Live Music Coverage - The Woodshedders' New CD Release - Shot With Nikon DSLRs

This weekend was live music-filled. I went to two release shows for The Woodshedders' new CD, "Wildfire."

 

(Click Here) to go to The Woodshedders home page. If you haven't listened to them, you should give them a try. An uncommon mix of bluegrass, jazz, and overall Americana, their music has a lot of soul.

 

Anyway, Friday night's show was at the Opera House in Shepherdstown, WV.

 

Shepherdstown Opera House, by Reed A. George

Nikon D700, Nikkor 24mm f2.8 AF lens

iso 200, f8, 1 sec.

 

This is a great venue, an old cinema converted into live performance space.

 

(Click Here) to see what other shows are coming up at Opera House Live.

 

Kicking the night off right, The Green Boys warmed the crowd up. Maybe that's a poor choice of description; it was so hot that night that we could all have used a cooling down. In any case, this Richmond, VA-based group plays bluegrass in lively fashion. I've known these guys for a couple of years, and really enjoy every chance to hear them.

 

(Click Here) to check out The Green Boys.

 

Ryan Green (The Green Boys), by Reed A. George

Nikon D300, Nikkor 85mm f1.8 AF lens

iso 3200, f1.8, 1/60 sec.

 

My go-to Nikon DSLR is the D700. Full-frame, reasonable resolution (not so high that noise becomes an issue), the D700 is the single most capable camera I have ever owned. Not as fun as a Leica rangefinder perhaps, but definitely more flexible and capable, especially at high iso. I recently picked up a nice D300 from KEH for a second body. With the APS-C size sensor, the D300 is not quite as good as the D700 in extremely low light. That said, the D300 performed quite nicely here. The shot above shows what fast class can do for you.

 

Dwayne Brooke of the Woodshedders gave me the opportunity to shoot some pictures of the band. We made good use of the loft area in the Opera House, and here are a couple of my favorites.

 

Marilyn Dropped by the Session, by Reed A. George

Nikon D700, Nikkor 35mm f2 AF lens

iso 400, f5.6, 1/125 sec.

Flash (Nikon SB800) Bounced Off Ceiling

Another example of the flexibility of the Nikon system. Outfitting myself for an evening of low available light shooting, I decided to throw my SB800 flash in the bag. Not knowing that I'd get the chance to pose the band, I wasn't sure I'd use it. When the opportunity came, I simply set the camera to TTL flash, pointed it toward the ceiling, and away we went. This would not have been as easy with any of my other cameras.

 

 

The Woodshedders, by Reed A. George

Nikon D700, Nikkor 35mm f2 AF lens

iso 400, f5.6, 1/125 sec.

Flash (Nikon SB800) Bounced Off Ceiling

 

Here are some shots from the show itself. I don't know how these guys survived the heat.

 

Onstage, by Reed A. George

Nikon D700, Nikkor 35mm f2 AF lens

iso 3200, f2, 1/125 sec.

 

Jesse Shultzaberger, by Reed A. George

Nikon D700, Nikkor 85mm f1.8 AF lens

iso 2200, f1.8, 1/125 sec.

 

 

Ryan Mayo, by Reed A. George

Nikon D700, Nikkor 85mm f1.8 AF lens

iso 2200, f1.8, 1/125 sec.

 

 

"Fiddlin' Dave" VanDeventer, by Reed A. George

Nikon D700, Nikkor 85mm f1.8 AF lens

iso 2200, f1.8, 1/125 sec.

 

 

Jared Pool, by Reed A. George

Nikon D700, Nikkor 85mm f1.8 AF lens

iso 2200, f1.8, 1/90 sec.

 

 

Dwayne Brooke, by Reed A. George

Nikon D700, Nikkor 85mm f1.8 AF lens

iso 4500, f1.8, 1/125 sec.

At the intermission, both bands retired to the loft to chat with members of the audience, many of whom are person friends; these guys have quite a following around here. The shot below was made then, and is one of my very favorite images from the evening. I saw the red light outlining this young lady's hair, and that drew me in. The blue further back adds to the scheme.

Intermission, by Reed A. George

Nikon D700, Nikkor 28mm f2.8 AF lens

iso 6400, f2.8, 1/45 sec.

The crowd stayed lively throughout. In fact, some were so happy they were swept off their feet (or levitated?).

 

Uplifted, by Reed A. George

Nikon D700, Nikkor 35mm f2 AF lens

iso 2200, f2.8, 1/60 sec.

Flash (Nikon SB800)

 

What a great show! If you're interested in seeing more from this show, (Click Here) to go to my web page, creativeobjective.com.

