I have the photos to prove that I was there, but struggle to recall many memories from the night. There are some nights when you become so pre-occupied with photographing that the night quickly passes you without making much of an impression. It happens on ‘bad’ nights when you’re not happy with the photographs you’re taking and photograph far beyond the three song limit. There’s usually no limit at the Zoo and although I generally try to limit my time photographing, not having that rule, especially at a venue like the Zoo that doesn’t have a photo pit, allows you greater scope to move around the venue at your leisure to try for different angles.
My unhappiness with the photos I’m taking tonight are twofold.
Photographing musicians, especially singers with sunglasses is a pet hate that rivals singers holding drinks. I like to see peoples’ eyes when I’m photographing, windows to the soul and all that. Similarly I also have issues with people who keep their eyes tightly shut when playing; those are often the times when the best songs are taken in the gaps between songs. Miho Hatori keeps her sunglasses on for almost the entire show tonight (from memory there is a very short time later in the set when she does take them off but it’s very fleeting) and I just can’t get anything that I’m really happy with.
The other cause of unhappiness is instruments. Yuka Honda stands behind her keyboards, laptop and microphone that makes it hard to get a clear shot of her. There is a sweet spot but unfortunately it’s in the middle of the throng so I have to make do with moving from one side of the stage, around the back of the room to the another side to try and make do. It’s a process that goes on for too much of the night than I’d ideally like and leaving a residual memory of photo frustration rather than one that focussed on the music.
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