I made a post the other day saying that I have been slacking over the past couple weeks in getting out with my cameras, and I wanted to elaborate on that with this blog post. I think after the 2 great days of Funk Fest, and the full week worth of editing afterwards I needed a short break. Between that and a lot of other things going on, photography wasn’t at the forefront of my mind like it has been for the past year. In the last couple days that has changed. I am going to get out this weekend, and hopefully take some portraits of Sarah (my wife) as well as some nature shots. I also need to get back out at night since I love night photography.
I have also decided to invest more in my indoor (studio) lighting equipment so that I can do more portraiture/product photography as well as some experimenting with other lighting techniques. Today I ordered 3 strobe lights, umbrellas, reflectors, a soft box, background stand, and two backgrounds (black and white). I was hopeful they would be delivered by Saturday so that I could work on some things this weekend, but the main pieces (the strobes) could not be 2 day delivered. So now I can setup some things next week after work and start playing around.
Hopefully starting this weekend I will be posting some new work on the site. I also have a real estate job late Monday afternoon which I am looking forward to. The agent on the house told me I was going to love this one, so I can’t wait to see what it has to offer. I may also be doing some portraiture for a friend’s daughter who wants to start working on a modeling portfolio. We are working on the specifics of where, and what the style she wants to portray so that we can plan out the shoot(s) and take full advantage of the time and lighting.
Matt and Nick Nemec from Edgewater Events LLC have done it again! Funk Fest 9 was simply amazing! Two days chalked full of top notch musical talent from 14 bands. The event started at 4:30 on Friday afternoon, and went straight through till after 11pm with 6 bands taking the stage. I mainly listen to Hard Rock and Metal, but was thoroughly entertained by all of the first night performances. The night started out with Gang of Thieves who could have easily been one of the later acts. They had a ton of energy and great stage presence. The other band that really impressed me on Friday was the main act of the night, Blackberry Smoke. Unfortunately I did not get the greatest spot to take photos of them, as I didn’t think to ask the organizers if I could get in front of the barrier till the following day, but still got some good images.
On Saturday the festivities got started at 11:30am and continued till almost midnight. A few of the bands from Friday (Gang of Thieves, Voodoo Visionary, and Joe Marcinek Band) got a chance to play again which I enjoyed since they were all fantastic. Gang of Thieves had such great energy, the singer from Voodoo Visionary was fun to photograph because of his stage presence and facial expressions, and Joe Marcinek Band featured Freekbass on the bass guitar. He has a “David Bowie” look to him and was obviously influenced by the late artist’s work and look. His persona made for some fantastic photos.
Like Friday, the entire Saturday lineup was awesome! The standouts to me (other than the ones from Friday I mentioned) were Resinated, Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes, Turkuaz, and of course Here Come the Mummies. Funk Fest keeps getting bigger and better every year. I look forward to Funk Fest 10 and want to thank the Nemecs for allowing me to cover the event. I have posted a very small taste of my images below. Please check out my Facebook page for more https://www.facebook.com/MatthewChasePhoto/ .
This coming week is very light on the photography schedule. I have a couple people lined up to do portraits, but have not set dates yet. I like to think through how, and where I want to shoot people. I do this, because I want the photos to tell a story or to portray the person and their interests. I have also been very busy and my next two weekends are full. Aside from that I will be working more on this website and my social media presence to hopefully get my name and work out there more. Thank you again for reading!
Wow what a week it has been! Last weekend, as I mentioned in my last blog, we were in Key West. Unfortunately I did not take as many photos as I wanted, because I was having “too much” fun. It was however a great time and a much needed getaway. We went with a great group of friends and we all had a blast together. The relaxation however came to an abrupt halt as I was back to work on Tuesday with both jobs.
On Tuesday night I shot some photos of a friends daughter playing her first softball game of the season. Unfortunately the field was 100% fenced and I had to shoot through one small door. The situation did not leave me many options in regards to angle, distance, etc. ,but I got some good shots none the less. On Wednesday I had two houses to shoot for The Houseman group. One was edited the same night and the other was finished today so that both homes could be listed by week’s end. Today was a more relaxing day after my day job, but I did get my new Sigma 150-600mm lens out to photograph the full moon. The past full moons I have shot were with a Nikon 70-300mm zoom lens. While I got good results before, this new lens runs circles around the previous one. I can fill much more of the frame with the moon since now I can zoom in much closer. The new lens is also of higher quality so the image is sharper. I have posted the photo I took tonight below.
Tomorrow and Saturday are the highlights of the week as Funk Fest 9 will be happening in downtown Punta Gorda. This is an event I always look forward to attending (my band even played in it one year), and this year is even better for many reasons. The two biggest ones are the lineup gets bigger and better, and because I get to photograph it this year. Both days will have some bands during the daylight hours, and some at night. This allows me to get a variety of shots in different lighting and experiment with some things.
I am really looking forward to shooting some of these bands to add to my portfolio. My goal is to strengthen my portfolio of concert photography gain access to some modern national acts that come in the area. Almost everything I am doing right now is actually to build a stronger portfolio in hopes of making this my main job down the road. I am mainly looking to add more to my portrait portfolio, so if you would like to be a model let me know.
I Don’t have much on the photo calendar for next week, which is kind of nice after this one. I can use the time to brainstorm on some ideas for future shoots as well as work on my website. Another thing I need to do is get out in the “wild” with the new lens I mentioned. Don’t need to get very close to birds, gators, etc. to obtain some nice images with that thing. Thanks again for reading my ramblings. Look for a blog post after Funk Fest and some photos added to the “concert” section of my site.
