A Giving Band

Photo of the Day

Friday night we went and saw Train play a show in Indy. They were the headliners of a show that included Gavin DeGraw and The Script. It was a night filled with great music, but the main thing that I took away from the show was how much the bands seemed to give back. During The Script’s set the lead singer spent some time out in the crowd including the lawn seats. It seems as if Train realized that because you are the headliner you have to step it up. He went out into the crowd as well. During the show though he took the phones and cameras of the fans to take pictures of himself and them. He signed items to throw out into the crowd. He even spent a lot of time after the show while the crew was packing up the stage autographing items. I walked away from the show liking the bands much more because they really seem to care about the fans. If you get a chance this summer you have to go out and see the ‘Mermaids of San Francisco’ tour.

Technical Data

As with the Paul McCartney show on Sunday I was shooting with my Nikon point and shoot camera here. I would love to have my dSLR at these shows, but of course it is not allowed. In order to make pictures with one of those at the concert you have to get a media credential. That allows you to shoot the first two or three songs, and then you are escorted out of the arena. For me it is all about the show so I just bring my point and shoot. The Nikon was having some trouble with this scene as the ambient light faded. I found a way to force it to shoot at it’s higheset ISO (3200) in order to give me a constant result there. I don’t think you can get people to stand still for a second and a half at a concert. That is the only part of the exposure triangle that I could control here. It really was a crapshoot whether or not the camera would pick the correct exposure. I found a couple of ways to trick it by metering a bright light on stage, but even that didn’t always work. Here though it seemed to work very well. I didn’t shoot a lot of pictures, and I really didn’t get many keepers that night. I really liked this one though. By going to Train’s official Twitter feed I found a picture taken at about the same time, but from the band’s point of view. I love this kind of symmetry. Just head on over to their Twitter feed if you like that kind as well.