Rick’s Rants and Raves

Last night, Skippy, Mike and I shot a reunion gig for Racecar, a local band.

It started as a request from Racecar’s front-man, Andy, to Skippy. Andy wanted Skippy to take pictures to memorialize the reunion. Skippy was familiar with my work and asked for some quick pointers to help him make better pics. He also invited me to tag along, enjoy a beer, a killer show, and shoot if I wanted to. Skippy didn’t intend to shoot the whole show–his primary goal was to have fun, not be a photog.

Skippy Chimping

This shoot was my first opportunity to make use of my latest shoot-bands-in-bars DIY light holder. It is an angle bracket, bent with a hook at one end, and a 1/4-20 bolt through a hole in the other to hold an umbrella swivel. I’ve got a piece of webbing with a cam buckle left over from a car-top carrier (long story, don’t ask). I’ve cut the webbing to about 12 inches long, enough to go around a 4″ diameter pole. I wrap the webbing around the pole, into the cam buckle, then slip the hooked end of the bracket under the webbing.  I made this because a couple of the venues I’ve been in recently have had structural posts in the middle of the seating area. Ruby Tuesdays had a pole like this one on each side of an entry way between the stage and bar area. I could tell that Skippy was more interested in taking his own pictures than being my Voice Activated Light Stand (TM), so I put this flash in place and left it there for the duration of the evening. The best part was that the batteries, Energizer Advanced Lithium, lasted all night. I had used them a bit in prior projects, but probably not more than 20-30 pops. During this event, they powered 200+ flashes at 1/4 to 1/2 power. Toward the end of the night they were getting a bit sluggish, but could still recycle 1/2 power pop in 5-7 seconds.

So, for the most part, I shot using the single off-camera flash, with a bit of ambient-only work using my Jive Thirty Five. Skippy had asked about flash techniques, and I poo-pooed the efficacy of using on-camera flash:

Rotating the head and bouncing off a wall will work well if it is a light colored wall. Most ceilings in bars are dark. Most walls are dark too, for that matter. Which means the flash will have to be pointed right at them.

However, the ceiling in this bar was a white (albeit dingy) panel drop ceiling. So Skippy made great shots using ambient and on-camera pointed about 45 degrees up.

By Skippy, on-camera flash

I, however, neglected to make use of the white ceiling, even though I noticed it early in the show. The off-camera flash yielded some decent results, especially since the front-man was such a great performer, just begging to be shot.

Skippy captured almost the exact same moment.

Ambient shots for me continued to be a bit of a struggle. I spend so much time in manual (with the flash) that I forget that it would be better to shoot in Aperture priority when shooting this stuff ambient. Many of my ambient shots are over exposed or over saturated because I didn’t let the camera make the decisions. Still, I managed to get a few decent shots thanks to my “spray and pray” attitude.

Mike was sitting next to me much of the night, and pointing out detail shots I should capture, or reminding me that I had neglected the drummer most of the night. Yeah. Drummers are a pain in the butt to photograph. And this one was no different. He was in the back where I could barely see him, and the flash could barely reach him.

My favorite shot of the drummer, however, came during tear-down at the end of the night. I shot this with the Jive Thirty Five, but since the show was over, I could stand on the stage to get the angle I wanted.

After Racecar finished their performance, Velvet Smallpants (not sure this is his preferred website) came on and kept us rolling with disgusting adult humor. I found it especially disturbing that I was one of the primary eggers-on from the audience.

Earlier in the night, Mike had suggested that some back-lit shots of Racecar would be cool. We discussed various methods of blinding the crowd with a high power flash from the bass drum, but decided against the technique. When Velvet Smallpants took the stage, I saw an opportunity.

Skippy continued to shoot throughout the night, despite his proclamation that “I want to be sure that I enjoy the gig, so I don’t expect to take photos through the whole thing.” Yeah, I think I might have helped stir in him a little passion for something other than beer brewing.

I think his shot is here.

It was a great time. Racecar really rocked with incredible passion. Velvet Smallpants kept us wishing we could wash our brains out. And Skippy and Mike were great company for someone like me.