Six Organs of Admittance/Major Stars @ the Middle East, Cambridge

[narlus]

last i'd seen of Major Stars was in '02 at Terrastock V and they have upped their game considerably. Sandra Barrett joined as vocalist, leaving Wayne to roam the stage like a beast w/ a headful of speed, creating sonic distress in his wake. kate was totally abusing her guild as usual, and it was an absolute joy taking shots of her. i can't remember when i had such a good time behind the viewfinder. i just wished i'd had a faster, wider lens, because i was literally 2' in front of her w/ nowhere else to go (note - this has been fixed by the acquisition of the sigma 30 f/1.4). the bass and other guitar player (pretty sure it's tom leonard of luxurious bags fame) were anchored in spot, the drummer pounded the friggin' dust from the ceiling, and sandra probably spent more time in the crowd than on stage. wow. go see them if you have a chance, i was thoroughly impressed.

#1: kate, in a blur (technically not a great picture, but truly evocative of their sound):
http://static.flickr.com/51/187008476_a661ea396e_o.jpg

#2: kate, wringing the life out of her guitar:
http://static.flickr.com/53/187008833_72b8c8708a_o.jpg

#3: what's sexier than a luscious Guild being throttled by a woman? nothing.
http://static.flickr.com/73/187008915_9ad2fc8962_o.jpg

#4 more kate:
http://static.flickr.com/62/187009314_51c6f5a311.jpg

#5: more cascading hair:
http://static.flickr.com/51/187009015_16a518e450_o.jpg

#6: sandra's sensible footwear, long since discarded:
http://static.flickr.com/56/187009201_abf2e4492d_o.jpg

#7: punter's PBR pressed into service:
http://static.flickr.com/47/187009360_8057715cea.jpg

i must say that i didn't envy Ben and co (the dude from Hush Arbors and drummer from Sunburned Hand of the Man) having to follow that maelstrom, and Ben was in kind of a bad mood. flipped off a semi-heckler, didn't seem all that into the show, and very grudgingly played one song as an 'encore' after he urged people to leave or go to the bar. not sure what was up w/ him. what i can report is that i highly prefer the solo, acoustic 6 organs to the band format...it seemed like a cloudy, murky water rather than the clear creek of his steel-string playing. maybe it was the sound, but it just didn't have near the same emotional impact that shows @ terrastock or the '04 show w/ devendra had...the drummer was very good though, and brought a less frenetic Corsano jazz sound to the proceedings. i've not seen SHotM in a while, so it's time i check them out again.

ben #1
http://static.flickr.com/65/187009947_fa7f2762a1_o.jpg

ben #2
http://static.flickr.com/57/187009862_aa5688fbda_o.jpg

john #1:
http://static.flickr.com/54/187009490_7b78288115_o.jpg

conclusion: go see Major Stars

[DwightMcCann]

The first cascading hair is great ... the rest of the hairs are, um, er, well, anyway ... it might work better if you split this into two threads, by group. So, was Kate solo? No other faces to be seen!

[René Damkot]

Can you get #4 lighter? Seems like a very nice image, but way too dark...
After seeing Kate, I'm curious for the rest of the band. Was Sandra as sensible as her footwear? ;)
Don't know the bands, but the first looks like fun.

[narlus]

rene, i did shoot RAW so i can take another crack at lightening that image. the light was very low; even @ 1.6/1600, most shutter speeds were in the 1/60th or 1/30th range. i think i need a 5D; anyone have one for loan? ;)

now i've got a sigma 30 f/1.4 which should hopefully give me the ability to get a halfway decent stage shot, assuming that i don't need to shoot full open and have a real shallow DoF. if i shoot @ this venue again, i may have to employ the dreaded shutter drag technique.

dwight, i didn't break the threads up because it was the same show, but i suppose i could. as far as the other band members of Major Stars, sandra sang from the audience more than from stage, and wayne moved around so fast i couldn't get any good shots from him in action. below are a couple of halfway decent shots, but nothing great.

wayne #1:
http://static.flickr.com/63/187008316_5e3aabe96d.jpg

wayne #2:
http://static.flickr.com/48/187009095_bd2dedb460.jpg

sandra:
http://www.letsproxy.com/index.php?q=aHR0cDovL3N0YXRpYy5mbGlja3IuY29tLzc4Lz E4NzAwODU3MF85Njg5MzFlNjFhLmpwZw%3D%3D

[DwightMcCann]

Oh, my, I really like that last image. Anyway, I mentioned splitting them up as it makes them easier to review and comment even if one is an opening act ... you can always mention the relationship, but with the moderators getting ever more vigilant (and there are a hell of a lot more of them around these days ... guess folks enjoy being hall monitors) on number of posts, it is just a good idea.

[narlus]

sounds like a fair reason to me...thanks for the comments guys.

[René Damkot]

Hey, that's a different (much better) Sandra then before! (Yeah, I know, I spend a bit too much time here ;))
Her microphone holding kinda sucks BTW, but I guess cute looks compensate...
There is a bit of a discrepancy between shot #2 and the last shot. If these two are in the same band, I'm *very* curious to the resulting music. Because it looks kinda like L7 vs. Cowboy Junkies :D

[narlus]

yeah, you caught me in mid-edit as i swapped pics. ;)

sometimes i am not the best self-editor, or else i would have put that sandra pic in the 'best of the batch' pile immediately.

don't let the looks fool you: she's dressed like a kitten but roars like a rabid lion. if you are interested in the world of wayne and kate, check out www.twistedvillage.com for more info. great label, store and people.

[narlus]

rene, here's a lighter version of the pic you asked for:

http://img60.imageshack.us/img60/7909/img0926kategtrsprawllighter5fx.jpg

[René Damkot]

Better, but the guitar loses color now. I guess this is a case of blending exposures; Guitar nominal, face up to +2.... This might bring out soem noise ;) Pity. Sometimes lighting doesn't cooperate...

[narlus]

yeah, i should really learn some of these techniques such as blending etc. :)

[René Damkot]

Easy: just open the two images in Photoshop. Select the lighter image. Press ctrl-A; ctrl-C; ctrl-W ;ctrl-V. (CMD instead of ctrl on a Mac). You just copy-pasted the lighter image in a layer on top of the darker. Add a layer mask (down in the layers palette, 3rd symbol from left). Use airbrush black / white to hide / show the top layer.
Also look at this Quicktime movie. (http://www.thelightsrightstudio.com/videos/BlendedExposures.mov)

[narlus]

http://static.flickr.com/65/187009947_fa7f2762a1_o.jpg



resurrecting this old thread because it highlights two important lessons...don't toss yr RAW files, and you can always improve wrt to post-processing...

i got an email from the record label of Six Organs of Admittance, looking to use one or two of my photos in an upcoming magazine article. when i originally did these, my understanding of ACR and PS was rudimentary at best. while i still have loads to learn, i was able to tweak the above image into a much better picture, imo.

http://narlus.zenfolio.com/img/p129075084-4.jpg

unfortunately, i deleted a bunch of RAW files which i should have at least kept one (i have the jpgs), as it was a decent shot which could be used. lesson learned.

[René Damkot]

Definitely better.... Maybe lighten the face a *bit* while you are at it? Or ad a bit ov vignetting to 'direct' the viewers eyes to the face....

[DwightMcCann]

Always nice to be contacted about your images, eh? :-)

[woman4life]

I like that last image of Sandra as well. Gorgeous. :)