Rick’s Rants and Raves

This weekend, Anne and I went to the Dublin Irish Festival for the second time. Last year, we took the kids and tried to experience as much of the Festival as we could, from eating and shopping, to music and goofing off. We had a fun time, but as the Festival approached this year, we were unable to convince the kids to go again.

As our schedule for the weekend unfolded, it turned out we really could only make it to one day of the Festival–Friday. Anne describes our time well, so I won’t repeat it here.

The approach of the Dublin Irish Festival offered me a dilemma as an aspiring amateur photographer: do I go in “photographer” mode with all my camera gear (which isn’t that much), constantly on the hunt for great photographs, or do I go as a husband and friend to just have a good time but without camera gear to worry about. About an hour before our departure, I told Anne I wouldn’t be taking the camera gear. She was suprised and strongly encouraged me to take the camera bag. She assured me that the friends whom we were meeting there wouldn’t mind watching the bag while we crushed into the crowds at the front of the stage. Thanks to her encouragement and the willingness of our friends, I found that the dilemma I had constructed was false–I was able to take a lot of great pictures AND have fun in the crowds dancing and drinking. The best of the pictures are on Flickr.

I shot the whole time using the 70-300mm zoom on our Nikon D60. Every once in a while I wished I had the wider angle lens on, but it was in the bag, and there were 10,000 people between me and the bag. Oh well.

The first group on the stage was Brigid’s Cross, whom I shot from a distance, and I didn’t really try to get good pictures.  The second group was Screaming Orphans, and I went up close to get some shots. No sooner had I come back to the table than Anne pointed out a great opportunity:

Next up was Scythian, one of our favorites from 2008. We also had a chance to see them when they came to Byrne’s Pub earlier this year. As they were setting up, I went up to the stage hoping to catch some nice candids.

As with previous performances, they did not disappoint. Their energy and showmanship are fabulous, and their music is just plain fun.

Toward the end of their set, the sun was low across the stage, giving the drummer an awesome back light mixed with the fog from the fog machine.

Next up was the Prodigals. I didn’t really get into their act as much, so I didn’t really try to get many pictures. Instead we ate and drank in preparation for Gaelic Storm. About 10 minutes before the end of Prodigals set, Anne and I started making our way up to the front of the stage. It was quite crowded, but we still managed to get to within 5 rows.

Shooting Gaelic storm proved to be the biggest challenge for me technically. The lights were VERY low, the performers moved a great deal (shocker), and the camera just was not getting good shots. Finally I changed to shutter priority, and set exposure compensation to under expose by a full f-stop. I then forced the shutter to shoot at 1/320 or 1/500 with the aperture nearly always wide open, and ISO set at either 3200 or 1600. Then I started getting some decent shots. This is my favorite of the night.

In addition to trying to get decent shots of the artists, I also wanted to see if I could get some fun detail or crowd shots. At one point I had noticed a very cute little girl on her dad’s shoulders during Scythian. I took a number of pictures of them because she was so gosh-darned cute.

Just before Scythian finished, I handed my business card to the dad letting him know that I’d taken some pictures of his daughter and that if he’d send me an e-mail I’d be happy to share. Hopefully he wasn’t freaked out by a stranger photographing his daughter.

Other fun detail shots: Scythian guitar tuning, Big Lens (ENVY!), Washboard from Columbus Ohio used by Scythian, Dancing Blond, crowd having fun at Gaelic Storm, Lights in the tent.

It was a great time, and I’m thankful I’ve got such a supportive wife that challenged my assumptions about what I could accomplish.