Andrew St. Clair

For most concert photography assignments, my plan is to get there early. For the most part it’s so I can beat the crowd and secure a spot. Plus, in this case, I had never shot at the P.C. Richard Theater (in the AT&T Long Distance Building in Tribeca) and didn’t know the layout.

For whatever reason, trains were running sloooooow. A trip that would normally take 30 minutes took an hour. There is nothing like sitting on a stalled train while seeing the MTA’s self-congratulatory advertisements plastered all over the subway car stating “We Are Improving Non-Stop”. At one point, the ‘A’ train took 12 minutes to get from West 4th Street to Canal. Which means that instead of arriving around 6:15, I got there at 6:45. Luckily the start time was 7PM so it could have been worse.

Actually, it was worse. The start time was moved up to 6:30 and Adele had already started playing. Great. Plus, I was told that I was only allowed to shoot from the VIP area in the back, which was 75-100 feet away from the stage. Welp, lucky I brought a long lens. But, unfortunately, I didn’t bring a monopod to keep it steady. I didn’t think I’d need it.

Thankfully, the lighting was decent. Moody, but well lit. Well suited for a 70-200 f/2.8 (which I didn’t have). However, I had much better reach with my trusty Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6. If I only had a reach of 200mm, I wouldn’t have gotten any good closeups. The trade off while shooting at 5.6, however, was that I needed to go up to ISO 2000.

As for Adele’s performance, she sounded great. She was only accompanied by a keyboard player and an acoustic guitar, which truly made it seem like an intimate affair for the 250+ people in attendance. Her album comes out next week. You can see the coverage on BrooklynVegan.com