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"The Other Elvis Has the Blues"
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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
Here's another shot from Memphis in May - The Beale Street Music Festival.
We woke up to pouring rain on Saturday, the second day of the music fest. Lucky for us the Blues had a stage under a tent. Let the kids wallow in the mud is what I said - we'll enjoy the Blues all day!
Of course, I forgot about having to leave the tent for the porta-potties. There was a hog-waller there, too! I just cut back on the beer so I didn't have venture out there too much... My wife actually took the street car back to the hotel! She's a little more fastidious than I am. I was washing my shoes off in the bathtub later on, though.
There were some great Blues acts this day. The first act was Shane Dwight, you can see my TE upload by clicking that link. He set the stage for the next act - Hubert Sumlin with Billy Gibson. Hubert Sumlin is one of those "real deal" bluesmen, he played with Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters and is a tremendous guitarist and songwriter in his own right. In fact, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him in the top 100 guitarists of all time. I've seen him play two or three times, he's always put on a great show. Billy Gibson is a local Memphis boy, an incendiary harp player and tremendous entertainer. Together, Hubert and Billy were blowing us all away. Then they stopped playing for a "Special Guest" - we knew who that was because my wife spotted him in the crowd a little while before the announcement. The special guest was Elvis Costello - he came up and sang "Killing Floor" with Hubert and Billy, and he whipped the crowd into a frenzy. He even mugged for my smuggled in camera! There were dozens of folks who crushed the stage with their iPhones and point n' shoots and a plethora of other authorized and unauthorized photograph and recording equipment. If you search around a bit you can probably find a video of it on You Tube or something. There were people all around me recording the performance.
Anyway, Elvis wasn't performing until much later that evening, but he made a point of playing with Hubert Sumlin. It was great. I don't know what all that writing is on his hand, perhaps some notes on what he wanted to play during his set.
It was a great time - even Elvis had the blues this day.
Shot with my D300 and a 70 - 300mm VR zoom about half racked out - I was fairly close. I let the camera choose the ISO for me, I just selected a shutter speed of 1/60 and the lowest f-stop and hoped no one moved too much. I took a lot of shots and am just now getting through them all. I'll put most of my best ones up on TL and TE over the course of time, though, because I would like to get good at this. I know this isn't the best composition ever, but I think it turned out pretty good - Elvis was dancing and singing that fast moving tune, he actually stopped moving and held this pose for me - just for a split second. That was interesting - he knew what he was doing, it was evident. Does he think about the photographer, or the photograph?
Anyway, thanks for looking!
I would be remiss if I didn't mention that today is Memorial Day in the United States. Here in St. Louis it is aptly a rainy, dreary day, perfect for reflecting on the lives of those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our country. It is not as good for the other main thing we do on Memorial Day - barbecue! But, we'll do it anyway - I'll try to cook up a 21 rib salute! |
lilimih33, jjcordier, teamill has marked this note useful
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| To teamill: Hi Trudy, | rlrad |
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06-01 13:34 |
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hi Reed my friend across the pond this is another excellent shot from the fest nice details and very sharp whats a music festival without rain just would,nt be the same tfs
regards bryan
Hello Reed!
Very good detail in your picture!
Elvis? mmmmm.....
Very good shot from the Music Festival!
Well done!
Best regards!
Lili
HI Reed...very nice shot...great light and details...nice job.
Roger
Reed
Tu n'as pas hésité à pousser les ISO ici mais au format de TL et après un petit lissage ça passe très bien. J'aime ta composition et l'harmonie des tons de l'image.
Amicalement
JJ
Great one Reed. That was a bit of an unexpected treat I reckon .. to see this Elvis!
Great job on this one. Love the sparkles of light on his glasses, and the glow of the spotlights on his jacket. Good action shot, and very nice appropriate frame! And as always, great engaging note!
Elvis has got a weekly show on Canadian TV these days called "Spectacle: Elvis Costello With..." .. he features a different artist every week. First guest was Elton John, and some others have been James Taylor, Tony Bennett, Kris Kristofferson, Sting, his wife Diana Krall ... really good show. Lots of talking, lots of music, live audience.
Trudy
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