My first concert as a photographer

Background

I was recently invited by a friend of mine, Die Januszeit, to a show of The Melonbars, since he was playing with them. For me this was a great opportunity to test out my photography skills; The Central Saloon has permissible rules for bringing camera equipment to shows, so why not? I decided to bring my Canon AE-1 with a 50mm f/1.8 lens, loaded with Ilford HP5 Plus 400.

To be honest, my expectations were low; my camera has no auto-focus, the focal length I’m working with is not the best without getting in the artists’ faces, the film is not high speed, it’s a low light environment, etc. I started with a couple of shots of the saloon itself, a few more of the band playing before my friend’s band, and I gained some confidence. My light meter wasn’t complaining about low light, looking through the viewfinder, the focal length didn’t seem bad at all; things were looking good. After all of that, it was finally time for The Melonbars to play. I decided to move right to the front of the crowd, and prepared shoot through the show.

Gallery