May 7, 2010, Harmonic for "The Purple Valley", Player at Castaways

It was a night of celebration. "The Purple Valley" was playing at Castaways in Ithaca.  Sue the keyboardist was having a birthday.  A large crowd of her friends came and danced and listed to some great music.  Sue, thank you for sharing your birthday with us.  We had a great time.

Lessons Learned:

• I can use a fairly high ISO with black and white photography.  Black and White photography seems to work great in low light situations. Castaways was very dark for photography.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/60 sec, Aperture f/2.8, ISO 6400, Focal Length 200 mm, Lens Canon 70-200mm f2.8L USM, hand held.

Check out other Monochrome Weekend images! 

Week 52, Day 364, April 28, 2010, The Purple Valley

The Purple Valley is a local favorite band in the Ithaca, NY area.  They have some up coming gigs that required a new photo.  John asked if I could come out and take some photos.  We had a great time, and this was my favorite.

The Purple Valley has a curse.  Every time they have had their photo taken, they have had somebody leave the band.  Immediately after this photo was taken the drummer said that this was the last time he was going to play with the band.  Then he smiled and laughed.  One advantage for me, is that they might ask me to take another photo when/if a new member joins them. ;-)

Lessons Learned:

• I haven't taken a lot of photos of people where I have had to pose the people.  Fortunately they had some idea on what they wanted to try.  They set up, and I made a few suggestions.  I then began take several photographs of them as they joked with each other.  I think this worked best because they became more relaxed, and looked more natural.

 Photo details: Exposure time 1/50 sec, Aperture f/4.6, ISO 400, Focal Length 19 mm, Lens Canon EF 17-40mm, hand held.

Week 5 - Day 30, May 30, 2009, " Rockin' Johnny"

The Purple Valley was performing today on the Ithaca Commons as part of the Ithaca Festival Celebration. It was a fantastic day for the event.

I took a variety of photos today, and this is my favorite. (and the music was fantastic.) In this photo I like John's smile, and I like the blurred background with the lighting on the trees. It's great to be able to photograph this band in daylight, but in a shaded area.

Lessons Today:

• I need to work more on my moon shots. It's been a while, and I have forgotten my settings.
• Getting the right light requires a lot of time. I was chasing clouds and sunshine shooting through the clouds. I didn't have a lot of luck.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/250, Aperture f/2.8, ISO 100, Focal Length 85 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 138mm, Lens Canon 70-200mm f2.8L USM, hand held.
Whew, I just got this one posted in time.

Week 1 - Day 2 - May 2, 2009 "The Purple Valley"

This photo was taken at the SweetSpot Lounge in Ithaca. The name of the band is The Purple Valley. I really enjoy listening to them play.

The main thing that I like about this photo is the perspective. It gives you the feeling of being on stage with the band. For me, that's a hard thing to do when a band playing on stage, and I don't want to intrude on their playing.

Lessons:

• I was more sucessful at using a flash. (Although I didn't use one in this photo.) I need to continue to work on this skill.

Photo details: Exposure Time 1/80, Apeture f/2.2, ISO 1600, Lens Canon EF 50mm Lens f/1.8 II