Great Big Sea @ South Orange Performing Arts Center, NJ – 10.30.08

Great Big Sea returned to the Metropolitan area again, after just playing New York City in September. This time, they played the new theater SOPAC in South Orange, NJ. I have never been there before but the theater was very nice, and had great sound & lighting.

I already wrote a full live review over at ReadJunk.com so if you would like to know more about the actual concert, head over here.

Since this concert was in a theater, I knew going in that it was going to be tricky taking photos just because there are seats. I knew I’d have to take pictures from the aisle but that wasn’t the case. There were two open areas in the first two rows, on the left and right. I wasn’t in the way of the audience and I was close enough to get some great shots. I was the only photographer there that night so that was a nice feeling. The lighting was amazing and it shows in the photos. At least I think so. Bright white front lighting and colorful back lighting. I wish I had more time to take pictures in between songs because there was some great opportunity to get some neat shots. I did manage to get a silhouette shot of Sean with his Bodhran in between the first and second song. I headed to the right part of the stage during the 2nd and the beginning of the 3rd song. The mics were in the way in the third song so I moved back to the left part of the stage.

I mostly used my 70-200mm f2.8 lens for the 3 songs, but I used my 18-70mm f3.5 lens as well. I wanted to get some wide angle shots of the band. I shot around 1600 ISO the entire time because the lighting was so bright. If lighting could be like Great Big Sea’s for every show I attend, I’d be a happy man. After the third song, I was done for the most part. I did take my camera out and tried to shoot from my seat for a song or two. I felt I didn’t capture the stage well enough and I wanted some different perspectives as well. Thanks to GBS management, Gigante Media and the SOPAC house manager for passes and nice seats!

The Entire Gallery

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Tags: celtic, Concert Photography, folk, gbs, great big sea, new jersey, sopac, south orange, south orange performing arts center