Starting off the last round of final three performances at the New Wave Music Festival at National Taipei University’s Drunken Moon Lake was Finn. As it got later into the evening, the crowd seemed to grow despite fluctuating in density. Despite never having heard of him, Finn was apparently a big attraction for the festival and judging by the rapt attention so many of the female concertgoers had, his appearance was well justified.
Pretty much in line with the pattern at New Wave, Finn was a solo performer following a band act, slowing things down significantly and changing the mood. His set was entirely acoustic, which was a very good match to his voice as he serenaded the crowd. While I’m not a huge fan of music this soft, I will say that at the very least Finn had quite a fine voice and some pretty good songwriting. Seeing as this was more of a laid back kind of performance at a small concert, I’m not even going to rag on the lack of a performance. In fact, for most of Finn’s set I did what everyone else did: sat down and chilled the hell out for a long time.
I will, however, use this space to kind of rant on something festival related. I’m only putting it here because it happened while Finn was on stage. After I made sure to have at least my base checklist of photos covered, I decided that it was a good time for a restroom break. Approaching the information desk next to the stage, when I asked them for a bathroom I was as surprised by their reaction as they were to my question. Apparently, nobody thought about the need for restrooms despite the fact that they were giving out free beverages to keep everyone hydrated. Also apparently, the NTU campus is very visitor unfriendly, as everything is locked down. So after a wild goose chase that took the better part of half an hour, I finally managed to find a bathroom at the friggin’ performance hall quite a walk away. So yes, concert organizers, bathrooms are kind of friggin’ important — otherwise you have people peeing in your park and in the lake (it wasn’t me, but I can’t say it wasn’t deserved).
Notes
Shooting Finn’s set was a breeze. Again, very nice lighting design by the kids from the festival meant lighting was easy: all ISO800, shot wide open at 1/200 and faster. As the night progressed, the color casts got a little heavier, but nothing too offensive and definitely easy to deal with. Honestly, the biggest issues during his set were finding different angles, trying to get a shot of him with his eyes open or away from the microphone, and finally, not peeing my friggin’ pants.
Since this set was very straightforward, I used the time to get a better feel for the stage lights, as I knew the two heavy-hitting acts were following up afterwards. Specifically, I was trying to find the best way to use the circular lights (which make halos) in conjunction with the fog to add a little drama to the scene. Finn’s location on the stage was not optimal to get shots of him like that, but I did manage to figure out all the good angles (I think).
Gear
Nikon D7000 (Amazon)
Nikon AF 24mm f/2.8D (Amazon)
Nikon AF 50mm f/1.4D (Amazon)
Nikon AF 80-200mm f/2.8D (Amazon)
