A night at the office….

A night at the office…., a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

Behind the scenes at the Celtic Rock stage at the 2012 Dublin Irish Festival. Even backstage the sound is so loud that it would be smart to wear ear protection. However, I often see the sound guys sans ear inserts - I sure do not understand the logic of this. People who need to be able to hear to perform their job function should be protecting their hearing.....

Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh - Dublin Irish Festival 2012

Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh is in Altan and performed at the 2012 Dublin Irish Festival with a band called "T with the Maggies." This is from the finale of the festival.

Orton Hall at Ohio State University

This is Orton Hall at The Ohio State University. It's the home of our Geology department, and it's one of the most interesting university buildings in the country. The exterior is made up of several layers of rock that were mined in Ohio, which represent geological strata from the Ordovician to more recent times.


The interior space is also beautiful. I can't imagine how much this building would cost in modern dollars. It was built in the late 1800s.

The big apple

The big apple, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

My son, Michael, married Tania this past weekend in upstate New York. We started our trip there in New York City, by doing a visit to B&H photo. Steve's never been in Manhattan, and it was an interesting excursion. He hated the driving in that area and was paranoid the entire time, but the street photography ops are great.

Here's one of my street photos from that visit:

Formal and informal band portraits at the Dublin Irish Festival

Behind the scenes at the Finale, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

This is a photo from backstage at the finale on Sunday evening. The Elders were about to go on for their number and so I asked them to pose for a group shot.

I also worked with two bands for some group portraits and gig shots. Here's one of the band portraits I did for The Ladies of Longford:


A band portrait for The John Whelan band with most of his 12-piece band:


And a smaller group:


And a duo with Flynn Cohen and John Whelan:

Slide show for the Young Dubliners 2012

Here's a gallery of photos from the Young Dubliners set at the 2012 Dublin Irish Festival. View it in full screen for the best effect.

When pigs fly

When pigs fly, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

Another balloon spotted at last weekend's balloon festival in Marysville, Ohio. This and the Darth Vader ones were my favs of the launch.

John Whelan

The John Whelan Band, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

This is a concert portrait of my good friend, John Whelan, from the 2012 Dublin Irish Festival. This was from the Trinity stage with difficult lighting. The color photo was not very pleasing to my eye, but I do like the effects of my digital processing here.

John is an awesome musician and one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. For the Dublin Irish Festival this year, he assembled a band of 12 musicians - all top notch players. The effect was stunning - such a pleasure to hear.

Darth Vader on the hunt….

Darth Vader on the hunt…., a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

Yesterday Steve, Richard and I went over to Marysville for the Ohio Balloon festival. Well, actually we just wanted to see the balloon launch or the evening balloon glow.

There was a two-mile back up on route 1 to turn into the Union County airport. The crowd there was huge, and it was really off-putting, so we decided to drive straight through to the exit. That was the plan, but we found a parking spot near the exit with a good view of the airport runway, which gave us the chance to actually see the launch itself without the crowd.

The launch was scheduled for 6 pm, but we think that was when the balloons were starting to inflate. The actual take-off wasn't until after 6:30. The balloons only went across the airport grounds, as far as we could tell. The good news is that we got out of there without too much trouble - a huge relief since I was driving. I don't like long lines of traffic with no alternate routes for escape.....

The Ladies of Longford

The Ladies of Longford, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

From the band shoot I did Friday night at the Dublin Irish Festival 2012. This is also an example of why the lighting on the Shamrock and Trinity stages are so difficult for photography. The way the stage is lighted, the musicians look very dim, very red, and difficult to see from the audience. It's truly an unflattering light set-up.

Molly

Molly, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

This is Mossy Moran's daughter, who has been featured more and more in Mossy's sets at the Dublin Irish Festival over the past couple of years. The stage lighting was pretty good, but there's also late afternoon sun coming into the Celtic Music House tent for this exposure.

I like the composition with Mossy looking at his daughter while she's playing.

The John Whelan Band

The John Whelan Band, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

This is one of the band portraits I did for John Whelan at the 2012 Dublin Irish Festival. Outdoors in full sun - a very challenging combination. I used my Canon 580 EX speedlight for fill, which worked fine at this close range. Manual exposure settings were also used.

The real challenge was the background. The Dublin Rec Center pond was full of scum, which is not very photogenic. Thus, I opted for a high key effect, processed in Aperture, Nik Software Color Efex Pro, and final adjustments in Photoshop CS5.

John Whelan and Flynn Cohen

John and Flynn, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

I did two band photo shoots at the Dublin Irish Festival this year - The Ladies of Longford and the John Whelan band. This photo is from the latter. In addition to doing group portraits of the band, I did some small group combos. John and Flynn play gigs together and this is a photo for their press kit.

The Ladies of Longford

The Ladies of Longford, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

This is Hilda Doyle, one of the most amazing musicians we have in Ohio. The Ladies of Longford feature her and her two daughters along with some other very talented women.

I used my special processing effects to produce this monochrome from a very red lighting situation. I'm glad the effect works, because I was doing a specific photo shoot for the ladies this year at the Dublin Irish Festival.

