On Tuesday night I took my new lens (and my girlfriend) to see Fenech-Soler at an HL Music event. As could be expected, the band was brilliant! They are able to bring a quality album to life flawlessly. It was clear that Fenech-Soler have outgrown club stages. The live set deserves more space and I hope to see them playing venues like Brixton Academy by the end of the year.

As much as I loved the show, this write-up is actually about my experience taking live music photos for the first time in ages.

My time in the photography pit has diminished terribly since moving to the UK. The main reason for this was a lack of contacts. In South Africa I had access to the country’s biggest rock band which gave me access to great shows. The industry is small enough to make press passes a breeze to organise. I have taken photos at a few shows in the UK but not as many as I’d like. Now that I’ve settled into my job at Warner I’m eager to get back into it.

This was the first gig and big test for my brand new lens, a Canon 24-70mm f2.8 USM zoom lens. The wide aperture makes it ideal for low-light gig photography.

Fenech-Soler’s lighting was a combination of extremes. The stage was generally very dark with sporadic strobe lights. This looks great to the naked eye but is a serious challenge for any photographic equipment.

I have been experimenting with a technique of shooting on Aperture Priority and underexposing the shot. The theory is that the shutter speed will vary to match the conditions, producing the ideal exposure. This works fine when the lighting is more consistent but is far less effective with flashing lights. The camera would focus and set the ideal exposure but the lights would change so quickly that by the time I took the picture the whole scene had changed. I promptly switched back to full manual settings and got much better shots. I need to trust that I know what I’m doing. There’s no need to rely on auto settings when I know better.

Once I’d shaken the rust off, I made a tragic rookie mistake. The new lens doesn’t fit in my old bag, so I was carrying a Lowerpro backpack that my cousin gave me. When my memory card ran out of space I couldn’t remember where the ‘conveniently located spare memory card pouch’ was. Doh!

I don’t think I got any award-winning shots but it was a good first-run with the 24-70mm. Autofocus struggled a bit in the dark, which was frustrating, but all-in-all the lens performed well in those conditions. I’m looking forward to using it on a bigger stage with less erratic lighting. Watch this space.