The lighting at most small venues is terrible. One red wash for the entire set. A single spotlight that moves every 45 seconds. Complete blackout for half a song. I used to get frustrated — how am I supposed to get a usable shot when the whole stage looks like the inside of a darkroom?

But bad light forces you to make decisions. You stop trying to capture everything and start looking for the one moment where the light actually lands on something worth shooting. A hand catching a beam. A face half-lit in blue. The edge of a guitar neck glowing against total darkness.

Some of my favorite photos came from the worst-lit rooms I've ever been in. Constraints don't kill creativity — they sharpen it. Now when I walk into a venue and the lighting is garbage, I get a little excited. It means whatever I walk out with is going to look like nothing else.

The technical stuff that helped me:

• Shooting at f/1.8 or wider and embracing the shallow depth of field

• Pushing ISO higher than I'm comfortable with and fixing grain in post

• Waiting for the light instead of fighting it — patience over shutter count