I’ve recently decided to take a break from posting my work over there and decided to focus more on building this current blog with work. Naturally, given my love for 100s of great photographers residing on deviantart, I check for updates regularly and two of them this week were quite intriguing.

I’ve received two individual complete feature in some of the weekly news spotlight regarding live photography and B&W photography. Now this on its own is quite an achievement to me personally and I feel like it’s a sign for me to re-invest more time back into the website.

You can check out both my features along with 100s of other amazing artists on the following links below (click on each image to see the feature page).

I see things in a different light.

People who attend concerts are there for the experience. The music, the noise, the in your face attitude some bands pull of, hanging out with friends, singing till you have no voice and a multitude of other reasons. I am one of those. I like going home after a concert and being able to describe a show using no words. I like having a smile that’s enough to tell others about my personal experience. Or alternatively a set of pictures which can make me feel close to those euphoric moments that you feel for a nanosecond. The following set of images is all a tribute to my experience with Dubai Desert Rock 2007. It might bring you close to seeing how I smile every time I remember seeing some of my musical idols on stage.

The following are some technical and general tips for shooting on stage. They are by no mean a general guideline, but they will definitely come in handy.

1. If you are using two cameras, always make sure to have different naming conventions for files. I spent 2 hours renaming overlapping file names.
2. Never wear shades while shooting because you will overexpose your images if you are not careful.
3. Flash will ruin all your photos if you are shooting a stage with a great light setup. Never sacrifice ambiance over light.
4. Always check your ISO settings before shooting. I forgot mine on 1600 for the first two bands. Not too good.
5. 12-24/f4 Super-Wide lenses are the WORST option for a live stage during the night but with a hot shoe flash, it’s the best camera for shooting crowds.
6. 70-200 is your best range for shooting live events as it allows full body shots, close ups and the ability to reach the drummer at the back of the stage.

Until the next event, stay safe.

Then finally, Aerosmith hits the stage and unfortunately did not satisfy the hype that was being built around this show for the past month.

I’d like to believe that old age played a factor in the sub-par performance and humidity I was forced to sit throughout for 2 hours. Yet thanks to Brad Whitford’s attitude and magnificent performance, he’s pretty much shown what a 55 year old man with an axe can do.

I still see no valid reason for Joe Perry switching at least 6 guitar pieces for what seemed like a complete repetition of pentatonic solos and repeated notes. Not to mention the horrible attempt at going unplugged with the acoustic guitar and Mr. Tyler exposing his “Lick Me” belly scribble while hypocritically telling some girl upfront that he won’t take her backstage because “this” is everything. In terms of performance, the band was super tight except for a few minor glitches, but that’s something that you should normally expect from a band with 25+ years of touring experience. The drummer was a complete disaster though. 15 songs with one drum beat and NOT EVEN ONE drum roll. At least humor us and hit a cowbell or something. Nothing

Regarding sound, Mirage Promotions couldn’t have done a worse job in making Aerosmith sound like they were jamming in a garage studio. Thank you for the great entrance organization, yet you failed miserably on sound. Evidently, this also pointed out how over-glorified some of Aerosmith’s recordings are. A prime example was “I don’t want to miss a thing”. The difference is ridiculously remarkable and makes me wonder if they would have sounded better if they had a good man behind the mixing deck.

Unfortunately, they hype that preceded this show has created the illusion of a perfect performance. Some expectations were probably met, but mine was put to sleep. At least I can now say I’ve seen Aerosmith live. Hopefully, no one will ask for details