Let’s get real for a bit. I’m sitting here on my couch, in my home, watching one of my all time favorite music photography documentaries “Icon: Music Through the Lens” (PBS), and it is just hours before I head over to Kansas City, Missouri, to photograph Machine Gun Kelly and Avril Lavigne…and I will say that like a lot of the shows I have photographed in the past, my anxiety is starting to spike. Now, those who know me understand that this is not something new or unusual for me before, especially before a huge show. I also know that I am not the only one who has this happen to them. I have been asked by other photographers, especially those who are new to the field, if this is a common or normal thing to happen?
To answer this simply, at least for me, yes. I know that this is a sign really that a night will go good for me. So why get anxious? Well, that is something that I cannot help. I know that I have said this one before and I will say it time and time again, and some people will disagree with me, but others, especially those who have been a part of the scene, will agree with me. Concert photography is like war photography. There is a lot of shit going on at once, from people moving around, lights flashing and moving and changing, you (as the photographer) are moving around, shooting whatever you can during the first three songs that 90% of the time you are allowed to shoot (sometimes you have a lot less time to photograph and other times you might have the entire set to shoot), and that is it. Unlike any other style of photography (outside of war photography) that is really the only time you might ever get to photograph those bands. Period. Wedding you can quickly reshoot if someone is blinking, sports, they will be up and down the court several times, or up to bat a few times during the game, and lord knows you have a TON of time that you can shoot a product or a landscape, over days even if you need to. But music photography, you have the first three songs, maybe 15 minutes in total, to get as many images as you can, and then you are done, you have to put your camera down, and within an hour or maybe a little more, the artist is off stage and leaving towards the next venue.
So you have to constantly be shooting away, never really stopping for a second to check your screen to see if you already got that image or not. We have the ability to do that, to continue to shoot and not have change rolls of film or switch cameras (Think Jim Marshall used to carry around something like 5 cameras per concert to shoot…with maybe a 36 or 48 exposure roll per camera of black and white film in some and color film in others), we have several gigs to shoot with, thousands of photographs per memory card, that we can take. Don’t spray and pray, but compose your shot and shoot with a purpose. But that is freaking nerve racking.
So what do I do to get past the nerves and anxiety? A few things. First I do a 10-20 minute meditation before I go to the venue. I might be in my car, in the parking lot…but I’ll still do a meditation to get focused. I’ll listen to some of my favorite music prior to the show. The music might have nothing to do with what I am going to be shooting, but I have created a motivational play list to listen to going to the venue. My motivation playlist actually is of punk rock, bands like H2O, Rancid, The Causalities, Lars Fredrickson and the Bastards, and a few others, but it is a solid half hour set list that I will have on repeat. Yes, they are songs like “Nothing to Prove” “Don’t know where I’m Going”, “To Have and Have Not” “We Are All We Have”, “5 Year Plan” and others, and that helps me as well. The thing is that you, as the photographer, have to realize is that you have already done it. You are doing what you are doing because you are good, otherwise you wouldn’t be allowed to photograph the show, you wouldn’t be given the photo pass for that night. But sometimes a little reminder is helpful.
I’ll also go through and have a cup of coffee or a beer with a friend like an hour before the show, to try and get my mind completely off of what is going to happen.
All of this is what I plan on doing prior to the show tonight. I know that this might not “solve” all of the anxiety, but you know what…it will help. But that is just what I do. This might not work for you., so go through and find out your own way of getting your nerves under control and that you will be feeling your best by the time the artist takes the stage and you hold your camera in front of your eye, ready to take your first images of the night.