Just another quick post from the show last week at Richardson Stadium. Jay Emmons and Chris Huot enjoying their night. I was very impressed with these guys Saturday night, this was the biggest setting I’ve seen them and they thrived in it. The Glorious Sons are heading out on tour for the next few months and I’m happy for them, they’ve worked so hard, enjoy the ride guys.
Jay Emmons and Chris Huot at Richardson Stadium
My busy summer concert season is slowing down now that the festivals are done for another year. I was lucky enough to be able to document two very rare shows in Kingston recently. The first was the Rockin’ The Big House Event which was held inside the walls of Kingston Pen and featured some great people including three of the members of The Tragically Hip. Also, on Saturday evening I was able to shoot the Glorious Sons show at Richardsons Stadium. I only remember one other show on that field and it was another Kingston band.
Brett Emmons of The Glorious Sons
Saturday night, I had the good fortune to shoot the Rockin’ The Big House show here in Kingston. For anyone who doesn’t know what that was, it was a concert featuring some pretty big Canadian musicians and it took place inside a former federal penitentiary here in town that is currently being run as a museum and it did indeed rock! Below is a photo taken at the end of the show and features all members of The Trews, Tom Cochrane and three of the remaining members of The Tragically Hip! History was made in Kingston Saturday night………in more than one way.
For a long time when I started processing photographs I was reluctant to alter the aspect ratio of an image. My reasoning was to do with printing and framing rather than composition. I figured that there were all these standard sizes of frames available and you had to stay within those dimensions. Granted, custom framing and matt cutting is an added expense, but not every photograph fits the norm. We want our photograph to be displayed in it’s best form so I began to re-think my practices.
The image below has all of it’s information grouped together in a strip that was on the bottom of the frame while the sky was full of nothing but heavy fog. In this case, there was no reason to leave the sky there. In this case, changing the aspect ratio to a more panoramic crop made more sense. The rule of thumb for composition is if it isn’t helping the image, it is hurting it so the boring sky had to go.
Peaceful Morning
I was looking through some photos the other day and noticed my first concert photography attempt was in 2006 so it’s been about 13 years that I’ve been doing it in one way or another. It’s been a fun and interesting journey and I love every minute of it. I’ve worked hard and learned a lot over those years.
“First three songs, no flash” are the instructions you typically are given prior to the shoot. That’s all you get, after the third song we are escorted back out of the venue, that’s it. I often have to explain to people that I don’t even get to watch the show, but it’s true in many cases. An exception to this procedure is festivals. Bands often do away with restrictions at festival shows.
The image below is of Danielle Nicole Schnebelen of the Danielle Nicole Band. I had the opportunity to shoot this super talented person after a long time of following her music. Most photographers I know have a bucket list of sorts that they wish to shoot and Danielle was one of mine.
Danielle Nicole Schnebelen
Copyright Ron Pettitt Images 2025