A Armada

Has been a long time since I shot a rock concert, something I love to do once in a while, probably a sign of my very distant past of being a lousy drummer touring some of the cover bars of Greater Lisbon. Usually the occasion to photograph live shows is a small concert of a friend’s band: easier to photograph that big gigs and I’m able to play around and do some experiments outside my comfort zone.

AÂ Armada is that typical case of Â “a friend of a friend of a friend”, I met them when me and AnaÂ (you probably may know her as the author of the best interview ever made to Light Travelers) ended on their bus… They were one of the bands playing inside the buses of this year’s Vodafone MexefestÂ and we couldn’t leave before watching theÂ whole set-list. Twice!

My first photos of A Armada were taken on a bus and with my smartphone.

Meanwhile I got my Fuji X-E2 and their upcoming concert to release their debut EP seemed a perfect occasion to put my brand new camera to the test: a rock band full of energy and lots of character under the usually complicated conditions of a rock concert. The truth is I wasn’t expecting much, more than being a new a camera it’s a totally different system from what I’m use to and I spent much of the time struggling with the controls, it takes time to know where all the switches are and how to make the best use of them. The first thing I did to makes things easier was actually one of my tests: the lighting was constantly switching between vivid red and vivid blue, I switched to the B&W film simulation (these are the jpegs straight out of the camera) and removed color from the equation, less one thing to think about. And if I sometimes I struggled with the camera, its very small size and amazing ISO range made things a lot easier in others and the results were better than I was hoping for.

Now go to their site and check their latest video!

FUJIFILM X-E2 (18mm, f/2.8, 1/60 sec, ISO640)