I attended a filk music convention this weekend (if you're not sure what
filk is, see http://www.radix.net/~dglenn/defs/filk.html). I was there
for the music rather than hunting photographic subjects, but I did try
to photograph photographers during concert sets.
In the main concert room, there were _no_ good camera angles. None.
If the room wasn't too crowded, there was an okay spot near the door,
depending on whether the performer was sitting or standing.
The lighting was _horrid_. Overhead fluorescents casting deep
eye-socket shadows, making people look angry and aged if they
were lucky ... and cadaverous if they were unlucky. (I didn't
want to shoot flash during a concert unless I'd had a chance to
ask that performer for permission first. And I was personally
too disorganized to manage that for most of the folks I watched.)
Since _most_ of the performers were amateurs there to share their
music with their fellows, rather than seasoned performers, many
of them had a music stand right up near face level directly in front
of them. So most of the photos I could get were of a disembodied
head over a music stand, with maybe a left hand on a guitar neck
nearby. (You could definitely get a good idea who'd had real-world
performing experience by watching how they oriented themselves on
stage, where they placed their music stand and how often they looked
at the audience instead of the stand, how visually expressive they
were, and of course, how smooth their patter was while tuning. I was
taking notes of stuff to pay attention to when I'm on stage, wondering
how many of the right and wrong things I noticed this weekend I've
been doing when I perform.)
Now I can't whine to the folks involved, since good visuals weren't
promised -- they weren't on anyone's mind other than other folks
with cameras -- and more importantly, the _sound_ was handled
well. (Less than optimal room, but a _decent_ room, acoustically
(better than some hotels have available), and amplification was
very nicely done (including piping a live feed from the concert room
into the hospitality suite), and there were some good performances.)
So no, this really isn't a _legitimate_complaint_, but it was
frustrating to me personally, and I figured this is a reasonable
place to get it off my chest. It wasn't important that I get any
photos, but when I'm sitting in the audience with a camera in my
hand and realize that the camera isn't going to do me any good,
well I started thinking about footlights and such, y'know? (Would
have made things look better in general, too, but probably not
worth the effort and expense for such a small convention and an
audience with no expectations regarding visual presentation anyhow.)
It was morbidly fascinating to watch a band that knows what its
doing and realize that any photos I took would make one of the
members look thirty years older ... or to watch an attractive young
woman playing guitar sitting on a chair the wrong height for her,
slouching in a way that gave her a double chin and made her look
mostly shapeless.
But I guess the weekend wasn't a complete loss photographically.
I learned a little more about how _not_ to pose models, and I got
some photos of a cortal for my musical instruments page.
Fortunately it was a much better weekend musically (and socially).
-- Glenn
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