Three songs and your out: The photo you will never see

It used to be that you could photograph the whole show. That you could go on stage and take some amazing photos. But concert photography has changed and now the norm is that you can photograph three songs and then your out. Sometimes only two. Or one. Or only 30 seconds.

I can totally understand that. The photo pits are crowded with all the blogs and whatnot– we where 30+ at Metallica for their Festival d’été de Québec concert – and we are in the security’ and paramedics’ way.

Usually, after three songs, you have some good keepers and you can tell the story of the show. And if you are working on a deadline, you have to leave and transmit anyway.

But sometime, you really miss a piece of history with that rule. Metallica was playing in front of 130,000 in Quebec city, a place that the band have a particular relationship with, dating from a very long time. The crowd was still chanting their name during the main event when they where the opener in their early years.

It was their last show of the summer. In front of a HUGE crowd that they thanked for a good ten minutes. Then they lined up, holding each other’s by the shoulder, smiling and waving, genuinely amazed by the reaction of the crowd. I think I even saw James Hetfiel swiped a tear. This is a photo you will never see.