Bone crushing bass drum

Stage manager of Rammstein told press photographers to pay attention during the second song (we were allowed to snap during the first three songs) and keep couple of steps away from the stage. He said there was probably no danger of getting burned but then patted at his bald head and laughed. We knew there was going to be fireworks but I was still knocked blind by the first flame balls. Which is bad when you're trying to get good photos.

But that was only after bass drum tried to crush bones within our bodies. When we were taken out between the stage and crowd I noticed bass woofers lining the stage. Right about up to my chin. Bass during the intro made your lungs vibrate and I thought "wow". But when the first chord hit and sonic wave forced me to take a step back - as if someone physically forced you away. I don't know much about speakers and woofers and their power but it couldn't have been only in my mind, it was physical stuff.

Konica Minolta Dynax 7 Digital (Maxxum 7 Digital in USA) performed really nice. I turned ISO up to 800 and occasionally to 1600, shot mainly with Minolta kit lens 24-105 F3.5-4.5(that I received with the camera) and some shots with my Minolta 50mm F1.4. As one can expect there wasn't that much light, band members were trashing around so getting sharp shots was more than problematic. D7D wonderful AntiShake helped to use low speeds but that only meant sharp stage but not for example their frontman because he was not willing to stay put for even 1/10th of a second.

This is the only shot I grabbed of the crowd, it's kind of not so perfect but I like the cut heads of the front row, hands emerging from darkness and faces you can feel being there, more than anything else. And the lonely spotlight. You can see more photos I made here.

Technical information: ISO800, 1/80, F3.5, 36mm, no flash. Levels, and desaturation with Channel Mixer in Photoshop.


Crowd at Rammstein show