archers of loaf – JWNPhoto.com

Articles Tagged with: archers of loaf

B&W Nikon Coolpix P7000

Since I started shooting with the Nikon Coolpix P7000, I’ve found that I really like converting a lot of the images to black & white in post. It’s not that the color images are lacking, but I think it’s more the style of shooting that the P7000 inspires me to take.

Much like when shooting with my iPhone, I find myself experimenting in more social situations. I don’t mean just hanging out with my friends, but being out amongst people. I’m sure it’s mostly in my head, but when I’m shooting with my DSLRs I feel like people are paying more attention to what I’m doing. When I pull out a point-and-shoot, I get the feeling that people write you off in comparison.

When I shot the Archers of Loaf, I was able to walk in with a camera in my pocket, and not get questioned by a doorman on a power-trip (or one just doing his/her job). I could get up close and shoot the whole night, which was pretty cool.

At the recent Tunguska Event art show held at Tivoli Studios in Charleston, SC, I could act like a fly on a wall and people just carried on without putting on pouty smiling faces.

And while hanging out at a friend’s house, I could focus on an interesting composition in between sips of beer and conversation without missing a beat.

To me, monotone images don’t take away color, they take away distraction. A black & white image simplifies the act of conveying your photographic message. With a smaller camera, I feel like I’m more care-free in my photography because I feel like people are more care free about me taking photos with it. While I love well thought-out shots that are purposeful, I also love capturing moments in life using the creative reflexes I’ve developed by shooting with my DSLR for the last few years. Both my iPhone and now my P7000 allow me to bridge that small strange gap between casual photography and artistic shooting. Strip a shot down to its composition, depth, and meaning, and you make a statement that begs for further attention than a color snapshot might ask for.

The Return of The Archers of Loaf

I’m gonna keep the writing brief on this one, you can read a thorough review of one of the Archers of Loaf reunion shows through yesterday’s post. I can’t top that, so I’m just gonna let the photos do the talking. What I want you to know about these photos is the camera I used to take them all. Before I left for this trip, my father’s day gift was a new camera (which I picked out).

On sale for $379 (normally $499), I couldn’t resist getting the Nikon P7000 as a street/walkaround camera. After using my waterproof Pentax point & shoot camera a lot on my recent vacation because I didn’t want to risk breaking or getting my DSLR stolen while I was riding an ATV through Cozumel, I realized the value in getting a high-end compact camera. That value is the quality of life you can have by not lugging around a bag of camera equipment during casual engagements. While my Pentax is cool – it really is only good in outdoorsy settings where it can take the heat, dust, and water, but can’t do much with low light.

I threw myself into the fire over the weekend with this camera as the Archers of Loaf are easily one of my favorite bands ever, and here I am shooting their long awaited reunion with a camera I’m completely unfamiliar with. Furthermore, I wanted to pay attention to the show, not fiddle with settings.

I had spent a good portion of Saturday figuring out the ins & outs of the P7000, including a walk through Central Park, which will be the subject of a future post. I pushed this little sucker as far as I could to see just what it can do. Sure it’s noisy in a club atmosphere, and yes I missed a lot of great shots due to my own lack of knowledge of the camera’s limitations, but to me that is the fun of it!

One Issue that popped up at the show in Williamsburg (which I didn’t notice until afterwards) was that the blades that cover the lens were sticking because some debris must have gotten into them. From the reviews I’ve read, the P7000 is very susceptible to this. Now that I’ve seen it firsthand, I know to look out for it while I’m using it.

You can see the effect on quite a few of these photos – it’s like a vignetting on only 2 sides. Fortunately for me it didn’t ruin a lot of the shots, although one picture of my friends after Saturday’s show cut everyone’s heads off – it really stings that that shot is ruined.

After that first night, I was aware of the issue and I kept an eye out for it (although it hasn’t happened since). I did manage to get another shot of some of my friends on the second night – this one was taken by the bassist for Risk/Reward, my friend John Houlihan:

I’ll be sure to share more shots and talk more about the new camera in upcoming posts. So far, I’m loving this thing for sure. You can see the rest of my Archers of Loaf photos in this set on Flickr.

It’s Not The Camera

It’s who you know. But that’s not just what I’m talking about. Good pictures don’t care about hardware, they care about the intention and execution of the person conceiving and/or capturing them. Sure a camera’s lack of abilities can hinder you from getting a shot you envision, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make a good shot with a poor camera! Once you realize this, it’s a matter of exploiting what the camera can do, and not wasting your time griping about what it can’t do.

The photo above was made at the Archers of Loaf concert in Brooklyn, NY this past Saturday. I made it on my iPhone using the app Camera+. I shot it, converted it to B&W, and immediately shared it on Facebook. The next day, a writer for L Magazine (who is an old friend) saw it and asked to use it for his review of the concert. So yes, it is mostly a case of who you know. I did offer up some technically better shots taken with a better camera, but he liked the iPhone one enough and it works in spite of the fact that it was made on a cell phone.

I’ll be sure to share more shots of the shows I attended this weekend that I made on my newest camera when I review it. I also have all of my vacation shots sorted out – just need to title and tag them, so that will be up this week also.

Extremes

Day 324 - Hotter Than Satan's Balls In July

1/1250th of a sec f/4.2 5 mm ISO 150

Some of my favorite shots comes from over saturating the photo in post. The effect of over saturation strips a lot of the variation in color & tonality that occurs naturally. It’s a great way to stylishly tackle the harsh light of mid-day, especially in a beach scene like the one above that I took with my waterproof Pentax point-and-shoot camera. At this point, we’re tip-toeing up to the line between photography and digital art, but that is for you to decide as to when it stops becoming photography and starts becoming something else. In my opinion, the elements of the photo are true as well as the composition. A good photograph still captures and defines a moment, and this definitely does that regardless of the treatment I apply to further expand what I envisioned this shot to look like when I made it.

I share this photo now because the sun came out today here in Charleston and the weather was beautifully mild. I felt a longing to be back in the middle of the summer heat while swimming in the Atlantic for hours on end. I took this shot over the past summer and I can’t wait to get back there again. I feel like we’re over that winter hump, and the light of day is going to start hanging around a bit more each day – these are simple things to look forward to, but it’s important to make a conscious effort to appreciate the gifts we are given each day.

Step into the light. So tired of being in the dark and all alone. Step into the light.

A friend of ours held a funeral this evening for her boy that passed away three months into her pregnancy. I can’t help but feel that life is so fragile, and if we don’t say thanks for what we have, we can never truly live nor strive for the most that life can offer. The tragedies in our lives act in contrast to our gifts. Without tragedy, we have nothing to gauge the fantastic things that surround us everywhere and get taken for granted. A man who loses his legs is suddenly aware of how amazing the act of walking is. A child with a loose tooth realizes how fantastic it is to be able to bite into a crisp apple again after the tooth falls out. And a parent that loses a pregnancy is able to love the children she has that much more, because the fact that they are here now is a miracle that gets easily forgotten by most of us during our daily grind.

We’ve started our year with high hopes and have had a very rocky road despite our optimism. I take each struggle as an opportunity to strengthen my resolve to accomplish the goals I have set.
It’s easy to compound the bad shit that happens and then make it worse by belittling the miracles that the negatives in our lives try to overshadow. Being happy isn’t easy when your in the dark, so I’m inviting you to step into the light, no matter how hard that seems.