August 2007 Rock and Roll Photo of the Month - Bruce Springsteen
The August 2007 Rock and Roll Photo of the Month is from a Bruce Springsteen performance at Madison Square Garden where Photographer Richard E. Aaron had less than 15 seconds to optimize his camera to catch the perfect shot.
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Bruce Springsteen - Bruce was performing a show at Madison Square Garden in New York City. I was on assignment for the publicity department of CBS Records and was allowed to shoot the whole show. As Bruce was finishing one of his songs, I looked at the frame counter and there were 5 shots left -- barely a second's worth with my motor drive. On the next song all the lights on stage were turned off except one over head and a few feet in back of him. The light silhouetted his body creating an aura. I looked through the camera, which had a 50-millimeter lens attached, and knew I was witnessing one of those once in a lifetime shots. But I needed to go wider; the 50-millimeter lens was way too tight -- and I had only another 10, maybe 15 seconds to correct the situation before the composition was lost. I switched to a 24-millimeter lens and rolled in a fresh roll of Tri-X film and captured Bruce at the microphone, his hands waving side to side. It was the kind of spontaneous shot impossible to stage in a studio. I had 36 frames of this and had the luxury of picking the best. Shots like these require being in the right place at the right time, but also advance preparation and constant concentration. Had I been checking out the audience, cleaning a lens, or, God forbid, out of film, the shot would have been lost.
Tri-X 800ASA pushed 1/60sec. f/4 24mm lens Available light
