Rock Concert

When I walked into the club concert venue, I figured it might be tricky getting images for the newspaper. The band was playing, but the lights were off, as in no light at all.

Sure, there was a faint glow from the streetlights outside coming through a window, but that was only good enough to keep me from tripping over people. Even at a high ISO, no light is no light. I had a flash in my bag, but I hate to use that at a concert. Wrecks the mood and the resulting image only captures that wrecked mood.

So I waited. Surely there must be SOME lights, sometime, right?

Fortunately, there were two strobes set up on the side and slightly behind the band that would go on for a second or two every few minutes. I positioned myself to take best advantage of those lights, adjusted my settings, then waited some more.

Sure enough, the lights blinked again. When you're shooting at 1/100th of a second, a full second of light is really plenty of time to get an image. Two seconds is plenty long enough to wait for some decent emotion, especially when your subject is an energetic rock band.

The images below are of one of the bands, Ice Nine Kills. The image up top is Mercury Sky.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day

For Monday morning's assignments, I hopped between neighboring New Canaan and Norwalk, CT for MLK Day celebrations. People in both towns seemed eager to embrace the teachings of Dr. King. It was heartwarming to see how one man has touched so many lives.

New Canaan (1% African-American, median houshold income $142K):




Norwalk (16% African-American, median household income $60K):

Trumbull Band at Obama Inauguration

The Trumbull High School Band will perform at Tuesday's Obama inauguration. Here they are last month at Trumbull Town Hall, performing for Good Morning America and loading donated coats into a truck:

High School Ballet Dancer

It's not so surprising that many photographers enjoy photographing dancers, especially a dancer as talented as Raymond Pinto. It's a challenge of trying to capture such grace and beauty in a fraction of a second. Perhaps it can't really be done, but I enjoy trying.

Sunset Runner

Recently I photographed some high school athletes during pre-season practices. I had finished up all my assignments, thinking how happy I was that I got everything done before dark, and before the predicted rains came.

As night began to fall, I was walking east toward my car with my gear. I turned around and enjoyed one of the most beautiful sunsets I've seen in a while. I hurried back to the high school track, pulled out a small flash, and snapped a few frames. The red sky lasted maybe 3 or 4 minutes. As the sun dropped behind the horizon, the sky turned black and the clouds opened up. Everyone scurried for cover, and it was over.

Cascades in Winter

High School Basketball Portrait

I took a photo of the Norwalk High School girls varsity basketball team to run full-page on the cover of a local paper's winter ports preview section. The team had posted an impressive record last season, and the sports editor figured they'd be a good team to highlight. Turns out the captains are also good sports, too.

We did the photoshoot moments before their first scrimmage of the season. It worked out great, since the players were all suited up already. I had scouted the location earlier, and had come up with this courtyard in the school. It had three things going for it: I liked the warm lights in the background, it was close to the gym so we'd maximize the short time we had together, and since it was freezing outside, no one else was around. I used a couple battery-powered strobes in umbrellas to light 'em.

We did a couple of traditional poses first. The toughest part was getting them all to be serious, since we all had a hard time not laughing. The photo above gives you an idea. It works OK. We had a couple of minutes before the game started, so we figured we'd try something different. Sometimes the best -- and most fun -- shots come when I know I have a "safe" shot in the camera already.

The players climbed up on a rock in the courtyard, figuring we'd get a "we're tall and tough" pose, with the added benefit of getting that nice blue sky in the background. While they were getting ready, I snapped this unposed frame for kicks:



But we weren't quite done. We were having such a good time together, that I asked them if they might be willing to jump off the rock. I was a bit nervous, because I sure didn't want anyone hurting themselves. But they insisted they could do it. We talked through how everyone should position themselves. We only had time for two shots.

The first shot we got a hand out of the frame. Below is the second shot -- my favorite and the girls' favorite from the whole session. It's the one that ran full page.