Concert Photography: The Wild Deer

Sometimes when you're taking photos, things don't turn out exactly the way you want them too. With concert photography you have to deal with changing and or bad lighting, moving musicians and being bumped into by fellow audience members.  And, sometimes you just have a bad night. The below photo covers all of that!  Yet, I like it.  Let's just call it an "anti-focus" shot ... sounds more artistic and makes my ego feel better!

Matt Kelly of The Wild Deer (more photos HERE)

My Favorite Images: Guitar Rig

This is one of those images I like "just because."  

I rock, I fix, I drink

From The Passenger Seat: Alleyway

This is one of those images I didn't think would turn out well.  I knew I wanted to catch a side street, preferably one that looked a little seedy but there were no seedy alleyways along that particular stretch of street.  Not only that, being late afternoon, many of the side streets had already grown dark and I was in a moving car.  Sure enough, the image came out dark but with a little exposure tweaking as well as conversion to b&w, I find myself rather happy with the photo.

From The Passenger Seat: Buildings

In New York, I normally ride the subway.  Once in a while I travel above ground.  On these occasions I like to take my camera with me.  Call me kooky but, I happen to like trying to see if I can get non-blurry photos from a moving car.  Anyway, I took this photo through the passenger window during one of those above ground excursions. Each time I ride past these two buildings, my attention is grabbed.  Every time I see them, I think to myself, 'these two buildings don't look like they belong on the same street let alone next to each other.'  I originally envisioned this photo in b&w but during post, I realized I liked it better in color so I did it both ways.  There's just something about the shadows and reflections the window causes that makes me really like this photo.

The Pipe Organ

I like photographing music instruments.  When I see an instrument at a concert just sitting there all alone, waiting for its person to play it, I always take a photo of it.  I have several photos of guitars, keyboards, pianos and drums in my collection. Normally, I don't have occasion to photograph instruments if I'm not at a concert venue.  

I was going through my photos, re-visiting my work, re-editing and in some cases, editing images for the first time.  I'm sure I'm not alone in picking out what I deem my best at the moment, editing those and filing the rest away to be re-discovered at a later date.  It was in the mist of those filed away images that I came across this photo of a pipe organ that I photographed.  I fiddled around with it and this is the result.

Religious Imagery

Churches and cemeteries tend to be rather popular with photographers.  I've seen some beautiful images over the years but I've never really been interested in creating my own.  However, while searching for something on my hard drive, I realized that I have a handful of photos of the religious imagery variety.

 

Work Perks

I was going through a set of photos and happened upon this image.  When I meet people and the topic of discussion turns to work, people always say, 'oh you must have so much fun' in regards to both my photography and my day job.  Yes, I have fun, and yes, I also get frustrated beyond belief just like everyone else.  The gentleman in the photo, it would seem, also has one of those jobs that elicits "work envy" from people. The photo was taken at the Newport Folk Festival this past summer.  Perching yourself in the window of a fort, during a music festival, scenically located by the ocean, is a nice way to work!  One of the things I love about music related work is, you get to hear some cool music.  Yeah, you've got to work while listening but, there are worse things ... this guy probably agrees!

Models: Editing & Making The Most Of A Poor Quality Photo

Sometimes an image you take is bad for whatever reason.  Though it takes up a great amount of storage space, I don't delete bad captures.  I tuck them away and once in a while, I'll go through a batch, pick one and see what I can do with it.  

So, with a desire to explore my editing skills or lack there of in some cases, I pulled out the below photo of a model I worked with.  It was underexposed, slightly out of focus and outright fuzzy.  There were also an enormous amount of shoe prints on the floor.  While that's relatively easy to remove, I found it a challenge to do so while maintaining her shadow.  I sharpened her facial features and softened the harsh shadows on her torso.  I added a bit of grain to balance the fuzziness.  I'm still working out what I'm going to do about the area around her knees and the top of her feet.  There's something about the shadows and the fuzziness that just look kind of funky.

Fall, Nature & Editing

Like a lot of people I love fall foliage.  I love seeing the trees turn various shades of red, orange, yellow and brown.  Of course I had to take my camera out and capture a few images.  I pulled the images off my card and went into processing mode.  I like nature in color but I'm becoming more and more fascinated with nature in black and white.  Therein lies my problem.  I am still perfecting the art of black and white nature without making it look flat and dull.  In addition to playing around with the black and white, I have to reign in my latest processing addiction, copper toning!  There's something about that particular rich toning that I like ... it just feels so warm.

The above photo was taken late Summer/early Fall and as you can see, the trees were still rather green.  I was exploring the park with my camera, looked up and saw that guy meditating.  He was obviously very good at meditating as there were some children playing rather loudly on the rock right behind him.  

When I first took the photo, I saw it in black and white.  I couldn't see it any other way.  Then, I turned it black and white.  I added contrast, I took away contrast, I tinkered with shadows, highlights and toning.  In the end a photo I thought would turn out lovely, just doesn't do anything for me in color or black and white.  Perhaps I'll re-visit it with fresh eyes down the line.

The above two photos and their edits caused me a dilemma.  I love the color but I also love the copper toning and contrast of the black and white versions.  I still can't decide which one I like best.  

The above is another photo I thought would be great in black and white.  But, I just can't get it right!  I think part of my lack of satisfaction is that it's not composed the way I want it.  I know you're thinking, "well, silly woman, why didn't you compose it the way you wanted?"  Good question!  There were obstructions so I tried to get as close to the angle I wanted as possible.  This photo will drive me crazy and I'll be forced to tinker with it until I find an edit that makes me happy.

Concert Photography: The Broadcast

I went to see The Broadcast down at Mercury Lounge earlier this month.  I hadn't done any photography in dark clubs for a few months so I was a bit rusty.  All of the things you know you need to do to photograph in venues with lighting issues came back pretty quickly.  But, at times I felt like what was in my head just wasn't translating to my vision or my camera.  That being said, I had a great deal of fun, heard some great music and captured a couple of photos I enjoy.

More photos HERE

The above photo I think captures the spirit and fun of the show.  Front-woman Caitlin Krisko and percussionist Tyler Housholder boogie together on-stage.

 

Early into the set, I noticed Krisko's flying hair and decided I had to have a motion shot of her hair.  I got several good hair in motion shots but, what I really wanted was her face in focus while her hair was in motion.  That was a little harder to manage in low and or changing lighting without flash.