MLTR - Live in M'sia 2011 (Part 2)

Mikkel during a solo

Mikkel in harmony with Jascha (above) and bassist (below)

Jascha framed from the side of the stage

In my previous post, I reminisced about my days of seeing MLTR in the telly, and how they played quite a part in me enjoying my dinner back when I was a teen.

So now let's get to the more technical side of things, shall we?

Photo gears: I shot this concert exclusively with two bodies, one mounted with the 70-200mm f/2.8 lens and the other, a 17-50mm f/2.8 lens. Prior to the start of the show, I was informed about the songs which I could shoot (by the concert organizer): it was not the 'first 3 songs or songs at the halfway of the show. In fact, it was as random as you could imagine. If I recalled correctly, it was something like 'song #3, #10 and #12', or even '#4, #9 and #12' - whatever the list was, I just took it in my stride.

Initially I tried a few test shots to get the 'feel' and exposure as right as possible. I (almost) always shoot in Manual Mode, and with a few combinations locked on, I was ready to roll.

Stage lighting: Wonderful layers of lights and with the introduction of some LED lights, it brought a different dimension to the stage. Thanks to the generally well-lit stage, I had the liberty to increase and decrease the depth of field in most shots.

Washes of blue, green and red interspersed across the stage with some liberal usage of the smoke machines. Jascha Richter (lead vocalist) was the most challenging to shoot among the performers - although the he had a fair amount of spotlight on him, there were many times the shadow from the microphone obscured his mouth.

As is usually the case with the drummers, Kare Wanscher was all the way back there surrounded by his kit, thus making it a real challenge to reach him amidst the flurry of hand movements. I opted for the 70-200mm lens, and with some understanding of his rhythms and the light patterns, fired off several continuous frames.

Mikkel Lentz (lead guitarist), on the other hand, was the most well-lit among the original MLTR trio (and also the bassist). I had 2 cameras on me, and used that advantage to frame tight (focusing solely on him) and used the 17-50mm to include him with Jascha and at times also the bassist (yeah, I know, I need to get this guy's name soon!). I then brought on the Nikkor 50mm f/1.8, and several of my favorite shots from the night was from the 'nifty-fifty' :O)

Just like the Air Supply concert (last Nov) which shutterspeed was also the Official Image Provider, I had a blast at the MLTR concert.

p/s: Aperture was adjusted accordingly between f/2.8 to f/4.0 for most scenes, while with the 50mm, most shots were taken with f/2.0

Note: Photos are used with permission from Star Planet.