Digital Diversion

Despite the crap neighborhood, the Warfield in San Francisco is always a good place to see a show.  It’s a 20’s era art deco theater than holds maybe 2,500 people tops.

This is my second time shooting at the Warfield, the first time being the Offspring, and I was looking forward to it for a couple reasons.  First off, the stage is pretty low so all the photos don’t look like you’re shooting up the artist’s nose.  Second of all, having seen Marilyn Manson several times, I knew it was going to be a visually interesting band to shoot.   Lastly, it’s going to be my first chance to shoot an indoor show with my new Nikon D700.

Normally photographers get the first three songs of a set to shoot. Mr. Manson is not particularly fond of the press , I guess, so we were only allowed one song.  Talking to one of the other photographers in the photo pit, he told me that at a previous Manson show, Marilyn stood with his back to the crowd for all but the last 30 seconds of the first song.  Out of two hundred shots, only two were any good.

Waiting for the band to come on, it’s always fun to chat with the people on the rail.  These are kids that line up outside the venue starting at 2 pm just so they can get a prime spot up front.  This time around they were unusually chatty and full of questions for which I had few answers:  did I work for the band?  where were the pictures going to get published? did I see you in Phoenix?  what time did the band come on?  All-in-all an enthusiastic bunch.  As the start time neared, one of the security guards put on a poncho to protect is new cell phone.  Uh oh.

Finally the band took the stage and I started snapping away furiously.  With 5 fps you can get a boat load of photos during a single 5 minute song but  I was definitely feeling rushed and the conditions were not ideal … lighting was poor and they had the fog machine cranked up which, while looking cool from the audience, makes your photos look out of focus and fuzzy.  I also found myself dodging a few beer bottles sent flying in my direction by Mr. Manson himself.  I swear that the guy was aiming for me!  I still managed to get some decent shots.