I have been interested in Concert Photography since high school. Back in ’98, I would hide a p&s cameras in my sock and sneak them into shows. I literally did this for hundreds of shows, and would happy post my results on whatever amateur website I was currently running. Of course all the photos were complete crap compared to todays p&s. I did pretty well for what I had though (800 speed film with a short telephoto lens).
Forwarding to present times, I have been using a canon IS S3 for the last few hours. Awesome camera! A bit bulky, but has a high optical zoom, takes excellent video/audio, has a adjustable view finder for when you need to be stealthy (which has saved me more than once)…… Although its great, its still a point and shoot camera. Which means its shutter speed is still slow (for getting sports pics and non-blurry shots), the digital noise is high, and there’s a slight delay from when you press the shutter (so if you’re trying to catch a facial expression, you usually miss it).
I finally decided it was time to get serious about my hobby, and get myself the proper tools so I can capture what I see in my head. I picked a Canon 40d for christmas. God….this thing is HUGE, and its high-speed shutter sounded like a machine gun going off. Learning this thing hasn’t been just a learning curve, but a learning CLIFF. Learning about aperture, shutter speed, exposure, depth of field, low light techniques, freezing action…….. this all has been keeping me busy for the last few months. I LOVE it, but wow. After 2 months of studying, and practicing at parks…. I’ve finally tried “cam” (that’s what I named her) at several shows this week (more specifically, 4 in 3 days….cuz I’m crazy like that). I’ve made every dumb rookie mistake you can make, and hopefully I’m getting over the learning hump.
I’ll be posting about the shows, and putting up pictures hopefully tonight.
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