New Gallery: Joe Nichols – Columbus, OH


Joe Nichols – Whiskey Dick’s – November, 2009 – Images by Jon Diener

On a beautiful Indian Summer day in November of 2009, I made the 2.5 hr. drive to Columbus to hang with my acquaintances in the Joe Nichols entourage and shoot their live show. The venue was a small club there called Whiskey Dick’s, with far too little room for the hundreds that were to attend the show that night. The club’s lighting was about the worst I’d seen – I think there were 5 or 6 small PARs with lovely gel colors like red and green, and a small spotlight which reflected off the plexiglass drum shield and blinded everyone in the middle of the room. So needless to say, shooting there was a challenge. (Plus, that was the day of the infamous Ohio State vs. Michigan football game, and here I was with the only MI license plate in a Columbus parking lot.)

Camera Notes:
All of the images were shot with a Nikon D300 using two lenses for the most part – the 28-70mm f/2.8 and the 70-200mm f/2.8 VR. Due to the low light levels, I was cranking up the ISO (around 2000 – 2500) for most shots. I used a little fill flash on some of the images taken from the side of the stage. But it was tough getting a good balance of ambient light and flash, so I went back to just using available light.

(Click the link right under the slideshow above to view full gallery.)