Andrew St. Clair

It’s rare that a headliner goes on before 10 o’clock at a large venue in this town, but ‘A Parting Glass’ with the Pogues was an early show compared to most. Maybe because it was St. Patrick’s Day (you don’t want to keep a bunch of drunks waiting). Or was it because Shane MacGowan likes an early bedtime? I’m not sure. All I know is that Titus Andronicus went on at 8 Sharp & The Pogues at 9:16 who played for about an hour and a half. When I get out of a concert before 11PM, I’m a happy camper.

For the first song of TA’s set, I found the lighting to be poor for my needs. Lots of dim red lighting. I was shooting at ISO 2000 praying that it was going to get better… and it did. Lighting got nice and bright for the second and third song. Lots of bright blues and purples dashed with a little green. This allowed me to dial the ISO back down to 1600 and shoot at 1/200.

For the last half of the 3rd song, I focused on guitarist Amy Klein (who just totally rocks out on stage) and waited for her to jump in the air… which didn’t take long. Sometimes it’s luck, but one skill that every concert photographer needs is the ability to anticipate actions on stage. Whether it’s a performer flipping their hair back or spraying the crowd with a water bottle. I think it’s part instinct / part experience. Anyway, out of all the artists/bands I’ve shot, Amy Klein is the smiliest, happiest guitar player I’ve ever photographed. And it’s contagious. As for TA’s performance, the band seemed right at home at Terminal 5 and I will not be surprised to see them headlining the joint in the future.

As for the Pogues, their lighting was a mixed bag. Everyone on the stage was fairly well lit… except for the very middle of the stage where singer Shane MacGowan stood. This is by design. He may well have been a silhouette. For most of the close ups, I shot wide open at f/1.4 at 1/125 sec & 1600 ISO. Surprisingly, for the shots of Shane, I didn’t have to mess around in RAW to make him more visible. There were no adjustments of the ‘exposure’ or ‘fill light’ sliders one bit. I think the results are pretty good considering I was using a D300.

The picture of Shane exhaling cigarette smoke looks just fine in color, but I thought it looked cooler in black and white. I can’t speak for other photographers but, anytime I submit a B&W photo it’s either because:

A) It looks ‘cool’

B) the lighting is all over the place (like if each of 4 band members is a radically different color) B&W looks cleaner and less distracting

C) It was crazy dark when I took the shot and there’s so much image noise that a B&W conversion is the only way it’s going to look ‘acceptable’. This is generally the case. However, if I was contributing to AP, Getty, or The New York Times, submitting B&W wouldn’t be an option…

After my time in the pit expired, I shot from the ‘party deck’ on the 3rd Floor to get some wide shots of the stage and the crowd and then finished off the night from the VIP section on the second floor where I got a couple shots that I really liked. I had to time it when the stage lighting got bright white. This didn’t happen a lot, so I felt like a cop on a stakeout. But it was worth the wait.

I couldn’t make it to SXSW this year. But when you consider that I got to shoot what might possibly be the very last time that the Pogues play St. Patrick’s Day in NYC, it sorta makes up for it. Check out the coverage on BrooklynVegan.com