Andy Allo live acoustic at Bitterzoet in Amsterdam

Earlier this year I had the opportunity to join my sister Andy Allo on her mini Euro tour. Below is her live acoustic performance of “Hooked” at Bitterzoet in Amsterdam, one of my favorite. I love the improvised take on the song. The venue was jam-packed shoulder to shoulder and stage to entrance. A great crowd for sure.

I was initially unsure about whether I would be able to capture anything worth watching. I had packed light for the trip and brought only my small travel tripod. The crowd and overloaded deck at the back of the room caused a lot of vibrations which were only amplified by the 200mm focal length needed to reach the stage. I must say for as steady as the shot looks, the entire camera and deck were in constant motion. Someone was always kicking the tripod. My only saving grace was the EF 70-200mm f/2.8 IS II lens. Once again this lens more than earned it’s lifetime place in my camera bag. What an amazing piece of precision machinery!

I shot with the 5D Mark III, Manual mode, Manual Focus, ISO-1600, f/2.8 and 1/50s (twice the 25fps for a crisp feel) and 1080p. This was my first time shooting 25fps (I usually shoot video at 30fps) and I must say 25fps feels more natural but the best part was that it took up much less memory. I was able to shoot the entire performance in roughly half the memory it would normally take. For the audio I used an AZDEN Shotgun Mic with built in boost/amp. I was about 50-60 feet from the stage and was able to pickup the performance surprisingly clearly. From where I was standing I could hardly hear the words. Here’s the video: