Some Old Friends Play Purcellville

Some of my friends in bands got together for somewhat of a reunion last night in Purcellville, Virginia. I knew most of the people in the audience, as well as in the bands.

 

First, Jake and the Burtones opened the show.

Jake and the Burtones, by Reed A. George

Nikon Df, Nikkor 24mm f2.8 AF-D Lens

iso 3200, f3.5, 1/125 sec.

with SB-600 flash and Gary Fong diffuser

 

Then, Timmy (Tmoney) Griffin and his band SpaceCanoe took over. Tmoney has moved to North Carolina for college, so we don't get to see him so often. A true creative, Timmy has been busy writing new songs.

 

TMoney, by Reed A. George

Nikon Df, Nikon Series E 100mm f2.8 Lens

iso 3200, f2.8, 1/60 sec.

with SB-600 flash and Gary Fong diffuser

In addition to his original tunes, Timmy and SpaceCanoe played some carefully-selected covers, including one of my favorite Grateful Dead tunes, "Brokedown Palace." I actually requested that song years ago, and Timmy worked it out for me! Awesome.

 

SpaceCanoe, by Reed A. George

Nikon Df, Nikkor 50mm f1.4 AF-D Lens

iso 3200, f4, 1/60 sec.

with SB-600 flash and Gary Fong diffuser

This was a very tough show to shoot, even with my shoot-in-the-dark Nikon Df and 50mm f1.4 lens. Using the Nikon SB-600 and Gary Fong light diffuser saved the day (night). I was quite pleased with the results, given that the stage lighting was so poor (non-existent).

 

I'm especially pleased with the second image, which I made with my recently purchased, inexpensive, Nikon Series E 100mm f2.8 lens. Manual focus, in the dark. That's right. I'm proud of it. This lens will be in my travel bag in Japan; it's very sharp and oh so light compared to the also amazing 105mm f2.5 AIS Nikkor.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

Lumix DMC-GX7 for Live Music

I've been focused on other cameras lately. So many great cameras out there, so little time to shoot them.

 

I read an interesting piece on Steve Huff's blog about using the Lumix GX7 for live music.

(Click Here) to read it, and see some nice GX7 images from bars in Amsterdam.

 

Here are a couple of shots of my friends Jake and the Burtones, shot with my GX7.

 

Jake and the Burtones, Plus Melissa, by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7, Bower 7.5mm Fisheye Lens

iso 3200, f4 (or so), 1/50 sec.

 

 

Burtones, by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7, Lumix 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 Aspheric Series II Zoom

iso 6400, f3.5, 1/100 sec.

 

The GX7 does pretty well in low light, even at iso6400. Not like a full frame Nikon, of course, but respectable. And so much easier to lug around.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

 

Small Music Venue? Try a Fisheye!

 

Jake and the Burtones with Melissa Wright, by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7, Rokinon 7.5mm f3.5 Fisheye Lens

iso 3200, f3.5, 1/50 sec.

 

I'm getting ready to leave on a trip, and pulled the card out of my GX7 to download what was on there, before formatting and getting ready to leave. I remembered this shot of local band Jake and the Burtones and guest Melissa Wright when it came up.

 

They were playing at the Mad Horse Brewpub in Lovettsville, VA when I decided to give this shot a try. It's not really a small venue, but the band was tightly packed into the corner. I also wanted to try to get the whole group and include some of the artwork on the walls in the shot.

 

One of the challenges I've had shooting these guys is that there's a single microphone for vocals, which you see just left of center in the image above. This means that they spend a lot of time facing each other, with the microphone in between them. My real goal is to get the fisheye right up to that mic, with all of them looking in to sing at the same time. This was really just a test shot to see how the fisheye renders a group close up.

 

Apart from the extreme distortion at the edges, which is par for the course with a fisheye, it looks pretty good. I'll have to pursue the shot I really want soon.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

Dreaming in Monochrom - Jake and the Burtones in Lovettsville, VA

I haven't added to my "Dreaming in Monochrom" series in a while. In this series, I am using my Leica M4-2 with black and white film (only). In the beginning, the series was a way for me to explore whether or not I really wanted a Leica Monochrom rangefinder camera. While I love shooting black and white, I do find limiting myself to monochrome images is, well, a limitation. I think the exercise saved me a lot of money.

