April 19th, 2008 was Records Store Day and the people outside Williamsburg’s Sound Fix Records (the first of whom had been waiting since 7AM), were in for a special treat – New York’s own Regina Spektor.
With her keyboard and more laughter and smiles than a class of third graders on the last day of school, Regina played a short set to an absolutely packed house. Afterwards, she signed autographs, chatted and took photos with fans.
PHOTOGRAPHER’S NOTES
Regina is absolutely charming in person. I can’t stress this enough. It’s been ages since I’ve seen an artist who seems to love her fans as much as they love her. She laughed with, smiled at, hugged, and chatted with the hundreds of people that day. Even though her face must have hurt from smiling, she returned every expression of love for her and her music with genuine excitement and gracious appreciation. I hope she never changes.
Lighting
The lighting for the performance was a mixture of warm incandescents and daylight. I used flash for select shots of the crowd before the show and for the autograph session afterwards.
Gear
For the front of stage work, the Canon 24-70mm f/2.8was perfect. Though I could have used a wider perspective at times, the tele end of the lens was idea for headshots. The autograph session was shot with a mixture of the 24-70mm and the Canon 70-200 f/2.8.
Settings
I shot the entire performance in the range of ISO3200 at 1/160 and f/4.
End Notes
I need to say a special thanks to Regina, the staff at Sound Fix and all of Regina’s people (especially Dom from Warner Music). Everyone went out of their way to make documenting this event a great experience.
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This entry was posted on Friday, May 2nd, 2008 at 3:00 pm and is filed under Music Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Chris Owyoung is a New York City based music photographer specializing in concert photography and band portraits.
Click here to contact Chris for assignment of commission, or call him at +1.917.572.4499.
Chris Owyoung is a freelance photographer based in New York City. His work has appeared in numerous publications including: Rolling Stone, SPIN, VIBE, Billboard, New York Magazine, The New York Times, Symphony, Domino, Time, and The Village Voice. Chris is available for editorial and corporate assignments in the New York area and abroad.
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Great shots, man. You really captured her charm. I want to be friends with her from the first shot alone!
Thanks Arthur. I don’t meet that many artists, but of the ones I have, she’s tops. I have a ton more photos from this gig that I’ll add later. She’s smiling in almost all of them.
[...] going to be kicked out after three songs (since I wasn’t for Mashina). Oops. In any case, as Chris Owyoung said a little while ago on his blog, Spektor is a joy to shoot – she has an incredibly expressive face [...]
[...] Also, photographer Chris Owyoung took some excellent photos of Regina at Sound Fix Records on Saturday. They can be found here. [...]
Hey Chris, how can I download those in high res? Thanks, and beautiful photos with great lighting.
Hi Luiz,
It pains me to say this, but the high res versions of these photos were totally lost in a bad hard drive crash shortly after I took them. Sorry.
Oh, that's so sad to hear. :(
Great photographs tough, amazingly done.
Thanks Arthur. I don't meet that many artists, but of the ones I have, she's tops. I have a ton more photos from this gig that I'll add later. She's smiling in almost all of them.