DMB

It's been nearly one year since I've posted. I think it has to do with a combination of laziness, working long hours, and a lack of a busy travel schedule this year (preventing me from shooting anywhere other than Boston)...

During labor day weekend, I went to the Mecca of Dave Matthews Band shows: The Gorge Amphitheater. I could spend hours blogging about the experience itself (but again, laziness would kick in) ... and this in the spirit of keeping this a photo blog, I'll refrain.

DMB at the Gorge consists of three nights of shows. This year, the Dave Gods were on our side and gave us three sets of pit tickets. Which means I was close enough to get good shots, even with my dinky point-and-shoot. 


Night One
I only had my small point-and-shoot on the first night. This is one of the first shots I got. As you can see, I converted it into B&W 

I made this one my facebook timeline cover. It look a few tries to get a good shot of Dave while getting him on the screen. This was also shot with my P&S

This one has a lot of technical issues but I love the composition. Stefan is standing so perfectly in front of the screen. 

Night Two
I decided to bring the big DSLR on the second night. It's definitely a hassle to hold a big camera, especially in such a crowded area. Composition wise, the pictures weren't that much better than ones I took with my small camera. I don't have the best zoom (I only brought my 17-50 lens). Plus, we had some tall people in front of us, which made things challenging. Finally, it took me a while to get used to the tricky lighting so the first several were really under or over exposed. 

This one would have been exponentially better if the crowd didn't end up in the shot. 

Same with this one ... darn tall person! 

Dave and Boyd moments are my favorite ... Needless to say, I got lot of shots that look like this. 

This may be one that I frame

This one was shot from pretty far away so I had to crop it quite a bit, so the quality isn't great. But I love that you can see Dave just watching Boyd do his thing. 

Just pretend that person in the bottom left isn't there ... 

This is one I grabbed during the Avett Brothers opening. 

Night Three

I had my small camera on night 3, and didn't manage to capture many photos. This one came out the best. 

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia & Singapore

I went to Malaysia for work and some of my coworkers and I made a quick stop in Singapore. We had a really hectic schedule in KL so I didn't get to do much shooting, but I managed to get a shot of the Petronas Towers from a bar on the top floor of a hotel right next to the towers. 
The rest of the photos were taken in Singapore. Its such a colorful place, I didn't even have to adjust the color in any of the photos below. 

Petronas Towers - f/3.5 1/10 sec (handheld)

Sunset on Lake Champlain

We went to Burlington, VT for the annual Brewers Festival on the waterfront. These were taken the night before. They're just "meh" to me - I wouldn't get them printed or anything. 

f/8; 6 seconds

f/2.8; 1/15 sec (handheld) 

Sometimes point and shoot does the trick

In my opinion a DSLR is the best tool you can have to take strong pictures. However, carrying such a big camera is not always convenient, and it always has to be a planned event. There are so many times where I wish I had my camera. That's why point and shoot and cell-phone cameras are so great - they are always on you and sometimes, work just as well. 

I didn't feel like bringing my DSLR to the Bruins parade today; I knew it would be ridiculously crowded and didn't think any potential shots would be worth it. I had my small Canon Powershot with me and was pretty happy with how this one turned out: 

Rome at night, part II

So if you read my last post you know I had tripod problems on my trip. I was really looking forward to taking night shots of the Colosseum so you can imagine how disappointed I was when I discovered I was (for lack of a better word) screwed. 


Throughout the trip the big touristy spots were packed with guys selling knock-off designer handbags (bear with me here, this is going somewhere...) Much to my surprise on our last night in Rome when we were walking around the Colosseum, those same guys were selling tripods! Not the best quality - but actual full-sized tripods. How random is that? So, 15 Euros later I had one. Here is one of the pics I took:

f/18; 8 seconds 

Rome at night, part I

I surprised myself in my ability to pack everything for an 8 day trip using only carry-on luggage (I am usually quite the over-packer). I made it work, but there was no way a tripod would fit in my small carry-on. Dennis was nice enough to make room in his luggage for my tripod, so problem solved, right? Wrong. I managed to forget to pack the small piece that attaches the camera to the tripod.


There was a camera shop in Florence with some small, reasonably priced tripods and we ended up buying a 6 inch one. I obviously wouldn't have as much flexibility as with a full-sized, but using some benches I got a couple of okay night shots in Rome. 

Pantheon at dusk (f/25; 30 seconds) 

Trevi Fountain (f/32; 20 seconds)

Street action on Via Veneto (f/7.1; 2.5 seconds) 

Rome sights

Inside the Colosseum

St Peter's Basilica

St Peters from afar

Pantheon