Brothers Jared and Shannon Leto brought their little rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars to Laval’s Place Bell last night, to the delight of their fans who had flags and signs showing their love for the group. From the fan’s reactions, most were there to see younger of the two brothers Jared, who is an Oscar winning actor for the movie Dallas Buyers Club, but has also been in other critically acclaimed films such as Fight Club, Requiem for a Dream and more recently Blade Runner 2049 and playing the Joker in Suicide Squad.
But enough about Jared… well ok…no, let’s keep going. He is the front man and singer (his brother plays the drums) and what a front man he is !! He kept moving side to side (making him somewhat difficult to photograph in the usually contrasty light) and plays amazingly well with the audience, inviting fans on stage to help him judge which side of the arena is the loudest.
I first caught Thirty Seconds to Mars back in 2005 when they opened for Audioslave at Montreal’s CEPSUM. While Jared was already established as an actor, his on stage performance wasn’t something that struck me and I don’t have great recollection of him doing anything spectacular. Fast forward 13 years later, the man knows how entertain.
The photo pit was somewhat packed, I think a good dozen photographers, all trying to get the glamour shot of Jared. I typically use a 24-70 and a 70-200 in arenas, and specially when the front man is a recognizable public figure. However, I opted to replace the long lens with an ultra wide (16-35) and while I had the telephoto on me, I did all my photo pit up front shots with the wider lens. Why? Not too sure. I hadn’t seen too many videos, but I opted for an idea of getting more full body stage movement shots then 3-4 close up headshots / portraits. I mean, I’m there to cover a show, right? Let’s make it look like a show. Gotta mix things up once and a while !! Thanks for the band for stretching the typical 3 songs in the pit and then leave restrictions. After U2 last week giving us a total of 6 songs, Thirty Seconds to Mars gave us 3 songs in the pit and then the go to shoot from the crowd for the rest of the show !! Granted, it gets redundant shooting from the back, nabbing a few images does add to the tell the story.
The images were taken for Virgin Radio Montreal / iHeartRadio. You can check out the full media gallery HERE
Below, some of my faves and some exclusive black and whites 🙂
