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!