I used a disposable camera and they all came out black....and I was close. I really regret not taking my camera. I could have gotten some GREAT pictures. Go buy a camera, you'll need one eventually anyway!

it actually depends are where you are in row 11. or, rather, how the stadium you're going to is set up. row 11 in san jose was directly on the catwalk. if you were in the middle, the boys were less than a foot away. any pictures you took in that row would be mostly good, no matter what the camera.

i used a disposable camera in las vegas last year. we were right on the catwalk. becuase of the lights, the pictures are pretty awful. they're grainy. the boys all have red-eye. the disposable camera just cannot adjust itself to deal with all the crazy flashing colored lights.

a typical 35mm point-and-shoot will actually react the same way. my shots, with my own camera (the mister used a manual cannon and his pics are all gorgeous), from the three shows i've seen are hit and miss. when the lights were out of the way, i got crisp colors and backgrounds, pretty sparkly boys. when the lights were anywhere near my subject, they were grainy and unfocused. a mess.

one more thing about disposables and inexpensive 35mm cameras: everything looks a lot farther away than you are. especially with a disposable. if your seats are even two rows back from the catwalk, it'll look like the boys are in siberia. one of the security guys let me go down and take pics directly in front of JC during a solo, and he's this tiny little person in the actual picture. so depressing.

all this to say: your zoom would take much better pics. it'll allow you to focus on the guy(s) of your choice, and will not try to expose for all the bad light around them (most of the time). if you can get it fixed, i would.

*this lecture has been brought to you by the wife of a professional photographer, who is shocked she knows so much about light metering.

before tacoma, we got a fabulous bit of advice from the sandys and the tiffanys, who had been in portland.

most small 35mm cameras will fit into a tampon box. one of the small ones. loki's fit *perfectly* into one. and there's not way someone is going to check that when they look in your bag.

and! the mister says, if you know where your camera is leaking, put some black eletrical tape over the hole. that will keep the light out. he had to do that on one of his old cameras and it worked fine.

you want 800. totally. and he also prefers fuji, because the colors are crisper.

you know, i'm on the phone with brad right now, and i'm going to beg him to put together a little how-to for taking concert pictures for popgurls.