Showing posts with label violin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label violin. Show all posts

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Lights From Off Camera Flashes and Christmas Trees, With Some Guest Appearances from Violins and Ducks

And now, to bring my daily photography up to date...

It took me awhile, but on the 17th I finally decided I should take a photograph of my new guitar.  It was the first thing (besides necessary food) that I purchased once I moved to Belfast.  The guitar is nothing special...I don't mean anything negative by that, it plays well and sounds good, but it just seems to be your standard, tad better than amateur acoustic guitar.  I really wanted to bring my Danelectro with me, but travelling light was necessary, and my beloved guitar would have taken up too much room.

I really enjoyed taking this shot.  It was much more technical than many of my daily photographs.  I shot it through the viewfinder of my Kodak Duaflex.  Any chance to shoot TTV makes me happy.  But on top of that, I used an off camera flash that was triggered from the other side of a door so that the little translucent window on the door would diffuse and spread the light.  There was much careful positioning with much trial and error before this shot was perfected...I love the glare and spots of light...



There are a few street musicians in the middle of the city that are fairly ingenious.  In an attempt to reach further with their beautiful violin playing, they have attached what resembles a piece of an old bugle to their violins.  The picture doesn't make it easy to see exactly how they did this, but I've been trying for awhile to get a good shot of one of these guys and their inventions...they always escape my camera, so I will just have to manage with this photo from behind...



The 19th of November marked the first day of the Christmas season for Belfast.  Thousands of people gathered in the dark city, around what was a dark Christmas tree, waiting for the moment that all the Christmas lights would be turned on.  A countdown started just a couple seconds before 7pm, and once the voices reached "one", the whole city became illuminated with twinkling lights of all different colors and sizes.  This photo was taken just a second after the lights went on...



This morning was the type of morning that requires a nice walk by a river or some similar body of water.  So we obeyed.  We grabbed cameras and sweatshirts and made our way to Lagan Meadows.  It is a wonderful place to spend a cool but sunny morning.  Or at least all dog-owners think so...and that right there is enough reason to go, mass quantities of adorable dogs...sadly, neither of these are dogs...




There we go, all caught up.

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Burning Bridget Cleary

My wife works at our public library.  She helps to coordinate some events, one of which was tonight.  She got the Celtic band Burning Bridget Cleary to play in our local park, and man, did they sound good.  Beautiful harmonies, beautiful (faked) accents, and nothing more than fiddles, a guitar, and some hand percussion were used...besides the sound system, of course, to get their lively music loud enough that all could hear it.
I was given permission by the director of the library to get on stage and get some shots.  So I did.  Quite willingly.  Here are the results of that as well as some photos from the rest of the enchanting evening.
(to learn more about them and hear some of the music check out http://www.burningbridgetcleary.com)


 Burning Bridget Cleary
This is the band.  From left to right is Rose Baldino, Lou Baldino, Pete Trezzi, and Genevieve Gillespie


Lou Baldino
This is Lou Baldino, waiting to get the group shot that you just saw.  The other members of the band were busy signing autographs.


Rose Baldino Playing the Fiddle
Genevieve and Pete watch as father and daughter play together.



The Crowd
Ephrata Park filled up pretty quickly, but at this point, (early on) the crowd was still thin.