Well, another year has come and gone and the show was just as amazing as the weather. I was at work for a sales project the Saturday night, so I had a chance to see most of the rehearsals that day, then back in for noon on the Sunday to start my day of photography. During the rehearsals for Flo Rida, I was up on the 5th floor here where he was hooked up to the rip line and sent down to the main stage.

A shout out to Dad for father’s day!

It was pretty cool to see the whole thing from a different perspective. I was also up on the roof of the building awaiting to take some photos of the Ill Skarlett rehearsal, but a blown fuse held things up and I ended up missing them play.

Some more rehearsal pics:

The weather during the morning and rehearsals was pretty decent, but as the day went later and later the clouds became darker and darker.. I had planted myself in the main stage pit area waiting for the show to start after the red carpet arrivals when the rain started. I had the advantage of a security guard giving me a rain jacket, unlike the hundreds of fans there who were soaked to the bone when the rain came down at about 8ish or so.

I did have the advantage of being able to leave and go stand in the back stage area while the brunt of the storm blew through! At that time the security had rolled out some huge blue tarps onto the stage crown, as well as handing out garbage bags too, but the majority of the people were already soaked at that point. I wondered what they were going to do if the rain didn’t let up, BUT by 9pm, the rain had stopped and the show was on! A rainbow came out just before, so I guess it was a sign that the night was going to be great!

I had the opportunity to use a Canon EF70-200/2.8 L IS USM Lens! Which is pretty amazing in general and produced some amazing clear images. I just wish i could find the way to justify spending 2 grand on a lens. If anybody is thinking of and idea for a birthday or Christmas gift.. just click on that link above! The show was great, It didn’t really rain that much during the show, but I had my rain coat on to keep me warm from the previous wind and rain storm (I was soaked from where the rain coat didn’t cover me)

Below are some of my favourite photos I took of the show, with a whole lot more info and other photographs over at muchmusic.com!

The after party was pretty wild too. Where I work, we are on the 4th floor of the CTV Building here at Queen & John. A majority of the celebs green rooms were in an open area where the former Star! set was, all sectioned off into little, or big (depending on how big the celeb was) curtained areas. So after the show, I changed into my fancy clothes and began the rest of the night. After meeting up with a friend, we ended up hanging out on the 4th and watching the Celtics/Lakers game in Sum 41’s green room, minus Sum 41. Instead of those guys, it was Akon, Kardinal Official, Hedley, NKOTB and Rihanna.. all huddled over a 13″ tv trying to watch the end of the game. It seemed pretty bizzaro for myself to be standing there having a conversation about the Celtics with Rihanna, and talking it up with Joe from the NKOTB. I did also accomplished half my goal for the night, I walked past Rainn Wilson from The Office! I was too shy to say hi to him, but I was a mere foot away from him!

It was a great show, wild weather and a very tiring weekend, but well worth the photos! All images shown in this post are © MuchMusic. For more info about the show, jump on over to MuchMusic!

Filed under: Concert Photography, Photo Sets on June 17th, 2008