Julia Deans and Anna Coddington at the Paramount Theatre, Wellington

I’m starting to get a real collection of images of singer-songwriters falling about laughing…think I feel a book coming on, maybe!  Still, there’s nothing better than people who actually enjoy themselves on stage during a performance, is there?

Caught last night’s show in Julia Deans and Anna Coddington's Keepsakes tour at the Paramount last night - both of whom are fantastic musicians with great voices, in case you haven't come across them before!  Julia is of course from the great band Fur Patrol, and Anna's toured with Anika Moa several times - I first heard her at WOMAD, a couple of years back, with that gang.

Few more photos from my seat in the slideshow below - but I was thinking over the weekend that it must seem a bit strange sometimes, that I’ll post a gallery where I don’t really change position or lens all night (like at Eli Paperboy Reed on Saturday, say, or this one), which is something I’d normally do all the time as a working photographer. 

Easy answer, really - sometimes I’m just there to enjoy myself, and take in the show!  I’m all too aware that photographers are distracting for the people who’ve paid to attend - in fact I gave someone a good glaring at last night, for using flash through all the quiet songs in the first set.  (He actually turned out to be a really nice guy, though!  We talked a few times over the course of the night…)

When I’m working on a show with an audience attending, personally I’m not comfortable using flash, moving around in their line of sight, or having the camera be heard - most often, you’ll see me with a Jacobsen Sound Blimp over the camera.  Outdoor festivals are probably the biggest exception, and occasionally if the noise on stage (or in the audience) is loud enough, I’ll go without the blimp.  It’s gotta be pretty loud, though!

But if I’m there myself as a punter, I’m not normally going to do anything that’ll distract the people around me; so, if I have a seat, I’ll usually stay in it - and the little Fuji X100 I keep mentioning is practically silent, and the screen can be turned off so it makes very little light as well.  But, since it’s a fixed 35mm (equivalent) lens, the point of view is constant.

So, that’s the quick summary - I think the audience enjoying the show is more important than my need to photograph it…

Anna Coddington + Julia Deans 11 - Images by Robert Catto