Making lemonade

Trinity Stage, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

What does a photographer do when the lighting on a stage is very challenging? Convert to monochrome, of course. This is a portrait of a young girl (Haley) who did a couple of tunes with the John Whelan band on the Trinity stage, Saturday night at the 2012 Dublin Irish Festival. The garish lights make for some terrible color photography, but the bright red, orange, violet, and blue lights can be an asset when doing monochrome conversion.

I mentioned in a previous post my processing steps for this style of photography, and it really is a nice effect for low light in the red spectrum.

Behind the scenes at the Celtic Rock Stage

Behind the scenes at the Celtic Rock Stage, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

Nighttime photography can be a real challenge. I took this photo from backstage. Anna Oscard and Pat Byrne are the Dublin Irish Festival committee members in charge of the Celtic Rock stage at the Dublin Irish Fest. I saw them talking across the fence and wanted to capture the colorful night scene. There was just enough light coming from the band merchandise tent to illuminate Anna's face. I like the back lighting on Pat's head as well, plus the bokeh of the background.

I used manual settings and was at f/2.8 from about 40 feet away.

The Young Dubliners

The Young Dubliners, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

L to R: Keith Roberts and Brendan Holmes. Have I ever mentioned how much I enjoy doing photography at the Celtic Rock stage at the Dublin Irish Festival each year? Well, it's one of the highlights of the year for me. The lighting is spectacular, the bands are high energy and always put on a great show. The Young Dubliners are pretty much my favorite band at the Dublin Fest each time they appear, and it's not just because of the music.

Brendan Holmes is a photographer in addition to being a Celtic rock star, and he's a Canon shooter. I met him last year, backstage at the Celtic Rock stage, when he came over to admire my Canon EF 70-200 mm f/2.8 ISM II USM lens. He's fun to talk to, as are the rest of the band members. I hope they come back to Dublin often!

The Young Dubliners - Dublin Irish Festival 2012

The Young Dubliners, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

Chas Waltz - knows how to rock with a fiddle, for sure.

The raw data on this photo was in garish green hues mixed with brilliant reds and blues. I didn't like that combination very much, but I did like the dramatic back lighting. For poor light situations on some of the stages, I've developed a "recipe" of filter effects in Color Efex Pro 4. I do the initial processing in Silver Efex Pro 2 - again, a custom preset, and then run it through my Color Efex filter recipe. I like the effect.

Alpine flower

Alpine flower, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

aka a DYC (damned yellow composite) from the alpine zone of Mount Kocsiuzko in Australia. It reminds me of an everlasting, but I've no idea what the genus is.

Ladies of Longford

Ladies of Longford, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

I did a photo shoot for the Ladies of Longford at the 25th anniversary Dublin Irish Festival last weekend. I did some band portraits in different settings, plus live performance photography. The Ladies were on the Shamrock Stage Friday night from 10:15 to 11:30. The lighting on that stage is atrocious! Dim and garish colors make it a real challenge, but an opportunity for creative processing. I prefer monochrome processing in that lighting situation. This photo is an example of one of the styles of processing that make the photos look ever so much better than the original colors.

Katie "KaBoom! McConnell

The Mahones, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

The Mahones at the Dublin Irish Festival 2012.

The Young Dubliners

The Young Dubliners, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

Keith Roberts, doing his thing on stage last Friday on the Celtic Rock stage at the 25th anniversary Dublin Irish Festival. I had such an amazing weekend, and my favorite times were at the Celtic Rock stage. I love doing concert photography there - amazing subjects and lighting make for some awesome fun.

Getting an internal organ massage by standing in front of the speakers is rather strange though. I'm very grateful for my ear plugs!

Katie "KaBoom!" McConnell - The Mahones

The Mahones, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

I've been having a blast this weekend at the 25th anniversary Dublin Irish Festival. In addition to playing two sets with my band, Aisling, and two hammer dulcimer workshops, I've been enjoying the photography opportunities. This is a photo from last night at the Celtic Rock stage. The Mahones had a fantastic set there, and they put on quite a show!. Irish Punk Rock at its best. (Who knew that playing the accordion could be so sexy?????)

Lake Cootapatamba

Lake Cootapatamba, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

This small alpine lake is at the base of Mount Kosciuszko, and has the distinction of being the highest lake on the continent of Australia. The color of the water changes by the minute with the different reflections of a volatile sky in the alpine zone of the Snowy Mountains. I want to go back there.....

Euphrasia

Euphrasia, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

This lovely plant is a parasitic one - part of the Orobanchaceae I've studied for so many years. The alpine zone of eastern Australia is a hotspot for this group, and I was thrilled to see three different species while Steve and I hiked up to Mount Kosciuszko last March.

ICM: Eucalyptus grove

ICM: Eucalyptus grove, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

Another photo impressionism composition using intentional camera movement. This was taken in a Eucalyptus grove that Steve and I found as we were driving from the Snowy Mountains over to Merimbula.

I wanted to find a grove with a lot of straight trunks of large trees, but the forest we traveled through was much younger in composition. Given the conditions of the setting, the time of day, etc., I think this composition turned out pretty well.