'Great photography is about depth of feeling, not depth of field.”

That's something Australian photographer Peter Adams said; and it is undeniably very wise and very true.

I saw it offered as advice to potential music snappers, those ambitious souls brave or foolhardy enough to throw themselves into the world of gig photography. It reminded me of another famous photography quote, from one of the Magnum stable: 'Don't shoot what it looks like. Shoot what it feels like”.

More words to live by if you're a camera person. Inspiring. But there's one thing that those quotes have in common, apart from the fact that they are both rousing and clearly accurate. It's that, from a practical point of view, if you are actually intending to go out and shoot a gig, they are completely useless.

Because gig photography is hard. Really hard. I've known many regular people with cameras, who took very good photographs of just about anything – buildings, faces, animals, rally cars – but who were finally broken when they tackled gig photography.

It's just a perfect storm of technical problems: lighting that may be too low one minute and too high the next, or even both at the same time; subjects who are ignoring you and in continual motion; and, more than likely, no convenient place to shoot from. And often correcting for any one of these difficulties causes other problems – how best should one shoot fast-moving subjects from a distance with low light? It's not easy.

Gig photography

I mention this because of an exhibition coming up at The People's Gallery – Toi Ka Rere – in the Historic Village. Gig Photography, which previews at 5.30pm on March 18 and runs until April 3, is a look at the Tauranga music scene through the lenses of nine Tauranga photographers.

There're a wide variety of settings: there are shows at the Jam Factory, mainstream events such as the Jazz Festival and the alternative likes of Woodcock; there are rehearsal shots and even some posed pictures as well as a few from out-of-town shows.

The idea for the exhibition began with an enquiry from Gary Harvey, veteran musician on the Auckland scene, known from Gary Harvey and The Night Owls and other working bands. He relocated to Tauranga last year and has recently been working with members of Brilleaux at Welcome Bay's Colourfield Studio.

Gary is also a photographer, interested in showing his work. He talked to the good folk at The Incubator and there Simone Anderson suggested involving more photographers and creating a group show. Gig Photography was born, with the other artists being John Baxter, Nicola Baxter, Jamie Coxon, Colin Lunt, Nick Newman, Paul Edwards, Nic Clegg, and Chris O'Donnell.

Gary Harvey

Phoning it in

Gary says his interest in photography started when he was a kid, but it was totally changed by the arrival of the iPhone. 'I was now able to make and edit my own videos, posters and more, all instantly in this little machine which for someone who likes to do everything yesterday is creative heaven.”

How did he approach the exhibition pictures? 'Like most photography it takes a lot of pics to get one that is good enough to use. I then edit them and turn them into what I consider to be pieces of art. It's kinda like painting with pictures – I have a vision that lurks in my twisted mind which I try to bring to life as I've done with these gig pics.”

Meanwhile veteran local photographer Colin Lunt, once a regular presence at gigs here, has moved the other way and is now living in Auckland, where, without planning it, his photography work has taken off. He's even been winning awards. Most recently he has started a state-of-the-art online business restoring photographs, which looks fascinating and can be found at: clc-photographic.com/photo-restoration.html

Colin is sorry to be missing the exhibition but says: 'I've been doing some successful bird photography (those awards I mentioned - WW) and I'm off up north for a sea trip to go out to photograph sea birds. That's retirement!”