From the vault - My front row pix from the 1975 tour - Part 2

[18strings]

4 hours ago, Strider said:

You must have seen Neal Preston down there taking photos? Do you remember the shutter speed you used? How fast a film did you use...800 or higher?

It was slide film, may 64. So I had to shoot at 1/60. I don't recall any photographers, but I know some were there. I'll tell you this... I'd pay a fortune for a decent shot from behind the amps showing me at one of these shows. I've been on the hunt for a long time. Kind of my holy grail. Pretty sure it's not out there... but I'll never stop looking!

[Sticks of Fire]

42 minutes ago, 18strings said:

Yeah, that was the problem. I think I was shooting at 1/60, so you totally get it. I think it was six rolls of 36 over two nights, so 216 shots. About half of them were way too blurry for even the biggest fans. Then another 50 were just bad shots, for a variety of reasons. That left about 60 which were decent including the ones I shared here. Of course these days with digital, you can shoot all you want with no development costs. I was in the pit for the Rolling Stones in Phoenix last year. I probably took 300 shots between my camera and my phone + a handful of videos. So much easier these days. 

Yeah and to get good light at a concert you need fast film (400 or 800), and a lens that has a really wide aperture like F2.   But most telephoto lenses dont open that wide.   So you have to have it set to 1/60 or 1/125 like you did.  

[ledzepfilm]

21 hours ago, 18strings said:

Thanks! The reactions from everyone here are very gratifying. What drives me crazy is that I have more from 71 and maybe 72 somewhere. Not the same seats to be sure, but still. Probably still in the attic at the home I grew up in!

Which 1971 and 1972 gigs were you at? Particularly there are not many photos of the band at the Forum on August 21, 1971. If you've got a gallery of those, that'd be a treasure trove.

Phenomenal shots, by the way! Can't imagine how awesome it was to see them live from that perspective.

[Sticks of Fire]

2 hours ago, 18strings said:

It was slide film, may 64. So I had to shoot at 1/60. I don't recall any photographers, but I know some were there. I'll tell you this... I'd pay a fortune for a decent shot from behind the amps showing me at one of these shows. I've been on the hunt for a long time. Kind of my holy grail. Pretty sure it's not out there... but I'll never stop looking!

I hope you find that photo one day!! 

[Sherry78]

Thanks so much! I will do a pencil drawing and dedication to you! I am 40 and female but truly still my very favorite band! Thanks again, great shots!

[Rob M]

Great shots, I love Ektachrome, the way it looks when you project it in a screen. I used ASA 200 at a Bob Dylan concert in Denver 1978. You could fall into the pictures when they were projected. Thanks for sharing, brings back memories. Looks Great!

[18strings]

16 hours ago, ledzepfilm said:

Which 1971 and 1972 gigs were you at? Particularly there are not many photos of the band at the Forum on August 21, 1971. If you've got a gallery of those, that'd be a treasure trove.

Phenomenal shots, by the way! Can't imagine how awesome it was to see them live from that perspective.

I'm pretty sure I went on 8/22/71 based on what they're wearing in these pictures. There's a video of that night with a picture that seems to match their clothes in these. Of course, if they wore the same things both nights than I can't be sure. These are the slides I found from that night and they were mixed in with my '75 shots. Super frustrating that I can't find the rest. As for '72, it was June 25, as I'm pretty sure that was the only show in L.A. that year. 

[18strings]

10 hours ago, Sherry78 said:

Thanks so much! I will do a pencil drawing and dedication to you! I am 40 and female but truly still my very favorite band! Thanks again, great shots!

Wow. Very cool. As I mentioned to someone else, I shared these freely and happily. But I'd rather that they or their derivatives don't become commercial products. But if you feel like sharing here, I can't wait to see what you come up with.  

[ledzepfilm]

7 minutes ago, 18strings said:

I'm pretty sure I went on 8/22/71 based on what they're wearing in these pictures. There's a video of that night with a picture that seems to match their clothes in these. Of course, if they wore the same things both nights than I can't be sure. These are the slides I found from that night and they were mixed in with my '75 shots. Super frustrating that I can't find the rest. As for '72, it was June 25, as I'm pretty sure that was the only show in L.A. that year. 

Yep, definitely 8/22 based on their clothes... great shots! Jimmy wore a red button up shirt the night before.

Hopefully one day you can find the rest.

Edited August 3, 2020 by ledzepfilm

[Bradley s w]

Thanks for sharing long live Zeppelin,,, When magic filled the air!

 

[Bradley s w]

Thanks for sharing these great shots ,long live Zeppelin ,,When magic filled the air!

[Strider]

On 8/2/2020 at 5:07 PM, 18strings said:

It was slide film, may 64. So I had to shoot at 1/60. I don't recall any photographers, but I know some were there. I'll tell you this... I'd pay a fortune for a decent shot from behind the amps showing me at one of these shows. I've been on the hunt for a long time. Kind of my holy grail. Pretty sure it's not out there... but I'll never stop looking!

I have the same complaint...not enough shots from behind the drums showing the audience along with the band. That guy (Barry ?) who photographed the March 27, 1970 L.A. Forum got some good ones. But that's about it.

