Another Panorama - Bronica ETRS This Time

I really like shooting panoramic images.

 

Rudy, Ben, and Will, by Reed A. George

Bronica ETRS, 135W Panoramic Back, Kodak Color 400 Film

 

I'm dragging the Bronica gear out after a few years of neglect. I'm having a problem with the film not advancing predictably with this 35mm wide back, but sure like how this image came out. More to come from this camera.

 

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A Blast From the Past

Dwayne of The Woodshedders, by Reed A. George

 

It's been a while since Dwayne had his hair short like this - 2009 as far as I know.

 

Just going through some old pictures, getting in the mood for my favorite music festival - Watermelon Park Fest.

 

I am pretty sure I shot this with a Pentax Spotmatic and Vivitar 200mm f3.5 lens. I like the look.

 

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Impossible Saves the Day

I went out to photograph my friends Danny and Melissa who are the band "Mink.". I shot mostly with my Nikon Df, and got some images worthy of the effort. But, guess which shot was most favored by Melissa - an instant shot on Impossible Project Color 2.0 film in my Polaroid 600 camera. Here it is:

 

Sometimes, many times, simple is best.

 

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Andy Summers of The Police on the Leica Camera Blog

Image Source: http://blog.leica-camera.com/photographers/interviews/andy-summers-del-mondo-at-the-leica-gallery-sao-paulo-jj-ready-to-review/

 

 

I didn't know that Andy Summers, guitarist of The Police, was also a photographer. The Leica Camera Blog interviewed Summers, regarding an upcoming exhibit of his work in Brazil.

 

(Click Here) to read the interview. I think some of his reponses are a little self-centered, but are probably also tongue-in-cheek. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. Some of his photos do look quite good.

 

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More From Jammin' Java - Jamie Lin Wilson

Yesterday, I posted some pictures of Scott Miller's show at Jammin' Java. Here are some additional images from the same night, of Jamie Lin Wilson, who opened the show.

 

I really enjoyed Jamie's music, especially a song from her new album "Holidays and Wedding Rings." It's called "You Left My Chair," and is about an abandoned house, with only an old chair left on the porch. The house really exists, and Jamie said that she photographed it, which inspired the song. I'd love to see that photograph.

 

(Click Here) to check out Jamie Lin Wilson's website.

 

All of these shots were made with the Nikon Df.

 

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Live Music Concert- Scott Miller at Jammin' Java - Shot With the Nikon Df

Last Sunday (July 19, 2015), I went to a live music show at one of my favorite venues, Jammin' Java, in Vienna. (Click Here) to check out Jammin' Java. They have a very full schedule of interesting shows. Most importantly for this evening, Jammin' Java is indoors. It was still in the 90s and very humid outside, even after sunset.

 

 

Scott is a very interesting guy - professional musician and Virginia cattle farmer. (Click Here) to check out his website.

 

Once again, my Nikon Df is the master of darkness. Shooting with my favorite prime lenses (28mm f1.8 AF-S, 50mm f1.4 AF-D, and 85mm f1.8 AF-D), I was able to shoot at either 1/125 or 1/250 of a second and still have enough depth of field to be useful. This meant iso values of 3200 or even 6400 - no problem at all for the Df. I love this camera.

 

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River and Roots Festival - Great for Kids of All Ages!

I love music festivals. But, size matters. The huge ones can be a bit much. My two favorite festivals, ever, are held every year at the same place - Watermelon Park in Berryville, VA.

 

River and Roots Fun, by Reed A. George

Nikon Df, Nikkor 28mm f1.8 AF-S G Lens

iso 1000, f2, 1/125 sec.

 

The Watermelon Park Fest, held every September, is the larger of the two. (Click Here) to read more about it.

 

I made the photo above at the River and Roots Festival in June, also held at Watermelon Park. This one's smaller, but so much fun. Large enough to attract major acts (the headliner this year was David "Dawg" Grisman), R&R is small enough that there's no stress or hurry to be anywhere. Wonderful. This year, I only made it out for the first day of the festival, going home in time to miss the deluge of rain, yet also missing Dawg and many other great musical performances.

