On Tour With: The Arkanes // part III



Hey guys!

And it's time for part 3 of my little tour documentary series.
Quick explanation for those of you who don't know: I went on tour with The Arkanes, a very fantastic rock band from Liverpool, England.


--- click here for PART 1 and PART 2 ---


The band consisting of Chris Pate (lead vocals, guitar), Dylan Cassin (lead guitar, backing vocals), Jake Hallam (bass, backing vocals) and Andy Long (drums) is one of the hottest rock bands the industry is blessed to have at the minute.

Today's post is all about the gig pics!
 I'll show you some of my favourite shots and chat a bit about the photography & editing process as gig photography has become one of my favourite bits of being in the creative online media community.

I thoroughly hope you enjoy.


Note: Before you dive into the photography part - please keep in mind that I'm a self-taught photographer. I've never had any training and am by far no professional.
But I bloody love photographing gigs. ;)













 I got to shoot four gigs - Berlin, Oldenburg, Burgrieden and Olten.

As you can probably imagine, all venues had different stages, different lighting and different ways of using smoke machines. 
And I absolutely enjoyed it.

I think every photographer who shot multiple types of gigs (club gigs, arena shows, etc) has their own favourite kind of gig to shoot.
I love the smaller gigs because they offer an amazing atmosphere and it's easy to focus on the music. But I also really love arena shows where you usually get A+ lighting and a photo pit. 

During my week on tour I found myself in lots of different situations and I loved adjusting to and working with each of them.
Playing around with the camera settings was a lot of fun and I think I learned a few more tricks.















What I've noticed is that my editing styles have changed a lot but I now think I've found my signature style. 
The way I approached the editing process has changed after this tour.

Usually I would edit all photographs the day after I took them.
But being on tour with very limited time, where you can sit down to concentrate on work, has made it impossible for me to work in my usual pattern.
And to be honest, it felt great! I think it's the constant desire of learning paired with being pushed into another work schedule which really helped me evolve.

Besides the change of editing, also my way of composing pictures has changed a lot within the last two years.
I now find a lot of my old photographs a bit too crowded, there's just too much going on.
On this tour I've focused on a lot of negative space on certain shots, as well as capturing all the movement. (Hell, there was a lot of movement on stage each night!)













I think as a gig photographer the main thing to focus on is capturing emotions.

I used to prefer absolutely sharp images over anything and would get upset if I didn't manage to take said images. 

As a creator working on your own it can be easy to get stuck with your own thoughts and expectations.
Earlier I told about how good it is to break up certain routines. I also find it important to speak to other creatives who might have a completely different opinion about things.

Being on the road with The Arkanes was instructive in so many ways. Whenever we went through the pictures I took the previous nights, at least one of the lads liked a picture I was about to delete.

I can only speak for myself but in my opinion being too focused on taking pictures the right way when it comes to all the technical settings can absolutely ruin your shots.
To me, and apparantely to many other people, photographs are there to capture certain moments and emotions.

Realising that has helped me to start liking blurry photographs. They may not be perfect when it comes to all settings, but they surely represent and capture certain moments.






















I've never had any photography lessons which might explain my views on things.
Photography is a passion for me and I'm happy I get to learn more each day by simply wanting to learn.

I'm blessed to have a few friends who are into photography as much as I am so it's easy to exchange tips which is lovely.
Getting inspiration by observing fantastic photographers is also always helpful, so if you're an aspiring photographer I can suggest you find some creators whose work you enjoy and maybe analyze their ways of approaching things.
Just please don't ever copy anyone, that's a no-go.


Here are some of my favourite photographers:
Jim Kroft






















 
And that is it for the photographs. 

I hope you had as much fun reading as I had writing this post, please feel free to let me know what you think. :)


The Arkanes online: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud



Thank you for reading!








Credits // Text & Photography: Vanessa Jertschewske

2 comments:

  1. Sound that Lad... no pics of that sexy old fella or the young bird that was on the tour... xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know... Thought the internet wasn't ready for them two hotties there... soz lad xx

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