Be Exposed #10 and technical notes...

This month while shooting Be Exposed, I decided to try and switch up my style a little bit. When you shoot something on a monthly basis changing things up is a nice treat for viewers and photographer alike – assuming the change works.

Rather than use the normal equipment and try and find a new way to look at things, I opted to change equipment a little. This forced me to have to shoot from different vantage points, effectively changing my normal style.

The two changes I made this month were 1) no flash, no matter what and 2) shooting with the standard, cheap Canon 50mm lens instead of a zoom.

Those who know me know my extreme hatred of on-board flash units. As for the 50mm lens, it both shackles and liberates a photographer. You can no longer use a zoom to frame your picture. Instead, you have to play it where it lies. You are forced to compose the best shot you can from with the view you have. But this lens offers a very wide ASA, thereby giving the photographer new options.

All of these pictures were shot in RAW format. It takes extra time to manipulate every shot, but you learn to edit more selectively. The big benefit here is that RAW allows you to sharpen, play with curves, adjust light/contrast and manipulate light temperatures. Anyone who shoots a lot of candid NEEDS to shoot RAW. Most cameras that shoot RAW come with free software to process it, so you don't have to buy Lightroom.

Now for some technical crap on this shoot. If this helps new photographers learn about shooting manual, then good. The rest of you should just avoid reading it -

The lighting at Be Exposed is always very low. To make up for this, these shots were taken at about 1/40th of a second with an ASA of between 2.8 and 1.8, and at an ISO of 800. There are definite pluses and minuses to these settings -

1/40^th of a second is a very slow shutter speed, and is tricky when the camera is hand held. On the plus side, a slow shutter speed allows you to take shots in a poorly lit areas. The bad side is that you can end up with blurry pictures. This either results from the photographer shaking or the subject moving. You may think you don't move very much in a 40^th of a second, but trust me you're wrong.

ASA of 2.8-1.8 – this also aids in low light photography. The ASA is a measure of how wide open the lens is. The smaller the number, the wider the opening. The wider open the lens, the more light hits the sensor/film. However, the more wide open the lens is the less depth of field in the picture. When the singer (up front) is in focus, but the lead guitarist (slightly back) is sort of blurry the the ASA was wide open. Perhaps too wide open.

800 ISO – the larger the number of the ISO, the lower the light you can work with. Frankly, these pictures could have benefited from being shot at 1600 (the next step up). But when you do that there is always a danger of the few well lit areas resulting in burnt spots on your pictures. The biggest problem with shooting at a high ISO is noise (called “grain” in traditional photography). If you look closely at a picture shot with a high ISO you'll see there is no gentle color flow. Rather, you will see chunks of colors. They are small, but they can really detract from a picture's quality. However, there are cases where extreme grain adds to the shot.

Carl...

 

Carl was a World War II vet. He lived for decades in a home for mentally ill veterans - Kenosha's Dayton Hotel. You can see him in a video made by Desire and Jeff some years ago (2003 I think). As the video shows, Carl is not too good at communicating. His deep southern accent, complete lack of teeth and maybe even his schizophrenia made him really hard to understand.

Once, his niece came to the diner (the one in the video) and I waited on her.  She was up for her yearly visit to see Carl, a trip that started way down in their home state of Alabama. The niece explained that his mental problems bgan shortly after World War II. She thought they were a result of his duties in the military. As an army man assigned to a ship in the Pacific, his job was to recover bodies from the ocean so they could be i.d.ed and sent home.

The work proved too much and he cracked.

While he was pretty quiet and sort of addled, he was a very nice customer. He never had money to tip - but most of the guys who live at the vets' hotel are on fixed incomes so none of them tip. Their morning cup of coffee is one of the day's very few luxuries and tipping was way out of their tiny budgets. But the diner employees didn't care. Carl was just so nice that being good to him made you feel really good yourself.

