Basel, 18 March 2010
I last saw Saxon sometime in the early 80’s on their ‘Eagle has Landed’ tour, just to give you an idea of how ancient I really am…
Anyway, last night was my first time at the Z7 just outside Basel, and it was pretty packed out with hardcore metal-heads who were treated to a blistering performance by Biff and the band. Plenty of energy, powerful lights, great sound.
I started with the 70-200mm on 5DII but after the first song made a quick change to the trusty 24-70mm due to the fact the band (especially Biff) would come and literally hang over the front of the 1.5m high stage. The lights flicked rapidly from strong blues/reds to searing bright white, making for a few of over-exposed shots until I got the hang of it. This gave a huge range of speeds, down to 1/100 sometimes, and as high as 1/640 at others. All at f/2.8 and ISO3200 as usual. I could have dropped ISO but felt the higher shutter was worth it.
Not my best set of images (I must have been tired from the UK all-day effort with Newton Faulkner and a lack of sleep…) but an enjoyable one to see again how Heavy Metal should be played by one of the masters of their game.
