Legendary masters of hip-hop Jay-Z and Kanye West are touring North America with their creative collaboration Watch the Throne. On Friday night, the duo made their appearance in Seattle at the Tacoma Dome, where a packed audience couldn’t get enough of the two superstars. ECSTATIC doesn’t even begin to describe the amount of excitement I had in anticipation for shooting this show, as I’ve been a long time Jay-Z and Kanye fan and couldn’t get enough of their collaborative album. Unfortunately, this show ended up being rather challenging to shoot.

We had been warned that it would be a back of the house shoot at the Tacoma Dome, and had all come prepared with huge lenses, tripods, and stools. But in this case, even our advanced preparation couldn’t have made this shoot any easier. The show opened with Yeezy and Jay-Z performing on two separate columns, both towering over our position at the back of the house. Check out the video clip here, and imagine being at the very bottom of Jay-Z’s tower. We photographers were basically placed smack dab in the middle, at the base of these two columns with the worst vantage points ever. Watch the throne, indeed. Needless to say I ended up with way too many “up the nose” shots of Jay-Z, whose column was closest to us; whenever Kanye would bounce over close enough to the edge, I snapped shots of him. On the whole, it was a loss. When the two finally took to the main stage for their third song, our last attempt to shoot them before our time was up, we were foiled once again. The eager crowd in front of us stood up…on their seats! Even those with stools were shrugging half heartedly from our disadvantaged position. Ah well…you win some, you lose some.

Check out some photos below, with the full published post on The Stranger along with Larry Mizell Jr’s review.

Jay Z at the Tacoma Dome

Kanye West