Top 5 drummer photos for 2015 in China

 

Now that winter has come to China, the outdoor music scene has come to an end for 2015. It is during this downtime each year that I reflect on my work and see what went right and wrong. During this process, I usually select what I consider to be my best work and critique it myself. Part of this process involves selecting my top 5 photos for different shots I need to shoot for work. So for today, these are my top 5 drummer shots in China for 2015.

 

 

Very few drummers that come to China throw their sticks, and almost no Chinese drummers do it. So, I was very happy to capture this image a few times at their shows this year. This image came from the first show I shot this year, so there was a small element of luck to it. I was there at the right time and place, but at the other shows, I knew it was coming, so it was easier to capture.Tha

 

 

The fact that he is smoking while banging is what made this shot for me. Not a lot of drummers will smoke on stage during a performance.

 

 

This shot is all about the look. He looked cool so I liked the shot.

 

 

Same as the shot above, he looked cool so I liked the shot. This was a more difficult shot to take because the security at the show was a pain in the ass and made it difficult to get onto the stage to get the shot.

 

 

I liked this shot because I couldn’t get onto the stage that day, so I went backstage and found a small gap in the stage rigging and shot up towards the drummer. Sometimes in music photography, when someone says no to you, “no doesn’t mean no, no means find another way.”

Shooting drummers in China is really hard because they are mostly hidden away at the back of the stage with terrible lighting. All these images were shot with ISO8000 or higher, and I had to find a way to get onto the stage to shoot them. I wish drummers would get more respect and better lighting in music photography, but so many photographers just skip the drummer because they are hard to shoot. Personally, I love shooting the drummers, and I do what I have to do to get the shot.

Next up I will post my best guitarist shots, sometime next week I guess.

Shaun.