That’s it, I’m never buying another third-party lens unless it’s gotten universally glowing reviews and I’m prepared to spend several weeks exchanging until I get a decent copy. After the debacle of the Tamron 17-50/2.8 that wouldn’t focus, I returned it and got a Sigma 18-50/2.8 instead. This thing focuses way faster than the Tamron, and the autofocus actually engages when I ask it to. So that’s an improvement. Unfortunately, it has a massive front-focus problem that doesn’t seem to be correctable by my D300’s AF fine-tune, even at max settings.

Bad copies of third-party lenses having now screwed up a couple concert shoots for me, I have learned the following: one, part of what you pay for when you buy a Nikon lens that costs 3-4 times as much as a third-party lens is quality control. I’ve shot with 3-4 different copies of the Nikon 17-55/2.8, and they all exhibited the exact same image quality and autofocus accuracy properties. Two, short-term replacements (or any kind of new gear) are trouble if you don’t have the time to adequately test them before a shoot. Even if you do have time to test them, if you don’t have time to get a replacement, that testing only goes so far.

Anyway, I’ve now returned the Sigma lens. And, slightly soft photos aside, I got to shoot Wilco, so that was cool. It was at the Lyric Opera House in Baltimore; I had trouble at the door, where my name wasn’t on the list as it was supposed to be. So I missed the opening band, which was annoying, but eventually everything got sorted out and I got my pass. (Lesson for all concert shooters: print out your confirmation email! If I hadn’t done that I would have been up a creek.)

So I get in, and as is often the case at venues like this - a big seated theatre where rock concerts are a minority of what usually gets booked - the ushers have no clue what the rules are. Finally I find someone who told me three songs, no flash, which matches up with what the publicist had told me (I’ve learned to double-check with the tour manager, sometimes they are more lenient). No photos allowed after the first three, from anywhere in the venue. Dang. I’ve been spoiled lately as even at the three-songs shows I’ve seen in recent months, I’ve been allowed to shoot the rest of the set outside the pit.

Anyway, three songs come and go. I barely notice what they are because I’m too busy moving around in front of the stage trying to get The Shot. I never get The Shot, but I do get some decent ones of Nels Cline in particular. The backlighting is gorgeous and colorful but there is often not quite enough frontlighting - case in point the three photos above. I shoot with that damn 18-50 for two songs and then switch to my 80-200/2.8 for the third song (the unfortunately short “War On War”) to get some shots of the three musicians placed further back on the stage on keyboards, electronics and drums. I forget to turn around and grab a couple audience shots, crap.

Then I settled in and enjoyed the rest of the show - I didn’t have a seat since my pass didn’t come with a ticket and the show was sold out, but the ushers let me hang out against one of the side walls. I saw another professional-looking photographer meandering around shooting through the whole set, found out he was with the tour, and got seriously envious.

Because this was another case where the three-song rule really sucked. The band weren’t very active or emotional during those first three songs, but later in the set all kinds of great visuals happened: my favorite was drummer Glenn Kotche standing up at his kit, both hands raised above his head, screaming, with a white spotlight shining down on him. Totally fucking epic photo op. Another was when Cline and Tweedy were jamming, leaning back-to-back as they created squalls of noise with their guitars. Or when Tweedy put on some dude’s neck brace just for the hell of it and played through an entire song wearing the damn thing. Or when he messed up the lyrics to “Jesus, Etc.” and briefly buried his head in his hands as the rest of the band continued playing.

(Side note: it’s always ridiculously endearing when super-professional bands fuck up onstage and own up to it. I saw Regina Spektor do the same thing earlier this year - she even had to ask the audience what the words to the song were.)

The setlist was great and included only three four songs from Sky Blue Sky, always a plus for me. Tweedy was funny as usual. Check out my brief City Paper writeup as well as other people’s reviews for more. And, check out this torrent for pretty good audio from the show. Sweet!

Oh right, and the rest of my photos are here at Flickr.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 16th, 2008 at 9:47 am and is filed under Gear, Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.