The two smallest venues I photograph regularly are Rumbå Cafe (200 capacity), on the Ohio State University Campus, and The Basement (250 capacity), downtown in the Arena District. There are 4 music venues in this district. The largest being Nationwide Arena. It is the hardest to get media approval for and photographers are often limited to a soundboard shoots or less than 3 songs! It is hardly worth the price of “event parking”. My personal favorite is Kemba Live!. In the summertime, the sun will set on the headliner’s performance at this mid-size venue with an inside/outside stage.

Just outside of Kemba Live! is the Basement. A literal basement to another venue — A&R Music bar, my least favorite venue. You have to arrive hours early to get a good angle, or use the stage’s side pit. This pit is obscured by a column attached to the stage. if more than one photographer is present, you have to take turns shooting around the column but only if the bands don’t block it with something like their keyboard set up.

It is difficult, and I expect will continue to become more challenging to photograph concerts in the US (See my writeup on photographing P!NK in Cleveland). Just yesterday, I received approval to photograph a band at Kemba, but from the soundboard in the back of the venue, and for only one song. How do you review the performance with only one song? You are escorted out of the building to secure your camera gear in your car before coming back in to watch the rest of show. I’m just not going to drive 25 minutes to pay $10 - $20 in parking to photograph one song, and risk having 10k in gear stolen out of my car in order to write a concert review (without pay) to support an artist who barely tolerates my existence.

But I will drive 25 minutes to photograph a local band who wants me to provide promotional images for their EP release party in the Basement! Courtney from Work is a 3-piece unit with a great stage performance. The lighting in the Basement, and the aforementioned Rumbå Cafe are some of the most challenging in Columbus, but with both venues, you can move around freely to get any shot you want. You don’t even need a photo pass to photograph at RUmbå.

During this session at the Basement, I was able to get shots from the very front of the stage, the side/rear stage pit, the back of the crowd, and event some shots on stage. I don’t recommend the latter unless the band offers you this option.

The Basement has recently become one of my favorite venues to photograph. The venue hadn’t updated their lighting or made special accommodations for photographers recently. The reason I like this venue so much is because of my computer.

In years past, photographing the drummer was near impossible from anywhere but the side/rear pit. Now I am able to capture the drummer, or whatever is going on in the back of the stage from the anywhere in the audience. The option to denoise on my laptop has made it possible for me to amp up my ISO to lighen the stage enough to still get drumming motion, which I recommend capturing at 1/700th of a second or faster. What used to be a dot matrix print out, now looks blod and professional. I know some people who have opted for special programs to help with this process like Topaz and Nero, but the functionality comes with the Adobe photo suite, so there is no reason to shell out more money.

I photographed 2 of the 3 bands performing that night. Space Kid, Methmatics, and Courtney From Work. Check out the photos below!

SPACE KID

COURTNEY FROM WORK