What do you do when you get asked to shoot some portraits & the live concert of a band that is playing in 4 hours? You do it!
I was asked to photograph the band for KING & COUNTRY here in Knoxville, TN. They only needed live performance images but I knew I wanted to get a portrait of the band backstage. With no assistant and gear in hand I headed straight over to scout the location. I found their tour manager and secured 5 minutes between their Q&A & live performance. One thing I had to keep in mind was that even if someone says you will have time to photograph them, this may not end up being the case. Not that they are avoiding you but they are putting on a concert in front of thousands of people and have a lot going on backstage. So time can slip away often, leaving you with an empty set. This being said, I wanted to set up somewhere out of the way but at the same time convenient for the opportunity to get a few shots.
I ended up setting up two locations. The only challenge now was testing the lighting before the band arrived. When you are only given 5 minutes you don't want to spend any of that time testing lights on the talent. I quickly grabbed two people that were standing close and used them as stand ins while I tested my lights. Once everything was dialed in, it just became a waiting game.
Once the band showed, I introduced myself and told them my plans for the pictures. We chatted about their record label, living in Nashville, & then they were dragged off for Q&A. When Q&A was over it was photo time. We first shot my "main" set up where we spent about 2 minutes, spent another 2 minutes at my secondary set up, & then I shook hands and thanked them.
Below are two of my favorite images from the backstage portraits.