I shot with my Nikon Df, and enjoyed trying out my new 28mm f1.8 AF-S lens. In the shot above, it allowed me to capture enough of the scene to share how it felt, but still shows the emotion and wonder on the little girl's face. I had to get pretty close to pull this off, but not uncomfortably so.

 

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Songwriter's Tribute to Bob Dylan's 74th Birthday

Whatever you may think of Bob Dylan, you have to admit the man's a creative genius. Possibly not the most polished vocal tones in history, his songs will be with us for a long time, maybe as long as humans listen to music.

 

I attended a celebration of Dylan's 74th birthday, led by three songwriters (left to right) Todd Wright, Luke Brindley, and Anthony Fiacco.

The event was held at Jammin' Java, a really nice live music venue in Vienna, Virginia. (Click Here) to check out Jammin' Java. They have a full schedule of live music, and the place is well set up for listening.

 

I shot with the Nikon Df, new 28mm f1.8 AF-S, 50mm f1.4 D, and 85mm f1.8 D lenses. Here are some more shots from the show.

 

 

These images are pretty much straight from the camera.

 

I am hoping that the 28mm will be a useful lens for my live music shooting. I am pretty pleased with the results from this first trial.

 

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French Quarter in the Rain - Leica IIIC and Summar 5cm f2

I recently attended the LHSA (International Leica Society) Spring Shoot in New Orleans, Louisiana. One of my favorite places to photograph, I was hoping we'd get some inclement weather to build some mood into my pictures. I was not let down - it rained on and off, sometimes quite heavily, during my whole trip. I loved it.

 

Here are some shots of street musicians playing in front of Rouse's Grocery on Royal Street as a rain storm rolled in and subsequently left.

 

All were shot with the Leica IIIC and Summar 5cm f2 lens. One of Leica's earliest fast lenses, the Summar is infamous for being being soft. I happen to have a clean copy, without a scratched front element, which is rare. I find it to be a wonderful lens.

 

 

Shooting iso 400 film (Kodak TMax 400), I couldn't quite get a fast enough shutter speed to capture the rain as I wanted. I hope that you can see it in images 2 and 3.

 

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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.

 

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An Evening with Travis Book of The Infamous Stringdusters

A couple of weeks back, I got the opportunity to spend a Sunday night at my friends (Morgan Morrison and Fiddlin' Dave VanDeventer)'s house, listening to Travis Book, a member of the "newgrass" band The Infamous Stringdusters, play solo acoustic guitar and sing for us.

 

I photographed the Stringdusters a couple of years back, in Alexandria, Virginia. (Click Here) to see those pics.

 

Here are a few images from the Sunday night house concert, all made with my Nikon Df.

 

 

 

 

Travis was on his way to Colorado for a recording session. We were very lucky to have him come up to Northern Virginia a day early, spend the night at Morgan and Dave's, and play for us. I also got a copy of his new solo CD, "Alice." You should get yourself one.

 

What a great way to spend a cold Sunday evening.

 

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My Favorite Concert Shot From Last Weekend

I got out to see one of my favorite bands ever, The Woodshedders, last weekend. Here's my favorite shot from the show.

Dwayne Brooke of the Woodshedders, by Reed A. George

Nikon Df, Nikkor 180mm f2.8 Lens

iso 250, f2.8, 1/250 sec.

 

I took this from backstage. I spot metered Dwayne's face, letting everything else go very dark. Dwayne's a very thoughtful, creative guy, and I think this picture represents him well.

 

I will likely share more from this show, and my pics are going to be featured on the concert blog Cosmic Vibes Live in the coming days.

 

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Dancing to Woody Pines on a Tuesday Night

Yesterday's post was about my friends in the band Mink, playing at Jammin' Java on a Tuesday night.

 

After Mink, Woody Pines hit the stage. I had to leave early, but did capture these shots of people having a good ol' time dancing to their music.

Dancing to Woody Pines, by Reed A. George

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

iso 1600, f3.2, 1/60 sec.

