I first got in contact with New Model Army ’95 when they were playing as headliner at the Forestglade festival in Austria. I was 15 years old and I was immediately fascinated by this band.
In the next 20 years I bought all of their CDs, visited 10+ concerts and listened to their songs several hundred times. Yesterday, NMA played in Vienna and I am so grateful that I got the opportunity to work with them! Justin is one of the friendliest musician I have ever met, I got them posing for portraits and they allowed me full stage access and to shoot their complete show.
Yesterday was the day where I realised why I am doing all this. Working together with one of your lifetime idols is like giving back to them for their patronage of the last decades, I could not be more thankful for this experience. Thank you New Model Army!

You want to become a Concert Photographer?
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The Cure Live in Vienna

Used camera: Nikon D700

Used lenses: Nikon AF-S FX Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8 ED and Nikkor 80-200mm f2.8

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MUSE TOUR 2016

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Fink and the beginning of a great collaboration

A friend of mine asked me if I wanted to shoot the Fink concert for his club in Vienna a couple of years ago. I had never heard of Fink before. Wikipedia told me that Fink, aka Finn Greenall, is a producer/DJ who had recently started making a career as a singer/songwriter. Not only is he the co-writer of Amy Winehouse’s song „Half time“ and has collaborated with John Legend on the song „Move“ for the “12 Years A Slave” soundtrack, but his music has also appeared in TV series such as „The Walking Dead“ and „House of Lies“. I listened to some tracks on YouTube and was immediately hooked by their atmospheric sound.

When they started their show in the WUK, I had the feeling that Fink were going to perform something special on stage, that evening in 2012. They had a unique stage lighting concept designed by 59Productions (also responsible for the design of Jonsi’s Go Do World Tour) which consisted of hundreds of table lamps mounted on a steel frame. The band was half surrounded by this construction, making the stage look like a spaceship from the near future. For a concert photographer it was the perfect foundation to get some awesome shots of the show. I was pretty certain that there would be enough light on stage to shoot at low ISO’s. However, I soon found out this wasn’t the case as soon as I started taking photos. Using ISO 6400, an aperture of 2.8 and a shutter speed of 1/125sec proved me dead wrong. Backlighting, together with a lot of fog on stage, made it difficult to get the shots I was hoping for. For the first 3 songs, I tried to capture the moments on stage as best I could and fortunately got a few great shots. After I left the photo pit, I watched the whole concert which marked the start of Fink becoming one of my favorite bands.

Two weeks later, I got a phone call from their manager in the UK. He told me that the band was so impressed by the concert pictures I took in Vienna, that they would love to use one of my photos for the booklet of their upcoming live album “Wheels Turn Beneath My Feet”. I totally freaked out! It had never happened to me before that a band manger had called me and asked for permission to use one of my photos. I was still a beginner in this field of music photography, but I was aware of the business side and we worked out a deal that worked well for both myself, as a photographer, and Fink, as an artist. Some months later, I received the album „Wheels Turn Beneath My Feet“ with a note „Sent with best wishes from Fink“ in it. I opened the booklet and there was my photo, on page 30 – my first album publication!

Fink Hard Believer Tour

In 2014, they released their acclaimed album „Hard Believer“ and played in Vienna again. I got in contact with Tim (drummer) and we arranged for me to shoot their entire show that evening. Additionally, I held my first „How to Become A Rockstar Photographer“ Workshop and participants got the exclusive chance to shoot the first 3 songs of the Fink concert with me from the pit. Fink used an updated version of their stage lighting system. Depending on the size of the venue, they can easily adjust the steel frames to their needs. The lighting conditions were quite challenging again, but I guess that’s the best way to learn concert photography! This time, I also had the great opportunity to have stage access for the whole show which changed the game completely. Having no restriction from a band is the best thing that can happen to you as a concert photographer. No pit, no 3 song rule, and no arguing with security guards. You’ll become a band member for an evening, working together with the artist to deliver your best work possible. My photos turned out pretty good and 59productions got in contact with me to get some of my Fink shots for their online showcase.

Half a year later, Fink announced their upcoming Austria tour in Salzburg, Tirol and Vorarlberg. Being a tour photographer for Shantel, Peter Gabriel and Elvis Costello the year before gave me enough confidence to ask Fink to join them. I got in contact with them again and their email answer was: „We’d be cool with you coming along on tour with us“. When I get these kinds of opportunities, I always try to experiment as much as possible with photography. Therefore, I got in contact with Fuji and they graciously offered to lend me two of their best prime lenses – a 35mm f1.4 and a 56mm f1.2 for my X-T1. In addition, I teamed up with Lomography and tested their analog Lomo Compact Automatic (LCA) 120 medium format camera. Equipped with all these gadgets and my concert photography workhorse Nikon D700 and various Nikon lenses, I took the train from Vienna to Salzburg to start the adventure.

