‘Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story’ – A Rare Glimpse at Some of my Professional Work

I don’t share much of my professional work on here – sometimes I wonder why, as honestly I think most of my hobby work is pretty basic, whereas I am quite proud of some of the professional work I produce. The most recent shots I have produced for the long-standing touring musical, ‘Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story’ are no exception. In fact, they were probably some of the most challenging, and with that rewarding, images I have produced this year.

To kick off, I should say that if you see this show being toured in the UK (and probably elsewhere), it’s well worth getting tickets. I do a fair amount of work in this corner of the theatre world, and this particular show is absolutely one of the best I have seen. I’m not really into musicals either, and also don’t necessarily profess to be any level of Buddy Holly fan, but the musicianship is top notch, and it is incredibly well produced. Definitely gets my recommendation!

That aside, the reason I decided to share this post is because I have found myself mentioning my theatre work in a couple of recent lens reviews. I mention it in the context of the use of my Sony A7iv and Sony 24-70 GMII lens. I started shooting these sorts of shows way before I had that combination of equipment, and though I managed fine, when I started shooting with this lens and camera combination, my hit rate in terms of focus went through the roof. What has been interesting about that experience is that it has highlighted to me just how beneficial having modern ultrafast, high-end equipment can be in these sorts of situations. One of the key factors is not so much knowing that the camera and lens will be working together with me to get the shots I hope from a technical point of view, but it’s also the knock-on impact of this. Being able to trust the kit has allowed me to think a lot more and a lot more quickly about the other elements within the photographic process – so for eg, I have been able to better think about the composition, including things like background elements very quickly, on the fly as I move around the stage.

And move around the stage is definitely what I do. I have a preference for shooting these images during actual performances… or at least, actual dress rehearsals. It would not be ideal to shoot the way I do during actual shows, as I would be on stage in front of the performers. As such, dress rehearsals do the trick nicely – we just ask the performers to bring as much energy they can without an audience there… and being the good performers that they are, they more often than not manage to pull this off very well too!

For me, this is all about energy. Yes there are some shots we stage, and some angles that we plan. But there is still very much a live element to capturing these images in the way I prefer. I like to see and hear the performers singing, playing and dancing right in front of me. They bring their energy, and I bring mine – we usually spend around 2-3 hours on these shoots. Not only does it fly by, but by the end of it I am both physically and creatively exhausted. And I certainly don’t envy the performers, as they usually go on to a live performance later that same day.

Anyway, back to the kit. Back when I first started these shoots I was shooting them with older generation Sony cameras and often prime lenses. I used to prefer primes as they have faster optics, but I soon discovered that they were fairly impractical for this sort of shoot. To begin with, being able to change lenses would be unthinkable for how I shoot these days – over the years, we have upped the anti when it comes to how many shots we look to achieve, so there is just no time. Having a 24-70 2.8 lens gives me all the flexibility I need. I also don’t need to shoot any wider than f/2.8 – 2.8 sometimes gives too little DoF, especially at longer focal lengths – though I should add, most of what I shoot is at the wider end as it brings more of a dynamic look to the shots. The balance, of course, is that I need to shoot at usually around 400th or faster. With me and the performers moving so quickly, shooting at slower speeds just reduces the hit rate too much. Fortunately, it’s more than possible to shoot at those sorts of speeds at 2.8 and still not exceed 6400 iso too often thanks to the stage lights. And actually, with modern noise reduction, I can still shoot at higher ISOs if I really need to anyway.

The stupidly quick and accurate AF of the GMII lens on A7iv also brings a lot to the table. Back in the early days of shooting like this, I often used to use the centre spot focus as it was the quickest, and then I’d reframe in post. Nowadays, I use the various autofocus tracking modes and switch between a wide area type AF and moving the focus spot around the frame to get the shot I want when wide area mode decides it wants to focus on something I don’t want it to. I have the switch between the two on the Fn menu, so I can quickly swap modes.

Overall, as I think is probably clear here, I lean into all the automation and technical wizjiggery the camera and lens can possibly bring to the table. I am sure there are some out there who would see that as cheating or a lack of expertise, but to me, this is the expertise! Shooting this kit in this way has empowered me to produce a level of work that constantly impresses my clients, and really, that’s all that matters. The right kit for the job, the final outcome and a happy client is what matters to me as a professional photographer – really nothing else is a factor, especially not my ego, or trying to impress other photographers by shooting manual or whatever…

So yeah, here are some of my favourite results from the recent shoot with a few comments on each.

This first shot might look staged, but I was actually somewhat ill-prepared for the lighting change – as such it was just a quick grab shot that I ended up liking!

I don’t usually convert images to black & white, I let the graphic designers do this bit… on this occasion, I couldn’t resist, and the client seemed to be happy as this was one of their final selection

Here’s an example of me being able to think more about the background – whilst some of the secondary performers are close to the guys in the foreground, I managed to get an angle where none of them were too obscured. This on top of getting all three of the guys in the foreground with strong expressions on their faces, their mics not covering their faces (something we have to remind them not to do), and it all looking energetic and live.

These shots usually take a few goes, but there really isn’t much oportunity to try too many times. I’d have liked Ritchie Valens’ face to have not been obscured, but the shot works regardless.

We work with live lighting, so getting dynamic shots like this where the moment and the light comes together is satisfying. Again, the mics are a little close to the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens’ face, but I don’t think it detracts too much!

I really like this shot, these two really perform well together – I got loads of shots I liked, but this was a favourite – again, getting this involved me moving quickly around the performers as they did their thing. Speed of equipment is really essential to me.

This shot was a favourite from the day for me – throughout the shoot I often get those “nailed it” moments when I know everything came together – this was one of them for sure!

Again, performers in the background whilst still managing to capture this moment for the performers in the foreground interacting with each other. Another nailed it moment.

I’m not gonna lie, we did stage this one… they have to use a special reinforced double bass for this part of the show!

And then a bit of calm… toward the end of the day there’s a few shots we get from the non-musical bits of the show. They still take a lot of thought, but by this time my creative energy is flagging, so it’s nice tobe working with predictable movements. In this case, the three guys walking toward the front of the stage looking cool was the brief…

… and in this shot, the breif was just to capture the buddy and María Elena Santiago flirting with each other the first time they meet.

I hope this is all interesting enough anyway…? I will have a think about other pro-stuff to share if anyone is interested…?

Again, you can get more info about this show here

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