David Bergman — ALL ACCESS — sports, concert, and music photographer

I spent the better part of the day Thursday at Madison Square Garden.

In the afternoon, I did portraits of the band Chiodos. They were opening for Linkin Park that night.

When I emailed the tour manager in advance, he told me that the band didn’t have their bus because of construction around the arena and that they’d have to stay in the general area. No problem. I’m used to showing up and trying to find something interesting for a photo.

I told him I’d arrive early and scout out a location nearby.

I know the MSG area pretty well and have always wanted to shoot in front of the giant post office across the street. This isn’t just any post office. It spans two full city blocks, sits on eight acres, and is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

It also boasts the longest giant order Corinthian colonnade in the world. It says so in wikipedia, so it must be true.

The point is that the front is beautiful and would make for a great photo. I wasn’t sure if I’d be allowed to shoot there without a permit, but we could make it quick.

So the shoot time comes and I call the tour manager. He says it’s too cold outside and there are too many fans around.

There goes that idea. I’ll save it for another band over the summer.

So on to Plan B.

Inside the arena, we had to tread lightly for two reasons. First, Chiodos is the support band so we didn’t want to get in the way of anyone from Linkin Park’s crew while they were setting up the stage.

Also, the Garden has very strict union rules and they don’t generally allow photography lighting backstage without paying a lot of money to a union electrician. I really don’t understand it, but that’s the way it is.

I figured I could shoot with four small Nikon speedlights because they don’t require any power from the wall.

There are six guys in the band, which is always tough to shoot. But I found a spot where there were six pay phones. Actually there were only four phones, but it looks like there were six there at some point.

 

We shot that setup and another one right nearby in the span of about 20 minutes.

Everyone was happy.

That evening, I shot the concert. Unfortunately someone forgot to tell the lighting tech that Chiodos was on stage. There was almost no light on them. I was able to make a few frames with the Nikon D3 at ISO 6400 (which looks amazing for what it is), but the quality of the light was horrible.

 

Luckily, Linkin Park’s lighting was great. They’re always fun to shoot because Chester and the boys have so much energy. I shot my three songs and went home.

 

I’ve always been a huge fan of Apple Computers. The first time I touched a computer was in the early 80’s when my folks brought home a state-of-the-art Apple IIE. Man, that thing was cool. BASIC programming language and hours of Castle Wolfenstein. Does it get any better?

Well of course it does. I’ve owned Macs my entire professional life and can’t imaging using anything else. I currently work on a number of different Mac laptops and hook my MacBook Pro up to a 30″ cinema display when I’m in my office

Over the past few years I’ve done some speaking for Apple both here in NYC and on national tours.

A few months ago I was fortunate enough to be invited along with 10 other photographers to the mother ship — Apple headquarters in Cupertino, CA. This photo was taken right out by the big “1″ in front of 1 Infinite Loop.

In the group were top photographers from the wedding, sports, photojournalism, and portraiture fields. They asked us about the state of the industry and what we need our software to do.

We were dubbed the Aperture Advisory Board.

Fast forward a few months. This week Apple announced the release of the newest version of it’s pro level photo software - Aperture 2.0. Many of the new features in there are a direct result of our feedback.

Not only am I happy to be a part of this elite group, but I’m thrilled that Apple actually listened to the needs of professional photographers. I sat down with the people who actually write the code and discussed the give-and-take that happens with every feature addition. I certainly have a new respect for the work that the software engineers do.

Aperture 2.0 is now a daily part of my workflow. The program boasts over 100 new features, but the biggest improvements are in image quality and speed. It can handle anything that I throw at it.

I used to believe that the camera manufacturer’s software would always do the best job decoding RAW files. I’m a changed man. The Apple team has worked incredibly hard to decode and decipher every bit and byte in the RAW files to make our images look their absolute best.

You can read all about Aperture and the new features here. They’ve also dropped the price to $199 (it was $499 when the program was first introduced!) and there’s even a free 30-day trial available.

Each year on or around my daughter’s birthday, I make an official “portrait” of her. This started at six months when I took a photo of Amanda trying to eat her own foot (she’s brilliant!). I have all of the photos hanging in chronological order on the wall in my office.

 

Amanda turned four in January and we had a party for her with most of her friends from the pre-k class. It was a busy day (ever try to wrangle a dozen four-year-olds?), so I didn’t really have a chance to set up my lights.

Later that week, the three of us flew to Florida to go on the Barenaked Ladies cruise. It’s awesome when my family can come with me on a job that includes a Caribbean cruise, although they generally don’t see a lot of me during the week.

When we were visiting Grandma’s house in Boynton Beach, I made a photo of Amanda running down the sidewalk after checking out the pool. I was shooting a Nikon D300 with the 17-55 lens and ran backwards as she sprinted down the street. Auto-focus is a wonderful thing in this situation as I wasn’t even looking through the lens.

 

After the trip, I showed Amanda a few different pics that I shot of her and asked which one she wanted to be her “official” four-year-old portrait. This is the one she picked. She’s actually a pretty good photo editor!

