Shel Belinkoff wrote:
Hi Frank,
From your intro I'd expected more. It's an OK pic, but it doesn't capturethe "feel" of a smokey jazz club, and the photo seems to be stagnant, not
particularly dynamic. It doesn't help any that a piece of the guitarist's
hand is missing, either.
A few years ago I took a weekend seminar on portraits given by Baron Wolman, the Rolling Stone photographer from the 1970's. He said something that made a lot of sense for this type of photography: Try to capture the peak of action. To do that may require some anticipation of what the subject will do, which requires time spent observing the subject carefully and observing his or her moves. Here the musician is looking at his guitar, and there is no contact at this moment between him and the audience, or between him and you, the photographer. This sets up a barrier, or at least a distance, between viewer and subject.
Most musiicians are so deep into the piece, or the sounds, they are totally folded in, internalizing it all...
Not at all unusual to be insulated from everything around you, while you're grooving!
That's exactly why some musicians close their eyes. They don't want the distraction of seeing to dilute the experience.
They're not on stage when they look like that ~ they're in an entirely different place... usually.
keith whaley
Shel
