The Stove Eye Lifters Rock the Barns at Rose Hill in Berryville, Virginia

April 28, 2012 was the first public showing of the new band Stove Eye Lifters, made up of some of the members of two other great local bands, the Acoustic Burgoo (Melissa Wright, Rudy Bzdyk, Ben "Benjo" Walters), and Dwayne Brook and Jesse Shultzaberger of the Woodshedders. They were joined on-stage for a couple of songs by Erik Burnham, also of Burgoo fame.



By the way:


(Click Here) to get info on Acoustic Burgoo's new album, "Word." Support this local band, get a great CD in the process! I bought my copy yesterday.

The Stove Eye Lifters, by Reed A. George
Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3, Lumix 14mm f2.5
iso1600, f2.8, 1/30 sec
Nissin Di466 flash, manual fill setting


The show opened with an acoustic mandolin and guitar set by the Spruce Brothers, Marty and Stuart, who work together at Fairbuilt Guitars in Neersville, Virginia. In addition to being wonderful musicians, these guys build some beautiful stringed instruments! The highlight of their set (for me) was “Pastures of Plenty,” by Arlo Guthrie.

The Spruce Brothers, by Reed A. George
Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3, Pana-Leica 45mm f2.8 Macro-Elmarit
iso1600, f2.8, 1/30 sec
Nissin Di466 flash, manual fill setting


The Stove Eye Lifters played a wide range of tunes, most memorable for me being “Maybellene” by Chuck Berry, “Wake Up Little Susie,” “Don’t Come Home Drinkin’” by Loretta Lynn, and the topper for this child of the sixties through eighties was “Honky Tonk Women” by the Rolling Stones!

The Stove Eye Lifters, by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3, Pana-Leica 45mm f2.8 Macro-Elmarit
iso1600, f2.8, 1/30 sec
Nissin Di466 flash, manual fill setting

The Stove Eye Lifters, by Reed A. George
Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3, Pana-Leica 45mm f2.8 Macro-Elmarit
iso1600, f2.8, 1/30 sec
Nissin Di466 flash, manual fill setting

The Stove Eye Lifters, by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3, Pana-Leica 45mm f2.8 Macro-Elmarit
iso1600, f2.8, 1/30 sec
Nissin Di466 flash, manual fill setting

The Stove Eye Lifters, by Reed A. George
Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3, Pana-Leica Summilux 25mm f1.4
iso1600, f2, 1/30 sec
Nissin Di466 flash, manual fill setting



Keep your (stove) eyes open for this band. See ‘em if you get the chance!



Thanks to Cheryl Ash and The Barns at Rose Hill for another great show.

Shades on the Piano, by Reed A. George
Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3, Lumix 14mm f2.5
iso1600, f2.5, 1/30 sec


Now for some photography-related notes. I have written before about the challenges of photographing in venues with the new style high intensity LED lights. The Barns at Rose Hill has them as their main lighting source. LED lights emit a very narrow wavelength of light, which plays hell with my cameras' white balance. I have tried many white balance settings, to no avail. The first tip for shooting in LED light is ALWAYS shoot raw images. You will definitely want to adjust them later. 
You can see in the image of the Spruce Brothers the effect of mixed tungsten and LED lighting. It's not too bad, and gives a pretty reasonable mix of colors. When the Lifters came on stage, Dwayne asked for the house lights to be turned off - he wanted it real dark. I have figured out that shooting at iso1600, f2.8 (or thereabouts), 1/30 sec, with fill-flash (manually controlled, which is impossible with the G3's built-in flash, but easy with the Nissin Di466 add-on flash) does a pretty good job of compensating and filling in some of the other wavelengths of light. I hope this is helpful to others faced with this significant lighting challenge.

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