Photography

On Thursday, Tracie and I went to the Beaumont Club to check out Gogol Bordello. If you're not aware of them, New York-based Gogol Bordello claims to be a "Gypsy Punk" band. Fronted by the unique Eugene Hutz, who starred in Everything is Illuminated alongside Elijah Wood, the band puts on a kinetic performance that could leave you exhausted just watching.

Since I am now shooting for (partly local) music blog PopWreck(oning), I was able to get in front for the first 3 songs with an official photo pass. To say it was my toughest assignment yet would be an understatement.

The show was packed, much more packed than I would have imagined. The crowd was definitely alternative and punk, heavily tattooed and ready to mosh. My first realization of this was when 6 massive stage bouncers took to the front of the stage. One looked down at me and said "If I tap you on the shoulder, MOVE!".

With me that night was my Canon 20D with my 85mm 1.8 attached, and my 5D with my 24-70 2.8L attached. Both cameras were set to spot metering, tungsten white balance, 1600 ISO, aperture priority. To be safe, I was bracketing a full stop on the 20D. I would normally have put the 24-70 on the 20D and my 70-200 2.8L on the 5D, but that lens is at Canon now for repairs.

The band took the stage like Kansas Citians take to a buffet. Game on. I perch down and try to get focused, but the lighting was awful. The basic setup was a bunch of red lights, with occastional full-on white lighting. The white balance was fine for the white lights, but the red lights leave everyone very, very red. Most of those shots are the ones in black and white.

I'm used to shooting mildly-energetic indie acts: Singer-songwriters, power-pop, and the like. They're 90% in front of their mic stand, 10% moving. Eugene Hutz is 93% running, 4% jumping, and 3% flinging sweat everywhere. I'm pretty sure he never stopped moving. In low light he was almost impossible to shoot. I was glad to have that f1.8 lens at times, but it needed to be much wider. When Hutz was 24 inches away, that 128mm (effective) lens was way too long.

30 seconds into the first song, I get the first tap on the shoulder and was guided stage right. Seconds later a body comes flying over the barrier wall. I retake my spot and 30 seconds another tap and another flying body. 20 seconds after that a drink is in the air and it's raining some liquid substance. Who knows.

So Equene is everwhere, bodies are flying, and mysterious liquids are coming down. Did I mention this was a difficult shoot? Difficult, but a ton of fun. It's these shoots where I'm glad I had everything set correctly before the gig starts.

For the third song I go stage right just in time for a flying body that actually resists the bouncers. All 100lbs of this girl gave quite a struggle. The bouncers did an admirable job removing her without force, and an even more admirable job keeping a body from falling on me.

After the 3 songs I retreated to the back where I found Tracie sitting. This is a show where you either are up close and moshing with the crowd or you're way in back. Neither of us had it in us, so we were in the back, which at the beaumont means not much of a view. Oh well, I had mine.

These are quite good.

However, they were all shot RAW at ISO 100 or 200, then developed in the RAW application. For most people, like me, they're going to want to see what this camera can do in 800 ISO Jpegs. And that is the problem.

If I did a lot more daylight landscapes, this camera would probably be perfect. But to take into concerts or as a replacement for the family party candids, I don't think it will do.

I don't buy into the "sensor wars". I understand the arguments about the Foveon's effective pixels, but the fact is I don't much care. If I could get a 5 megapixel camera with a large sensor, low noise at 1600 ISO, great dynamic range, and a fast lens, it would be perfect.

But from what I've learned about the Foveon on the SD14, noise is a huge issue. And few seem to be shooting JPEG.

RAW is way too much work for my style.

I finally got a chance to play with the Sigma DP1 at PMA, and I was completely underwhelmed, unimpressed, and significantly disappointed. ISO 800 looked horrible. The controls were unresponsive. The image quality was bad. The focusing was slow.

I have been waiting for the release of this camera for over a year, and was so excited to finally get my hands on it. That didn't last long.

Also, there was no line (Friday morning) and no one else looking at the camera, or even coming by to see it, which was surprising. I will post some sample indoor images when I get that card uploaded.

[Update: here are the photos. ]

© 2007 Nick Davis
Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes at Lied Center, Lawrence, KS, October 23, 2007.

