Jeff Thorneycroft at The Family Wash, Nashville – Jan 14, 2014
Olympus OM-D E-M1 w Olympus 45mm f/1.8, ISO 1600, 1/45sec @ f/1.8
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It’s been a while since I’ve had an assignment to photograph a live performance, so it was nice to start the New Year out with a chance to shoot my friend Jeff Thorneycroft as he played bass with Tom Mason and The Blue Buccaneers at the Family Wash in East Nashville last week.
The Family Wash is not my favorite place in town to shoot a live performance. No, I take that back, it is my least favorite place (along with several others…) to shoot a live performance. There’s really no stage lighting whatsoever – just a few bare bulbs hanging over the center of the stage, in such a way that the featured performer on the front of the stage is actually back lit. And those that are back on the stage are lit mostly from above, which can cast some pretty nasty shadows.
But, hey, my calling card says “capturing the joy of making music – regardless of the lighting conditions. Yep, that’s my job!
So I brought my very fastest lenses with me – my 17mm, 45mm, and 75mm, all f/1.8 (these are Olympus Micro 4/3s lenses, their 35mm equivalent focal lengths are 35mm, 90mm, and 150mm). And since I don’t like to push my cameras past 1600 ISO, I didn’t even feel like I could afford the the loss of a stop to f/2.8 in order to use my 12-40 (24-80 equiv) or my fancy new and hardly-used-yet 40-150 (80-300 equiv) zoom lenses.
But there was one moment when I situated myself in the hallway toward the back of the stage. Jeff turned around to make eye contact with the drummer and fiddle player… and I got the shot! Several of them, in fact. And there are some good shots of pirate Tom Mason and the rest of his scurvy crew, I’ll post some of those starting next week.
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