Some of the guys at the Dayton panhandle to make extra money. Carl preferred to try and sell things he found on the street. Watches, charms, rings, rocks - it didn't matter, he'd try and sell it. People visiting the diner (and occasionally the wait) staff felt pity for him, so they would buy the crap he offered. Or they would just cut to the chase and pay for his coffee or breakfast.

Carl never showed anger at the lot life had dealt him. He was a truly happy, totally vulnerable individual. There was something about that mixture that made people feel really good when they helped him. And in that way, Carl made people better than they normally were.

Carl passed away sometime in 2006 or 2007. He as in his 80's.

Mural night at the Nook...

to see the entire set, click this link...

The Nook sponsored a mural making event last night. I like things like that. Small venue, really good people, excellent frigging coffee... Oh, and the entertainment. I hate to say this, but I do not remember the musician's or the reader's names. Yes, I suck. All I remember were the names of the dancers.

Gina Laurenzi has been a frequent photo target in my lens. She's been kind enough to invite me to photograph her dance troupe, CAPTIVATE, before. Frankly, I think Gina's group is the most progressive/experimental in K-town. She's always willing to have her dancers try something new in their performances. It's nice to see someone willing to try something beyond the norm.

Dani was the other dancer. She's a member of CAPTIVATE, but Dani's favorite form of dance is nothing new or experimental. Nope. Dani is a big fan of an older, more traditional form of dance - tap. Yepper, that's right, Dani loves tap dancing. She practices, performs around Kenosha (as the pictures show) and goes down to Chicago to take lessons.

Now, a couple of words on the specs from these photos. The ones that have more of a radical difference between the lights and darks were shot at 400. The others, the ones with a more even gradient, were shot at 3200. These have more noise, but that is unavoidable. The shots of Dani dancing were taken with fresh batteries in the flash, which resulted in a harsher lighting than the shots beforehand.

All shots were fast edited - that is they were done just to get them done fast so they could be posted last night. Almost all of these could benefit by adjusting curves and lighting levels. This is my way of saying "oops, my bad" for any and all mistakes in these shots. You just can't get away from the implications of a Catholic baptism no matter how old you get, I guess.

Enjoy and gank any of the shots you want. There are no protections on these.

Be Exposed, number 9. number 9. number 9...

 to see the rest of the set, click the picture here
 

I'm not the creative type. That simply is not my interest or strength in photography. Nope, color me the photo-anthropologist – give me slices of life, experiential oddities, public gatherings and quiet, dark interiors where people gather simply to be. 

Third Friday of each month over at Carolyn's Coffee Connection you can find the Be Exposed series. On this one night a month local artists and performers get a chance to talk, show, play, or sing what they do. Musicians, actors, poets, fiction writers and the occasional psychotherapist – they all take to the stage and show their stuff in a dimly lit room chock full of audience.

The dark room filled with people is where I come in.

 

Shooting in room with vast lighting extremes – from thick blackness to stark white under the spots – can be infuriating. But after you have spent some time doing it it's really more fun than frustrating. Your job then as a photographer is to take the raw lighting conditions and whittle them into something enjoyable, pretty or - on occasion – beautifully nostalgic.

 

But so much for my yammering. Check out the pictures if you will. I hope you enjoy them.

15 shots from The Nook's Halloween Open Mic

Click on this text to link see to the entire set

OK, so it wasn't really Halloween, but the day after. That did not stop some of the performers from donning costumes. From Canuck chic to retro Crying Game, they were there. Enjoy the shots!

I have been informed...

that I either need to learn to write English or get an editor. Seems that I have a bad habit of posting things that aren't really sentences. In my defense, I did not know this. Not until my friend read some of my words back to me.


Please know that I am now as appalled as any of you might have been.


Anyhow, here is my pledge of quality to you -

• I will no longer write entries before I have had my first cup of coffee
• I will no longer write entries right before bed
• I will no longer neglect to do a second edit
• When possible, I will have an editor look these things over
• I will attempt to give a rat's ass about the words, maybe as much as I do about the pictures*

Thanks for your understanding,
Mikasi


*Despite how the shots turn out at times, please believe me, I do care!

