Justin Bieber @ Jobing.com Arena

Bieber fever! Last night was crazy. This was the first time I've shot a bona fide pop idol, literally at the top of their fame... and it was madness. Outside the gates of Jobing.com arena, the Westgate shopping center was absolutely surging with piles and piles of small young girls and their mums, in massive lines, in the 100+ degree heat, waiting to get inside and catch some Bieber.





When the lines were at their largest and craziest, Bieber could be seen causing many a panic attack as he dashed around the outside of the arena on a Segway scooter. The screaming he caused just increased over the span of the evening. Before his set, there was actually a countdown clock hovering over the sides of the stage. Random screaming would break out through the course of the countdown. Anytime a camera or a spot light was pointed at the crowd, the girls would go mental. In fact, there were no less than three girls carried out by paramedics that night for different reasons. As the countdown ended, and the lights went down, the screaming reached is most insane... the official Jobing.com Arena decibel-o-meter indicated 118 decibels! That's the actual sonic equivalent of splitting a cantaloupe in two. Crikey!





It should also be said that Bieber's openers also garnered their own share of screaming from the fans. Jessica Jarrell and Sean Kingston both went down a storm... even if they were lip syncing. In their defense, lots of big labels don't like sending out their younger artists without some help from a backing track. It could be catastrophic to their career if they don't deliver in front of a sold-out Bieber-sized audience.





This show ended up being pretty interesting. I've said it before... I like artist who are entertainers... who give the crowd what they want... and put on a real show. Without actually jumping into the audience and going home with the girls, I think Justin Bieber did all he could possibly do from the stage. When the lights went down at the start of the show, lasers danced around the arena, fog shot up from all around the stage, and Bieber rose up from under the stage into a large metal sphere. Behind him, giant LED screens covering the entire rear wall... cat walks on the sides of the stage that jutted out into the wings of the elevated seating... and all the while wearing a headset microphone so he could dance his way from one side to the other. From a fan's point of view, it was awesome. From a photog's point of view it was a great canvas to work with. I don't think anyone in the arena left unhappy that night... except maybe the older guy I saw seated on the far side of row #1 in section CCC. That guy might have been more at home watching a bit of football.





In one bizarre surprise, Shaq popped up on stage to present Justin with a Teen Choice award in the form of a white surfboard. Interesting. Bieber feigned surprise, then asked Shaq to hold onto it for him till after the show. His Shaqness obliged. In a funny side note, as we photographers were being escorted to the exit on the side of the stage, Shaq and his posse nearly tackled one of our photogs. Shaq was on his way out to boogie on the side of the stage. This is a giant man. His boogie was enormous. (That's not innuendo)





From my point of view, a 6-foot tall photographer, the shooting circumstances were nearly ideal. Loads of light, an interesting and animated subject, and I was up close. My only possible gripe was how crowded the pit area was. It was very narrow, only one person could really fit at any section of the stage. But during Bieber's set there were two film crews shooting the performance and crowd's reactions. So there were 4 press photogs, 6 security guards, 2 large TV cameras, 1 guy with a light for the camera, one guy with a mic for crowd noise, and one guy running cable. It was a bit of a mess... I tend to enjoy running around the stage and shooting from different angles to keep the photos interesting. For Bieber it was a bit of a struggle to move. Plus, the stage was nearly 6-foot tall... so even for me, I felt a bit like a small child at Subway... not quite tall enough to see all the toppings. Sure, your mom can TELL you what you're missing... but it's not the same. I like to see how fresh the tomatoes are before I have them put on.

Black Eyed Peas @ Jobing.com Arena

I shot the Black Eyed Peas a few months back when they were here with U2, but I never posted any of the photos. I don't really know why... I must have just been busy, but they did run on the New Times page. However, this time around, I'm glad to post a bunch of pics!





This was very much a concept show... the show started with a computerized countdown... there was a circuit board projected on to the stage with a large green digital face speaking to the audience, and as it would ready the available instruments, that section of the circuit board would light up and that part of the band would make a noise, signaling that it was ready. The individual vocall band mates rose up from under the stage into their own laser spotlight. Interestingly, Will.I.Am came up after Fergie... I guess he is the big draw now?





Aside from all the cool lighting and the giant catwalk in the middle of the stage, the band also donned their own semi-futuristic customized costumes. Will's outfit looked like a bedazzler's nightmare, but it glinted nicely in the lights. Fergie was clothed in a bizarre black and white circuit board-like spandex jumper under shiny metal armour. I couldn't get the comparison of her to Liam Neeson as Zeus in the "Clash of the Titans" remake out of my head the whole night. She even had a "shoulda put a ring on it" glove on her right hand.





The sound was very loud and boomy. It was difficult to make anything out, for me anyways. But they put on a cool show. The crowd was more than impressed... at one point I looked down and saw at least one pair of women's underwear near the stage floor.





One cool thing about big choreographed shows like this... things always work a certain way, and sometimes the photogs are let in on the secret. Before the show started, one of the video cameramen from the tour walked all the photographers through what was going to happen on stage. We were told they'd raise up from the floor and pretty much stay on the main stage for the first song, then on the second song they would all strut out on to the catwalk. While this information sounds somewhat superfluous, my back-up camera died on me at my last gig. This means I have to stop shooting for 20-30 seconds to change lenses, and at this shoot, which was only two and a half songs long, that means a lot of shooting time lost. But more importantly, having the knowledge of the arrangement, I was able to switch from my zoom on the first song to my wide lens on the second song. Making for the more dramatic photos when the band was standing right in front of me... I was able to draw the stage in the background. Good intel.



