event photography – Page 3

Articles Tagged with: event photography

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.

Angel Walk 2011

On Saturday, May 21st the 2nd Annual Angel Walk took place over in Hampton Park in Charleston, SC. Questioning the predicted rapture for that day, I felt the best way to find out firsthand was to walk with Angels… OK, bad jokes aside, the Angel Walk is actually a fundraising and awareness event to fight medulloblastoma, which is the most common malignant central nervous system tumor in children.

I found out about Dawn Sechevich (pictured above on the left) and her son’s story through my neighbors who are close friends with her. Her boy, Luke James Sechevich, was diagnosed with high risk medulloblastoma on January 30, 2006 at the age of 1-½. After a long battle, Luke passed away in January of 2008. Dawn organized the Angel walk for Luke and all children who battle this disease in the hopes that they will someday find a cure. Read the full story on the Angel Walk website. Here’s a clip of her story from Lowcountry Live:

Let’s talk about the event, which was an uplifting and fun-filled family day in the park. There were a lot of activities for the kids, great food, and performances throughout the morning. Face painting, hair spraying, caricatures, the King of Pops, and jumping cows!

The Djole Dance & Drum Company livened up the event with African beats and dancing:

The Charleston Police Pipes & Drums band stormed the event with a fantastic set of traditional bagpipe music…

Melinda Gay & Dawn Sechevich pose for a shot with the band:

One of the highlights of the event for me was the singing of the gospel choir that closed out the day. There really is nothing quite like a southern gospel group to make you feel like you can believe in anything.

There were a lot of other people involved in making this event happen, especially the doctors and staff from MUSC Children’s Hospital as well as all of the sponsors who donated money and vendors who donated their services and products. Make sure to browse through the Angel Walk website and throw some support to all of the sponsors on there.

While I do have a big old set of photos on Flickr, I have an even bigger, more thorough set of pictures in my gallery with the ability to download for all of those who participated!

Don’t forget, you can always donate some money at any time through this charity, so please help them out, and tell all of your friends to “Like” them on Facebook as well!

First Flush Festival 2011

Normally, I despise day-long outdoor festivals. Big crowds of sweaty people, oppressive heat, lousy sound, bad light, & $5 bottles of water. This year’s First Flush Festival broke most of the rules. You couldn’t ask for better weather, giant fluffy clouds peppered the sky providing not only moments of natural shade, but great light diffusion. The sound was great for an outdoor venue and since it was on the Charleston Tea Plantation, there was free sweet tea for all! There were still big crowds of sweaty people, but there was plenty of space to move and still enjoy the music.

Vermont’s Grace Potter & The Nocturnals headlined the event with their brand of straight-up rock n’ roll. My daughter was especially excited to see Grace Potter because of her cover of White Rabbit on Tim Burton’s Almost Alice soundtrack. She couldn’t believe that someone “famous” (by her standards) was in Charleston!

Outdoor stages like the one at First Flush Fest are not designed to tailor to photographers, they are meant to make a comfortable environment for the musicians. Since event photography is a lot about troubleshooting the situation to make the best image you can, I decided that most of the band shots should be close-up and tight. Even in this photo, which I tried to pull back enough to get multiple band members, shows the back of a pick-up truck in the background among the rest of the distracting stands and such.

Another tip is to move around. Unfortunately for me (not for the band), it was packed up in front of the stage. I did not have access to the photo area, so I was limited by the fact that I didn’t want to push my way around spectators while they were enjoying the show. I did manage to move to the side of the stage and get some less distracting shots of the band members:

I realized I wasn’t going to get the perfect clean shot organically of any of the bands, so I did take one shot of the bassist and blow out the background enough to make it look like she’s in front of a white background:

The band was great and Grace Potter has an amazing voice (and range – she can hit notes higher than I thought humanly possible).

Music wasn’t the only attraction. The food trucks were there making me wish we arrived a bit earlier – there was a hole in the pit of my soul when I walked up to Roti Rolls only to find out they’re out of rolls! My wife had a similar experience when they were out of her favorite tacos at Taco Boy’s truck. Oh, what a world, what a world. We did manage to score some hand-made ice pops from the King of Pops:

The was also shopping and jump castles and hula hoops for the kids to entertain themselves with.

Not to mention the old fashioned fun of climbing a tree. I mean, why else would they let their branches hang so low but as to invite kids to jump up and climb?

I’ve been hearing about the band Leslie for years now, and I finally got a chance to see them at the FFF.

If AC/DC had a bastard child while touring in the south, the tucked away little gem would sound a lot like Leslie. Loud, guitar driven southern rock. They truly impressed the crowd with their energy.

