Michael Stipe (REM) waving to his mum (who is eating a bag of chips!)

This is REM's lead singer Michael Stipe, taken at the Lancashire County Cricket Club, Manchester. I arrived at 3.25 pm, the doors opened at 4pm, I grabbed a portion of chips and a litre of water to see me through the next six and half hours then made my way to the stage.

To my surprise there was only 10 rows of people in front of me so I knew I would get a clear view of the band. I took my 70-300mm lens (which is really a 105mm-450mm lens digitally) so getting close to the actions wasn't going to be a problem. I took 178 photos in total but many of them suffered with poor focussing (as I don't use auto-focus as a rule, although I will in future).

I'm not sure if Mrs Stipe was in audience but I thought the title may cause a ripple of laughter from the ephotoziners, yes I can see you smiling now! Humour at an REM concert I here you ask, yes it does exist - although only in small quantitles.

This photo (and title) is also on REM's official website - REMHQ.COM. Michael Stipe probably doesn't bother looking at the site. You've seen one shot of yourself playing live you've seen them all!

Camera:	Nikon D80 Check out Nikon Nation!
Lens:	70-300 (at 300 end)
Recording media:	JPEG (digital)

Title:	Michael Stipe (REM) waving to his mum (who is eating a bag of chips!)
Username:	Andrew_Hurley
Uploaded:	2 Sep 2008 - 6:03 PM
Tags:	Bag, Band, Buck, Chips, Club, Concert, Cricket, Gig, Guitar, Guitarist, Humour, Humour / fun, Manchester, Michael, Mrs stipe, Mum, Music, Musician, Old trafford, People, Peter, Photo journalism, Portraits / people, Rem, Rock, Singer, Stipe
VS Mode Rating	101 (100% won) These stats show the percentage of wins and the rating score that your photo has achieved. You can go to the VS Mode by clicking on this icon. Signup to e2 Signup to e2 to see which photo this has won or lost against in the vs mode
Votes:	6