My New Canon 50mm Lens Shooting in a Club

Starting from Country Thunder, I’ve photographed Tom Wagner and his band several times.  Nothing new with that.

What IS new is that I photographed the boys with my new Canon f/1.4 50mm lens.  And just this lens.

If you are used to using a zoom lens, you typically don’t move closer or back.  With a 50mm prime lens, your feet are your zoom.  

It’s a new feeling and a great feeling.

My impression is I love the low light capabilities of this sharp lens.  I photographed from around 1600 to 2000 ISO, aperture priority, wide open at f/1.4.  If you like bokeh (the background out of focus), you will love this lens!

I highly recommend a prime like this for low light and club photography.  

One more thing...  I found another shot I took of Charlie on the fiddle.  I took this back in April at Country Thunder in Florence, Arizona. 

Until My Next Adventure,

See You On Down the Road!

Jim Patterson

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

Tom Wagner at the Buffalo Chip on 27 May 2017

From the Cave Creek Balloon Festival, it was a short trek down the street for some country music.  This marks my third visit photographing Tom Wagner.  This time, it was at the Buffalo Chip in Cave Creek, where he has a regular gig.  

He’s a real personable guy and this photographer has to be ready because he often jumps off the stage into the crowd.

He’s a fan favorite there in Cave Creek, so I made sure I had some photographs of the lovers of his brand of country music.  That would include long time fan Dolly Kennedy.

One of the customers at “The Chip” asked me why I photographed him.  Easy.  I want to have photos before he gets the call up to Nashville!

This was a classic low light and horrible light situation.  I did not use flash for a reason: the band will HATE it!  I also on purpose used slower shutter speeds when I wanted to get a sense of motion in Tom.  

Until My Next Adventure,

See You On Down the Road!

Jim Patterson

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

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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Country Thunder 8 April 2017

Tom Wagner at Country Thunder Arizona

Saturday was my day to photograph as many artists as I could at Country Thunder.  In four hours, I was able to photograph Tom Wagner, Ry Bradley, Dorado, Ryan Hurd, and Austin Burke.  

Tom Wagner

I shoot with a Canon 5D Mark IV and a Tamron 28-300mm lens.  I was a one lens pony this day.  The Tamron lens gives me all the reach, if I need it, and it is light to carry. 

Tom with a Fan

 The first act I photographed might have been the most fun for me.  Tom Wagner, I found out, is a local guy.  And an opening act for Garth Brooks.  He’s animated and obviously has fun with his audience.  And his audience seems to love him.  He also performs regularly at Cave Creeks’ Buffalo Chip, so I will have some follow up shots of him in action.

Ry Bradley

Ry Bradley was the next act.  He has that certain look,doesn’t he?  I was thinking “James Dean” from Rebel Without a Cause, although I bet the young folks won’t know what I’m talking about. 

Dorado

Dorado followed Ry (that link goes to Dorado’s Facebook site).  Now, we often were going from a smaller sound stage to the main stage, with many beer and food stops along the way!  

Ryan Hurd has been a successful songwriter in Nashville and is now trying to cross over as a singer.  From his website, I learned that Hurd has written songs that have been recorded by Blake Shelton, Dierks Bentley, Jake Owen, Maren Morris, Tim McGraw, FGL, among many others. In 2015, he celebrated his first No. 1 single as a songwriter with the GRAMMY & CMA-nominated duet “Lonely Tonight,” recorded by Blake Shelton and Ashley Monroe.  I also learned he’s from Kalamazoo, just an hour west of where I grew up in Jackson, Michigan.  

Ryan Hurd

The final act we photographed was Austin Burke.  According to his webpage, he grew up in the 1990's in Phoenix, Arizona, Austin was a huge country music fan and began singing as soon as he could walk.  At the tender age of of 3 he sang the national anthem for both the Phoenix Suns and Arizona Diamondbacks and at a chance meeting with his hero Garth Brooks at a Padre's spring training game, his destiny was set.

Austin Burke

Until My Next Adventure,

(Tom Wagner at the Buffalo Chip?) 

See You On Down the Road!

Jim Patterson

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