Montego Glover and Chad Kimball at the cast recording for Memphis The Musical at Avatar Studios. (Photo by Chris Owyoung)

In honor of the 100th performance of Memphis The Musical on Broadway tonight I’m sharing a few never-before-seen photos I took at the recording of the cast album at Avatar Studios in November, 2009. Congratulations to the entire cast and crew of Memphis for hitting a significant Broadway milestone!

Music Photography Notes

As you can see from the photos, the cast recording for Memphis The Musical was a lot of fun and a lot of work. At a time when “talent” can be manufactured in the studio, it was humbling (and amazing) to see real professionals at work. In over eight hours of straight recording, the cast of Memphis nailed song after song.

At first, I was amazed that ensemble was plowing through the score in just one or two takes; then, I was reminded that they’re used to nailing every note of the entire 2 1/2 hour performance almost every night of the week.

I shot almost entirely with ambient light using relying heavily on the 50mm f/1.8 at ISO2000 and 1/40 of the second. The 14-24mm and 24-70mm zooms were used to provide wider perspectives from time to time.

Related posts:

1. Memphis wins big at Tony Awards
2. Memphis The Musical

Photos from the mosh pit at Decrepit Birth's performance at Gramercy Theater, NYC. November 7, 2009. (photo by Chris Owyoung)

Metal is almost a spiritual experience for a lot of fans. Nowhere else is this more evident than in the circle pit. While I don’t recommend that music photographers jump right in unless they a) have both camera insurance and b) feel pretty confident that they can stiff-arm a 175lb dude doing the windmill, I don’t think the mosh pit can be ignored when documenting the scene.

All of these images were taken during Decrepit Birth’s performance at Gramercy Theater using the 14mm end of the Nikon 14-24mm. ISO was high, shutter speed was low and a single SB-900 was used for the main light source.

Related posts:

1. Decrepit Birth
2. Warbringer
3. Vader