They have had their band photos made in the past by the likes of Zack Arias, so I think they’ve got to have good taste 😉

They also won over my daughter by giving out free posters and stickers, and making themselves available after their set for pictures and autographs. Here’s a tip to every band out there – young kids will be loyal if you give them a solid reason to be – Treat your fans like fans!! Leslie didn’t disappoint. Check out this photo of Mac with the band:

Unfortunately there’s a random dude growing out of my kid’s head. Sometimes you just have to deal with it 🙂 Before I forget, you can check out all of my photos from FFF on my Flickr set (as well as last years pics if you have time). And to wrap this up, I bring you a picture of “Broadband”. This guy stopped me in the crowd and assured me that I needed to take his picture and publish it on my blog. Who am I to disagree with a guy named Broadband?

Change For Change Art Show Recap

Last night was the Change for Change Benefit Art Show at the Music Farm. It was the first show of this kind organized by Young & Free SC. The rock club was transformed into a DIY art gallery and was showing some of the Charleston area’s coolest underground art.

The art show focused on attracting the college-aged youth of Charleston and introducing them to what the local art scene is producing and offering a lot of it at affordable prices.

And the art wasn’t just on paper, it was in your ears and mouth as well. The Music farm exploded with the sounds of Heyrocco…

Next up, Meet The Sky took the stage:

I also had a blast hanging out with photographer buddies Robert Donovan and Jonathan Stout, who have proven to me that the best photographers have great senses of humor. Here’s a shot of BadJon Stout getting ready to devour some meat perfection from Hello My Name Is BBQ:

And Robert Donovan shows off his “Hey Ladies” pose for the camera here:

I’ll update this post with more info on how much $$$ was raised for Water Missions last night – It was for a really good cause and the organizers did a bang-up job on their first swing at this.

As usual, I took a bunch of photos which you can view in a set on my Flickr Stream.

Food Truck Rodeo!

We were sitting around eating brunch at IHOP, which lets face it – the food is barely edible, when the discussion of the Food Truck Rodeo came up. Darn it, why didn’t we think of that before we sat down to our egg substitute and Go-Gurt topped excuse for a meal? One of the vendors at the Rodeo was Happy Camper Snoballs, who the kids & I remembered from Kulture Klash 7. We could at the very least stop by the event for some sweet cold goodness as dessert!

We couldn’t believe how many people showed up at Mixson community development in the Park Circle area of North Charleston. Parking was scarce, but the walk was well worth the treats that lay ahead. We hopped on line to grab some fruit infused snowy heaven in a Chinese take-out container.

While on line, we saw local photog Jonathan Stout taking some video of the lines. He’s got a cool art show coming up called “The 3 Amigos Ride Again, For the First Time” with Meta Sapient & Proton Factories at Local Coffee Bar on May 13th.

There was live music, dogs, drinking, and food – a regular party going on! Afterwards we headed over to the North Charleston Arts Festival, which by comparison was like going to a church fair (probably because religious services were letting out in the convention center at the time we arrived). There was some great photography on display by the likes of Kathy Hare and Leah Sparks (as well as a lot of others) at the Arts Festival though. I bet if they had the Food Truck Rodeo at the Convention Center, it would have been an interesting mix of people 😉

As usual, you can check out my Flickr Stream for all of the photos I took today. Many of the photos in this post made heavy usage of the Tonal Contrast filter effect in Nik’s Color Efex Pro because I felt like making gritty high dynamic range style photos today.

Relay For Life 2011 – Sweetgrass Pediatrics Team

Last night was the 2011 Relay For Life of Summerville, SC which was held at Summerville High School. I was participating with one of me oldest & dearest clients, Sweetgrass Pediatrics, as part of their team.

The kids had fun as most booths had an activity that you could donate a little cash for the cause to participate in. Wow – two events in the same week with hula hooping – who knew it was making such a come back?

Team captain Dawn Norris is the person I’d like to thank for pulling it all together for the Sweetgrass Pediatrics team. She’s busted her behind making getting everyone on board and she’s also personally raised an astonishing $685.00 so far! Not to mention David & Dr. Colleen Boylston for their backing of the event. The event has managed to raise a staggering $91,763.01, and it’s not too late to donate!

Check out all of the photos on my Flickr set.

Evans Rehearsal Dinner

I had the pleasure of shooting a wonderful couple’s wedding rehearsal dinner at Waters Edge at Shem Creek in Mount Pleasant, SC this weekend.

Beau and Kathryn Evans are two beautiful people whose awesome mother, Donna Evans hired me to shoot this event for their family.

I wanted to share with you some of my favorite pics from the evening. We had a great location at a great time of day with perfect weather – You couldn’t ask for a better combination!

There was music, shagging, and shucking, oh my!

The more events I photograph, the more I realize how important it is to know your camera inside and out. I can’t tell you how often I double-check my camera and almost every time I do I find that a crucial setting has been changed, a button mashed, or dial spun that would have otherwise ruined or missed a moment. I don’t know how many times I would find myself chimping the LCD screen in the past – after a number of phantom setting changes, I do get real paranoid that I’m blowing the shots! The more I do this though, the less I need to check my screen because I accept that while I’m communicating with subjects, and squeezing through crowded bars, my camera is busy taking on a life of its own, so I check my settings before I press the shutter.

