2010-09-28

Random Connections - Infinity Fest

I love how the world is full of random connections. I frequently see this on facebook when I find friends from totally disparate areas of my life who are mutual friends through random other means.

These shots came about as a result of a random connection.

When I was in high school, I assisted Dave Murrow (media producer and author) as he was DJ'ing a weekly radio program on a now defunct radio station in Fairbanks, AK. Fast forward 20 years, and his kids are grown. His daughter Andrea is a great local photographer who recently put out a call on facebook requesting photographers to document a local music festival in its first year.

What better place to cut my teeth on concert photography than at the first ever Infinity Fest.

InfinityFest-2

Infinity Fest was a festival of local artists held at Change Point Church - with a national act thrown in for good measure.  They had a series of metal bands going on a main stage, and an acoustic stage running upstairs.

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Static Cycle
The ever changing lighting in the environment (flashing stage lights in various colors on the main stage, and fast fading window light in the acoustic stage) definitely took some time to get used to. By the time Static Cycle came on near the end, I was starting to hone in on details that interested me. Random Static Cycle tidbit - I really like their reversible logo.

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Emery
Next time I shoot a band, I'll be spending more time focusing on the drummer - lots of energy there. (Shot of Emery)

And last but not least...
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Karissa Laren
This picture is here not so much because the picture is great, but mostly for an excuse to say that this was the first time I've heard of Karissa Laren and she is AWESOME! Smooth, soulful, original. Definitely my favorite act of the night. I'm keeping my eye out for a chance to hear her again!

2010-09-20

On the street

A couple weeks back I had a chance to shoot around the Anchorage Museum.  I've seen some great shots with the Museum's new glass walls as a backdrop, and thought I'd have a go.  Alas, the setting sun (ordinarily a beautiful thing for a photo shoot) really messed with the shots around the Museum.

So, I looked a couple of yards away, and there is some really interesting etched glass on a bus stop - and the light starts working for me.  Later, my brother informs me that his friend Lise Hoffman was the source of the etched glass - nice stuff Lise!


Lise's nice art reflecting Nashara's nice form.  This was another Frank K shoot with models from Andy Lewis of Model Elite.

Shooting on the street is always interesting.  We had a few whistles, but overall it was a quiet night, and we got some nice shots.

Strobist details:
The first shot is primarily ambient (sunset reflecting off the museum back onto Nashara), with a touch of fill from the SB-26.
The second started with the sky under-exposed at tad, and then added the SB-26 bare, zoomed to about 50, on half power.

2010-09-15

The sun breaks through

Anchorage had a rather crummy summer this year - late June through early August in particular was extremely drab, wet and rainy.

I've been shooting this summer with my friend Frank K, and we were getting out a fair amount even in the rain.  Then, as luck would have it, we scheduled a shoot for the first sunny day in Anchorage after 30 straight days of rain.  

These were my results.




Michelle


For the technical photo nerds, these were all shot strobist style, with an SB-25 and an SB-26, bare, half power (full power for the last shot).

2010-09-14

Inaugural Post

Choices Choices Choices.  Blog name.  Shots to post.  Things to say and do.

Name - considered shortening this to DWells Photography - but there's already a guy in the UK using dwellsphotography.  He's got some bright cheery stuff - right up my alley.  To avoid confusion, I spelled my name out.  Still a nickname, but that will be a subject for a later post.

A bit of background - I've been an avid photographer for....well, let me think.... almost 20 years now (am I really that old?).  I grew up in Alaska, and my initial photography was exclusively animals and landscapes, all natural light, and all film.  Then, about 2 years ago I stumbled on David Hobby's Strobist blog and flickr group, and my photography changed.  Not overnight.  I'm still working on it.

I'm planning to use this forum to post samples of my latest shots, and things I'm learning along the way.  I've been itching to do this for a while, and today I read Scott Bourne's admonition to Shoot and Show, and it gave me the little nudge I needed to start putting stuff out for public consumption.  Stay tuned.

Denny