I don't like to dismiss openers in general, and in this case, it was a pretty big deal... Ludacris. Who, unfortunately, didn't have quite the stage production value. He came on stage in front of a DJ, a video screen, and a handful of dancers. The more "straight forward" rap shows don't tend to have a large amount of production value in general, I think I just expected more after seeing the giant stage for the first time... but I guess you're not supposed to upstage the headliners.





To be completely honest, Luda's set, from the two songs I heard was not very impressive. He was very much out of key, and the mix was very obnoxious. It wasn't that he was incredibly loud, but his vocals really cut though, and between being out of key and having his rapping partner out of sync, it was not enjoyable.

Paul McCartney @ Jobing.com Arena

Part 2 of my double header day. After lugging my gear across the street from Cardinal's Stadium to Jobing.com I was geared up to shoot Paul McCartney. My back up camera, a Canon 20D, took a dump on me at Wrestlemania. From what I read on the forums, it sounds like my shutter killed itself... it just keeps snapping itself open and closed, even with the power off. For Paul, I knew we were shooting from the soundboard so I wouldn't NEED a wide lens... but when I have the massive 100-400mm attached to a monopod, it's difficult to change lenses... especially in the dark and in a crowd of photographers. Which is why I love having the 20D. More on that later, maybe.





So, the "throw", as they say in the biz, was even farther than we thought. BEHIND the sound board was an elevated platform with about 6 or 7 rows of seating. The photogs were placed behind that. So we were, very realistically, almost at the other end of the floor of the arena. I just relied on the 5D's massive sensor and high resolution to get the nice pics and I could crop if I needed.







I would like to state... I hate cropping my photos. To me, it appears like the photo was taken incorrectly... and it feels like I'm just cheating. I like to frame a shot and have that BE the photo. I don't like to cut corners, as it were.





All that boring photo business aside... The show was great. I only got to catch the first song which was a short medley of Venus and Mars/Rockshow/Jet, and then the first half of "All My Loving" before I was shooed out. But giant screens from floor to ceiling, lots of lights, amazing musicians, and that catalog of music... you really can't ask for a much better show. Plus, the man is a BEATLE! I heard from my writer at the New Times that he played for over 3 hours. You just can't ask for more.

Bon Jovi @ Jobing.com Arena

A foreword to any Bon Jovi fans, the following comments are made from the view of a photographer, only based on the first 2 songs. I was actually fairly excited to shoot this show, because I knew it would be big. It was at Jobing.com arena... one of the 3 biggest venues in Phoenix... and it was Bon Jovi. Sadly, all that could have been, was not... at least in the first 2 songs.





The stage was proper rock show big. Lots of lights dangling in the air... a circular catwalk out in front... and 2 sets of organs (?). When the show started, I kept my wide lens on, thinking it would be a crazy showing of lights to get the crowd in a roar... but really it was just some white spots. The lighting for the entire first song was pretty uneventful. Just white light, with the occasional color throw in. The second song wasn't much different... except they turned on some video screens... which, the center screen was too high up to feel like a cohesive part of the set... and the lower screen wrapped around the bottom of the stage, behind all the gear. I realize I'm being overly critical here... I'm just trying to paint a picture.





There was no great spectacle in the opening... the band didn’t use the cat walk yet... so there were no opportunities for neat shots of Jon and Richie interacting with the crowd... and none of that "closeness" you can get with other big shows, because the photogs were positioned just in front of the catwalk. It was just sort of awkward.





So that's the bad... the good is that the white light was good light. Good for photos. The band sounded good, and for the most part, looked good too. There just wasn't a whole lot going on up on the stage. No ridiculous amounts of gear, or interesting backdrops. But if you're a fan, that probably didn't matter. All in all, it was an ok show. And before you even think it... I'm sure it got better as it went on. I just don't know why bands choose to leave the photographers out of the cool parts of the show... I mean, we're there to promote them! :)





Dashboard Confessional opened the show. It was fairly obvious tho, that this was a strictly Bon Jovi crowd. They didn't do down terribly or anything, it just didn't quite work as well as it could have. But they gave me some cool photos.







Oh... and one obligatory backstage photo. Enjoy.

KISS @ Jobing.com Arena

To be honest, I didn't know exactly how to prepare for a Kiss concert. Even up to the last minute before they came on stage I was questioning my lens/camera selections.



Right before the show started I put my 17-40mm on my Canon 5D MkII, and my 100-400mm on my Canon 20d. I felt like I would need that ultra-wide zoom lens on my full frame camera at the start. This was a good choice to start I think... It let me capture some of the incredibly energetic performances at the front of the stage.

I don't want to kill any of the illusion, but as I understand it, only Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley are 'original' Kiss members. That said, the fact that they are doing what they are doing, for as long as they've done it, is a feat in itself. The platform boots these guys were wearing were just crazy! The show they put on for the people, and if I'm honest, for the photogs as well, was amazing!

There were a few times throughout the show where I had Paul Stanley, the Star Child, 4 feet from my lens, staring me right in the face. I can't believe some of the pictures I got. I really can't give them enough credit for putting on such a show, and for making it so easy for the photogs. The stage was so well lit, and the performances and poses were so over-the-top that every picture could be great. My 5D was set to 2000ISO and I fluctuated between 1/200 and 1/400 shutter speed.

Gene and Paul both had a microphone off to their respective side of the stage, and in the middle was a short cat walk wide enough for the three axe-wielding mad men to lean over the crowd and rock in unison. Unfortunately for Eric Singer, the drums were SO high up in the air that I couldn't get a shot of his face... but I'm sure his view of the arena was amazing.

Really, the only word I could think of last night was EPIC! Even if you don't know the songs, you know the band... and the show was just as crazy as you could imagine. I'm really glad I got the chance to cover this. It was really a fun time, and it still feels nothing like 'work' to me.