that there wasn’t a lot of frontlight again, I was shooting with flash to get some light into the faces. ISO was up at 800 and the aperture set to 2.8. The shutter speed was mostly in the range of 1/200 a bit up and down to compensate for the light changes. At the end of the set I got the 70-200 out to get some close-ups, even though the lens was actually way to long for the small stage I can’t help using it at least once in every set do to its optical superiority. I just love this lens.

Misery Index - Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

The Other – Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Daniel — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 23:20:38 +0000

When The Others are near, you basically can tell by the crowd who’s playing. The Horrorpunklook that was up on the stage, was seen also all over the audience and even though their weren’t that many people, those few watching the Band really were into it and enjoyed the show. The Band itself is always a pleasure to shoot. I had the chance a couple of years ago and so I was excited seeing them again. The looks just do it for me. Yeah!

Shooting Notes
Again I didn’t have to think to much about exposure and shutter speeds, do to the fact, that it was bright daylight again. The high stage made you work a bit more to get the composition right, but with faces like that, what can you do wrong?

The Other - Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Nim Vind – Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Daniel — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 22:39:30 +0000

Nim Vind from Canada seemed not really enthusiastic when they came on stage, at least Mr. Nim Vind himself was a bit off. The others in the Band got into the mood fast and started to pose quite a lot, the frontman himself did not seem to be so energetic. But it just might be, that he was concentrating on singing and playing the quitar. Overall there weren’t a lot of people present, might be because of the extremly hot weather or the fact that the Band seemed to be a bit misplaced playing between Callejon and The Other.

Shooting Notes
It was bright outside and there was so much light, that you had no Problems shooting at all. The only thing I had to watch out for was the difference in skin tones between the suntanned Bassplayer and the very light skinned frontman… that basicly was it.

Nim Vind - Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

God Dethroned – Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Daniel — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:12:41 +0000

The reason I arrived at the Summer Breeze Open Air on Wednesday instead of Thurday (the day when the programm on the mainstage started) was because I had to see God Dethroned. I just love this Band and with their last Album ‘Passiondale’, they released an awesome piece of music. Do to the fact, that Cataract were late to arrive at the festivalground, God Dethroned were on about two hours earlier then planned and I nearly missed them, because I wanted to head to my tent after Vomitory finished their set. I just stayed long enough to see Henri get on stage to set up, which made me change my mind pretty quickly.
The show itself was great as always, but the Band played pretty much the same Setlist as a couple of weeks earlier at the Death Feast Open Air 2009, probably because of their new guitarplayer Susan Gerl.

Shooting Notes
The light in the Tentstage was quite unique. There was quite a big contrast between the darker frontlight and the really bright backlight. You had to watch out to you keep those in balance, so that the musicians don’t got to dark and on the other hand the backgrounds weren’t blowing out completely. Shooting was done with ISO 800 at shutter speed between 1/40 (with flash) and 1/200. The aperture was adjusted accordingly to the slow shutters as 1/40 not to blow out all the details in the images. In comparison with Vomitory where I was able to get some really crisp shots, there was a lot more stage smoke, so that the contrast in a lot of images was off.

God Dethroned - Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Kreator – Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Daniel — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:12:57 +0000

Kreator are back at the top. With the revival of Thrashmetal in the last couple of years and albums that got better and better the Bands audience got quite big again and not only the people that started listening to the Band when they released ‘Pleasure to Kill’ where in the pit this evening, there was also quite a big percentage of young listeners that weren’t even born when the album was released. Aggressiv as ever Kreator started the evening with “Hordes Of Chaos” and got better and better with every Song they played.

Shooting Notes
Shooting Kreator was a pain in the ass. A while ago the Band decided to go for really dark and moody stagelook with mostly redlight from the bottom (and even that was rare). Combined with the fact, that the stage wasn’t lower as before I got quite a hard time getting the images I needed. I was shooting at ISO 800, wide open at f2.8 and a shutter speed of 1/200. Sound not that bad at the first moment, but I had to tweak the images quite a bit in postprocessing to get them bright enough. I could have gone with a slower shutter speed, but this was not possible do to the fact, that I was shooting this set with the 70-200. Also the Band was quite active moving around and the amount of blurry pictures was high enough even at 1/200. Also there was a lot of stage smoke all the time, which really took down the contrast of the images and made it hard to focus correctly a lot of times.

