Darren Hanlon @ Jive, August ’10

Shooting at Jive used to be struggle town. The only lighting was a couple of spotties trained to center stage plus a couple of other spotties, gelled red, also trained to center stage.

That’s fine if you only want to light a single performer who stays pretty much right on center stage the entire show, but when you have a band with 3 or more members, inevitably whoever is on side stage may as well not even be there it’s that dark!!

Nearly every set I’ve shot at Jive (except the times I’ve used flash) have had poor results. Often I will process to black & white or some other funky preset to disguise just how hideous the photos actually are.

Not any more! Tam and the lovely crew at Jive have upgraded, with a couple of nice “barn doors” on either side of stage! (visible in #8 here) Shutter speeds can now go up and entire bands can be captured! Woot!

Adding these lights to the existing setup, Jive should now prove to be a fun place to shoot! Great staff, excellent sound, nice intimate stage and now photography friendly lighting too! Super sweet!!

Extra bonus points for re-installing the projector above the stage too!! Now it hangs from the ceiling on it’s own – that yellow milk crate it once sat in is now gone!! No more will that hideous thing be in the corner of every wide shot I take!

Now, if we can only work on making sure the stage door is shut during a performance…