This past weekend, my husband and I jumped in the van with our friends in Last Fast Action for their shows at NV Ultra Lounge in Normal, IL that night.
They played two shows: an early one for the all ages crowd, and then a rowdy one for the 21+ group. Both short sets, around half an hour, but good.
But more important than their set was the fun backstage, which I was lucky enough to catch (Reason #2123123 to always have a camera on hand). Dan and Augie are not shy in front of the camera at all, and are more than willing to hold poses until I get my shot. Part of this could be the fact that I’ve been shooting them for almost six years, and thus, they’ve had plenty of time to get used to my camera in their faces.
I love shooting unsigned, local bands because of the bonds built with the bands. While, from a marketing perspective, I understand the importance of shooting bands that are “all the rage,” I miss the candid shots and quirky moments that are much easier to capture when with smaller bands.
I’ve found that bands rarely give me an odd look when I take pictures of them backstage, so I highly recommend trying to get some candid shots of bands offstage if you get the opportunity. They can round out a set of photos nicely, or can provide an interesting, unusual glimpse into a life that many people are intrigued about.
Next time we travel with the band, I’ll do an “in the van” post… so you can see just how unglamorous it really is!
Shooting Notes
NV Ultra Lounge’s backstage area is actually a private party room. Much nicer than some other backstage areas, the party room has several overhead lights that provides a decent amount of light. The light wood around the room reflects the light which creates a relatively even light throughout the room. For the majority of the backstage shots, I had my 50mm on my camera from shooting the show earlier in the night, which wasn’t the lens I would have chosen if given more time (I think the slight distortion of a wide angle lens would have been better), but it sufficed.
The lighting onstage isn’t as pleasant as the light backstage. Typical bar lighting, I was forced to use my 50mm f/1.4 lens at f/1.6 or f/1.8, 1/80-1/100, 3200ISO for both sets. Even with those desperate settings, I had to increase the exposure in some of the shots during post.
