133. The Name of a Musical Artist - December XX, 2015-January 2, 2016
Deron-
I see everyone has submitted their wonderful photos, so in the interest of time... and the fact that I'm not sure my neighbor will come through with the prop I need... AND I'll be on my bike for quite awhile, I will submit my back up (hopefully you will allow me to submit my primary later on, if the neighbor comes through.).
With that said...
My submission is a tip of the cycling cap to my brother, and one of his Minneapolis bands, Gear Daddies. You may have heard their cult classic, Zamboni. While the Gear Daddies have disbanded, you'll be happy to know the lead guitarist is a gym teacher in the suburbs.
The photo is of bike mechanic Ken working on my derailleur, which gets me to the proper gear... he's a real gear daddy.
I see everyone has submitted their wonderful photos, so in the interest of time... and the fact that I'm not sure my neighbor will come through with the prop I need... AND I'll be on my bike for quite awhile, I will submit my back up (hopefully you will allow me to submit my primary later on, if the neighbor comes through.).
With that said...
My submission is a tip of the cycling cap to my brother, and one of his Minneapolis bands, Gear Daddies. You may have heard their cult classic, Zamboni. While the Gear Daddies have disbanded, you'll be happy to know the lead guitarist is a gym teacher in the suburbs.
The photo is of bike mechanic Ken working on my derailleur, which gets me to the proper gear... he's a real gear daddy.
Kevin-
This was a fun theme. I began the process by searching my iTunes library, writing down the name of any artist or band that seemed to have promise. But I quickly began to focus on The Carpenters, as I had just heard an interview with Richard Carpenter on the radio a couple of weeks ago and nearly everyone had the hots for Karen Carpenter. Hard to believe that Karen would be 65 years old if she was still alive today.
The problem was I don’t have much carpentry related stuff in California. Then, while working on the home theater system I found that I needed to install a spare shelf that we had, but had to get a hole saw to cut an opening in the back for all the cables. As I set everything up I realized this was it! The Carpenters would indeed be my interpretation of the theme and carpentry would be the way I would do it.
Nikon D4s, 24-120mm f/4 Nikkor lens set to 52mm. Tripod mounted. Three Nikon flash units set to TTL mode. Two were bounced off the white garage ceiling and one was low and to the left of the table aimed at the shelf and tools with a tungsten gel on it. ISO 100, 2.5 seconds at f/11.
This was a fun theme. I began the process by searching my iTunes library, writing down the name of any artist or band that seemed to have promise. But I quickly began to focus on The Carpenters, as I had just heard an interview with Richard Carpenter on the radio a couple of weeks ago and nearly everyone had the hots for Karen Carpenter. Hard to believe that Karen would be 65 years old if she was still alive today.
The problem was I don’t have much carpentry related stuff in California. Then, while working on the home theater system I found that I needed to install a spare shelf that we had, but had to get a hole saw to cut an opening in the back for all the cables. As I set everything up I realized this was it! The Carpenters would indeed be my interpretation of the theme and carpentry would be the way I would do it.
Nikon D4s, 24-120mm f/4 Nikkor lens set to 52mm. Tripod mounted. Three Nikon flash units set to TTL mode. Two were bounced off the white garage ceiling and one was low and to the left of the table aimed at the shelf and tools with a tungsten gel on it. ISO 100, 2.5 seconds at f/11.
Paul-
Oh, the things I had planned to do with this theme. The devious whimsy I had planned to foist on you all as names of musical groups—ripe with comical potential—careened around in my head. It was a marvelous idea Deron hatched. And in the end—and I’m not completely sure why—I switched off all the little light bulbs orbiting above me. Maybe it was a lack of time, I don’t know.
I went with something I saw Thursday afternoon. Unplanned. Unexpected. And probably just borderline applicable to the theme. More about that in a moment.
I had several neatly planned out concepts (and in more than a few cases, props) for the following groups. [Note: I’m thoroughly tired, with an 80% chance of impending exhaustion as I type this. So if you want to know what I had in mind for what you see below, let me know and I’ll provide details.]
In no specific order—and please show some pity in not telling me how many of these groups you haven’t heard of--are:
The Bare Naked Ladies; Steely Dan (don’t ask); Free Hot Lunch; Weather Report; The Carpenters; Hot Tuna; Dr. John; John Mayo; The Tubes; Styx; Traffic; The Stone Temple Pilots; War; Nickelback; Taj Mahal; Orchestral Maneuvers In the Dark; Triumvirat, The Nice; Four Tops; Disraeli Gears (until I realized it was a song and not the group that performed it); Canned Heat; Rare Earth; Toad the Wet Sprocket; Captain Beefheart; Was Not Was; Radiohead; The Staple Singers; Shadowfax; Passport; Little Feat; Badfinger; ABBA; 10cc; and Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen. (Okay, I had no idea what to do with the last one, but it gets a mention because it’s a pretty snazzy name.)
In the end, I was downtown this past Thursday and saw the fellow in the picture I have submitted. We talked for a while, shared some juggling stories and unicycle stores. (I have exactly one unicycle story, but he really seemed to appreciate it.) I asked him if he had a minute or two to execute a few juggling runs at me. He did—what a guy considering it was bitterly cold out!—and I just had to tinker with the results.
I am submitting this for the group—and like I mentioned at the outset of the entry, I have no idea why I am associating it with the picture—Cheap Trick.
Our story so far: 18-55mm lens set at 55mm; aperture priority; pattern metering; ISO 1250; 1/250 sec.; f/25; +2/3 EV; picture control is set to vivid; camera is hand-held. In post, I used a spot removal tool to opaque the car and traffic lights; an adjustment brush tool to enhance color; dropped the clarity and vibrance and luminance and hue (the last two for the color red, orange, and green); boosted the saturation (ditto) and contrast; lowered the sharpness by about 60%; applied a feathered vignette; applied a de-coloring tool; and deepened the overall appearance. I also had a Diet Coke.