Tuesday night saw the crown jewel of our concert season: Bright Eyes at the Lied Center in Lawrence, KS. The show was put on by the college music committee, so I called a friend at KU and she got us 4 presale tickets for my first Bright Eyes show. When she emailed me back I was pleasantly surprised: third row, center. And not just third row, the third row of seats they add to the orchestra pit when there's no orchestra. And by center, I mean we were lined up with the mic stand. Justin and Amanda were with us for this show.

Which puts Conor Oberst ten feet directly in front of me. With absolutely no security (we arrived during song 2), I got my good camera (Canon EOS 5D) with a good lens (24-70 2.8L) and a prime position (though the mic stand tends to be an issue). Most of the photos were ISO3200, which creates a ton of noise, but lets you get the shots.

The band played for almost two hours, and the set seemed heavy on songs from Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground with several from I'm Wide Awake, it's Morning and the new Cassadaga. He stayed far away from his amazing ballads like Lua, but got in several other great songs like Poison Oak, Arc of Time, and Lover I Don't Have to love. (still looking for the setlist).

[Update: Setlist]
1. at the bottom of everything
2. another traveling song
3. four winds
4. poison oak
5. method acting
6. spring cleaning
7. if the brakeman turns my way
8. classic cars
9. you will you will
10. arc of time
11. bowl of oranges
12. hit the switch
13. old soul song
Encore
14. lover i don't have to love
15. walls (tom petty)
16. roosevelt room

During the encore he mentioned that touring drummer Clay Leverett would be playing a solo set later at the Jackpot Saloon, so we decided to go there for a drink after the show to check it out.

About a half-hour later, most of the band, including opener Simon Joyner showed up, with only Conor Oberst and Nate Walcott absent. After Clay did his sound check (solo guitar, with the touring guitarist joining him on stage), Conor and Nate showed up, and the entire crew (or most of them, at least) went to the bar, got beers, and did a shot. Rock stars, indeed.

Surprisingly, very few people from the show came to the Jackpot (possibly because you have to be 21 to get into the Jackpot on a non-show night). And interestingly, the Jackpot had no knowledge of this set, or the fact that Conor Oberst just announced it to 2000 people at the Lied Center. But they made it work, albeit short-staffed for a surprise gig on a Tuesday night, where the normal crowd is 10 (which it was when we got there).

When Clay's set started, which consisted mostly of fun country songs, Conor walked to the stage to watch. As the set progressed, he began mixing with the crowd (which at that time was only about 30-40 people). Of course, the women were all giving him their best, which was fun to watch. He went on stage for the last song and about 10 people were singing into 2 mics. A 30 person Bright Eyes show. Not bad.

At one point I looked to my left and he was standing next to me. Wow. Then he was behind me, and I was with Tracie. I turned around and told him that Tracie keeps calling him "Colin" instead of "Conor", and asked if I could "formally" introduce them (on an aside, it can be terrifying introducing your hot wife to a true rock star - you begin to wonder how you can compare, and it aint lookin' good), so I made the introduction:

"Tracie, this is CONOR..."

He leans in (it was pretty loud) and says to her "It's Conor. CONOR". We all had a laugh and made it through the introduction without saying anything too stupid. What a night.

Unfortunately, the aftergig wasn't much of a "pull out the camera and be annoying" type of event, so we took no pictures to commemorate the event, although there's no chance in hell that I will forget it. By the time we left, the Jackpot was getting crowded as word spread that one of the greatest songwriters of our generation was there.

Lawrence has always been a magical town for me, all based on my music experiences there. I was in the green room at the Bottleneck with Filter after their first show ever. It was the place we first saw and met Ben Folds. We saw the Shins in February at the amazing venue "Liberty Hall". And now, this. Honestly, this is where the benefits of a small town come in. Had we been in New York, where Bright Eyes recently sold out 7 shows at Town Hall, or the Bay, where he just played the Greek Theater, or the recent Hollywood Bowl show in LA, we couldn't have gotten close. But here, we were third row (THANK YOU SARAH DONAHUE!) and got to hang out after the show. You gotta love the midwest.

Ever since I saw this camera (just after getting back from PMA, grrrr), I've been anxiously awaiting the release of the Sigma DP1, a small Point & Shoot with the same sensor in the SD14 - which is a DSLR. The 14 megapixels will be nice, but the killer feature is the sensor size, 10 times bigger than the best point and shoot on the market.

What that means is better dynamic range and low-light performance. And it'll fit in our pocket. Can't wait.