Posts Tagged ‘photography’

The sky as I came out of work today. Near as I can figure, either the Justice League was flying by, the Fantastic Four was on maneuvers, a Firefly evaded capture, or a bunch of TIE Fighters broke atmo.

Or else I need to get out more.

So what was I doing in 2010, if I wasn't blogging. Well, tweeting, as I said. And reading a lot. And writing more. And getting progressively rounder.

And photographing musicians.

It started back in 2009 when Teres was preparing for several Bon Jovi concerts in the next year. I had had some success taking pics for her during the concert we went to in Jersey so she bought me a camera specifically for the new shows. After some hunting around I settled on a Canon PowerShot SX20IS. 20x optical zoom, decent in low-light situations, and, vital for picture-taking in concert venues, it did not have a detachable lens.

Then it was time to practice.

We started going out to see local bands, something we'd never really done before (not social people, us) so I could practice shooting them. It ain't easy. You've got people in very dark places, with bright lights focused on their faces, moving quickly.

I took shots of My Generation and some of its members like Donnie Lee and Dominick Loria and their other bands,like Quick Change. Through them we met plenty of others, such as Switch and Rockit Fly (pictured right, from New Year's Eve). And there was Marian Call's Winter park concert in her 49>50 State Tour…

And I did take a lot of shots at the Bon Jovi concerts we went to in Tampa and Sunrise, FL, and I'm even not too disappointed in some of them.

I'm not where I want to be with my photography yet, but I'm having a lot of fun getting there. And we made a lot of new friends. We even sort of almost have a social life, kinda, if you squint your eyes.

I'll post some of what I've figured out in later entries, but the basic stuff is this:

- Take thousands of shots. Eventually you'll get some you like.

- Turn of f the flash unless it's absolutely necessary. You want to see the lights and shadows the way they are, not the way they look flattened out in your sudden bright light. Besides, in most concert situations all you'll do is light up the hair of the person in front of you.

- Respect the band and the other fans. Your shot is not more important than their fun.

- Put the damn camera down once in awhile and enjoy the show.

A shot from last week, looking out over the Atlantic from the deck of the Grand Seas Motel in Daytona Beach.

Yeah, there are times I don't mind living here at all.

As I mentioned here previously, I recently got a somewhat-better camera and wanted to take a little more care of it (meaning, I can't just shove my camera in my pocket anymore). But none of the inexpensive camera bags met my needs and if I wanted one that didn't look like an obvious camera bag, which I did, I'd have to shell out some serious bucks. I, however, am a cheap bastard, so I decided to roll my own.

Supplies:
Messenger bag. I liked the look of this one and it was marked down at Burlington Coat Factory. Price: 20 bucks.
Foam padding. Closed-cell padding is better and thinner — you can find it at some fabric stores or camping supply retailers — but I went with some old packing foam I already had. Price: free.
Duct tape. Price: $3.95 because I splurged on a color roll.
That's it.

Total price: $23.95.

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