Nearly every time I come home from shooting a concert, my wife asks if I got any good pictures. My standard response is that I wont know until I have a chance to look at them. Like many people, she doesnt always understand how I can go to a concert, take 300 or 400 pictures and not know what I have. The truth is, during the standard three-song photography limit, I spend most of the time dodging other people, figuring out what the lights will do next, keeping track of everyone on stage, checking my exposure, and looking for great angles. With all of these elements in play, 10 minutes can fly by in a flash (no pun intended) and I really dont know what I have until I download the pics to my computer. With this said, I do manage to catch a great shot once in a while.
During Charliepalooza — the Charlie Daniels / Angelus Charity Weekend event at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino this past Saturday, Dcember 5 — I took more than 2,500 images. Several hundred were of Marshall Tucker Band‘s set, which happened around 2:30 in the afternoon. Even though the rain had let up by then, the wind and clouds made the day dull and gloomy. As lead singer Doug Gray arrived for the show, I ran into him backstage and offered a polite hello. Although I interviewed Doug for an article several years ago, and we share a mutual friend, he didnt seem to remember me and moved on to greet the throng of fans that gathered around him.
This article appears in Dec 9-15, 2009.
