16
Bido Lito! February 2015
Lenses
Passport
Memory Cards
Laptop
E YA?
O AR
WH
pen
ho M
eople W
P
ap
Music H
e
ake Liv
Tales from the photo pit
with Conor McDonnell
If you’ve been to a gig at any point in the last ten years (and we
bloody hope you have), the chances are you’ll have seen dozens,
if not hundreds, of amateur photographers thrusting their mobile
phones in the air to get a picture, or even ‘enjoying’ the show
being played out on their minute blue-lit screens. Meanwhile, the
real people who are busy capturing those all-important “wow”
moments on camera are the quiet and sturdy photographers,
doing their best to remain unnoticed. If they’re not crouched in the
lion’s den that is the photo pit, they’re braving the crushes at the
front of the crowd to get that one shot that sums up the show – the
one shot that will be shared on social media the following day by
those people who were wafting their camera phones in the air.
For the latest in our 'Who Are Ya?' series looking at the
people who make live music happen, we speak to Merseyside
photographer CONOR MCDONNELL about the way the people
behind the lens view a concert. Having graduated from the
homely delights of The Zanzibar and The Shipping Forecast, Conor
is now a much in demand photographer who regularly does live
and tour photography for Ellie Goulding, Rita Ora and James
Morrison. Before jetting off for a one-night shoot in Las Vegas
with Calvin Harris, Conor – the man behind the most liked photo
ever on Instagram – spoke to us about the often underappreciated
role of the gig photographer.
I always keep my gear packed as my job often has lots of lastminute calls. It’s always packed with fully charged batteries and
clean cards (plus plenty of spares), ready to go. My general gear
that I take mostly to every job consists of two camera bodies, an
assortment of lenses (there are four in the bag), two flash guns
and hard drives. Earplugs are a definite essential for this job, too.
I also currently pop in a Polaroid camera for fun.
Every job I do these days is for the artist, so I always get to
photograph and film the whole show. Back in the day when I
started shooting live music and I wasn’t working for artists but for
magazines and websites, it was almost always ‘first three songs’.
There’s lots of pressure, as you have no control over anything at
all: you can’t control the lighting, or where the artist will be. It’s
bidolito
bidolito.co.uk
tricky. You have to learn to anticipate the moment – there’s no
point in chasing it, it’s already happened. I remember a few times
in the past where I’ve been shooting artists and, when leaving at
the start of the fourth song, the lighting became incredible or the
artist started to jump around and climb about on stage, and I’ve
thought, “Ahh, I wish I could shoot that, it looks amazing”. But you
just gotta work with what you have!
There are no general rules on pit etiquette between
photographers. It’s not like when you do it, there’s a list of stuff
you have to abide by. I wish there was, as some people have no
idea how to behave in the pit. When I started I was sixteen years
old so I was quite young. I was always getting pushed out of the
way by older photographers who thought that because they have
been doing it for years they are better and have a priority over
me. I’ve had several elbows to the head, been dragged back, etc.
There’s no need to be like that, no matter who you are.
The best condition for shooting a live show is lots of energy,
be it from the performer or the crowd. Energy is always fun to
capture. It always looks awesome, too. Good lighting definitely
helps but it isn’t a necessity. I like to make myself work hard when
shooting. O