Oh, the things I had planned to do with this theme. The devious whimsy I had planned to foist on you all as names of musical groups—ripe with comical potential—careened around in my head. It was a marvelous idea Deron hatched. And in the end—and I’m not completely sure why—I switched off all the little light bulbs orbiting above me. Maybe it was a lack of time, I don’t know.
I went with something I saw Thursday afternoon. Unplanned. Unexpected. And probably just borderline applicable to the theme. More about that in a moment.
I had several neatly planned out concepts (and in more than a few cases, props) for the following groups. [Note: I’m thoroughly tired, with an 80% chance of impending exhaustion as I type this. So if you want to know what I had in mind for what you see below, let me know and I’ll provide details.]
In no specific order—and please show some pity in not telling me how many of these groups you haven’t heard of--are:
The Bare Naked Ladies; Steely Dan (don’t ask); Free Hot Lunch; Weather Report; The Carpenters; Hot Tuna; Dr. John; John Mayo; The Tubes; Styx; Traffic; The Stone Temple Pilots; War; Nickelback; Taj Mahal; Orchestral Maneuvers In the Dark; Triumvirat, The Nice; Four Tops; Disraeli Gears (until I realized it was a song and not the group that performed it); Canned Heat; Rare Earth; Toad the Wet Sprocket; Captain Beefheart; Was Not Was; Radiohead; The Staple Singers; Shadowfax; Passport; Little Feat; Badfinger; ABBA; 10cc; and Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen. (Okay, I had no idea what to do with the last one, but it gets a mention because it’s a pretty snazzy name.)
In the end, I was downtown this past Thursday and saw the fellow in the picture I have submitted. We talked for a while, shared some juggling stories and unicycle stores. (I have exactly one unicycle story, but he really seemed to appreciate it.) I asked him if he had a minute or two to execute a few juggling runs at me. He did—what a guy considering it was bitterly cold out!—and I just had to tinker with the results.
I am submitting this for the group—and like I mentioned at the outset of the entry, I have no idea why I am associating it with the picture—Cheap Trick.
Our story so far: 18-55mm lens set at 55mm; aperture priority; pattern metering; ISO 1250; 1/250 sec.; f/25; +2/3 EV; picture control is set to vivid; camera is hand-held. In post, I used a spot removal tool to opaque the car and traffic lights; an adjustment brush tool to enhance color; dropped the clarity and vibrance and luminance and hue (the last two for the color red, orange, and green); boosted the saturation (ditto) and contrast; lowered the sharpness by about 60%; applied a feathered vignette; applied a de-coloring tool; and deepened the overall appearance. I also had a Diet Coke.
Jerry-
I had to rack my brain with this theme, maybe the music I listen to is just plain boring. Last week Kevin mentioned my "skull" prop and that got me thinking, what band uses skulls? Lots! This photo was inspired by the Grateful Dead and their skull logo, no doubt you may have seen it on t-shirts and buttons. I used some leftover Christmas lights to illuminate the skull in my exclusive basement corner studio. There is a set up photo attached.
Camera was the D750 with 105 Micro Nikkor, all on a tripod. Exposure was f22 @ 1/15, ISO 3200.
I had to rack my brain with this theme, maybe the music I listen to is just plain boring. Last week Kevin mentioned my "skull" prop and that got me thinking, what band uses skulls? Lots! This photo was inspired by the Grateful Dead and their skull logo, no doubt you may have seen it on t-shirts and buttons. I used some leftover Christmas lights to illuminate the skull in my exclusive basement corner studio. There is a set up photo attached.
Camera was the D750 with 105 Micro Nikkor, all on a tripod. Exposure was f22 @ 1/15, ISO 3200.
Don-
This has been the hardest photo to date. I knew from the beginning just what I wished to shoot but not quite how.
About one hundred pictures later I ended up with this. I like the finished product. I masked the photo with black
and white but not the roses because I liked the red against the B&W. I am still having a lot of trouble with flash,
oh well. I have decided to repeat the photo class I took during the fall in an effort to continue improving my
ability to work with flash.
Shot with a D810 and a f2.8 24 to 70 lens set to 70mm. The exposure was 1/250 second; f/14; ISO 100; Camera
on Manual. I used a flash (SB900) on TTL with a diffuser cover.
This has been the hardest photo to date. I knew from the beginning just what I wished to shoot but not quite how.
About one hundred pictures later I ended up with this. I like the finished product. I masked the photo with black
and white but not the roses because I liked the red against the B&W. I am still having a lot of trouble with flash,
oh well. I have decided to repeat the photo class I took during the fall in an effort to continue improving my
ability to work with flash.
Shot with a D810 and a f2.8 24 to 70 lens set to 70mm. The exposure was 1/250 second; f/14; ISO 100; Camera
on Manual. I used a flash (SB900) on TTL with a diffuser cover.
Byron-
As you know, I often eat the subject of my photos. This weeks theme had me worried because I thought I might choose the same Musical Artist as Don. I didn't want to be seen as a copy cat. It was a great relief to know he chose a different group. My choice is "The Red Hot Chili Peppers". The lighting was fairly simple, a soft box from above and a reflector on the right side.
ISO 100, lens 200mm, f16, 1/60th sec.
As you know, I often eat the subject of my photos. This weeks theme had me worried because I thought I might choose the same Musical Artist as Don. I didn't want to be seen as a copy cat. It was a great relief to know he chose a different group. My choice is "The Red Hot Chili Peppers". The lighting was fairly simple, a soft box from above and a reflector on the right side.
ISO 100, lens 200mm, f16, 1/60th sec.