It’s also handy to keep a mental baseline of settings for each environment you shoot in. That way you can quickly reset the camera to that baseline and work up from there. I still find shooting people at sunset is the hardest time because the light changes so drastically with every passing second. Event photography is very fast-paced, so any method you employ that will gain you precious seconds looking through the viewfinder is the difference between getting a great moment or just missing it.

Brewvival 2011 Photo Essay

When I first arrived at the old Navy Base in North Charleston on Saturday for the second annual Brewvival, I felt a similar feeling as when I walked through the doors at CupcakeCamp. Elation. As a fan of real beer, not that swill most people pass off as beer at sports bars and chain restaurants, I was in heaven. Everywhere I looked, I was surrounded by real honest-to-goodness beer!

After I pinched myself a few times, I remembered that I had a job to do. I had to captured the day in photos. Where to start? Well, there was the huge growing line of attendees awaiting for the 12 o’clock hour to strike so they could start the party. I walked to the front of the line and met this group of folks who had arrived an hour early to be the first to enjoy the heady goodness that was to be dispensed throughout the day.

I realized I had a few minutes to check out the grounds before they were filled with festival goers. I walked around taking in the sights of each booth.

Soon, the “gates” opened and some of the happiest people on earth were welcomed with a program and a beer glass as they entered the festival.

And so it began. People lined up at the booths and started sniffing, tasting, and in some cases, even licking their beer!

The organization of the festival was brilliant. Lines moved quickly, each brewer was organized in alphabetical order, and everyone had a list of what each brewer had to offer so there was little doubt as to where you could get the beer you wanted to try.

Soon after the gates opened, the rock began with the sounds of Gaslight Street (featured in the photo at the top of this post). Now I was getting into my groove – I love beer, photography, and rock n’ roll (not in any particular order).

I started to get into it and got in close on the instruments…

I decided to head back into the crowd for more shots of ~~beard~~ beer drinking!

It was lunch time, which I spent inside of Coast Brewery’s facility and enjoyed some amazing home-made food that was prepared for the vendors and brewers. While I was in there, I decided to take some shots of the inner workings of the brewery.

After I was done inside Coast, I headed back outside to the festival with an idea for a shot. I wanted to get the darkest beer I could find and fill one of the Brewvival beer glasses and get a shot of the band behind it. I set the aperture as small as I could to get the most depth of field (and showcase the plethora of dirt on my camera’s sensor). I believe it captures the essence of the day. The shot up top is my favorite, and here is an alternate of the same shot in the key of G:

The beer I used was Palmetto Brewing’s Espresso Porter, which was amazing to say the least (I had to drink it because I wasn’t about to waste it). I also checked out some of the food vendors. We had D’Allesandro’s Pizza, Ted’s Butcher Block, Roti Rolls, as well as others on hand to keep the drinkers paced and satisfied.

Next up on the stage was the Garage Cuban Band, who played a trippy Latin-flavored soulful sound that was perfect for the occasion.

Phew – this is a long post, and I’m still going! After checking out a riveting game of bean-bag toss, I met up with some Twitter Friends.

It’s @JasonCZ & @SkimTheOcean

I tried to explain to Jason the art of being a creep with a camera at an event such as this. Sometimes the shot you want is of people off their guard, such as these:

When people know they are being photographed, the tend to step out of their natural character and when you combine that with beer, it may look something like this:

As the day went on, people came out of their shells and it was much easier to approach them for candid shots. Here are some of my favorites:

Let’s not forget the unsung heroes of the day. I’m talking about the designated drivers who, donning their straight-edge X’s on their hands, sacrificed partaking in the alcohol bevicide for the good of their fellow man.

Guess what time it is? It’s banjo picking, fiddle sticking, foot stomping time! Fire up the Dukes of Hazard car chase scene soundtrack and check out these shots of the SC Broadcasters!

Right about now, the people started to get the itch and some dancing ensued.

The day was winding down, and somebody with temporary tattoos on his head was getting his skull licked, so I took that as my cue to wrap up my photo shoot.

I had a blast, and I can’t wait until next year’s event. Until then, I raise my glass to the Brewvival crew and Coast Brewing for putting on a spectacular festival. Cheers! I leave you with this picture of this guy looking awesome.

Check out the whole set of 247 photos on my Flickr!

Charleston Brewvival 2011

What: Charleston Brewvival
Where: 1250 2nd St North, North Charleston, SC 29405
When: Saturday, February 26, 2011 12-6PM
Why: Beer!

I’ve been extremely busy over the past couple of weeks, but I wanted to quickly update you with my latest project – I’ve been tasked with shooting the Charleston Brewvival 2011 event. I’m very excited to bring my love for photography to the world’s love of cold liquid gold.

If you are coming to the Charleston area this weekend, make sure to get yourself some tickets, and a designated driver, and get ready to taste some of the low country’s best brews. I hope to see you there!

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