Bounced flash (Nikon SB800) on manual, ~1/32 power

 

I was about to walk out the door as the band started, but the music was pretty infectious. Noticing that people had started to dance, I shot several images of them silhouetted against the stage lights, without flash, and with my 50mm f1.4 lens. None of those images really came out very well.

 

Then, I decided to move in closer with the 24mm, and add just enough flash to illuminate the dancers in front of the stage. I reduced the expose I'd already set for the previous shots by decreasing my iso from 3200 to 1600, and set the flash on a lower power manual setting. I was quite pleased with this result.

 

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Mink at Jammin Java

I haven't been able to make it to a lot of live music events recently. I did get out on a Tuesday night (!) to see my friends Melissa, Danny, and Rudy of the band Mink play at a local venue, Jammin Java, in Vienna, Virginia.

 

I brought out my new Nikon Df and three prime lenses - 24mm f2.8, 50mm f1.4, and 85mm f1.8.

 

Mink, by Reed A. George

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

iso 5600, f2.8, 1/125 sec.

 

Keeping the camera in Auto-ISO mode, was able to set a relatively fast shutter speed (1/125 sec.) and shoot wide open with any of the three lenses. As you can see, iso 5600 is just no problem at all for the Df. Actually, 12,800 isn't too bad.

 

Melissa and Danny, by Reed A. George

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

iso 2800, f2, 1/125 sec.

 

It felt good to get out and see my old friends, even for a quick set on a weeknight.

 

(Click Here) to find out more about Mink.

 

(Click Here) to find out about Jammin Java.

 

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Shooting in Recording Sessions

I've been developing my live music photography for several years now. I have also done a little studio promo shooting, mostly for friends. I've shot a couple of recording sessions, and definitely would like to do more of that. There's something about the atmosphere during recording. The musicians are not dressed and ready to perform in front of a bunch of people, but they're still focused, working hard to get the tracks down. Of course, the moments in between can be loose, funny, interesting visually.

Robert Mabe of Dry Mill Road, by Reed A. George

Nikon D700, Nikkor 50mm f1.4 AF-D Lens

iso 1600, f2, 1/60 sec.

 

Always interested in how others do it, I was happy to read when the Leica Camera Blog interviewed Andrew Stuart, who's photographed extensively in the recording studio. He's worked with the Foo Fighters, Mick Fleetwood, and others.

 

(Click Here) to read the interview on the Leica Camera Blog.

 

Since it was the Leica blog, Stuart highlighted that he uses the Leica M240 rangefinder and M6 film cameras. He says that 90% of his work with those cameras uses either the 35mm Summilux (f1.4) FLE or the 50mm Summilux Aspheric. Makes sense. Stuart also uses other cameras, including SLRs and his iPhone.

 

Stuart mentions that he uses a street-style approach to shooting in the studio, and alternates between being a fly on the wall, and actively interacting with his photographic subjects.

 

He mixes black and white and color in his work, his film (Fuji Neopan or Tri-X, usually pushed to iso 800 or 1600) work nearly always being in black and white.

 

Stuart has done some very nice work. It's always good to learn how others achieve their photographic goals.

 

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My Favorite Shot From the Weekend

I'm been laying low lately, not going to very many live music shows. This past weekend, I got to go see one of my favorite bands, The Woodshedders, at one of my favorite venues, Barns of Rose Hill in Berryville, Virginia.

 

This was my first concert shoot with the Nikon Df. Here's my favorite shot from the evening:

 

Jesse Shultzaberger, Drummer for The Woodshedders, by Reed A. George

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

iso 4000, f2, 1/125 sec.

 

 

Pretty amazing performance at iso 4000. The Df is going to be a great concert camera for me.

 

At this show, the lights were quite low, except for those damned blue LEDs, the worst for digital photography ever. The problem with colored LEDs is that you get very high intensity in whatever color channel they match, and NOTHING in any other color. So, I usually end up converting them to black and white. Not really a problem, since I love B&W anyway. The only other thing I've found to neutralize this problem is to add a little fill flash. I didn't bring a flash to this show.

 

Anyway, I'm quite pleased with the Df's performance.