Earls Court is the worst. From the antiseptic soundboards and the photographs, it would seem there was no audience at all.

Neal Preston has a few from 1975 and 1977. Primarily the shots from Detroit 1975 of Jimmy at the lip of the stage and you can see the front rows of the crowd...you can even see a guy hoisting a pint of some booze in tribute. There is also a great shot by Preston taken from the side of the stage at the L.A. Forum 1977 during "No Quarter". The stage is covered in fog and the entire Forum crowd is bathed in blue light as Jimmy looks at Neal while puffing on his cigarette.

Unfortunately, these type of photos are few and far between in the Led Zeppelin catalogue. Unlike the Rolling Stones, who have many of these types of photos in their history. Whether it was the Stones being more encouraging to the photographers and allowing them to hang around behind the amps more or the photographers themselves showing more initiative and creativity by seeking some place other than the photo pit to take their photos, you get more of a band/audience dynamic from Rolling Stones photos than Led Zeppelin photos.

[PowrToc]

I just joined this forum specifically to thank you for posting these amazingly badass images; but I have been a fanatic and collecting Zep bootlegs since I discovered they existed, one crazy chemical driven night after seeing Robert Plant's Principle of Moments tour in Memphis TN back in '83. I never saw the mighty LZ, but I came close; my uncle in Chicago had bought tickets for my cousins and myself for the 1980 show. I was 14 then. Anyway, I eventually saw Jimmy Twice with the Firm, solo on the Outrider tour and 2 Page/Plant shows. My last page sighting was 1998 the Gorge (Washington State).  I've seen Plant a bunch of time, most recently @ 2019 Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Fest.

Anyway, thanks again for sharing these wonderful photos  ✌️

Edited August 4, 2020 by PowrToc

[18strings]

8 hours ago, Strider said:

I have the same complaint...not enough shots from behind the drums showing the audience along with the band. That guy (Barry ?) who photographed the March 27, 1970 L.A. Forum got some good ones. But that's about it.

Earls Court is the worst. From the antiseptic soundboards and the photographs, it would seem there was no audience at all.

Neal Preston has a few from 1975 and 1977. Primarily the shots from Detroit 1975 of Jimmy at the lip of the stage and you can see the front rows of the crowd...you can even see a guy hoisting a pint of some booze in tribute. There is also a great shot by Preston taken from the side of the stage at the L.A. Forum 1977 during "No Quarter". The stage is covered in fog and the entire Forum crowd is bathed in blue light as Jimmy looks at Neal while puffing on his cigarette.

Unfortunately, these type of photos are few and far between in the Led Zeppelin catalogue. Unlike the Rolling Stones, who have many of these types of photos in their history. Whether it was the Stones being more encouraging to the photographers and allowing them to hang around behind the amps more or the photographers themselves showing more initiative and creativity by seeking some place other than the photo pit to take their photos, you get more of a band/audience dynamic from Rolling Stones photos than Led Zeppelin photos.

Funny you should mention shots at Stones shows. That's my other favorite band and some of the other shows where investing time paid off with great seats. I was front row at the Forum for the '75 show too. There was a photographer from the LA times who took this great shot from the corner of the stage, and she missed me by about 2 seats. I tried to find other shots that may have included me, but no luck. Oh well.

[Pier Domenico Gianasso]

Facile da usare oggi certo, ma la differenza, le capacità si vedono dalle inquadrature. Se vuoi fare un buon video.. Semplice fino a un certo punto... Perché se vuoi qualcosa di più esempio io ho un huawei uso le inquadrature Professional dove sono io a gestire tramite applicazione la foto, il video... E la differenza si vede eccome se si vede.. Ciao e ancora grazie.. Pier 

[SilverVishnu]

I posted this in the pt1 thread. OP not sure how familiar you are with lossless/ lossy file formats so if this doesn't make total sense I am happy to help. Basically the files you uploaded, whilst superb, suffer from heavy JPEG compression which will only get worse if/when anyone edits or re-saves them. Basically I'm saying the best way to preserve these digitally would be saved in a lossless file format such as BMP at the highest DPI (dots per inch) on your scanner. If you're already au fait with this sort of stuff then a link to something like a Google Drive folder which doesn't suffer from such brutal file size limits would be the best way to preserve these photographs digitally.

 

Anyway  my original post in your pt1 thread:

 

"Late to the party but incredible shots man! If you could upload them in the full resolution of your scanner in high quality JPEGs or BMPs to Google Drive or something and upload a link here that would be brilliant.... there are so many good LZ photos around now that have been endlessly resaved and recompressed they end up looking rather sorry for themselves.... up to you but it would be cool to have these in the best possible quality for the community to enjoy. Thank you!

Edit: can already see some pretty obvious heavy lossy image compression when zooming in so the above request would be superb to have honoured"

Edited August 11, 2020 by SilverVishnu

[reids]

Thx for sharing.

R😎🎸👍

[ohjimmy]

Thank you so much for sharing these incredible photos. Much appreciated. Cheers ✌️