Thorsten Overgaard

Well, the phone call never happened. It was all very exclusive and some of the national television shows complained their almost confirmed interviews had been cancelled (television in general have a hard time when others don’t consider them as important as they obviously does them self).

The PR and management was very happy that I would cover for WireImage.com which is the worlds leading entertainment wire service for photos. First concert, worldwide and all that. So we’re on first name and I compliment his PR’s nice glasses (which was actually nice).

That didn’t bring me backstage either…

Anyhow, it’s like this. Very exclusive: The 8 television cameras and ca. 20 still photographers are escorted into the photographers pit in front of stage 20 minutes before the concert starts. Normally photographers are allowed in front of the stage for the first three numbers, we are not allowed to use flash, and after the three first numbers we are escorted out. This is a reasonable arrangement as the artist then know that during the three first acts they are ‘on’ and have to act for both the audience and the cameras. But after that, they can forget the cameras and concentrate on the audience, make odd faces and generally behave in a way they know will never reach the front pages.

Anyway, in this particular case we had one number, then out. I knew George would start off behind a screen for some minutes, then come out and run around on the 240 feet wide stage, leaving me 4 minutes to get the right light, right angle and right expression.

Hmm…

I look around at the other guys carrying 400mm, 300mm and 70-200 mm lenses. I decide I go for a shot of him coming across the stage just on top of me, shooting a great wide-angle shot with the big spotlight behind him like an explosion.

So they go tele, I go wide angle. You see the difference?

I don’t think George traveled all the way with 60 truckloads of stage equipment to get a portrait taken by a 400mm by a photographer with earplugs.

Nor do I think a tele shot from below the stage and up will make him look favorable but will show that he is an aging and not that slim star. I shoot people to help them look good, sexy, intelligent, famous ... in short; look great. And I think a concert photo should capture the mood and action as well.

Wide angle.

Four minutes is a very short time when you live them and you know this is the only chance you have. You think you can prepare you out of the pressure but you can’t. It’s such an incredible short amount of time.

I’m ready, I’m really ready, standing as tall as I can, prepared to shoot like a machine gun from the first second George comes out from the behind screen. So I stand in (growing painful) anticipation for several minutes where he is behind the screen, not knowing when he will come out. It’s an odd thing to do, pointing a camera for minutes without taking a shot.

I check … aperture; check … time; check …lens; check … focus; check …focus back and I’m all prepared. I do that a number of times in what must have been three minutes. My legs hurt.

Then suddenly he comes out. It’s started! I pres the button and expect to keep my finger there until some big security guy come and pull me out.

George twirls, smiles and sings the first lines of “Waiting” center stage, then run off to the far side of the stage where even a 1600mm wouldn’t be able to make a familiar looking shot out of it, then runs to the right side of stage where he can’t be seen from the photographers pit, then runs back center stage.

Ups, there comes the hand of the security guy. Game over.

It feels as such a disappointment because you know you never got a chance to get the shot you would like to (George, you and I could have made such great photography if we had some time on our own!)

So that was the George Michael concert for me. I hurryied back to the computer to select and upload photos. Never heard the rest of the concert. Even got a parking ticket waiting for me. Mmm.


But…

I actually got something unexpected amongst all the stuff I had hoped to get but did not. My first three shots (all happening within half a second) show George come out from behind the screen, and in that exact moment all other light is off and the screen is red for a glimpse of a second.

There you go. I think it’s a great shot. If I saw it in a newspaper, I would feel tempted to go. It looks exiting. That’s my kind of photo. And it’s taken with a wide-angle. Nobody in their right mind would do that.

I know I was the only one who got it because the other photographers were waiting and it was still dark. They didn’t act before the lights came on. They didn’t get cramps in their arms and legs pointing a camera in three minutes to get the first 0,5 second.

Well, I might get back to the problems of working with celebrities and mainly working with the entourage protecting them against photographers. The thing resulting in less favorable 400mm tele shots taken from slightly below.

My wife went to the concert the following day. I didn’t want to go as I had already been there without really having been there. The experience was already ruined.

At 23:00 she sent me this SMS: “I got a spot five feet from stage, he came by me three times and looked at me. At one point – the only in the whole concert – he went on his knees 10 feet from me. It’s the best concert experience in my life!”

Don’t ask how that made me feel. Sitting home.

Pity she didn’t have a camera with her! I wait for six hours, stand 50 feet from stage, gets 4 minutes to shoot and no two hour concert experience.

She arrives 15 minutes in advance, gets to stand almost on his lap, plus a musical experience for life.

Life is not fair…