PHOTO BACKGROUND:
Two images of one of my favorite musicians and friend Evan Flory Barnes. Taken during a set at Lucid Jazz Club, Seattle, WA, October, 2009.
http://www.myspace.com/theteachingmusic
COMMENTARY:
I had the pleasure recently to take some photos of some of my favorite local musicians at jazz club here in Seattle. The most of the images that I favored are of ‘The Teaching’, featuring Evan Flory-Barnes (Upright Acoustic Bass), Josh Rawlings (Fender Rhodes/Piano/Percussion) and Jeremy Jones (Drum Set/Percussion). I don’t know who was sitting in with them on trumpet.
I didn’t know what to expect since I had not been to the club before although I was prepared to shoot in a low light situation. I was a bit surprise at exactly how low little light there was… like, virtually none. To be truthful I hadn’t shot any real low light images in years. for the past decade I have been in the mode of exerting a lot of control when I am shooting. This took me back to the 1990’s and my pre-digital days. I hadn’t tested my Canon 5D this way in the 4 years that I’ve had it so I was excited to see how these images would turn out.
I’m pretty happy with the results. The images vaguely feel like work I used to produce with my Canon AE-1 and A2-E shooting Ilford HP400 (my favorite back in day) When converted to b&w the noise the 5D produces is reminiscent of HP400 grain, albeit not quite as soft.
There are about five or six images from the evening that I think I will share publicly and add to my portfolio. I am calling this series of images ‘Homage to Roy’ in honor of the life and work of one of my favorite and most influential photographers, Roy DeCarava (December 9, 1919 – October 27, 2009). While I don’t have the hubris to compare these images to anything produced by DeCarava, I will say that I definitely had him in mind as I was thinking about how I wanted to see as an end product.
