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.