Lowlight: Realised the monster lens was a pain in the arse to transport and had trouble even getting it onto a monopod and then onto my should and then into the pit.
Fill in: We were shooting from sound desk hence the need for the extra length. However it ruined out we were even further away than I thought and as the light was quite bright a more manageable 600 F4 lens would have done. As we crammed into the pit I prayed the crowd would not stand up, but the anticipated geriatric audience had no trouble jumping up and down wildly in front of the photographers. For the whole of the first song I manoeuvred the monster lens between the gaps in the heads and hoped Dolly would be waiting for me but this was fruitless. In desperation I asked security if I could stand on a chair which they amazingly agreed to. Trouble was it was a fold up chair which meant assuming a very precarious stance with a sprained ankle (see Liberty Festival) and with the chair and ankle threatening to fold up and any moment I awkwardly lengthened the monopod (nearly knocking out a member of the audience and myself with monster lens in the process) and grabbed a load of shots in the second half of the second song only to find the light had changed and they are all over exposed. In the last ten seconds of the second song (we only had two songs to get the shots) I managed to secure a few usable shots.
Tech Spec: Shooting from the sound desk of an arena means at least a 400mm and I often turn down these jobs. Shutter speeds need to be around 1/500 even on a monopod and the subject is moving. Most of the time the light is good but take something to stand on (you may not be allowed to take it in but have a go) as the crowd will probably stand up. The photography itself is pretty straight forward as you will not be able to move position.
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