 

I'm still sorting images from Saturday night, and will post them separately. More to come!

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

 

Whole Lotta Leica - March's Summilux 35mm with Acoustic Burgoo at the Opera House

 

Rudy, Erik, and Melissa of Acoustic Burgoo, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Leica Summilux 35mm f1.4 Lens

iso 1250, f 1.7, 1/60 sec

 

I don't usually get out for live music on weeknights, but The Acoustic Burgoo, one of my very favorite local bands, is the Artist in Residence at the Shepherdstown, West Virginia Opera House this month. They're playing a show every Thursday in March.

 

(Click Here) to go to the Burgoo's website. If you live near DC and like live music, you've gotta see them. They have a wide musical base (most of the first set was Hank Williams tunes last night), and are incredibly talented.

 

(Click Here) to see the Opera House's website. A great little venue.

Before the Show, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Leica Summilux 35mm f1.4 Lens

iso 1250, f 2, 1/60 sec

 

Dedicated Fan, Rachael, by Reed A. George

Leica M9, Leica Summilux 35mm f1.4 Lens

iso 1250, f 1.4, 1/180 sec

 

 

This was a show where I really needed the fast aperture of the Summilux f1.4. You can see that the Summilux is a little soft (also known as the "Leica glow") at f1.4 and f1.7. I actually really like that look for some images, not for others. By f2, it's quite sharp.

 

Shooting the M9 at iso 1250, which I consider to be about the maximum truly useful iso for the M9, always presents a little challenge. I found an interesting set of forum discussions about the M9 being essentially an "iso-less" camera. The idea is that the amount of light hitting the sensor (number of photons) is not affected by iso settings. It is only determined by f-stop and shutter speed. Raising the iso setting only increases the gain of the sensor, which also increases noise. So, some people believe in keeping iso low, underexposing, and increasing exposure in post-processing (in Lightroom in my case). Here's a quote and source:

 

"This is not actually the case with the M9. The M9 is essentially an ISO-less camera. Pushing ISO 160 three stops in Lightroom 4 yields as good, if not better, results than using ISO 1250. Of course, the more light you get to the sensor, the better, but raising ISO in camera is not actually necessary, in terms of IQ. Granted, if you don't raise ISO in camera, you won't have a usable review image on the camera's LCD, so it may not always be practical."

 

(Click Here) to read the thread on this subject on getdpi forums.

 

I shot all of my images last night at iso 1250, but even at f1.4, I had to underexpose some to get the shutter speed I wanted. So, I had to increase exposure in Lightroom on most of them. The third image was the most extreme example. Shooting where I was literally in the dark, I didn't notice that my shutter speed was set at 1/180. So, I really underexposed that shot. I boosted it 2 full stops in Lightroom, and don't think it suffered too much.

 

One of the things I find is that adjusting the blacks in Lightroom so that you have some true blacks in your image, significantly reduces the appearance of noise.

 

In any case, it was a blast seeing the Burgoo and shooting the M9 and Whole Lotta Leica lens for this month. More to come with the Summilux!

 

By the way, on the way home I was pulled over for doing 68 mph in a 50 zone. The officer told me he was going to his car to write the citation, then came back and told me since I had a good driving record he would reduce it to a warning. Thank you very much, officer! I got home feeling like it must be my lucky day.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

 

Larry Keel - One of My New Musical Favorites!

 

Larry Keel, by Reed A. George

Nikon D700, Nikkor AF-D 85mm f1.8

iso 3200, f2, 1/350 sec

 
Larry Keel and Natural Bridge played at the Shepherdstown, West Virginia Opera House on November 30, 2012. It was a special show. It was my first show at this venue, which is really great. A renovated movie house, it now has a nice dance floor, and is a great intimate place for a show.
 
Larry and his band are a Virginia-based alternative bluegrass band.
 
(Click Here) to go to Larry's web page.
 
Larry's lovely wife, Jenny, plays bass:
 

Jenny Keel, by Reed A. George

Nikon D700, Nikkor AF-D 85mm f1.8

iso 3200, f2, 1/350 sec

 
 

Banjoist Will and mandolinist Mark round it out.

 

Mark and Will, by Reed A. George

Nikon D700, Nikkor AF 28mm f2.8

iso 3200, f2.8, 1/180 sec

 
This is one fine band. Lots of fun.

(Click Here) see the rest of my pics from the show.
 

A Little Refreshment, by Reed A. George

Nikon D700, Nikkor AF-D 85mm f1.8

iso 3200, f2.4, 1/250 sec

 
DMC-365.blogspot.com