B(L)ackstage at the Black Cat - It's Friday! Come read my Blog!

First a few photos from the Black Cat earlier this week - then a little rant.

I've got all this stuff about photography going on in my head these days. The feeling is a bit like being a flea on the back of a dog that's spinning to catch its tail. (or maybe it's just a leftover from my week of country solitude - minus 5 dogs and an old tabby cat) Anyway, I've been doing this gig with an on-line magazine called Brightest Young Things (or BYT for short) just for a bit of fun and exposure, and it has been fun - press credentials, free entry into events, etc. The best part is I'm basically free to roam photographically speaking. Again, maybe not be the best thing since it has got me thinking and feeling a bit flea-ish.

However, and I think this is my point, I have come to certain (possibly fleeting) conclusions about camera technology and the medium. First, the camera is a wonderful tool with endless possibilities, and in my head it kind of irks me to hear good people say limiting things like, "I don't like flash; I only use available light" or "this camera is bad because of the high ISO grain, so avoid 3200 ISO", or "if you do use flash it should be off camera", and face recognition focusing - what's that? Which leads me to my next point. As camera technology becomes better and better my inner flea is saying it's going to become easier to take photos that look just like everyone else's, and who really wants that?

Several month's ago I'm watching some music in the Black Cat's "Backstage" room, and there's this guy taking pics with a flash, and he has one of these little white domes on top of his flash to "soften" the light or something. The idea being the dome allows some of the light to escape out the side of the flash and bounce off the walls, ceiling, etc. to fill shadows and reduce the harshness of the light. However, the Backstage walls are flat black, and the ceiling is like 14 feet high, so the only thing he was accomplishing with this little dome was to blind the audience behind him. It didn't matter what direction he swiveled his flash or how many times he looked at his preview window it wasn't going to work - It certainly didn't matter how many times he repeated the mantra about creating "soft" light ... at a divey rock show ... in a pitch black basement of a back room. I think you get the idea.

Long story short, when I was asked to shoot a small rock show, Royal Bang up from TN, the other night at the Cat, I jumped (get it ... flea ... jump) at the chance. Whew! And the flea will now retire from his soapbox. At least the dog has stopped spinning for the time being. Which is a pretty good thing.

Spring Cleaning

I'm re-vamping the portfolio, removing photos that don't fit and in the case of the Pogues' 9:30 Club show, making a new home for them on my blog. It isn't that I wouldn't want to be known as a concert photographer, each week ticking off another show from the list of 100 acts to see before you die (or before they do?). But .. well .. take a look here, and tell me who the rock star is.

***

Set one: Shane takes a drag from a cigarette and spits into the mike. The packed house howls and sways, and we raise our drinks and pretend to understand what he is saying. Shane plays on. His body is old and broken. His music is not. Two songs, and he takes a break, exiting stage left, down the stairs and into the blackness (or as Shane might say, "blech"). I get the impression that he is being taken away to his dressing room on a two-wheeled dolly cart. Set two: I raise my camera, a 1957 Canon rangefinder L-2, into the air and snap a photo. The bouncer points and tells me, "No professional cameras!" What this old thing? .. well yes the lens does come off .. but this old thing? Come on! "Fine" he says smugly, "Not enough light without a flash anyway. You're just wasting your time." snap, snap, snap. Thanks .. and in case you missed it, Shane is smoking on stage again.

What are you wearing? A selection of black.

Just a few days after the blue jean fashion show at the Swedish Embassy, Maria and I rented a car, slipped on our biggest, blackest boots and drove out to the not quite anywhere, not quite somewhere of northern Virginia, a.k.a. the burbs, for a heavy metal music review at Jaxx Night Club.

First, let me say that I think everyone needs to fear (and at least be very suspicious of) the suburbs. This goes double when the reason for being there is named the Slave to the Metal Tour. So let's just say that our first impression of the place did little to alleviate this fear, or help us forget the hour we just traveled through rain and rush hour.

Situated between a Lebanese restaurant and a Korean-neon convenience store in one of those totally foreign, oddly similar strip malls, Jaxx, an icon of metal music to those "in the know", was .. well .. smelly (I totally forget what smoke in a bar is like.), a bit torn up, a bit torn down and very well worn. The most solid thing about the club being the pipe metal railing separating the stage from the sunken mosh pit (no glass bottles please), realm of sweat and teens with hawks (and intrepid photographers of which we were several). Not that it was a problem when no one patted me down at the door after I set off the metal detector, but somewhere in the back of my mind I did recall that possession of a fire arm is legal in VA bars ..

Fortunately, it didn't take long to forget the trek. Our initial suspicion, slammed and shaken when the music kicked on (with many thank you's from the bands to the sound technician - always the first sign of a good venue). Really and truly I miss this sort of music. Plus, I was allowed to get up on stage for some close up action shots!

Really, I love shooting in these conditions, when the light ranges from total darkness to blaring spots. I know it throws a lot of people into fits - but with music raging I find it hard to care. I shot all of these in RAW but did little to edit them beyond - what else - bumping up the black intensity level. You can see some of my favorites below - not all the best perhaps - but I'm trying to create a sense of the music and the venue with the set. You can view the rest (500+ images including Maria mugging at the Chinese food restaurant next door) here. My strategy was to move around a lot, try different angles, wait for some interesting light, frame the subject, but also compose the shot with the background in mind. Enjoy - I did.

A very special thanks to Tom and the entire band, DieManic , our host for the evening, who invited us out, and provided us a pair of free passes.

Its "All Good"

My first photo Blog – a quick reminder of a place that I’ve visited before and may not return to again, the All Good Music Festival, in Masontown, WV.

I took pics of all sorts of things. Most in the category of typical summer music festival photos - i.e.: sunsets, hay fields, tents and trailers, umbrellas, bubbles, hats, Frisbees, body art, hips and hoops and groups of friends lounging in the grass, bright colors, festival fare - A setting provided, people acting the part. I did my best to capture the textures and temperature and to create a set of images that would take me back at some date in the future.

You can see the images here.

With so much of the expected I decided to give myself an assignment, so I spent one afternoon photographing folks and their sunglasses. The idea struck me as a good one with everyone having a pair - most of them funky, and it was a good excuse to say "hello", point the camera directly into their face and snap a photo, one that was intimate and expressive but still provided the subject with a degree of anonymity. The best part was, I got to be in most of the shots via the reflection (that's me there with the Red Sox hat on, festival goings-on over my shoulder). Everyone got a kick out of the idea. I would like to have taken some more, but at some point the crowd expanded. The volume of the music rose to the point that I couldn’t easily explain the idea.

These are the best of them (probably about half). I made some small adjustments in post production to kick up the intensity of the sun and the colors - hopefully not so much that the effect distracts, and they look fake. I'm still working on some PS techniques. I'm seeking some help from a more knowledgeable friend on Monday - maybe I'll do a few "before lesson" and "after lesson" side-by-sides to show off what I learn.

... and one more of Maria's sox (ha! take that spell check.)