Red-Banded Hairstreak Butterfly
Capturing the moment II
As I mentioned earlier, getting the good self portraits while on vacation was a concern. That lead us to purchase a compact digital point and shoot camera.
Fellow photo bug Laanba from over at photine.net read the post and took the time to make a comment suggesting I have a look at the Xshot, something she had heard mentioned on the The Digital Photography Show podcast.
I went to the web site and had a look. What a great idea! Basically it’s a mono-pod that allows you to hold your compact camera up to 37 inches away from you. It’s light weight and when retracted will fit in your pocket, making it super easy to carry around.
Being the technology radio personality that I am I decided to contact the company to ask about the possibility of getting a review unit. The folks at Xshot were happy to oblige and I received it last week.
It’s very cool and I will be adding this to the travel kit for our trip to Spain. It will certainly be a bonus to be able to get those adorable couple shots in front of all those scenic landmarks.
To give you an example, here’s a hand held shot:
Now with the Xshot:
And for your ultimate avatar or profile pic at your favorite social networking site, compare these crops:
An added benefit to getting the camera out some distance is the effects of the flash tend to be way less harsh. And think about the slimming angle shots you can accomplish! A must have for Myspacers!
Do you find something funny about the word “tromboner”?
Alfred Tam of Clouseaux
Best if viewed at full size
Disco Expressions – Prom Night
The Disco Expressions show/prom night event last weekend was a huge success. Basically, it was a concert at the Houston Continental Club featuring 70’s disco and 80’s new-age/punk/pop and the audience was invited to dress in a prom theme.
Of course you can’t have a prom without adult supervision.
Meet Continental High School Vice-Principal Henkel
Opening act was Molly and the Ringwalds for the 80’s portion of the night.
Jennifer Ringwald
Carrie Ringwald
And a rare sight ladies and gentlemen. A candid photo of Dekan Ringwald!
That’s right, he’s not staring directly at the camera! This must be what those Planet Earth camermen felt like when they captured those rare images of the Snow Leopard in the wild.
Next up, Disco Expressions playing all your 70’s disco favorites.
It’s hard to tell if Jim is about to give me the OK sign, or if he’s about to flick me like a bug.
Paul was in rare form
All in all, another excellent evening. I wanted to shoot audience pictures to capture those in attendance wearing their prom dresses and tuxedos, but they didn’t come out so well. I don’t do well shooting with a flash and the club is too dark to shoot without one.
I did, however, get one outstanding shot.
Hicks pics
Got a photo credit in The Houston Press this week. Not for any of the mazillion photos I’ve been taking lately, oh no. This is a picture of Bill Hicks I shot on my old film camera over 20 years ago at the Comix Annex when he was doing stand up there…
The article is called Funny Business and is available online if you don’t have access to the actual paper. The online photo credit is quite readable but the actual print version you have to practically squint until your eyeballs pop to be able to see the light gold text running along the side border of the photograph that says “Photo courtesy of Jay Lee.”
Still, I’m pretty stoked…and glad I held on to those old pics from my first run at photography.
The rest of the Bill Hicks shots are available in my gallery.
Houston Roller Derby
The Houston Roller Derby has been generating quite a lot of buzz lately. Seems that you can’t turn around in this city without bumping into someone who is either a roller derby girl or one of the myriad volunteers, hanger’s on or ever growing minions of rabid roller derby fans.
I work with a roller derby girl, my friend Bill Shirley puts together The Colonel’s Roller Derby Roundup, a combination blog and podcast (of all things) with David Beebe, there’s Myspace after Myspace page for leagues, teams, team members, volunteers and fans. Roller derby seems to be everywhere.
It has been suggested on several occasions, by those who know my love of photography and are affiliated with the derby, that I try my hand at some derby photography. I finally decided to follow up and I contacted the organizers and offered to come out and shoot on spec, the idea being that if I produced pictures they liked and could be used to promote the derby I might be afforded the title of Official Houston Roller Derby Photographer. Basically that would mean that I would have full photographic access to all aspects of the local derby.
This past Sunday I made my way to The Verizon Wireless Theater for the bout. I arrived pretty early so I could get my credentials and get the lay of the land. I wanted to check out the layout and get familiar with the lighting.
After a bit of experimenting I decided to shoot with my 50mm 1.4 lens. I thought this would be the best for no flash and fast action. As it turned out, I got some great portrait shots.
But I struggled with the action shots. Shooting without a flash meant that I had to try to time the shots for when the subject was going to be illuminated. Also, the 50mm lens is challenging at extended distances. I can crop to increase the size of the main subject, but the results are not as good as I would like.
Still, they weren’t all bad…
With a bit more practice I think I can nail it down. I may whip out the Tamron AF 28-75mm f2.8 XR Di lens next time and see how it performs in these conditions.
The response from the derby organizers and the members has been positive. I have been asked to come back and shoot again, not only at the bouts but at other derby events.
We’ll see how the schedule shapes up. I would like to explore this further.
Disco Expressions – Virginia
There’s always room for Jello
Cross another one off the list.
I got to hang out with an icon of my youth last night, Jello Biafra, former lead singer for The Dead Kennedys.
He was in town to perform his spoken word act at the Continental Club last night and I volunteered to pick him up at the airport and drive him around until show time.
I got him checked into his hotel and then we went by Sig’s Lagoon so he could browse the vinyl. Turns out Jello is a huge music buff and a rabid collector of obscure vinyl.
It was a fun enough time. I was in mild “fan-boy” mode but I think I played it pretty cool. Of course I had to get the obligatory “Look at me! I’m with a celebrity!” shot.
His show ran about 4 hours with a brief intermission. He covered all the ground you would expect from the death of Jerry Falwell to the collapse of Enron and even touched on the Halliburton move to Dubai.
I would have expected the show to be attended by mostly old-timers like myself. As it turned out, it was mostly young people. And when I say young, I mean around, at and under 21. The club made it an all ages show.
Best line overheard at the back bar was from and older woman who was talking to a friend and said:
“I don’t like this spoken word crap. I’m a punk rocker, not a hippy!” I didn’t bother asking why she was even there..
Second runner up was when bar manager Trey came over to Sig’s before the intermission and said “I don’t think he’s going to take a break. He just keeps going. Oh, and I think I hate America now.”
Priceless!
The best picture of the night was taken during the sound check:
I was initially going to give him a ride back to the hotel but he decided to hang out at Sig’s for awhile looking through the rest of the vinyl and I was tired. Good thing I cut myself loose, he ended up keeping Sig’s open till around 5:00 am.
I don’t like staying up that late, I’m an old man….not a hippy!