Photo of the Week #81

This summer has been a weird one as far as concert shooting is concerned for me. I was scheduled to shoot Melissa Etheridge, but the good folks at Ottawa Bluesfest only wanted to issue one media pass to the publication I shoot with and it was non-transferable so I wasn't allowed to shoot. As it turned out, I wouldn't have been shooting anyway as her management put strict restrictions in place and it would have squeezed my out anyway. Next, I was booked to shoot Rascal Flatts, but the venue made the decision that they didn't want any media at the event. There was, however a story with pictures in the local newspaper......hm. I love shooting concerts and Melissa was one of my bucket list people, but oh well, life goes on, right?

On a brighter note, I had the opportunity this past weekend to travel up to Kemptville Live 2017 festival to shoot for two nights. Festivals are great because you are often not limited to a certain number of songs. The atmosphere is great, and we were treated wonderful by the organizers and artists alike. Friday night the headliner wouldn't allow any photographers, can't remember his name. Anyway, Saturday night was a different story as Burton Cummings couldn't have been more hospitable to the photographers present. We had only a couple of minor restrictions and were allowed to shoot the whole show if we wanted. He recognizes the value of media, good on ya Burton. Just before the show, I was walking around the end of the stage where Burton was waiting to go on. I ended up having a conversation with him right there and he was very nice and totally down to earth, that leaves a lasting impression on people. As I was driving home last night, it hit me, I had had a chance to chat with one of the icons of the music business!

Photo of the week #80

This photograph was made in Utah at Zion National Park. Zion was one of the first places we visited in the southwest and it completely blew me away with it's beauty. Zion is a canyon cut into the rock by the north fork of the Virgin River and has many unique features. I wish we had more time to explore this area, but it was but one stop on a great trip through the American southwest.

Photo of the Week #79

Well, my concert season is in full swing at the moment, although I lost a couple recently at the last minute due to promoters' decisions. Oh well, it happens, it's a fickle business. A couple of weeks back, Sam Roberts played a free concert in Market Square in Kingston. The stage had terrible lighting, some of the worst I've encountered as a matter of fact. Heavy red and blue colour wash means terrible photography in most cases. Processing these images means a lot more work. This is my favorite from that night, hands down.

Photo of the Week #78

On June 23 I had the privilege to photograph a show at Ottawa Jazz Festival featuring Serena Ryder. she has become one of my favorite Canadian artists. If you haven't listened to Serena you should give her a listen, what a voice! The live show is also nothing short of spectacular so check her out if you get the chance.

Review and more pictures can be found here.

Photo of the Week #77

Life has, once again gotten in the way of updating this blog. Thing have been pretty busy and upside down for quite awhile for me, I also recently made another trip to Nova Scotia. I wanted to do a lot of photography and since it was always cloudy and stormy there in the spring, I thought it would be amazing. This year, for some reason, it was sunny and clear for a lot of the time I was there. You might find it odd that I actually hope for bad weather, but for photography, weather makes for much more interesting images than those clear blue sky days do. I love weather, it means mood in my images and tons more interest. I'm not talking about those solid white skies either, I mean stormy days. I mostly underexpose the frame allowing for properly exposed skies and I worry about the foreground later on. If you blow out the sky in the first place, you have little to work with. The image below was made in Port Hood, Nova Scotia and is a 19 frame panorama and could be printed at 73 inches long if desired due to the 104MP resolution! If you're viewing this on a phone, do yourself a favour and check it out on a computer screen.

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