Taking Photos @ Gigs

[William Wallace]

[i]Yo![/i] Hi all. Does anyone know the score about taking photos at the gigs. I'm going to see the boys in Birmingham, Stade De France and Cardiff & I want to know if its cool to take in a camera, coz i want all you lot to see the guys in action. My ticket for the Stade De France does say that no cameras or video equipment are allowed. Has anyone got any suggestions or info on this apart from placing a camera up my butt ??????????

[policerule]

no idea what security is like there, but if you have a point and shoot, just bring a spare memory card. i have asked this same question and it seems that if they take anything, it would be the card. put one in your shoe or something and you should be ok. just don't bring some huge camera with giant lenses. hope that helps!

[Kalypso]

In desperation: Cell Phone?

[demolition gal]

I went to the Vancouver fan show - and it said on the tickets "no cameras, etc." so like a polite American (who has been busted for cameras before), I left my camera in the car.

meanwhile, the most amazing show of my life... and EVERYONE around me has a camera! because in vancouver, they never checked ANYONE's bags. I could have brought in a huge camera in my purse (or a dirty bomb) and no one would have been the wiser.

this is why there are so many good photos & videos from the fan club show. I am STILL kicking myself for not even trying.

skip ahead to the LA show... I would not be denied. in LA they are diligent about checking, but alas, not very smart. I stuffed my small (thankfully) point and shoot down the front of my pants. (yeah, I know, insert bad joke here) my photos aren't as awesome as the vancouver ones *would* have been, but that is the lesson I learned, I guess.

usually, if you get busted in LA, they make you take it back to your car. if you walked or something, then I don't know what they would do.

so I would advise being devious for the sake of ... art.

[TheEqualizer]

I have never seen so many cameras at a concert before like I have for this Police tour. I have yet to see anyone get in trouble for taking pictures even though the tickets indicate that no cameras are permitted.

[policerule]

i haven't gone to any shows yet, but i'm bringing mine!

[Laz]

My experience with 6 shows under my belt so far has been that evidently still-photo cameras ARE allowed as long as they are not too "professional" looking, i.e. lenses no larger than a certain length (3 to 5" or something? Not a pro photographer myself.). Apparently you are allowed to snap photos to your heart's content, but the security folks at the shows seem to be mainly looking for people continuously pointing a camera at the stage (to capture video instead of just taking photos), or of course if there's someone with any audio recording equipment trying to point a mic at the stage or something. Some venues have signs that say no cameras allowed but they don't check or don't do anything if you bring one in, while other venues have signs that say no cameras with xxx size lenses allowed.

Of course this is in N. America (U.S. & Canada). I couldn't tell you about Europe or elsewhere, though.

Laz

[Pdaitabird]

We saw a guy try to walk in with a camera...nothing fancy, just a little run of the mill camera. They told him he couldn't take it in (like the tiks said). He said "HUH?" Really?" They said, "Yeah, really." so he turned around and presumably took it back to his car (or stuffed it in his pants, or something). Of course, there were cameras everywhere. So apparently if you just walked in with one, they felt obligated to do something, even if it was next to nothing. The lesson...at least act like you don't have a camera when you walk in? I guess that would be it? DAMN, i wish I would have taken one...the crappy camera on my phone was useless.

[JMRL]

My Chicago ticket clearly stated No cameras but I asked a securuty guy before the show and he told me it was OK to take pictures during the concert. There was no registering (is that a word in english?) at the entrance and there were lots of people (myself included) taking pictures inside from field seats.
So take your camera and take great pictures. We want to see them.