Ribbons of Song, Ben and Bruno, etc. @ my place, 2/25/08

Well, I haven't contributed any photos in awhile, so I thought I would post something up. This show was at my house...my wife and I host these things a couple times a month or so. It was a really fun show, but I kind of have mixed feelings about the images.

A few general notes:

This was my first time using the 85 1.8 (along w/ my 35L and 17-55). I didn't bust out the 135L for this one. The 85 is one heck a performer and a surprisingly hand holdable lens...should have picked it up sooner.

I've been having focus issues with my 35L...the problem seems to occur in low light and is at it's worst when I use the center point. Very odd...I'm not sure if it is the lens or the body or me, but at least I sort of have the problem isolated to a certain set of conditions.

For the past few months I've been exporting directly from Lightroom to my Zenfolio account, but with this set I resized to 1024 and applied some USM (100 .4 1). I think I'll probably start doing this from now on even though it's an extra step. I also tried processing these with NR (which I haven't been doing for awhile), and I just can't get an NR setting that I like (I use Noiseware)...so these are sans NR.

You can check out the full gallery here if you like:
http://www.photos.fahr​enheit128.com/p2826689​52/

1 Ben Laatsch (Huntington, IN)

drew, these are pretty uniformly excellent, not sure what mixed feelings you have. #1 i would have preferred a slightly looser crop, to get the strum hand in the frame. otherwise, spot-on. #2 is a real nice moment, just a pity about the background guy (not much you can do about that, you got the profile perfectly).

i recall seeing shots of Alabaster Fox before; the masks triggered that memory. #5 looks like it could use a touch of NR on her face.

6-8 are my favorites of the set.


you must have nice, warm floors. lots of shoeless performers.

Thanks Tim, I guess I just feel like I'm at one of those plateaus and I'm wanting to push myself to get better...that and I processed these 3 times (trying to tweak my workflow), so maybe I'm just tired of looking at them.

I agree about the crop on 1. I lost just a little when I straightened it, maybe I should go back and un-straighten it.

Ben Laatsch and the Foxes are friends of mine. I think I have more pictures of Ben than I do of my dogs (that is saying something) and I have quite a few of the foxes too.

I'm not sure if my floors or warm or if all of my friends are hippies...but I'm pretty sure it is one of the two...

Thanks for the comments.

Ya', I remember them fox people from another time. These are very good for an "in home" venue, although I'm not sure how I feel about the green square decor. -) Nice costumes on the rest.

DwightMcCann wrote in post #5029201
Ya', I remember them fox people from another time. These are very good for an "in home" venue, although I'm not sure how I feel about the green square decor. -) Nice costumes on the rest.

Thanks Dwight. The squares are acoustic ceiling tiles covered in burlap. The room is almost a perfect square which happens to be approximately the worst possible shape for acoustics. The ceiling tiles absorb some of the high-frequency echo in the room.

Ribbons of Song donned the costumes and face paint mid set during a chant. There was a strobe light and smoke machine involved as well. I didn't really get any shots of the strobe light and smoke machine, because I was a little dumbfounded at the time....like um, what is going on in my living room!
I think I'm going to drive up to Kalamazoo to see these guys perform again tomorrow. The Ben and Bruno stuff in particular really made an impression on me.

Ya', I was pretty creative in high school (unlike now) and played the trumpet. I remember one "event" I did where we walked out into the ocean while playing (only up to our nads) while there was a bon fire on the beach. Kids are much more daring than old folks!

I love #7, a perfect shot from a near-perfect musical moment.

Again intimate, if somewhat strange.
Nice images & some very nice expressions.