People know me maybe as a nature photographer, and I guess my love for music and performance has been in the second row, at least here in the blog. Last Friday I couldn’t resist. Dubuque hosted again “Dubuque and… All That Jazz!”, a concert series that takes place downtown once a month during the summer. Great bands , well organized, and a good way to finish the week. The act last week was 10 OF SOUL from Minneapolis, MN, a band I had photographed already in 2014 and 2015. Eleven musicians played soul, funk, and blues. The crowd enjoyed their performance very much, many people danced and it was a great party atmosphere again.
I waited until it almost got dark before I took the camera out of the bag. No dealing with buildings, antennas, or wires in the background this way. Other years in the past the SIGMA 150, f/2.8 was used but last Friday I had the Nikkor 70-200, f/4 on camera. Yes, this costs a full stop of light, but I really like the versatility, and looking at the metadata at home revealed that almost every focal length between 70 and 200 mm was used this evening. I shot the lens wide open at f/4 the whole time and just changed my exposure compensation according to what scene I had in the viewfinder. The light intensity and color changes constantly during a concert, depending how crazy the guys behind the mixer work. I prefer to process the images in black & white for my concert photography. It appeals to me more than a crazy color mix due to ever-changing spot lights.
Special thank you to the members of the band for letting me shoot from every direction, including the backstage area!
Six photos today and maybe a few more later this week of this great music event…