While on a photo walk with my Newbie group on Sunday, I spotted this street musician playing the sax. He wasn't just playing the sax, he's a blues player! I love the blues, and love to photograph musicians.This guy has been playing for over 35 years and he's really, really good. I gave him a tip and he let us make all the photos we wanted of him.
After processing this image, actually I didn't have to do anything to it other than RAW processing, I decided to fool around with it a bit in Lightroom 2.4. One of the latest trends in photography is the "grunge" or "
edgy" look. I fooled around a bit and came up with this. I kind of like it and I think it's a good fit for a street musician. Let me know what you think of it.The original image was shot with ISO 400 in the late afternoon, actually early evening. I used aperture priority mode at F7.1 which is the sweet spot on my lens, and a shutter speed of 1/60th. I used partial metering off his face and exposed at -1/3 exposure compensation to prevent the highlights on the sax from blowing out. I used a focal length of 154mm on my 55-250mm lens to give him some space and to further blur the background.
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6 comments:
Awesome shot, Loyce! It glows with sound and soul and 35 years of making music. I like it in RAW, blues, skin, brass, embouchure. That's my vote!
Thank you, Margo. I'm thinking of giving him a 4x6 of both of the shots, but I'm seriously considering the "edgy" one for myself.
I love photographing musicians playing. I especially like it when I can single them out like this street musician, as opposed to during a concert.
I can feel the emotion of their love of music. He's truly and artist.
I'm also beginning a series of these for my portfolio. This is #2. The other I've had for some time--and sold it once to another musician. For me, though, it's not the sale--I just love the emotion.
I really, really like the feel of the 2nd version. That's nice. It seems like every time I see this guy out somewhere it's when I'm leaving a long shoot and I'm too exhausted to unpack a camera and do some more shooting. It's great to see that you took advantage of the opportunity and made such a soulful shot.
Thank you, Jim. Since you are my mentor, your comments mean a lot to me. I'm sure you'll be able to photograph this guy in the near future. I think I saw one in Ybor as well. I'd like to photograph him one of these days.
I'm starting a series of street musicians. I love to photograph them and they certainly are a relief to see they are working for their money, instead of panhandling. Whenever possible, I always try to give them a few dollars.
They are a joy to see on the streets and I enjoy listening to their music.
I've looked at this post 17 times and am totally behind the edgy look now...it just took me a couple of days to HEAR that sax! Great work!
Thank you, Margo. The edgy or grunge look seems to be the trend now. I've done it for the guys in my son's band and after sending both versions they always pick the edgy look. I guess I'll keep doing these for a while.
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