Richard Shindell
In addition to being an avid and passionate photographer I have a deep love of music, especially when it's live! Some of my favorite artists inhabit the folk world and at this time of year they pop up at many of the festivals that thankfully still occur around the country.
This year I was blessed to have the opportunity to be a photographer at the Green River Festival in Greenfield MA where Signature Sounds Records were celebrating 15 successful years in the recording industry by bringing together the cream of their recording artists for a stellar 6 hour concert. This was one I couldn't miss!
As usual I arrived very early and was content to wander around the grounds which were still empty of fans but surrounded by a vast circle of local artisans, food vendors and non-profit organizations who were busily raising their stalls and setting up for business. Talk among the stall-holders was definitely focused on the weather. The sky was ominously dark and distant rumbles of thunder were clearly giving cause for concern.
Darryl Ballou a very fine cabinet-maker from Turner's Falls was justifiably worried in case the rain came and he couldn't protect his beautifully designed carpentry.
Tristan Clarridge of Crooked Still
(http://www.artisandesignsdtb.com/) Jay from Pierce Bros Coffee was however totally unconcerned by the threat of heavy weather and was just happy to be there and was clearly looking forward to the coffee being ready! (http://www.piercebroscoffee.com) I had to admire his spirit. I wasn't sure that the weather was going to hold for much longer and the activities hadn't even begun.
Still, I had the rainproof covers for my camera and my bag so the only thing that was going to get wet was me and I'm English and supposedly impervious to rain! The thought of six hours or more standing in the rain didn't exactly deter me but I will admit to being less than happy at the prospect. I could however, be cheerful about the grey cloud cover which was providing wonderfully diffused and even light conditions.
Soon the rain came in a brief but violent shower and I was grateful for the shelter of the Green River Clean-up crew's tent. Thanks Guys! If you would like to join them on October 4th they are having their annual river clean-up day. Contact David Boles at 413-773-7560 or through their site at http://www.deerfieldriver.org
Erin McKeown
After the brief but intense shower the rain held off for a while and the concert got underway with a superb house band which included David "Goody" Goodrich on Guitar. Tracy Grammer and Jim Henry ably led the band in a couple of numbers and then there was a surprise appearance by the wonderful Erin McKeown who certainly livened up the audience who had begun flooding in.
Mark Erreli
Mark Errelli continued to keep the beat going with a lively and intense set and then the rains came again and this time it wasn't a shower.
A stoic crowd braves the rain
Photographer Jake Jacobson uses the traditional method to protect his camera.
The show continued with the crowd actually swelling despite the rain. Great performances by Kris Delmhorst, Jeffrey Foucault, Peter Mulvey and Caroline Herring were follwed by Richard Shindell and Chirs Smither doing extended sets.
I was massively impressed by the sound technicians and stage management who flipped the settings between acts in a totally seamless and swift fashion. I swear it was probably longer but the changeovers seemed to take less than a minute - Great Job Rocky and the Sound Team!
Flora Reed accompanied Kris Delmhorst on Stage.
As the evening wore on, the lighting became an issue. The stage lighting was a horrendous tungsten yellow that was fairly weak. As darkness began to set in I had to gradually pump up the ISO setting on the camera. At the end of the night it became a real challenge to capture the performers. The lighting for artists like Chris Smither was a narrow beam at the front of the stage which only lit his face when he leaned forward. At the same time there was strong lighting hitting his guitar thus making a well balanced shot practically impossible. Timing of each shot became critical and with the darkness I was forced to use settings as high as ISO 25000 (yes that's twenty five thousand) on the Canon 5d MkII. As usual the trusty 70-200mm Canon did its job remarkably well. There were times when I wanted to resort to a wider lens but with my bag securely covered I didn't want to risk exposing everything to the rain which continued incessently.
Chris Smither after some tweaking in photoshop
By the end of the night I had to settle for high ISO and live with the potential for noisy images. Biggest challenge of all was Crooked Still who performed in their wonderfully energetic manner, moving in and out of the lighting and dancing behind the multitude of mikes, stands and cables. Again timing was crtical.
Greg Liszt of Crooked Still
There are more photos from this wondeful night in the Album entitled:
Signature Sounds 15th Anniversary which you will find in the column on the right.
A big thank you to Jim Olsen and the team at Signature Sounds for keeping the music alive! http://www.signaturesounds.com. Check them out they have some awesome artists!
Thanks also to the terrific bunch of performers who made it a very speacial night. A Huge thank you goes to Jeff Martell for being so gracious with the phoitographer's pass and to Rocky the stage manager for all his patience and craftsmanship. Finally my hat goes off to all the event photographers who braved several hours in the rain to get the shots that matter!
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Ian can be hired for Artist Publicity work, Portraits and Events. You can contact him at 781-340-0564 or through his web-site at : http://www.ianmurrayphoto.com.
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