|
SubscriptionsSites I Read
|
|
|
|
| Arrival of New Albums
I'm so excited my new sample albums are here. I ordered one hard cover (with dust jacket) shown on the left, one soft cover and some of my favorite albums pages.
| | |
| Every so often I'll be at JJ's Blues, and Johnny will tell me that a particular person is very famous, or puts on a good visual show, or something similar and to make sure hat I get a lot of photos of them. Two weeks ago was the first time that I was told in advance that our feature act for last night was all the above and more and to be ready for an amazing show.
When I got to the club though I was told that Sugar Pie Desanto had in the past turned down offers to have photos taken of her at certain places by certain people, and that it was possible that they wouldn't need me there for the night. I spoke to her and she was ok with the idea, but said that it would have to go through her manager. He was ok with it also, as long as the photos were posted only on the JJ's site and my blog, smaller than normal print size and not sold by me or the club. (As fate would have it, I had more requests for prints and CDs that night than I have my entire time shooting at JJ's before this, but of course, I turned them down).
Sugar Pie Desanto doesn't look or act her age, 70. Her show was a high energy dancing and singing production. She's also the first performer everto turn down the classic "band with the JJ's sign" photo. When I asked and even explained that it was something of a tradition, her sole response was,
"Why would I want that?".
The show was amazing, anyone who wasn't at JJ's Blues on January 20, 2006, missed something great. Here is some of my take on it:
| | |
| I'm House Photographer for JJ's Blues in San Jose. which is a
a great club with an amazing energy and I always have a lot of fun while I'm working there. I started taking photos of the acts I shoot in front of the club sign. In this one (New Years Eve 2005) Mark, a bass player for Doghouse Riley, (on the far left) decided to give it more of a concert feel by lighting a match. I was laughing as I shot this:  That isn't the only sign that's important to Johnny, co-owner of JJ's Blues (along with his wife, Gloria). Johnny also likes to me to get in the exit sign above the doorway in at least a few shots a night, as it can be used later to positively identify the club. So here is one of my favorites: John Wedemeyer, a local favorite, playing guitar with Andy Just and the Shapes:  A night spent photographing at JJ's is great practice working with many diverse difficult shooting conditions. I have permission to use flash inside, but I don't (I use ISO 1600 on my 10 D camera instead). I've learned to shoot moving subjects with a fairly low shutter speed for low light, (I've found with the lighting conditions I my best chance of getting the drum sticks in motion is the slow 1/45th of a second or lower), and just dodging people moving about, from all sides and directions, having fun, and dancing. | | |
| In honor of my new website (http://www.notsostilllife.com) I've decided to start a new weblog to chronicle my photography.
A little about me: I studied photojournalism at San Jose State University, so my main style of wedding photography involves what isknown as documentary, reportage or photojournalistic coverage, the basic idea of which is to shoot things as they happen.
If the ring bearer decides the pillow makes a better yo-yo than it's intended purpose:
if the mother of the bride is wiping away tears as she's coming back to her seat:
or if the bride is so overjoyed to be married that she forgets her bouquet at first:
 then those moments will be ones that I will be photographing, helping the couple document this collection of moments in time that will never again be repeated.
The third photos is a page from the wedding album I designed for this couple, and it's due to come on Friday. I can't wait, the couple was great; I really enjoyed their day and despite meeting them in person for the first time on the day of the wedding, I really got to know them well and really feel that I helped captured their story.
Congratulations to you both, Paul and Vanessa.
| | |
|