Kreator - Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Krypteria – Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Daniel — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:30:59 +0000

The Krypteria Show started quite excitingly when Miss Ji-In Cho got on Stage and startet stripping down the white dress she was wearing. By the shouts from the audience the people seemed to really enjoy that, there were just little disappointed looks when a couple of guys realisted, that she was wearing a black leather outfit under that dress. I would have loved to show you some images of that, but unfortunatly for me (or really fortunatly for the Band), the place was packed with people and about an equally big number of photogs, which meant waiting quite a while until I finally got my chance to get into the pit. Normally I’m quite happy to wait a bit and get into the pit with the last run of photogs, because in most cases that gives you more time to do your work for there is noone waiting to get in after you. Also the Bands got warmed up on stage and are not as nervous or stiff as when you are there from the first second pointing the big glass eye at them. In this case I missed the striptease, but I think the images turned out quite well nonetheless.

Shooting Notes
Shooting during this time of day was a piece of cake. I got to shoot with an aperture of f4.5, a shutter speed faster then 1/400 at ISO 200. With those settings you can concentrate completely on framing your subjects and getting the poses right and don’t have to worry about the light. It always nice to get some of the stagelightning into the frames as well, but you don’t have to worry about blurry images do to slow shutter speeds or a short depth of field. Shooting was done with the 24-70 and the 70-200. In the end both lenses got their fair share in the final selection of the images.

Krypteria - Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Powerwolf – Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Daniel — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:35:22 +0000

Powerwolf is one of those Bands that are just fun to watch. The last time I got to see the Band was a couple of years ago, then the Band was still named Red Aim and played intense Classic Rock. In 2009 the tunes got harder and more Aggressiv. Also the Band really changed their style and that reflected on the stage setup. They got big Backdrops in the shapes of church windows, which looked really cool on the pictures.

Shooting NotesShootings Bands that wear white make up is always a bit hard, because the reference point to get the camera setup right is now off. So checking the display on the back of the camera is quite important. I was shooting wide open at f2.8 with an ISO of 800 and a shutter speed of 1/160. To deal with the moody light and to freeze the Bandmembers hair, that was being wiped around by the windmachines they brought, I got the flash out.

Powerwolf - Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

The Haunted – Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Daniel — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:24:00 +0000

The Haunted are one of my favourite Bands, I just can’t be really objective when writing about their show. Most of the time I don’t have to be objective, because in 99% of the time the Band just simple rocks. Nothing else happened this day. The Band, tight and intense as always, came on stage and was owning the crowd from the first second on they started playing. Within minutes there was the first moshpit going on and the people went crazy. Singer Peter Dolving even got down from the stage and walked through the crowd parting them like moses the red sea (yeah, I’m getting all biblically on you ;o) ), which ended irrevocably in a wall of death.

Shooting Notes
As before I had to deal with the high stage, which wasn’t that bad shooting The Haunted because the guys kept moving and stayed close to the edge of the stage. I was mostly shooting with the 70-200 which got me nice portraits. The ISO was set to 200, the shutter speed at 1/400 and the aperture at f4… simple, easy and sharp. When Peter Dolving jumped into the crowd and just went passed me at the end of the show, I luckily got the 24-70 on the camera so I got some shots of him walking by. For the following Wall of Death the 24-70 (on a crop camera) was unfortunatly not wide enough.

The Haunted - Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Katatonia – Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Daniel — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:24:12 +0000

Katatonia are just one of those Bands, that can get you hooked in a minute. With their intense and emotional Songs they can create soundscapes that just sweep over the audience. Nothing else happened here this evening. The place in front of the stage was packed and the Band was up to their best. The people really enjoyed the show and so seemed the band.

Shooting Notes
With really moody light, I was up to ISO 800 on my Canon with a shutter speed of 1/250 to 1/250 wide open at f2.8. I added a little flash here and there to get some light into the faces of the artists and freeze the action.

Katatonia - Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Firewind – Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Daniel — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:42:33 +0000

Firewind are always a blast to watch. Their intense show and great songs are so much fun. Unfortunatly not so many people on the Festival seemed to know that or it was simple to late during the night, but the tentstage was pretty much empty in comparison to all the people that had been in here on the first evening. Nonetheless the Band really rocked and played an intense set.