Yesterday I went to Chicago to photograph the band Kill Hannah for Kerrang.

These guys wear quite a bit of makeup and I thought it would be interesting to do a “fish out of water” shoot and bring them on the subway (locals call it “the L”).

We shot “guerilla style” and walked to the train while stopping to snap pics wherever I thought it might look good. I had two people holding lights for me and we only stopped traffic and got honked at about a half dozen times.

It was 20 degrees out, but they braved it without any complaints (except for Elias, who lives in Arizona!).

TRAVEL FUN: O’Hare is my least favorite airport in the US. It’s rare when there aren’t flight delays in Chicago and if you have a connection to catch it always seems that you land at gate A3 and have to get to Z48 in 5 minutes.

Yesterday my inbound flight was delayed, but not because of O’Hare. We were waiting for our flight attendant! Ugh.

I was about an hour late to the shoot, but the guys were still in makeup so no harm done there.

Trying to get out of Chicago was a bit tougher. The last Delta non-stop flight from O’Hare to JFK - two of the biggest airports in the country - is at 5:30pm. As we shot throughout the day, it was becoming apparent that I wasn’t going to make that flight - especially if you factor in the two hours of rush hour traffic.

I found a 7pm flight out of Midway airport that would fly me into LaGuardia. I’m gold medallion on Delta so changing my flight should be no problem, right?

First it took over 30 mins to get our car from the valet. I’m pretty sure they couldn’t find it. I spent the entire car ride on the phone with Delta, getting different answers about their ability to change the ticket and what it would cost. The problem was that my ticket was booked through the client’s travel agency in London.

The Delta rep actually took my number and said she would call me back - which she didn’t.

I wasn’t sure we would make it to the airport in time, but thanks to an illegal u-turn at the last minute, my assistant got me there at 6:25 - right before the 30 minute cut-off to check my bags.

I’ve always had more luck getting things done at the ticket counter rather than on the phone, so I ran inside, went to the counter and changed my ticket for $75. No problem. I even got my complimentary medallion first class upgrade. Whew.

The highlight of the evening - by far - was the incredible view as we approached Manhattan. I love the LaGuardia approach, but visibility car vary. This was a perfectly clear night and I could see the entire island lit up as we flew just east of the city. It was breathtaking.

Yesterday I flew to Charlotte, NC to shoot a portrait of the band Secret Lives of the Freemasons. They’re good guys willing to do just about anything.

The label arranged for us to get a cheap motel room near the airport and we proceeded to trash it for the photos. We stood the mattress up against the wall (mostly to cover the giant mirror) and threw papers and garbage everywhere.

 

Old pizza and beer (Pabst Blue Ribbon!) completed the transformation.

 

And yes, we did clean the room up as best we could before checking out.

TRAVEL FUN: I normally fly Delta (hello gold medallion!), but the client accidentally booked me on US Air for this trip.

Normally, the airlines play pleasant music when you’re boarding, but this plane had this manic, acid-trip, psychedelic, electric guitar music playing. The video monitors were showing random light patterns that seemed like they might induce seizures.

Very bizarre considering it was 7:30 in the morning and most of the passengers were adult businessmen.

Then there was actually an attendant in the bathroom at the Charlotte airport! I’ve never understood the whole bathroom attendant thing. I’m more than willing to get my own paper towel, thanks.

It’s one thing to have an attendant in a fancy Manhattan club, but in the airport??

I was only home for about 14 hours before getting back on yet another plane. Every year during Super Bowl weekend, the MGM Grand in Las Vegas hosts “Drew Carey and the Improv All Stars” and Drew brought me out this year to document the occasion.

 

The flight wasn’t too bad because I slept for 3 of the 6 hours. A friend recently bought me one of those neck pillows and I used it for the first time. While it looks quite goofy, I actually didn’t have any pain in my neck when I woke up!

Many of my friends were in Arizona covering the Super Bowl this weekend, but I got to hang out in Vegas and could legally bet on the game. How about those Giants, huh?

It’s a lot of fun working with Drew. When I landed at McCarran International, I spotted a nice lady with an MGM sign that said “BERGMAN.” She escorted me to a gold limo that would take me to the VIP check-in area at the hotel.

It always feels kind of funny sitting by myself in the back of a limo, but I won’t complain.

There’s a special VIP check-in where they offer you drinks while you sit with a concierge to get your account settled. Nice.

BIGGEST PET PEEVE EVER: How come there are never enough power outlets in hotel rooms? I was in a very nice room on a VIP floor at the MGM Grand and there’s only ONE available plug near the desk. What’s that all about?

Even in hotels that cater to “business travelers,” there are never enough power outlets.

Between my computer and all my battery chargers (cameras, iphone, airport express, etc), I need at least four plugs.

Of course that’s why I travel with a mini power strip made by Monster. One of the best little gadgets ever made.

As for photos, I tried to use the spotlight during Drew’s monologue to make an iconic photo of him.

In addition to the show pics, I also clowned around with Chip Esten backstage. He was pretending to eat a meal that would feed 10, but if you know Chip, you know that he could probably really eat the whole thing by himself.