Way back on Wednesday I had the chance to photograph The Mighty O.A.R Summer Tour 2019 with the American Authors at Red Hat Amphitheater in Raleigh, NC.

Off the top I’d say O.A.R. is a class act and American Authors full heartedly engage the audience. 

It was one of those wet nights…just a drizzle really while I was there. We were given the first three tunes to shoot for each band, which is a luxury lately as bands seem to be drifting to allowing just two. But those bands , just allowing one or two tunes are the ones that are having the ugliest photos distributed around the world..so shooting three, or let’s say at least nine minutes worth of time for the photographers to work is recommended. But 20 minutes is better. With good light. Light to fill in the wrinkles, pock marks, eye sockets. Good time with good light to get the beauty out of the session. 

Anyway, things were going well until I noticed that a huge amount of water had dumped on my camera with my “portrait lens” the Canon 70-200 2.8. Thats I use for tight shots. I had been careful during the evening to keep my cameras clipped up high on my Black Rapid chest harness hiding them under my rain coat. Everything went A-OK with American Authors and when O.A.R. hit the stage the drizzle of rain had subsided and I was feeling pretty lucky. I started off with the wider angle lens for the evening, the Canon 24-70 2.8 and when I went to grab the 70-200 I spied a huge puddle of water on the face of the 5D Mk II. Sure enough, the electronics failed and now I have my baby packed in rice right in a sealed container, which I’ll leave in for at least a week. 

I often use three bodies for music, and now I see the value of having the three on hand as although I’m down one body, it really doesn’t hurt me much to get the essential shots, although I might miss a few full body images when an artist runs to the edge of the stage leaning over your head. This is the most thrilling time when your shooting music, and the only way I’ve been able to catch it is to have a 14mm or fisheye hanging on my neck and ready to instantly catch it.  I’ll let you know next week if the rice trick worked