Vasa at Chaos Theory's night 'The Facemelter'
It’s difficult to capture ‘drama’. On a basic level it’s the feeling of experiencing something exciting or emotional, but it’s also so much more than that. It’s a surge of adrenaline; an overwhelming sense of tension; an inability to tear yourself away from what’s unfolding in front of you.
33-year-old photographer Jose Ramón Caamaño seems to be able to elicit all of these reactions and more from his work. Having started taking photos at the age of 20 using his grandfather’s analogue camera, Jose’s recently gravitated towards the hectic world of live music photography. He may still be relatively new to it, but from looking at his pictures you’d think he was a seasoned professional.
“Music has always been my passion,” he says. “I’ve always tried to go to gigs every week, and coming to London was a blast for me because everyone plays here. Just over a year ago I went to a gig and I decided to move closer [to the band] to take a more professional approach with the photos, and the promoter who organised the gig liked the pictures and asked me if I could come to the next one. That was when I started taking it more seriously.”
Jose and his trusted Sony a7S now attend anywhere up to ten gigs a month, which range from jazz and world music-influenced acts to heavy metal outfits. Despite the eclectic nature of the shows, Jose’s photos strive to encapsulate the positive energy and vibe from each night.
Zolle
“I think the best thing is to try and capture not just what’s going on on-stage, but also the atmosphere and the crowd, because that’s just as important. Whenever I can I try to move around, because you can’t get the perfect shot of every member in just one place. Maybe I’ll even get into the crowd and take pictures from inside the crowd, so you can see some heads in the foreground and then the band in the background.”
When he’s able to get close enough to the band, Jose ramps up the drama with close-up shots. “If you can get close to them using a wide-angle lens while looking down on them, sometimes you can get a really effective picture, but sometimes you can get distortion which can be an issue.” The unique perspective, coupled with the fact that the camera is getting much closer to the subject than you could in any other situation, makes for a high-octane action shot.
Another favoured technique in Jose’s arsenal is to experiment with shutter speeds. A very fast shutter speed gives a sharp, clear snapshot of what’s happening on-stage, but slowing the speed right down and adding flash results in psychedelic motion blur and light trails that - when done right - can add an extra dimension to an image.
“It’s something that I just like doing. I think it looks good, but I don’t want to abuse it. If I do it too much, then I think it loses its effect. Most of the pictures that I take are at very ‘hard’ music gigs, and I’ve found that light trails are the way that I like to show what was going on there. It’s important to use with moderation, but I think it’s quite a spectacular effect and it really shows what those kind of bands do.”
Circle at Raw Power Festival 2015
With every gig varying wildly from the next, it’s difficult for Jose to plan his shots in advance, and even more difficult to know where drama might be hiding. Sometimes it needs to be coaxed out of its hiding place, which more often than not involves placing yourself right in the centre of the action itself.
“Once I was next to the stage taking photos, and the band’s singer kicked the amplifier that was on-stage and it ended up facing towards me, and all I could hear was this horrible ‘SCREEEEEEECHHHH’ sound that was really loud. The singer was laying on the ground doing all these weird movements and I just had to get that picture, so I had to deal with that horrible sound right next to me. Afterwards I spent maybe an hour with that same sound ringing through my ears.”
Other times, the shot that Jose’s looking for can end up staring him right in the face. “Sometimes you can find drama just in the lighting that a gig has. Lots of people taking pictures at gigs complain about the lights, but sometimes the lighting itself is dramatic enough. You can play with the contrast, or you can go for really dark shadows and just a few spots of light; sometimes that’s all you need.”
Sly and The Family Drone
The less-than-ideal lighting conditions that Jose talks about have stumped many photographers at gigs, but it’s this kind of scenario where the Sony a7S comes to life.
“With my previous camera I just couldn’t take some pictures, especially in gig conditions. It’s not that I didn’t have the ability to take them, it’s that I didn’t have the tools. Sometimes people say ‘it’s about the photographer, it’s not about the camera’, but sometimes it definitely is about the gear. I went for the a7S because of the sensor. I saw that it was very good in low-light conditions, and I had tried the a7R and I loved the quality of the images I was getting.”
Jose rarely has a moment where he can put down his camera and enjoy the gig itself, but he’s found his own unique way of looking back on the evening’s entertainment. “While I’m focused on the photography I never get completely involved with the music. But then I get home, I put on my headphones, play those bands’ music and start going through the pictures I’ve taken. It’s like living it again in a different but a beautiful way.”
Although never one to radically post-process his work, Jose likes to use Adobe Lightroom to add a few finishing touches to his photos. “I think sharpening edges normally makes the picture look better. Apart from that, I correct lights and shadows when needed and add a bit of contrast. Colour is also something that I usually need to touch, as lights on-stage normally give over-saturated colours, and that doesn’t look good at all.”
Live gig conditions may well be challenging at the best of times, but with enough know-how and the right tools at hand, capturing that elusive shot is well within the grasp of any photographer. “The more pictures you take, the closer you will be to achieving what you’re looking for,” Jose says. “I’m sure that if you work hard, the drama will come.”
