drumming secrets

Juan asked me to tell something about how and why a take the photo’s that I take. Well... being a drummer, I use the same approach in taking my photo’s. While I’m looking through the lens I don’t think about anything else than what I observe. Also I don’t take a serie of pictures, but try to capture a moment. Because I’m a musician myself you feel the energy building up from the performing artist and the trick is to capture the moment on the right time. It helps when you’re a timekeeper yourself of course.

 

Before I leave for the assignment I check if all my gear is in order, clean, batteries charged, memory cards and so on. This is no different from a musician preparing for a gig. I try to find out about the lighting possibillties, the size of the building and all things nescessary to make the right choise for equipment to take with me.

Arriving at the venue, before I get my camera out of it’s bag, I first walk through the area where the venue is to take place and check out all the possible angles and corners for where I can stand without bothering the audience too much. Remember, they spent money to have a good time and not to be bothered by a guy with a camera and a big lens.

This way I can focus more on taking the pictures the way I want and not think of anything else. For me this focus is even more important than the lens focus. My technique is based on capturing the right moment of expression more than the sharpness or perfect lighting. The result is that artists usually appreciate and recognize the specific moment. I try to keep in mind that people are more interested in what they see in the picture instead of the way it’s taken and if it’s been done with a lot technical knowledge, apart from my fellow photographers of course. :-) Sometimes a little blur on motion might even ad some charm to a picture. 

Another thing I always try to respect is the fact that it’s not only the performing artist that makes the gig a succes, the way the stage is built, the lighting engineer’s design, you can even capture the energy from the artist if the soundengineer is doing a good job. This whole collaboration helps taking the perfect picture. I see myself as part of this team. Also I’m not a big fan of editing the pictures, I try to maintain the purity of the moment...

 

I hope you can see what I mean in the published examples.

 

Keep on clicking!

 

(Blog) written by Rob Rietveld