I like to think of live music photography as low light action portraiture. It’s all about fast action, low light and high ISO. As a result, photographing concerts and festivals can be technically challenging — and I love technical perfection in images. But for me, I always place the biggest emphasis on the moment and emotion of a scene or subject. If the worst thing something can say about your image is that it’s noisy due to using a high ISO, it means you’ve done everything else right. Perfect composition, the decisive moment and the ideal subject and opportunity. Look at any of the most classic and iconic rock photos, and you’ll see film grain, motion blur and soft focus at times. None of that matters or takes away from the impact of the images.
I love the quiet moments in music photography the most. The loud, rockstar moments are the easy ones to capture and to know when to push the button. The quiet moments are the ones that feel much more rare and often the most special. These are the in-between moments that are easy to miss. They feel like a little secret, and the power of photography is capturing these fleeting moments, gestures and glances and making them timeless and eternal.
One of the first pieces of advice I ever received was simple: “Don’t forget the drummer.” I was backstage with a local band in my hometown of St. Louis, where I got my start in music photography. The guitarist was tuning this guitar and without even looking up said, “Todd, don’t forget the drummer. Photographers always forget the drummer.” I took this to heart. Drummers are at the back of the stage, they’re dimly lit, often in constant motion and obscured by their drum kits. There are much easier subjects than drummers. But because of this, they make some of the most rewarding subjects. Moreover, if you can nail a great image of a drummer, other subjects on stage feel easy by comparison. I always try to make one image of the drummer that I’m proud of for any performance. I fail at this pursuit often, but it makes the images that turn out among the ones I cherish the most.