 

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50 Years of Nikon - Slideshow - Historic Corncrib

Here is a brief slideshow of images I took of an old farm building near where I work. I was able to convince my coworker and friend Wendye to let me photograph her there.

 

 

If you have trouble getting it to load, just (Click Here).

 

I shot all of these images with Nikon - the first of my "50 Years of Nikon SLRs" posts. This includes images from my early Nikon F film SLR, and my new Nikon Df DSLR. It's a lot of fun shooting these two cameras, separated by 50 years of Nikon history, going into the 50th year of my own life.

 

The music is from my friends The Woodshedders. Enjoy!

 

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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.

 

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Some Camping Area Shots from Watermelon Park Festival 2014

I've shared my Watermelon Park Festival writeup on Cosmic Vibes Live, along with my digital photographs, largely taken on or around the stage.

 

Now, I'll share a few more casual shots, taken in the Camping area with my Nikon FM2, 200 speed drugstore color negative film, and 50mm f1.4 Nikkor AF-D lens. Of course on the FM2, I had to manually focus.

 

Deep Morning Thoughts with Erik Burnham, by Reed A. George

 

Chester and Milo, by Reed A. George

 

These two guys are my music photography heroes - Chester Simpson and G. Milo Farineau. Both are mad-skilled, friendly, and generally great to hang out with.

 

Rudy B., by Reed A. George

 

Speaking of fun to hang out with, here's Rudy B. of the Plank Stompers.

 

I really love carrying around the compact FM2 and normal lens while I'm tooling around the festival, especially during the day. Yes, I'll carry the D700 for the lowlight stuff. But, the FM2 just fits my hands so well.

 

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Some Tips for Taking Great Images in the Studio

Danny Knicely, by Reed A. George

 

I've been doing some promo images for my musician friends lately. I'm thoroughly enjoying the process, and always looking for new tips. I thought that the studio lighting setup would be one of the challenges, and therefore looked up some common configurations before starting. After a couple of these sessions, I now feel pretty comfortable with the lights. Really, I think it's more important to get them set, stop fiddling with them, and develop trust and interaction with the person being photographed.

 

I recently read a post by Sarah Hipwell on the Digital Photography School website. It has several good tips for getting things to flow:

 

• Music can help to calm down a tense atmosphere. I use this one every time when I'm shooting musicians. I have not tried bringing recorded music to the session, though. Since my subjects are musicians, and typically want to be photographed with their instruments anyway, I always ask them to play. I get a private concert, and they get to do what they love. Another added benefit is that it brings out the performer in the person; they're not used to being in a photo studio, but they are used to playing in front of people, and even in front of cameras.
• A tip that Sarah shares is asking the subject to blink ten times. I like this idea very much, as it will give a better catchlight in the eyes if they're wet, and I bet it reduces blinking during exposures.
• Ask them to wear neutral clothing. The pictures are about them, not their clothes.
• Sarah mentions that most great images come at the end of a session. I've definitely found this to be true. I think it's when the pressure is off, and everyone is pretty sure you've got some good images, that both the photographer and subject relax. This relaxation shows in the pictures.
• Get feedback during the session. This is a mixed bag, in my opinion. First, showing them tiny images on the camera LCD generally won't work. Connecting to a larger display requires some technical ability; if you have it, great. If not, don't fiddle with wires, cards, and gear while the studio clock is ticking.
• Get them to talk. Yes! Except, as mentioned above, I generally get them to sing. This is easy with most musicians.
• Work fast. Agreed. While I try to work fast, sometimes I rush myself too much, and don't go deep enough with the subject. In other cases, what should be a one hour session easily goes into the second hour, probably too long from the point of view of the person being photographed. So, for me, the challenge is to balance between rushing too much and taking too long.
• Another practical tip - have them point their legs toward the main light source, and twist their upper body to face the camera.

(Click Here) to read Sarah's full piece on the Digital Photography School site.

 

 

It's harder than it looks, folks. In my opinion, getting the technical stuff out of the way so that you can focus on the person and interaction with them is key.

 

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