First Post!

This is the story of how I became the greatest concert photographer. Jokes Jokes!

This event was so many firsts for me. First time photographing at The Music Center at Strathmore. First time I had to get a photo pass. First time photographing an ensemble; Boy, was I an excited bundle of nerves.

I had the cheesiest grin on my face when I got this from will call.

Pre - Concert Event: South Asian Arts Showcase

Before the concert, there was this cool little South Asian showcase in front of the concert hall.

I immediately got excited to start testing my new 16-50 f2.8 and my new flash. BOY, did I quickly realized that I have so much to learn when it comes to photographing portraits.

I first checked out where the music was coming from (obviously). I ended up meeting the DJ duo Shuno Re. If you ever spent a second with me, you'll quickly realize how much I love to nerd out about music. But before that happened, Nafisa was gassing me up about my outfit and I was eating it up. Though I'm going to stick behind the camera, not in front of one.

They had an amazing collection of vinyls from music almost everywhere. We swapped music tastes and settled around old Bengali artists like Manabendra Mukherjee (IYKYK). I thought I threw them a curveball by saying I'm Trini, but they were like "Oh, We have some chutney vinyls!". At times like this, I am so glad I can speak music. I run into the greatest of people.

Another vender was the awesome Anuradha Mehra. Her work is just a chatpata of color and design. We ended up talking during the break of the concert and it was like talking to an old friend over chai. It is always refreshing to hear the perspectives of other people who were born abroad. I'm always afraid of being too lost in the sauce sometimes.

ANYWAY

Pre-concert was very much lit by the sun that was quickly setting. I JUST got this flash, so everything was TTL but even with that, I just tried to figure out stuff on the spot. I tried to take some portraits of some of the people that came. We had some aunties that were flexing their wardrobe.

Lessons learned: Learn flash, Spot better lighting, Learn How to pose people.

Concert

Okay, so this is my first LEGIT concert I am photographing. Everything else has been baithaks where I know the artist or the host and I have full carte blanch to do my usual bakwaas. I can scope out all of the cool vantage points, I can just chill backstage, I can say my usual WAH and KYA BAAT HAIs. I. Cant. Do. This. HERE.

I was given a list of places where I can go to with explicit instructions on not disturbing anyone. Now, I've been to this venue already, so I know how MASSIVE this hall is. However, the only thing I have is my kit telephoto lens. I already prepared to jack my ISO up and already accepted that I could not get much reach, but the camera gods blessed me that night.

I ended up meeting one of the stage managers and He asked me what gear I was using. I did proudly say my kit telephoto lens, but I quickly was like BUT WAIT, I will show you!

I was too focused on getting good shots rather than enjoying the concert which always makes me a little sad. I think what I'm super pissed off about was I lost my phone as I was packing up after the concert and instead of going to schmooze with the artists and get my selfies, I spent the entire time looking for my phone. UGH

I still cannot believe I'm still doing this. I don't think I can contribute to music with music of my own, but I hope that between talking about music and photographing music, I can still drag some willing participants into my special interests.

Wah, for being here in the first place. Kya baat hai for being okay with growth.