Black Tie Affair

My name is Rob, and I know a guy who knows a guy. This guy's name is Dave Anderson, and he's played a show or two with a group called Black Jacket Symphony.

 

This particular group has an interesting premise. Their gimmick is they pick a famous album, e.g. Abbey Road by The Beatles, or Purple Rain by Prince. They play two sets for any given show. In the first set, they play the album top to bottom. In the second, they play some of the greatest hits by whatever band produced the album. For each album, musicians are hand-picked for the talent they can bring in reproducing the album as closely as possible.

When I found out that BJS was going to play a Led Zeppelin show here in Huntsville, I knew I wanted to be there with camera in hand. So, I talked to my friend Dave, who he put me in touch with Jason, who I assumed was the band's manager.

Jason, who was all about some free publicity, was glad to promise me a photo pass and a ticket to the show.

Score.

The gig started off as any other would - with me being unprepared and having no idea what I was about to get into.

Walking up to the will-call window a little later than I intended to, the lady behind the window informed me that there wasn't a photo-pass for anyone, let alone me.

Great, I thought to myself, I just drug all of my equipment half a mile to the venue in 25 degree weather just to have to turn around.

I didn't have Jason's cell-phone number or anything. The only interaction I'd had with him was via Facebook.

I messaged him on Facebook saying I was here and stuck outside. I expected him to be busy preparing for the show,and not even receive the message until it was too late.

Not more than two minutes later, I get a response saying he's got one for me, and to meet him at the merch booth.

Sweet, all is not lost.

15 minutes later, I'm backstage, in my own dressing room no less, getting all my gear sorted out.

As I'm walking back toward where everyone's gathered before they take stage, someone tosses me a black t-shirt.

That t-shirt allowed me to be on stage during the performance.

Double Score.

I've shot several concerts in my time as a photographer, but this was the first show where I had free reign to be wherever the hell I wanted to be to get the shot I desired.

This feeling of Man, I've hit the big time now seems to be happening to me on more of a regular basis these days. This is just the latest example of me establishing myself as a legitimate photographer.

I spent the next 3 hours frantically running around in front of the stage, and on the stage, capturing everything I could see.

It was really pretty surreal. There were at least four camera guys video-ing for the big screen on stage, and one other photographer I ran into a few times.

They nailed the performance. The musicians and crew associated with Black Jacket Symphony are all top-notch. It was one of the best performances I've been witness to.

At the end of the show, I found Jason to thank him for having me along for the ride that night. He immediately invited me back for the band's performance of Purple Rain in May.

I can't wait!

Too see the rest of the photos I walked away with click here

Difference In The Details

My name is Rob, and this sentence isn't at all related to this post. I bought some new toys recently, one of which being a new camera body. If you're one of the lucky folks that gets to hang around me, you already know this, because I've been talking about it for weeks.

There was always one common question that arose.

Wait, you're buying another camera? Don't you already have a fancy camera?

Yeah, but I need a back-up. Plus, this one's full-frame!

Full frame? What the hell does that mean?

It's at this point I generally start my harangue about the joys of full-frame cameras - the better image quality, larger wells on the sensor, a perceived shallower depth of field, better low-light performance.

It's about this point, too, that whoever was unfortunate enough to ask the question starts to glaze over faster than a Krispy Kreme donut at the end of the conveyor belt.

So, instead of describing to you in great detail the difference between crop- and full-frame bodies, I'm gonna describe one difference in rough detail and show you some pictures I took today.

Any given lens projects a circular image onto a plane(the image sensor in this instance). You don't end up with a circular image because the image sensor is rectangular. The image sensor on a full frame camera is roughly the same size as a 35mm film strip. This size sensor just fits inside that circular projection. On a crop-sensor camera, the image sensor is about 2/3 that size.

When you take a picture with a crop-sensor camera, the resultant image is, effectively, cropped. This produces a zoomed-in effect as can be seen in the following. These two pictures are taken using the same lens, in the same spot, using all the same settings in camera. The only difference being the camera body itself - the first being a full-frame camera, the second being a crop-sensor camera.

Here you see the zooming effect first hand. On a crop-sensor camera you're effectively multiplying the focal length by 1.5. This can be handy when shooting things far away, because they appear bigger in the view finder.

The draw back is when you want a really wide-angle shot, because you still get the multiplier. Take this example.

On the full-frame camera the sensor is recording a much larger area than the crop sensor. So much more, in fact, that the corners of the sensor fall outside of the projected circular image for this particular lens. You can tell because of the fall-off in the corners in the above image.

So, there you have it. A quick and dirty example of the difference between a crop-sensor, and a full frame sensor.

Check back next week for something more entertaining!

Zoom Zoom

My name is Rob, and I think zoom lenses are stupid. And by stupid, I mean inferior, in some instances, to prime lenses.

When I got my first DSLR years ago, it didn't take long to figure out that the 18-55 kit lens wasn't gonna cut it. Unfortunately, I hadn't seen the light yet, and still wanted a do-everything-lens.

My first upgrade was an $800 18-200mm. It was a substantial upgrade from the kit lens my camera came with. I was just pleased as punch with it. For about a year.

I was starting to figure things out, realizing I needed faster glass. When I was lusting over new expensive gear, I sought after more zooms: the 10-22, the 24-70 f/2.8, and the 70-200 f/2.8. That would cover everything I ever needed!

It's a good thing I was broke at the time, or I would have ended up with a bunch of glass I didn't need.

What I did end up with is cheap and very capable 35mm f/1.8.

Through that enormous aperture, I finally saw the light.

Prime lenses are win. They have a number of advantages over zooms.

They're superior optically compared to zooms. They tend to be more compact and lighter compared to zooms. And, they tend to be cheaper compared to zooms, even with a faster aperture.

Most importantly, they make you think! You can't just stand there like an idiot zooming in and out to get the framing and composition you want. A prime lens will force you to consider your perspective, and actually move around to get the shot you want. That's what my 35 did for me. I ended up with fewer snapshots and more real photographs. After a short time, it was all but permanently attached to my camera. The only reason it left, is when I needed considerable more reach than the 35 would allow.

My photographs became better as I learned to fart more. I learned that primes are the way to go for the photography that I like to produce.

All that being said, zooms do still serve a purpose. Professional wedding photographers and photo-journalists stick to zooms because they can't afford to re-position the subject or move to different location, otherwise the shot they wanted is gone forever.

Aside from those two instances, the only thing that zooms offer is convenience. You won't have to change lenses as often, which leads to dust build-up on the sensor and the glass itself.

Prime lenses will still be smaller, and lighter, and sharper, and faster, and cheaper than their zoomy counterparts.

Which are you going to choose?