Off Broadway, the venerable St. Louis venue located in the historic Lemp district, just keeps getting better.  I seem to get by there every six months or so, and in the few years since Steve Pohlman took over it has seen a host of improvements.  And appropriately, most of them are based around allowing fans to see and hear the bands better.  Improved stage aesthetics, better acoustics, improved PA–it’s all good.

Last night I found myself back at this great music hall to photograph Caleb Travers’ terrific set as he opened up for Deadstring Brothers.  Caleb is a talented singer/songwriter and his energetic performance was buoyed by a great band last night.  If you get the chance to see him in action, whether solo or with his full band, do it.

Yes folks, we’ve been invaded.  Imperial China descended upon St. Louis to play a face-melting set at Cicero’s with Sleepy Kitty on Wednesday night, and I have fallen in love with the band.  The best description I have heard is that they sound “as if Mogwai, Fugazi and Jawbox got spun out on meth and had a dirty orgy baby–and left it in a dumpster”.  Colorful analogy.

And yes, that means they’re awesome.  In my book anyway.

Pics from the show:

My new friends Sleepy Kitty played a great show at Cicero’s last night and I had the honor of photographing them again.  This time I was armed with my new D700 and 24-70mm f/2.8 glass so I shot like a mad man.  I’ll be adjusting a few settings after editing these shots, but I’m definitely glad I made the upgrade.  The simple blue lighting wasn’t ideal, but at least it was consistent–a good thing for breaking in a new piece of gear, I guess.

I was also pleased to be able to see Evan this time.  At the last show he was obscured by the drums and the angle of the stage made it impossible to sneak a shot of him.  A few shots of Paige and Evan in action:

A nice man in a brown uniform brought me two very nice pieces of gear today: a Nikon D700 camera and Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 lens.  Adorama has some great package deals going on Nikon gear right now, so check em out if you’re in the market for some new toys tools.

Why the D700?  Two reasons: full frame and high ISOs.  That, and it’s being phased out later this year and won’t likely get any cheaper.

I made the mistake of shooting a ton of 35mm film last year and falling in love with the wider viewing angles of full frame cameras (I was using a Nikon F100).  I’ve moved past my infatuation with film (mostly–I still dabble with my Olympus OM-1) and the D90’s smaller viewing circle just wasn’t giving me the coverage I wanted.  I considered picking up something like Nikon’s 10.5mm fisheye lens for a wider perspective, but since it’s a lens that only works on Nikon’s DX series cameras I held off.  Why?

Because I knew that eventually I’d be upgrading to an FX series, full frame, professional camera in order to take advantage of the excellent performance at high ISOs.  I shoot a lot of concerts in low light, so having a camera that can produce great images at ISO 1600 and above will allow me to use faster shutter speeds and freeze the action.

And today, I made that upgrade.  I’ll be giving both pieces a full workout at a concert shoot tomorrow night.

So no excuses.  If my shots suck from here on out, it’s clearly my fault.

Today’s Project365 photo, amid great fanfare:

A commenter on this very blog recently asked me if I am “self-taught”.  My first instinct was to answer proudly, “Why yes!  YES I AM!”. After all, I’ve never taken any formal photography classes or attended any seminars or such.  But upon further reflection (and a heavy dose of reality) I realized that I am most certainly not self-taught.

I am, however self-motivated.

My Self-Teaching Curriculum

Two years ago when I first picked up a “real” camera I literally became obsessed with it and read absolutely everything I could get my hands on:  an ancient series of Minolta photography books from my local library, the entire Ansel Adams series, and dozens of magazines.  By the way, most of the photo mags you find at the newsstand suck.  Save your money.  They’re 90% ads and 10% fluff.  The two exceptions are the fantastic pro-oriented PDN and Britain’s aptly named Practical Photography.  The latter can be hard to find here in The Colonies, but Borders usually carries it and you can subscribe via the link above.  It’s worth the hunt though, as it’s chock full of useful tips for noobie photogs as well as inspiration for the more jaded seasoned shooter.  In addition to the ridiculous over-abundance of glossy mags full of “handy tips” and “the hottest gear reviews” there are tons of great photo art mags like Aperture and 125 which, if you’re short on inspiration, are awesome to have around.

Flickr is another massive repository of knowledge and inspiration that helped me tremendously as I was finding my way photographically.  At first I was using it just to store and share my images, but once I discovered the vast variety of discussion groups on the site I was enthralled.  No matter what your photographic interest, there’s a group (or several) devoted to it.  Only use C-41 processed black & white films?  There’s a group for that.  If you want to be inspired and pushed to improve your work, join one of the dozens of “challenge” groups that provide weekly themes and assignments for their members to work on.  A Flickr group was even the basis for my own Project365 endeavor.  And talk about inspiration–the quality of work on the site is mind-blowing.  You can get all this for FREE, but it’s only $25 a year for the Pro upgrade which offers unlimited uploads/storage and a lot more.

As I have developed my abilities I have found myself seeking less technical knowledge and more inspiration.  I keep up with all the big-name photo bloggerati like David Hobby, Zack Arias, Joe McNally, David DuChemin et al (see my Inspiration links below) but I have reached a point where I’m focused on creating better work (and getting paid for it).

That’s where the self-motivation comes in.

Just Do It GET OFF YOUR ASS

Sorry, Nike.  I don’t wanna get sued. Zack Arias uses the more polite acronym “GOYA”.  He’s classier than I am, I’ll admit.

It’s a daily struggle for me to get out from behind this computer and make photos.  Sure, it’s no problem when a client is paying me do it.  But since I’m a relative newcomer in my market I have to focus on constantly improving my work and getting it noticed.  That means taking lots of photos and pushing my limits on a daily basis.  There are more people with better cameras and internet access to share their work than ever before, and I know that if I don’t bust my ass every single day then I will be just another guy with a nice camera.

As it is Oscar season, I’ll put you in an actor’s shoes and ask:  what’s your motivation?

Creating great art?  Making a living?  Fear of failure?  Telling a story?  In my case, all four.  That, and I would probably stab someone if I had to hold down a job in a cubicle all day.  I simply have to do this.  I tell myself that every single day when I start to plunge deeper into the great rabbit hole of Teh Interwebz, and I remove my butt from this chair and force myself to go make some photos, meet some potential clients, or learn something new about running this business.

So find your motivation.  Embrace it.  Light the fire any way you can and stoke the hell out of it if you want to get better.

I admit, it’s very easy to look out the window and say to myself “meh, it’s a bad day to go shoot”.  Too hot, too cloudy, too cold, nothing interesting to photograph, blah blah blah.  If you look, you’ll find something.  If you just GO you’ll get there.  Or somewhere interesting at least.
And on that bombshell…here’s yesterday’s Project365 shot.  An outtake from a corporate portrait shoot.