Sazzy B's Open Mic...

As I've said before, I am not a fan of flash, even less so in places where you cannot bounce it off a wall or two to diffuse it. At the Sazzy B there is not a single surface that is not black, brown or deep dark red – so there there is nowhere to bounce light. The starkness of the flash, therefore, was unavoidable.

Just to play around and see what I could do without flash I shot a couple of early pictures at about 1/8 of a second . Then, I did everything possible to try and take the red cast out of the picture. For these long exposures (an 1/8th of a second hand holding a camera is a pretty long exposure) I was pretty happy. Though the person pictured was blurred the focal point - normally the microphone head - was pretty sharp. That let's me know that I am either getting better at holding a camera still in my old age or that my reflexes are so shot that staying perfectly still is now second nature for me.

There are an uncommon number of tap dance photos in this set. That's because the dancer, Dani, is a friend of mine and I have been meaning to grab some shots of her in action for a while. If I have time, I plan on making a collage out of some of these shots to give to her. 

Thanks to the performers at Sazzy B's open mic. You were all really good and helped make the evening really enjoyable. You dedication to your craft has paid off. One man even went so far as to cut his finger open while strumming. See that picture of the guitar with the rag on it? That rag was used to blot the blood from his finger cut. If you look closely at the guitar you'll see what appear to be bubbles in the paint. Some of that is blood.

Now that's dedication.

I haven't posted much here lately...

Oddly, that is not due to lack of work. There's been way too much stuff coming at me lately and I have been so busy with it that I haven't had time to post here. But that will change in about 5 minutes...

Sometimes you win, sometimes not so much...

 

 to see the entire set, click on a picture or this link

If this set proved anything, it likely proved that trying something new sometimes just does not work.

In an attempt to avoid using flash on these photographs (as a rule, I hate using flash) I decided to see what I could do by combining a 3200 speed with a long shutter time (these shots vary between 1/50th of a second and 1/10th, I believe) and the use of an IS lens.

And what this proved is sometimes when you try something you really need to not try it again.

On the bright side, my hold on the camera combined with the image stabilization was pretty steady. You can tell that by looking at the shots where there was a floor mic used. The speaker will be blurred - anywhere from just a touch to very - but the microphone itself will be sharp and clear.

In the best of shots, this effect gives a painted look, like something impressionistic. Unfortunately, it wasn't the case often enough to justify doing this again.

So what was the lesson learned from this experience? Don't be afraid of flash, that sometimes it is a necessary evil.

Oh well. Maybe my next experiment will involve using a flash frame. I haven't done that at this venue yet...

Saturaday was the KSO's opening day...

for the 2110/2011 season.

 

to see the whole set, simply click here or on any picture

The KSO - Kenosha Symphony Orchestra - October show was titled Classical Celebration and featured works from Schubert, Dvorak and Prokofiev. But while I do enjoy my time there, for me the most important thing was trying out my new camera under the auditorium's lighting condition. 

While not qualified or experienced enough to do a technical review my Saturday night's experience. My latest camera - a digital Rebel - was not up to the job like my old D series camera was. While the Rebel is quicker to fire and has less noise and better color capture even at a fast ISO speeds (most of the shots were taken at 3200 and some at 800).

But what was most disappointing about the Rebel is that it failed at capturing the sharp images I was used to. The camera simply was not able to consistently give me a crisp lock on images. And that is a problem. Still, I was able to get some good shots and they are linked to here. Normally, I shoot at least 500 shots per shoot but in an attempt to not annoy patrons with the constant "click click click" of the camera I kept it down to 200 shots.

Hello Autumn, Goodbye Nook Outside Open Mic

To see the entire set, click here.

There isn't a lot of independently sponsored outdoor entertainment in Kenosha. As far as I know, there is only one place that offers it up. Begun under Tammy's stewardship and continuing under the new owner Ricky, the Nooks outdoor open mic begins around the time the summer does and closes down when the autumn hits.