The next 3 days with Fink was like meeting old friends. We had a lot of fun! I had access to all areas and was allowed to shoot whatever I wanted to shoot. My aim as a music photographer on tour is to not only cover the concerts, but document the band’s everyday life. For this purpose, I switched my big and clumsy Nikon gear for the Fuji X-T1 with the prime lenses ( I love these lenses!). This combo allows you to become almost invisible and people don’t feel like they are being chased by paparazzi. The most crucial point, as a tour photographer, is to make sure what you’re allowed to shoot. Don’t just start taking picture of everything and everyone without asking beforehand. It’s not good pissing people off right from the start. These Fink concerts were the best I have seen so far and the portrait session in the snow was the funniest one I’ve done so far! It was a great pleasure to work with Fink again.

Fink Hard Believer Tour Photo Gallery

Tim and I also published a blog article about their Austrian tour in the Huffington Post UK here.

What band would you like to tour with? Let me know in the comments below.

At the CRO concert, photographers were only allowed to shoot from the FOH (Front of House) which was probably 30m away. For these kind of concerts a 300mm f2.8 or a 1.7x teleconverter in combination with a 70-200mm f2.8 is a must have equipment. The best way is to rent the equipment or borrow it from a friend. You´ll most likely face these limitations when shooting famous bands playing in big concert halls and stadiums. If you want to capture such shows make sure you know the restrictions of the bands management beforehand. The CRO concert was great fun. See the photos below.

So I thought, what would be a better idea than taking my students to the photopit with me and shooting the show of Fink Hard Believer tour together. I know the guys of Fink now for a few years and it´s always great to meet old friends again. Finn, Tim and Guy are those musicians I love to work with. They spend a lot time thinking of their special stage lighting, design beautiful album artworks (one of my concert pictures is also in the booklet of their live album “Wheels turn beneath my feet”) and give me the freedom to do the things that I love the most: taking photos of their concert with no restrictions at all to capture the magic of their intimate stage performance. Their new stage setting for the Hard Believer Tour is just stunning with a ton of spotlights included. This stage design is even more compelling than their stage setting was for the “Perfect Darkness” tour. So, for a concert photographer like me, this was the perfect set to catch the special atmosphere of a FINK concert.

The almighty The Rolling Stones were playing at the Ernst Happel Stadion in Vienna in front of 55 000 fans. The Stones earned 8 Million Euros for the show and the building of their “14 on fire tour” stage took 6 days. See my photos of this spectacular event here.

I shot the Rolling Stones for the Rolling Stone Magazine

It was a massively exciting gig to take pictures of. Firstly, I had the fantastic opportunity to shoot one of the best Rock Bands of all time. Secondly, the concert coverage was for the German version of The Rolling Stone Magazine. I guess that´s a combination that can´t be beaten!

If you shoot The Stones you´d better have your 500mm lens with you

The conditions at The Rolling Stones concert were the hardest I have ever faced as a concert photographer. I was allowed to stand beside the catwalk where Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were to walk, close to their fans. Unfortunately, I only got to shoot the first 2 songs to shoot and Jagger and Co. stayed on the main stage. The main platform was about 25m away, so I was glad I was prepared and had a big tele lens with me. I rented the Nikon 500mm f4 from the great guys at the NPS team here in Vienna. Let me say this: the 500mm f4 is a brick of a lens and with a price tag of $8399 you´d better not drop it! As everything was a bit stressful as we entered the photopit I left my monopod at the entrance and handheld this beast of a lens. After the first song it felt like I´d gone through a good workout at the gym! However, the hassle with the lens was totally worth it. The aperture of f4 was still enough for my D800 on ISO 1600 to get some awesome shots. I also used my Nikon 80-200mm f2.8 to get some wider shots of the concert.

Do you also want to take pictures of the Rolling Stones?

“YES! But how should I start?” you might ask. Well, as I also started my career as a concert photographer from scratch, I know all the struggles you´ll go through, which is why I started my Blog. I want you to succeed as a concert photographer and I want to give you the opportunity to live your passion. If you love concert photography as much as I do then the following blog post will help you to get started: 10 tips to become a rockstar photographer!

What you you think of my Rolling Stones pictures? Do you think they capture the Rock `N`Roll spirit of the Stones? Leave a comment below.

Miley Cyrus was playing on 2014/06/10 at the Stadthalle in Vienna. There were only 10 photographers allowed to shoot the show and I had the opportunity to get into this exclusive group of concert photographers. We were not allowed to shoot from the photo pit, but from a dedicated space which was about 25meter away from the stage. Since I don´t like to work with lenses longer than 200mm, I used my Nikon D800 wiht the 70-200mm f2.8 and a 1,7x teleconverter to shoot the show. I think the photos turned out pretty good.

How did you like the show of Miley Cyrus? Post in the comment section below.

Nine Inch Nails was performing on 2014/06/09 at the Stadthalle in Vienna. I have been a fan of them since they released “Pretty hate machine”. Check out the pictures from their 2014 tour here.

Setlist:

1. Me, I´m not
2. Copy of A
3. The Beginning of the End
4. March of The Pigs
5. Piggy
6. Reptile
7. Survivalism
8. Gave Up
9. Sanctified
10. CLoser
11.Find my Way
12. Disappointed
13. The Warning
14. The Great Destroyer
15. Eraser
16. Wish
17. The Hand That Feeds
18. Head like a hole

19. The Day the World went away
20. Hurt

How did you like the 2014 tour of Nine Inch Nails? Leave your comment below.