Ryan Shupe and the RubberBand 14 December 2023

I love photographing country artists and bands.   I enjoy the music and the people are nice.   The same is true here while photographing Ryan Shupe and the RubberBand.  This was their Christmas show in Mesa, Arizona.

The song that put them on the map was "Dream Big."   

 
 

I showed up early, but not that early.   The auditorium seemed closed so I walked all the way around and found an open door.  I peeked in and Ryan peeked back and invited us in from the backstage.  

One of my other favorites they had done was called "Corn Dogs."  Now they changed the lyrics to Egg Nog!  

Until My Next Adventure,

See you on down the road,

Jim Patterson

For images from my visit, click HERE

Tom Wagner at the Buffalo Chip

As a follow-up to meeting Tom at Country Thunder, he made the invitation to come to the Buffalo Chip in Cave Creek, Arizona to photograph him and his band.  

I used my Canon 5D Mark IV and chose the Canon 24-105mm f/4 II lens.  The right way to do a shoot like this is try to visit early and take some test shots, but I thought I was ok with this setup.  The only thing I would have done differently is probably also bring my Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens too.  

The indoor lighting was great for dancing and watching a band.  But it was low light for photography.  I found I was shooting wide open f/4 at over 10,000 ISO.  I also had to change my white balance in Lightroom to tungsten, but that probably took a few seconds to do. 

Tom and his band mates were personable and fun, as they were at Country Thunder. That makes photographing them fun.  The Buffalo Chip is a great venue with incredibly friendly people like Dottie, the manager, and the waitresses busy serving up burgers and beer (all was delicious.. the burger seemed to go on forever and I loved it!).

Until My Next Adventure,

See You On Down the Road!

Jim Patterson

Photos from Flickr ... and, here are all the keeper photos!

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