Photography review of U2 in Chicago on September 12th

I am a huge U2 fan, no doubt about it. As I attended more and more shows, I found myself watching the side stage and other inner workings as much as the band. Then I found photography and concert photography and wanted to take on the biggest band in the world. I had a chance during the Vertigo tour to photograph the band with a photo-pass. I was nervous as hell, over-matched, and clearly only had a slight clue about what I was doing.

A photo-pass for U2 only allows media to photograph the band for the first three songs of the concert. After such time, the photographers are escorted out and sent on their merry way. Most photographers sent to do their work to photograph the band are full time photographs, AP, local newspaper, etc. They have a job and this is ‘just another show’ for them. They usually are not vested in the band, the music, or finding out the deeper information meaning of the music. They are there to do what they have to, which is to find one or two photos to go with a review for a newspaper or website. They have about 15-20 minutes to do this. I was there representing www.atu2.com , a fan site around since 1995. I have been on staff since about 2001 or so in various roles. I was not getting paid, it was more of a dream assignment than anything.


My night started with trying to figure out where I needed to go. I did not bring my printed email with the information. I thought I would enter via the media entrance, which was incorrect. After 30 minutes of pure confusion, my contact told me I needed to go to the loading dock at 7:45. Whew! So I had time to kill and missed the opening band- Snow Patrol. I wished I had a chance to photograph them, and to hear listen to them play them.

At 7:45, about 25 photographers gathered and were let in. Some had huge gear, some had just a small camera, most had multiple camera bodies. I was the only one representing a fan website. I felt nervous. I had a ton more knowledge, better gear, and felt motivated over since the last attempt in 2005. Still, I was the non-professional in the group. I could chime in with fan related information to the other photographers, but that was my limit. I could not comment on other concerts, other gigs, etc. One guy had spent the afternoon taking portraits of the US water polo team. Yikes.

We ventured in to the stadium, and I knew what to expect. The funniest part was to see fans that I knew and just waving to them as I ushered past and in to the inner rail along the stage’s outer ramp. There were about 3000 fans crammed in this inner section between the ramps and the stage. The stage was about 8-9 feet tall, which makes seeing from the very front difficult and painful for your neck. I was able to stand on a step via the barriers to get above the crowd pictures. My angle was almost straight on, but slightly to the left. I shot from this vantage for at least 2/3 of the time I was shooting.

The next set of problems involved lighting. I am sure there are college classes in photography devoted just to concert lighting. It is ever changing, and diverse. U2’s lighting is no different. At least in North America, it was dark when the concert started. For the summer concerts in Europe, it was light for the first hour of the show. With the dark backdrop, nailing the exposure is difficult to say the least. Thankfully my Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 IS was more than up for the task of nailing the exposures for me. I shoot everything in full Manual mode.

I was nailing the exposures, as the lighting stayed pretty consistent. Unfortunately, the band didn’t move around TOO much providing different angle opportunities. I was in H mode, which is hi-speed shutter mode. I know this throws the grain up a bit, but I was able to offset by dropping my ISO from 800 to 640. I found the F/stop to be between 3.2 and 5.6 at various times depending on the light. Shutter speeds also varied a little bit between 1/125 and 1/200, thankfully the IS helped off set the slightly lower than ideal shutter speeds.

One effort I mentally checked off was to switch my 70-200 to the 17-40mm f/4 when the bridges moved the photographers together. (yes, the bridges) When Edge and Adam came down, I would have the wide angle ready to go. I never switched, I was ‘stuck’ with the long lens on as the two of them played just about right in front of me. Oh, and being jostled by 24 other photographers in an about 15 foot space all snapping for that one photo. I did manage to get a decent snap or three, but the cropped sensor on the 30D did not help in this case. It did for the zoom shots of the band on stage, but not for the up close. During those first three songs, I took over 700 photos. There were times when my buffer could not keep up with the shots I wanted.

After the three songs, we were ushered out. I quickly disassembled my gear, ran to the GA entrance on the other side of the stadium, and showed off my ‘small’ camera. The 30D looks much less interesting with a 50mm f/1.8 lens and no vertical battery grip on it. Security let me through, and I was on the floor with all my gear in my bag, and joining my family already on the floor. I even got out the 70-200 again for some shots during Ultraviolet. Security was non-existent for the thousands on the floor to watch for a couple using big camera gear from half way across the floor.


Lessons learned:

• High speed shutter is a good thing for concerts.
• Knowledge is power, being prepared is equally as good.
• Having an 8 GB card helps, it did not even blink at the 1100 photos I took that day.
• The 70-200mm f/2.8 IS lens from Canon is fan-freaking-tastic.
• My arms are not built for holding all that camera gear for 15 minutes straight.
• I am as close to being a professional as I can without being paid
• I do not want to do that for a living

Last and most interest note: As I shot, I found the music disappearing. To which I mean, it was like the music was far-away and it was an after affect even though it was loud as hell. There were bass speakers two feet from me under the outer ramp, but I was oblivious to it all as I snapped. I was focused on the band, and the music was a nice after effect.