Building on my recent music theme, here’s another subject that is completely different from the others. Two weeks ago I presented the rock star Hozier, then last week the married violinists from the National Symphony, the Bogacheks. While the two events had very little in common, both situations contained visually interesting elements that I could highlight.
Not this week
Here in Northern Virginia there’s a vibrant music scene amid dozens of local wineries and breweries. Lots to choose from each weekend and on many weekday evenings, too. (I have not researched this, but we might have an alcohol problem in my county!)
And some regional performers, like Jason Masi, are quite accomplished. Venues are willing to compensate strong performers nicely in their efforts to attract customers. For full-time musicians this can be a solid part of their income. And even though they frequently play for much larger crowds, work like this can be hard to pass up. It’s a friendly, relaxed setting, a chance for them to bond with staff, friends and fans, and a well-paid opportunity to continuously hone their craft, introduce new music, etc.
But these venues, while being beautiful and soulful, don’t provide great photographic platforms. The venues are wonderful places, sporting rolling hills with rich green hues and blue skies dotted with pretty white clouds. Idyllic. But “on stage” all you see is a person with a guitar under a canopy. In many cases tables for the audience are not even positioned in front of the artist; they are off to one side. Based solely on visual cues, the performer could be anybody, a first-and-last timer for all the viewer knows. When I’m working with artists like Jason the last thing I want to do is make it appear that he’s just getting started, or doing this as a hobby. So as a photographer, what should I do?
I thought about this and remembered an event from years ago.
I once saw the great Elvis Costello play for a Silicon Valley tech party, back in the dot.com bubble days. He and his whole band. In those irrationally exuberant days, some companies were throwing huge bashes to tout their products and get attention from investors and prospects. I’m sure Elvis and the band were compensated quite handsomely for performing. And they were their usual amazing selves, but only about 20 of us were actually in the audience and paying attention!!! Before and after that performance he filled substantial venues for every show. But not at this party, which only had a few hundred attendees spread across several areas.
The last thing Elvis would have wanted was coverage of him playing in that environment. Certainly, he wouldn’t want the whole, empty scene to he depicted.
I remember wishing I’d been able to bring a camera myself though, because if the images were all composed tightly he would still look great, performing like the true professional that he is, and nobody would need to know…
At the winery
With a fixed mic setup, Jason would be staying close to his stand almost continuously. Careful compositions can help in scenes like this a little bit, but there are limits.
So I decided to come in so tight that the viewer would be unable to discern much of anything about the setting. I left just enough of a clue to know that he was a performer.
I figured that if I made a set of images that could be grouped together, I could do something with them as a series. As I began, some ideas percolated.
Leading to this:
Making the otherwise lovely venue disappear seemed like my best option. And jeez, he looks like a fun guy when his expressions are isolated, right? (He is.)
If promotional pieces were desired, adding more text to a layout like this becomes easy enough.
Sometimes it happens in post
Finally, I’m no Photoshop wizard, but with enough effort I was able to acceptably remove the background on the first canopy image, blend the tones reasonably, and re-apply the grain. I wouldn’t have been able to do this 20 years ago.
And with just a little more work it could become an album cover. Crop out the microphone stage left, leave a little more space to the right and a line on top for balance, and you can make this:
Or not. It can just be a photograph. But for all these shots, less is more.
That’s it from this shoot. Jason and I will be working together on other things over the summer. Now that we’ll actually be planning the what/when/where of it, the next environment should be much easier to work with.
Until next time,
Limited Edition Prints for Sale
Another channel of my photography. Oof. But as promised, I’ve got this new set of Limited Edition prints available for purchase. Any unsold African wildlife images from last fall, as promised, have been retired from circulation.
Each edition consists of ten Numbered Prints and two Artists Prints, 16x24” silver halide, with certificate of authentication. As before, these are limited both by number and duration of the offer. If you’d like one or more for that special person, don’t hesitate. You wouldn't want to become he who is lost!
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I enjoyed reading about your process and thoughts behind your shoots!
Love the B&W montage. The best thing is that he plays a Martin