All of the shows - run by Chris and Rachel - are held on the sidewalk and next door to the Nook in front of Crystal's Mens Wear. All, the shows except the last. for that Sixth Avenue is closed off between 57th and 58th. For four hours, from 6 to 10, scads of local talent rotates on and off the stage. Musicians, poets, comedians - they all take their turns, each getting his or her 5 to 7 minutes of fame.

Rachel, Chris, Ricky - thanks a lot for the last two summers. We all love the outdoor experience. Sure, we'll be to the Nook next Monday indoors. But damn, you've got to miss music served al fresco on the avenue.

The Arabesque Open House...

 To see the entire set, click on this link!

Arabesque Studio, a wonderful belly dance center in Chicago, held an Open House last week. They were nice enough to allow me to photograph the event. I hope these shots do justice to the dancers and to Ms. Sonya Blacker, the owner of the studio.

Performers, I hope you enjoy the shots. These have been sized up a bit in case you wanted to download them and use them for screen savers, photos for cards or whatever other reason.

Enjoy and above all else, keep dancin!

Oy Vey! Hiptastic is finally up!

 

to link to the website click here

 

The link above will take you to the website. From there click the Hiptastic link. That will take you to the pictures. This time they are seperated into one gallery per dance act. All acts are identified by name.
 
None of the galleries have very many photos in them. This was intentional and in response to past suggestions that I pare things down, sacrificing quantity for quality. We'll see how this goes over.

May you enjoy the photos. There's a link on the top of every page making it easy to share them with people in Facebook, MySpace, and other web 2.0 sharing sites.

To the dancers, thanks for all your hard work your great performances. Nilaja, thanks for having me. I really enjoyed the opportunity to get all snaptastic with a gaggle of bellydancers gracing the lenses.


Rooftop Romance

Click here to check out the entire set

Joshua and Carolynn wanted to do something different for their engaement photos. I don't know taking their pictures on the roof of building, accompanied by CAPTIVATE! - Gina Laurenzi's troupe of modern dancers - qualified, but it did make them happy.

And that was all that mattered.

Enjoy
M.

Laurenzi Dance Photographs

to check out this set of seven shots click

Captivate - rEVOLVE

This small collection of shots were taken in an alley in downtown Kenosha on the third of August. Gina Laurenzi, of Laurenzi Dance, had asked if I could come by her studio and take some shots for display at her troupe's upcoming show. Her group Captivate was to perform their show rEVOLVE at a the Reuther Auditorium this past weekend.

The shots were displayed in the lobby of the show and were pretty well received.

Enjoy the shots and please forward them to anyone you think would appreciate them.

Thanks!
M

The art opening at Salon Uptown

We had an art opening at the Salon Uptown in Kenosha's Uptown this past weekend. Dean and Bryana showed their stuff - him mostly drawings but more than a couple of paintings, her with a line of pictures but mostly her outrageous needle points.

For my part, it was photographs.

I'd opted to try more involved editing techniques, ones I'd worked out with my model, Whitney. We were both pretty happy with the outcome. If you want to take a look at the shots I offered up, hit the link here.

Thanks, and I hope you enjoy!
Mikasi

The Kenosha Civic Veterans Parade...

or as it is known in the real world Kenosha's Fourth of July Parade.

There have been damned few postings here, mostly because I have been shooting only paid gigs recently and those can't be displayed on this forum. But today was a break from that. As it ran right past my front door (almost) there was no reason to miss today's parade. So I loaded up the camera and set out.


As is the custom, you are encouraged to visit the entire set, especially if you have relatives who marched in the parade. I shoot this with an eye to what friends, family and relatives would want. That is shorthand for "there is a lot of repetitious angles here. Sorry, but sometimes its not just about you!

So if you are a Kenosha expat and want to remember your time here, if you are friend or relative or if you just can't get enough parade stuff dig on it.  You've got almost 150 shots to choose from.

Oh, last word - if you know someone who had a "someone" in the parade steer them towards the shots. I'd be flattered if they downloaded one or two.

Thanks!
Mikasi

I've changed my web world around to make this my homepage...