 

Anyway, that said, I do have a blast shooting black and white film still. Here are a couple of shots of one of my favorite Old Time music bands in the area, Jake and the Burtones. They were playing at the Mad Horse Brewery in Lovettsville, Virginia, and I was able to convince them to pose for a few shots.

 

Jake and the Burtones, by Reed A. George

Leica M4-2, Leica Summilux 35mm f1.4 v.3 Lens

Ilford Delta 3200 Film

 

 

I'm finding that I enjoy shooting images of the bands I know off-stage as much as on-stage at this point. In fact, I'm a little saturated with on-stage shots. That's good, as I'm getting more requests to shoot promo shots as time goes by. An additional skill to add to my favorite photo project.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

Unistock 2012 - Before the Deluge

Unistock is a local bluegrass / country / jam concert here in Northern Virginia. I could only attend on Friday evening this year - and even that was cut short. More about that later.
 
(Click Here) to go to the Unistock home page.
 

 

Unistock 2012, by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3, Pana-Leica Summilux 25mm f1.4

iso 200, f5, 1/125 sec

 

 
Arriving late afternoon at Clover Hill Farm, I found the place hot, sticky, stagnant, yet filled with fun, creative young people, out to have a good time.
 
 

Friends, by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3, Pana-Leica Summilux 25mm f1.4

iso 200, f3.2, 1/125 sec

Before the sun went down, we heard about the impending storm. It was so hot and calm, it was difficult to imagine a storm being anything but an improvement. People were doing anything to stay cool.
 

Cooling Off, by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3, Voigtlander 75mm f2.5 Heliar in LTM

iso 400, f-stop unrecorded, 1/160 sec

As the sunset came and went, Jake and the Burtones laid down their tunes for the crowd, who was quite interactive at this point. These guys are old favorites around hear, although none of them are old, obviously. The stage was the flatbed of an old Chevy truck - very cool.
 
 

Sunset and the Burtones, by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3, Pana-Leica Summilux 25mm f1.4

iso 800, f1.4, 1/30 sec

Jack and Josh of the Burtones, by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3, Voigtlander 75mm f2.5 Heliar in LTM

iso 6400, f2.5, 1/80 sec

Tmony of the Burtones, by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3, Voigtlander 75mm f2.5 Heliar in LTM

iso 400, f2.5, 1/100 sec

Fireworks were also part of the equation. I really like this picture of several dancers with fireworks, which I made using the waterproof Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS3 on "Starry Sky" mode. I knew it was about to rain, so I had put my G3s in the car, relying on the weatherproof properties of the TS3.
 

Firework Dancers, by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS3, Starry Sky mode

iso 100, f3.3, 15 seconds

 

 
Then came the storm. Soon after the Hot Seats took the stage, all power was lost in a flash. The dead calm air turned to a cold wave of high velocity wind. People were frantic, running through the dark, looking for their friends. I went directly to my car, having to get home that night anyway. It took me three completely different routes, the first two blocked by huge downed trees, to get home. Wild animals were panicked - I saw a deer bound across the road, jumping the roadside fence, rabbits, even a snake desperately seeking safety. The trees lining these country roads represented real and present danger. I truly feel lucky to have not been hit by one as I saw them crashing down around me.
 
I grew up in tornado country, in Oklahoma. I can honestly say that I've never felt more personally threatened by a storm than I did by this one. Some people weren't so lucky. I read an account of one person killed while trying to clear a downed tree from the road; they were hit by another falling tree. I could easily have witnessed the same, as I watched people from the cars in front of me out doing exactly the same. Or, I could have been hit in my car.
 
I was worried about what happened to the people who stayed. It turns out that they moved into a barn, and the music kept going, even through the next day. From what I can see, the power is still out at the location, some five days hence. This didn't stop their party. Oh, the enthusiasm of youth. This old man was happy to get out whole on the first night.
 
For more pictures from before the storm, (Click Here) to go to my photo site www.creativeobjective.com.
 
DMC-365.blogspot.com