Shooting Notes
I don’t know why, but as soon as I stepped out of the photopit after the first three songs were over, the stage lite up in intense colours. Great, that’s the way I like it. While I had the chance to shoot the light was really simple and consisted of mostly a pink wash. The ISO was up at 800, the aperture locked at 2.8 and the shutter speed varied between 1/100 and 1/250. I was using flash to get some light in the faces of the artists, because there wasn’t much front light.

Firewind - Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Grave – Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Daniel — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:29:35 +0000

Death Metal from Sweden at its best. The guys around bandleader Ola Lindgren were a blast to watch and a leason in brutality. Not really a Band a lot of folks could deal with, but even though it was still early in the day, the place in front of the big stage was nicely filled. Without hesitating the Band started right away and blasted the audience away. Those who were still sleeping, were awake now for certain.

Shooting Notes
This was another tough one. Ola was the only one in the Band that was easy to capture, to to the fact, that he was standing at his micstand for most of the time. The rest of the band kept a couple of steeps in the back of the stage and just came up to the front really rarely, also there was little interaction between the bandmembers, mostly do to the big stage. Shooting was done with ISO 200, F4, 1/500 – piece of cake.

Grave - Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Grand Magus – Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Daniel — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:53:05 +0000

Grand Magus release ‘Iron Will’ was one of the best Albums of 2008, which gave them the chance to play most of the big Summer Festivals in Germany. After seeing them at the Rock Hard Festival 2009 and unfortunatly missing them at Wacken Open Air 2009, I was quite excited to get another chance shooting them. Early in the morning, with an average amount of people present, watching the guys from Sweden was a blast. In comparison with their gig at Rock Hard the sound today was awesome and so the show was just so much fun.

Shooting Notes
Shooting was done at ISO 200 with a shutterspeed of 1/400 and f4 – simple, easy, sharp… what more do you want?

Grand Magus - Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Cantus Buranus – Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Daniel — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:22:20 +0000

This was definitly not my cup of tea…I definitly like the Corvus Corax CDs, but this was a bit much, even for me. This interpretation of the medieval writings Carmina Burana was done with lots of instruments and an orchester, but there was just nothing happening on stage.

Shooting Notes
Shooting this Show was a nightmare. There was just an aweful lot of stage smoke and just a really intense pink, red and blue wash. While it was ok to deal with the blue, the red and pink together with the smoke was hard to deal with. Shooting was wide open at f2.8 with ISO 800 between 1/160 and 1/200. Afterwards some post processing was necessary to get at least a couple of pics to jump at you. Getting more blacks in here, increasing the clarity and decreasing the saturation helped a lot here.

Cantus Buranus - Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Equilibrium – Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Daniel — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:59:23 +0000

Last time Equilibrium played the Summer Breeze Open Air, they rocked the festival big time, even though they were on as one of the first Bands in the Morning. This time the makers of the festival placed the Band in a better spot in the billing, but still on the small stage. Idea was good, but still not late enough or at least on the wrong stage. The place was packed and no other Band this weekend was able to fill it up like that. The number of stagedivers was also enourmous and the securities got quite some work in the pit. The Band itself seemed to enjoy themself and played a great set which got the people worked up even more. Even the little Micheal Jackson “Billy Jean” Tribute they started playing got some laughes out of the people.

Shooting Notes
No suprises shooting those guys. The only problem here was to pay attention not to get a boot in the back of your head with all those stagedivers in the air. You always had to pay attention giving the securities enough room to get their work done and not to be in the way. Also we only got about 1 1/2 Songs to get your pictures done, before we got thrown out of the pit, do to the stagedivers. Well, that’s live.

Equilibrium - Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Entombed – Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Daniel — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:59:03 +0000

Entombed were up again, the second time for me this summer. In comparison to their Gig at Death Feast Open Air the Band was up during day time, which took no energy out of their show. Unfortunately their weren’t so many people watching the show as I was expecting, the guys themself didn’t seem to mind and were rocking the house. Today Bassplayer Nico Elgstrand wasn’t with the Band today because he and his wife were expecting a little metalhead and ask me who replaced him… I just forgot.

Shooting Notes
Shooting was done during the Day with an ISO of 200, Aperture of 3,5 and a shutter speed of 1/500 do to the fast movements of the Band.

Entombed - Summer Breeze Open Air 2009