Live in Lisboa

The venue for the Lisbon gig was in this 2 story open ceiling industrial building in the middle of the 'arts/culture' neighborhood. We couldn't tell if it was a squat, a gallery, or simply a rad place where cool things happen. There was a decent group art show up that had works ranging from pen and ink, screen print, poster art, to illustrations, books, piantings etc... The venue was too big to look entirely full, but as usual, the band pulled out all the stops and turned heads. This was by far the toughest gig to photograph as the lighting was non-existent. I've been using a Canon Rebel xti with the kit lens (efs 18-55) and a ultrasonic 75-300 and built-in flash. Its small, easy to use, and there was no room in the tour van for anything larger.... needless to say I think it got the job done. I don't particularly enjoy the 'stock' style of band/concert photography where the musicians are flatly illuminated by a bulb. There is no sense of what the music sounds like, no sense of energy or dynamics, no sense of rhythm. I typically use a 1-2 second exposure with and without flash at an f-stop anywhere between 13-3.5. This seems to bring out a much greater idea of what the performance is like. The long exposures capture the motion (emotion) of the musicians mid-song and allows the available or stage lighting to achieve a sense of dynamic energy that could represent a sound/song. I also tend to utilize the zoom in/out to pull certain aspects of a song into and out of attention.