Lil Wayne @ Cricket Pavilion

It's been a busy week, so my posting got held up... but I managed a little time to throw up a few pics from the Lil Wayne show.

Going in to this, I've had yet to be thoroughly impressed at a rap show. Normally, it's just a dude rapping to a pre-recorded tape, a guy scratching records on top of that, and 25 other guys acting as the 'posse' on stage occasionally yelling "yea" into a microphone. It also didn't help that the photogs were told we'd be shooting from the sound board at Cricket Pavilion... which is a lengthy throw.

But as fate, or something, would have it, I was a little surprised... there was quite a bit of production value for this show. There was a band set up, dancers, and minimal posse. I guess I didn't put it together before, but most rap shows in Phoenix take place at the Celebrity Theatre... a 2000+ capacity venue. But Lil Wayne was playing Cricket... a 20,000+ capacity amphitheater. This was definitely a different ordeal. Too bad we weren't allowed to shoot up front.

I used both my 5d MkII and my 20d for this shoot. At first I strapped the 100-400mm to the 5D, and my 28-105mm to my 20D... and half way through I swapped. Switching from a full frame sensor to a 1.6x crop meant I got a huge range out of the lenses. I suppose, with the resolution of the 5D I could have just cropped the photos... but thats not something I like doing.