The why is simple enough - cash flow.

Oh, and there was that little matter of customer ease too.

The site formerly known as mikasiphotography.com was geared towards photographers who have a lot more commercial oomph than yours truly. After a year of having the site I had generated less in sales than needed to make it worthwhile. And nowhere near enough to earn the minimum payout.

Also, what I learned is that the people I sell to overwhelmingly want one of two things - digital downloads and speed and convenience when they do want hard copies of their pictures. With my new site you can still get digital downloads (in different sizes as needed).

An added bonus is that I am able to have any hard prints you need sent to the local lab of your choice - if you need the shots sent promptly to the Walgreens in your neighborhood (or the Target, or any other lab) I can now do it. No more waiting two weeks for prints from the lab in California.

The homepage change might be a little confusing at first but know that it was all for the best - for your best and for mine!

Be Exposed Kenosha

To see the photo set just click on the picture or this link!

If you enjoy the Kenosha arts scene, then you are likely aware of Be Exposed. Organized (at least in part) by Francisco Loyola and hosted monthly at Carolyn's Coffee Connection, Be Exposed is a monthly arts event that gives artists and performers a stage in the Kenosha area.

If you were one of the evening's performers and want to download any of the images for personal use, you are more than welcome to do so. If you need any of them for commercial use please email me for permission and a clean copy of the shot.

Here are links to all of the performer's web sites. Check them out. Give their work a look/listen - my guess is that you will really enjoy it. If you don't see a link or their is a link to a social networking site, then it means the slackers need to set up a site. 

Dasha Kelly

Julie Sepanski

 Matt Specht

Jerome Garrett Hunter and Friends

The Gypsy Heart: belly dance at Barba Yianni

Click on here or on the photo for the entire set

all pictures are available for purchase

Ladies, I want to apologize for taking so long to get these photos up. Nine days is too long. But I took way too many shots (over 700) and sorting through and editing them took a while. Then there is the matter of that pesky day job. Photography is my “night job” - I have to work my love into those hours not seized by my drudge.

Anyhow, here they are – over 160 photos of your performance. May they capture the beauty of what you do.

For those of you who were not able to attend here's what you missed.

Click on here or on the photo for the entire set

The performance (not hafla in this case) was The Gypsy Heart: BellyDance Meanderings. The show took place in the early evening on May 2nd at Barba Yianni, a chichi Greek/Mediterranean restaurant in Lincoln Square. (BTW the menu is fantastic and I definitely recommend it for a nice night out!)

Barba's dance floor, surrounded on three sides by dining tables, made for an wonderful venue. The dancers were close to the patrons with no stage to separate a grateful audience from vibrant dancers. The energy flowed from dancer to viewer beautifully.

Click on here or on the photo for the entire set

The evening's featured performer was Paola Blanton, a fantastically talented Brazilian dancer. The show was the culmination of her Balkan / Turkish Gypsy Workshops held that Saturday and Sunday. But the scope of the classes didn't limit the style of performance. Gypsy Heart featured a wide assortment of styles – from Turkish to Saidi, Egyptian Oriental to Tribal, Cabaret to Fusion.

Event organizer Laila Aziz set the event up as a fundraiser. Fifty percent of the proceeds were given to the Voice of Roma a group that promotes, presents and develops appreciation for the Romani cultural arts and traditions. (You can find out more about them by clicking on the link.)

Click on here or on the photo for the entire set

In addition to giving me a chance to see and photograph a fantastic show, The Gypsy Heart allowed me to meet two Facebook friends, dancers who I got to see perform for the first time. With luck, these pictures convey the beauty and grace of their dance.

Click on here or on the photo for the entire set

Of all the belly dance performances I've attended this was the one of the best. The depth of talent was fantastic and there was a wide range of dancing to enjoy. The dancers looked to be enjoying themselves on stage. And the joy of a dancer is quick to communicate itself to an audience.

Ladies, thanks for for your beauteous and heartfelt performances!

Click on here or on the photo for the entire set