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.

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?????)

Jesse Smith and Ryan McGiver at Tara Hall

A nice concert February 15, 2012 at Tara Hall featured Jesse Smith (fiddle) and Ryan McGiver (vocals and guitar). Here are a few images from the night.

Jesse told the audience what tunes would be played and where he learned them.

The pace of the tunes were very comfortable, which gave me a chance to really hear the tune and the variations Jesse played.

Tara Hall is now located on the south side of town, in a somewhat shady neighborhood.  However, the setting is now more akin to being in a house concert, which is actually a very nice change from your usual pub concert venues.

 

The main room is divided into the concert corner and a pub.  Tara Hall is the home of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in Columbus, Ohio.

Jesse Smith

I didn't want to use a flash during the concert, so I had to push the ISO up to 6400. That results in a lot of noise in low-light settings such as this venue, so I decided to play with a bit of processing techniques to accentuate the noise by featuring some grain. Here's one of those processing experiments.

Ryan McGiver

Here's another portrait using my grain technique.

"Half the concert is tuning, the other half playing out of tune."

Jesse uses a C tuning (DADGAD tuned down), which was really a nice sound.

As a musician, I'm glad Ryan took time to tune, and it was certainly worth the wait. He's an excellent musician and it was a pleasure to hear him play.

Ryan sings with great feeling and passion.

I tried to capture that passion by doing a monochrome processing on this portrait of him.

This portrait sums up the thoughtfulness with which Jesse plays. I really enjoyed the style and nuances he brought to traditional Irish music.

 Jesse looks so relaxed while he's playing.

I find it a real challenge to get a photo of a fiddler in concert when there are so many mics and mic stands in the way. 

 

All-in-all a nice way to spend a Wednesday night.

Dublin Irish Festival 2011 - Session 2

Here's another great session video from that Sunday afternoon rainstorm delay:

Dublin Irish Festival 2011 - session video 4 (but first posting)

One of the videos I recorded from the most amazing session of the Dublin Irish Festival - all because of a huge thunderstorm, which caused the suspension of festival operations for a couple of hours.

Slide in concert at Byrne's Pub

Slide in concert at Byrne's Pub, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

Last Tuesday Slide did a pub concert - a very rare appearance since they are usually playing festivals and concert halls. They are a high energy group with such a tight repertoire, and always entertaining.

Dave Curley is the vocalist for Slide.  He also plays guitar, mandolin and bodhran.

Here's the line-up for the Byrne's pub gig: L to R: Colm Delaney, Dave Curley, Éamonn de Barra, Daire Bracken and Mick Broderick.

Daire is a fiddler who can play whilst bouncing all around the stage.  I enjoyed watching the interaction he had with each of the band members.

Éamonn plays flute, tin whistle, keyboard, and bodhran. 

High energy, great playing, nice repertoire, and lots of interaction with the audience - an excellent combination for a band. 










I've posted additional pictures from the concert here: Slide in concert at Byrne's Pub.

Music at AAW 2010 - Andi Wolfe, John Whelan, and Flynn Cohen

Thursday evening's entertainment for this year's AAW symposium was capped off with an amazing performance by John Whelan and Flynn Cohen. I joined them for the first two sets, and then again at the end. Here are the first two sets, and another one in the middle.


Jigs and a reel: Garden Castle (original tune by Andi Wolfe), Boys of Ballylochland, Cliffs of Mohr, Farewell to Ireland.



Hornpipes and some fancy dancing by Terry Martin and Jacques Vesery