texaslion's blog post - Thought I would share this

In a follow up to a previous blog about meeting with some professional photographers regarding my work, well I met with one this past Tuesday and part of the conversation involved things we do or that happens when we go for a particular shot. Here is the story I shared with this person.

I attended an outdoor amphitheater concert at a major university on the west coast. The concert was the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. I lugged in all my equipment and got there plenty early to watch warmups. Well I walked all around and got an idea of a shot so I went up to the stage while they were rehearsing and took various pictures and then moved to take the shot I wanted. The stage was a temporary one with a white canvas backdrop and canopy. The front of the stage had bunting help up by railroad ties.

I found the shot. it was the clarinetist and I wanted to capture the his face shadowed by the straw hat he was wearing and the beam of natural light focused on his fingers as they manipulated the instrument. It worked and I have a nice pic of it. So as I was leaving and packing up my stuff to go back to my seat the strap of my camera bag caught the end of a railroad tie and guess what happened. It loosened the hold it had on the bunting and all of the bunting chainreacted down to the ground. Yup, a full audience in their seats, the concert ready to begin and there is Tex looking like a complete idiot wishing he could escape but there is nothing I could do but take about 15 min (no one came to my aid) and put the bunting back up tucking it under the ties for support.

As I tried to quietly slink up to my seat members of the audience applauded my efforts and the applause cascaded and I was thinking hey this turned out ok, I did good. Then I turned around to find out the band had come on the stage, lol. oh well., lol.

Now for purposes of protecting the innocent I did a cropping job to cut out the face and only show the lighted area of his hands on the stick. I hope you enjoy...the total effect is pretty good (well I think so). I hope I related the tale well.