Last night I had the opportunity to photograph Qbala, one of Fort Collins’ best rappers, and someone I’ve known since middle school. On Thursday she played her “farewell” show, as she’s gearing up for a move to Portland. In my involvement in the Northern Colorado music scene, few people work as hard towards their craft as Qbala does. It was definitely an honor to shoot such a great show that was packed to the gills.
This was also my first time shooting at Hodi’s Half Note, where the lighting proved to be a challenge. I went home last night afraid that most of my shots didn’t turn out, but I was pleasantly surprised that I had an abundance to choose from. The other challenge with this show was navigating the packed audience. While I was able to move around quite a bit during the opening acts, I found myself firmly entrenched on the front of stage left. The left side of the stage enabled me to get close-up shots (as Qbala’s face wasn’t blocked by her mic) but prevented me from getting the full body shots due to all of the DJ equipment blocking my angle. Halfway through her set, I moved further back to get some crowd shots and finally managed to get to stage right. There I finally got my full-body perspective shots.
My only regret was not being able to capture close-up shots in the middle of the stage to capture some of the emotional interactions – but with as crowded as everything was, it just wasn’t an option. I’ve posted a few of my favorites below, but you can see the whole gallery on Flickr.
Congrats on an awesome show, Qbala! Wishing you all the best in your next adventure.
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