{"id":34,"date":"2008-11-14T10:42:41","date_gmt":"2008-11-14T14:42:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dcooksonphotoblog.com\/?p=34"},"modified":"2009-01-13T08:11:52","modified_gmt":"2009-01-13T12:11:52","slug":"spending-an-evening-withlast-minute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.dcooksonphotoblog.com\/?p=34","title":{"rendered":"Spending an Evening with…Last Minute!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ok, so I’m sensing a “B” theme here…on my B<\/strong>log, I’ve talked about B<\/strong>abies, B<\/strong>ellies, and now….B<\/strong>ands! Thankfully there’s lots of things to talk about that DON’T start in B (until I talk about b<\/strong>Weddings!), but today I decided my long overdue new post on here would be about my fun night of shooting a great party band out of Windsor Ontario, Last Minute!<\/p>\n

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Now, I’m not biased because I used to be roomates with the guitarist, Elvis, but rather objective as a music lover, it was nice to have a running fun-and-not-tired-songlist throughout the night as a soundtrack to my shooting. Usually when I am with a client, I use music to create a mood to follow through the shoot, as it can make everyone more at ease. In my studio, I will choose from my ipod songlist leaning towards mellow and calming songs, or I’m at a wedding where I have no control over the songlist, but they usually are predictably wedding faves (Lady in Red! Chicken Dance! Brown Eyed Girl!).\u00c2\u00a0 This time though, Last Minute played favourites culled from Tom Petty, Queen, The Cranberries, and Fleetwood Mack to surprise and delight, without venturing into the realm of “been there, heard that” that many bar-bands fall into. But this isn’t a review on their songlist, just my praise to them for being a great band to see, regardless of whether it was for work or for having a great time with friends!<\/p>\n

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Certainly there are obvious challenges to shooting with such low light, but being a lover of existing light, I didn’t even bring along a flash that night, wanting to force myself to become creative to the light that I could find. It’s nice to hear people repeatedly asking “How come your flash isn’t going off?” throughout the night, and hopefully these pictures show the success of it to others! I find that with bands, it is best to use the light that exists already to create an atmosphere of what it’s like to actually be there, to see the show, to be IN the show. Sure, a flash could freeze the action better, and less of the shots taken would be as blurry, but it would also overpower the stage lighting and make flat pictures that look like the lights are on. And that’s not what you saw when you were there, was it?<\/p>\n

Image Stabilization helps, and this was my first time bringing out my new Baby, the Canon 70-200 2.8 IS as a trial, and I think it proved it’s worthin flying colours that night. But the star of the night was by far the 50 mm F1.4 and 85mm F1.8 that I used more than anything, proving that fast lenses trump image stabilization anyday! And if you understood this paragraph, then you’re drooling for some large apertures as well now!<\/p>\n

I wish all the best to Last Minute, and hope to shoot them many times in the future as well! If you’re at all curious to know more of their goings on, they can be found on myspace at http:\/\/www.myspace.com\/lastminutewi<\/span>ndsor<\/a><\/p>\n

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