David Gray, 9/30/12 Baltimore Lyric

I was not planning on attending the 9/30/12 concert of David Gray in Baltimore at the Lyric. A buddy contacted me two days before, and asked if my wife and I wanted to go with him. Someone who had planned to go dropped out last minute. We scrambled for support of the kids, and we were going!
Buddy of mine had 2nd row, center tickets via the fanclub. Pretty darn sweet.

My next set of questions involved photographing the show. As I stated with U2, if I didn't have my camera at the show- all I would be doing is thinking about taking photos at the show. It is how I am wired. I could not find any photography policy either by David Gray's fansite, nor via the Lyric. My one phone call to the Lyric got sent to voicemail, it was the weekend I suppose. The fansite was pretty lacking in the support area, but then again I believe the height of his musical influence occurred in the 2003-2004 time frame.

I debated to myself on what to do, and the day of the show was rainy. That sealed the deal. Because we were so close, I would take the Canon 7D body without the battery grip, and ONLY the 50mm f/1.8 lens. While I would have loved to take the 17-40mm, or even the 70-200mm f/2.8 IS, being in the second row would have been too much. I also did not want to get to the door and be told to go away until I got rid of that stuff. I was also not sure how the fanclub operated entry etc. So less risk on my behalf.

When we got there, it turned out I could have taken a duffel-bag of camera gear in. No one cared what you had to be honest. I was thankful that our seats were so close, so my 50mm was effective. Lighting was not too challenging. David Gray did not move around too much, though for a couple songs he moved to a piano further back. Otherwise it was just lighting effects, a very active head movement by David, and getting the right emotion during the song. Dialing in the camera was pretty easy- it stayed at 640ISO the entire show.

I took about 110 photos total. Not that many... But I was pretty happy with most I took. I did publish 30 of them on Flickr.