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Here are a few shots from Bateman's Bay Blues Festival at the beginning of October.





The first one is Canadian guitarist Wolf Mail, caught in the moment.





This is Penny Hartgerink from Penny & the Mystics





Then we have Jake "Poodle" Mann, here playing with the Dallas Frasca Band though he usually plays with Marshall & the Fro. Here he is impersonating the creature from the back saloon.





And this one is 18-year old drummer Callum Kramer playing with Blue Shaddy, from Western Australia.



There are also many more here.

The last one is great. It shows the intensity of the drummer and captures the movement well.

Great to see some more of your shots Murray, its been awhile between drinks.

The first and last images are without a doubt the standouts, the one with the drummer and his face covered does not particularly appeal to me, however when delivered with the story (impersonation) it makes more sense and connection...

Looks like you are loving that high iso capability of the D3, that coupled with the 300 2.8 is getting some nice tight shots..

These are very extreme by every standard! composition, timing, focal lengths, apertures and especially isos! Great stuff!

A very cool set - love the treatment.

Thanks very much Wink, Gerry, Surenj and Big V.

Gerry, I got the 300 f2.8 for Antarctica, particularly for VR from the deck of a ship. I already had a 300mm f4 that I had been using for live music but I was surprised how much better the 300mm f2.8 is provided carrying it round is feasible. No question, it is a huge step up, not just the extra stop and VR but image quality and pop.

I had a look at the metadata of the images. The first and third were taken with the 300mm f2.8, the other two with a 180mm f2.8. At Bateman's Bay, about 50% of my images were taken with the 300mm f2.8 and 25% with the 180mm f2.8. At the Sydney Blues Festival, for which I will post a few images quite soon, I took but did not use the 300mm and the 180mm was my longest focal length. Different kinds of venues and logistics.

ISOs. The first and the last are 3200, the other two 6400. About 40 to 50% of my shots were 6400 or 12800. On the D3s, you can shoot 6400 without needing noise reduction, as long as your exposure is OK.

I am currently contemplating printing two images for the Canberra Photographic Society's Images of the Year Competition. Here is another one I am considering:




This is Diunna Greenleaf, from Texas, playing at the Narooma Blues Festival in October 2009.

Thanks Murray for the extra info! Great example of matching the right equipment for the need!

The one of Diunna above was with the 300mm f4 at 3200 ISO.

I am currently contemplating printing two images for the Canberra Photographic Society's Images of the Year Competition. Here is another one I am considering:

yeah, i dunno about this one Murray, I would say you have better - I tried and find your gallery to have a poke about since I remember it in a thread yonks ago, but got lost

The image comes across dark and the lack of eye contact (could be there but a bit dark) irks me a bit. This however could be due to my monitor being a bit dark and dull.

anyway, i'll have another look later, it will probably grow on me

Gerry, I've added a link to my JAlbum slide shows to my signature.

Gerry, it's unlikely she was actually looking at me or could even see me. I was in a large crowd and it's an uncropped image from a 300mm lens (full-frame sensor). I think it's a bit ambiguous. She might be looking at you and she might not.

Looking at the image now, I think I need to hold back the brighter half of her clothing (the right hand side from our viewing perspective). I think it's drawing the eye away from the face too much. I'll try that and see what difference it makes.

Murray Foote wrote:Gerry, I've added a link to my JAlbum slide shows to my signature.

ahh sweet, will revisit again soon, nice to see your mugshot in the avatar too

Murray Foote wrote:Gerry, it's unlikely she was actually looking at me or could even see me. I was in a large crowd and it's an uncropped image from a 300mm lens (full-frame sensor). I think it's a bit ambiguous. She might be looking at you and she might not.

Looking at the image now, I think I need to hold back the brighter half of her clothing (the right hand side from our viewing perspective). I think it's drawing the eye away from the face too much. I'll try that and see what difference it makes.

yeah, maybe using a graduated selection and darken the right and vice versa on the left.

I had a quick look cause I was interested in her eyes, heres a quick edit, if you have issues with reworked images or your image posted just buzz me and I will remove it.

I don't think the brightening helps in the eye department, the captured expression (in terms of teh eyes) is kinda spooky, for me. However the brightening really helps the overall scene and the way I moved thru the image.

biggerry wrote:...
yeah, maybe using a graduated selection and darken the right and vice versa on the left.

I had a quick look cause I was interested in her eyes, heres a quick edit, if you have issues with reworked images or your image posted just buzz me and I will remove it.

I don't think the brightening helps in the eye department, the captured expression (in terms of teh eyes) is kinda spooky, for me. However the brightening really helps the overall scene and the way I moved thru the image.

Interesting, this is what I did, below. I perhaps took a more complex approach, masking specific areas and adjusting their tonality.



I also found there was a black patch behind her head at the left top back that I got rid of.

I wanted an essentially low-key image of a black person against a dark background. I think yours lightens it too much. However, my version looks very different on my aRGB monitor in Lightroom, much more tonality and life. At first I thought it was losing out in the sRGB conversion but I discover it looks darker and murkier at small size from some reason. Perhaps you'll see what I mean if you expand it though there's the inevitable pixelation from pushing it past its JPG size.

The image is really intended for a print rather than as a viewed digital image and I'll definitely have to do some tests when I print it.