A Concert in the Park

[CNelson]

We are in northern California for a couple of weeks and many things had prevented me from taking photos until last friday when there was a free concert in the park a short walk from our place. It was a beautiful evening and a great venue as you can see from the background. The band was called Gator Beat and they do a zydeco style of music. Not my favorite but I was pleased to have time and a target to shoot with my Canon.

#1: I do tend to play with some of my images



#2: Check out the background at this venue



#3: I was fighting strong oblique lighting from a setting sun...great light but difficult to work with when you can't control the subject



#4: The crowd danced below a beautiful Mount Shasta



We are truly blessed to have such a venue within a short walk from our place.

Chuck

[jiro]

We are truly blessed to have such a venue within a short walk from our place.

Chuck

You are indeed!

[Wirefox]

Now why can't we have nice things like this? The nearest we get is Morris Dancing which seems to the the domain of weird beards who drive volvos and drink beer with mud in it. I must admit being an isolationist sort of Brit I didn't actually think this kind of thing went on in the states any more. The bits of the states I have visited did nothing to dispel the TV mythology. It must be a condition of the 'Special Relationship' that we only get to see the bits that involve making money, stealing money or putting big holes in people with large hand guns. Like Jiro's work this goes a long way to show us a side of the US which involves the lives of real people.

[rob marshall]

Now why can't we have nice things like this?

Don't be such a Muppet, Steve. We can't have things like this because Britain is broken!

[Wirefox]

Don't be such a Muppet, Steve. We can't have things like this because Britain is broken!

I know, I know...somebody gave it to Tony and he threw it out of his pram. I blame the EU. Which idiot ever supposed we could be 'Europeans' grrrr

[CNelson]

Like Jiro's work this goes a long way to show us a side of the US which involves the lives of real people.

Thanks Jim....the "fly over" country is quite different from city life. In July I will photograph a street jam and bluegrass festival in a small town in northern California and will likely post some of the shots. It's a wonderful event where "real people" come to jam and enjoy. In the mean time you can see past year events on my website in the "bluegrass" gallery.

I made my living as a big city copy but I grew up in the country and return here as often as I can....I think you can see why.

Chuck

[JohnC]

Some very strong contrasting colours to cope with there, photo 3 is a very powerful image, love the lady's hat. They're obviously having a great time dancing too.

In the second and fourth photo I was immediately drawn to that beautiful Shasta mountain (meaning White mountain in the old Karuk language of the Karuk people of North.CA.-I checked it out) Shasta is part of the southern end of the Cascades and at 14,179 ft. the second highest,made up of 4 overlapping volcanic cones. Just shows how taken I was with it...Anyway..lol..to get back to the event. I don't like Zydeco Cajun music and the reason I got to hear some was I went into one of our music shops many years ago - a national chain - and asked for what I really do like and wanted - Bluegrass- and the young lady assistant convinced me that a CD by Buckwheat Zydeco (Stanley Dural Jr.) was what I was after. I got home and played half of it once - just not my taste although I really like the accordion with french music. No-one seemed to know what it was, I couldn't get a CD of Bluegrass anywhere - this was BG..Before Google and it wasn't until 1998 when we met a lady from Kansas City on a Caribbean cruise ship that I eventually got some. What a kind lady - she sent me 5 Bluegrass CDs from Kansas. I have several songs uploaded to my iPod and listened to them on my recent trip-What drew me to Bluegrass was Earl Scruggs and Lester Flatt playing Foggy Mountain Breakdown (Bonnie & Clyde) Orange Blossom Special and also Dueling Banjos from The Deliverance, originally by Arthur 'Guitar Boogie' Smith and called Feudin' Banjos..(interesting snippet - he successfully sued the film makers because they used it without his permission) I think the banjo is a great instrument and ideal with the fiddle...SO... I'm really looking forward to seeing the photos from the July Bluegrass event.

Chuck - I've gone to your website - the opening slide show and music is wonderful,it's therapeutic, and it's bookmarked now,when I need to chill out I'll open it up .Also just immersed myself in the Bluegrass Gallery, the Scott Valley Festivals..slideshows with music -superb..I'll be up half the night lol..it's almost 11.00pm here,must put the headphones on as my wife won't appreciate Bluegrass at this time of night

[CNelson]

Wow John....you really know your bluegrass and some of my favorite tunes. I used to play in a bluegrass band...the one featured in MISC SHOTS in the bluegrass gallery and in the Gospel Creek temporary gallery in the Client Galleries gallery. We did Foggy Mountain and Dueling Banjos but I played mostly rhythm...I'm a better shooter than a picker. We did meet up and jam with a Cajun bluegrass band once...it was bluegrass with a distinctive Cajun flavor...fun but I prefer more classic bluegrass.

Mount Shasta is indeed a beautiful mountain and I grew up with the view you see in these pictures only about five miles away on a ranch. The mountain imprinted on me and I always recenter when I look at it. I don't mean that in a mystical way...it's just that I know I'm "home."

Thanks for your kind words....glad you enjoy the bluegrass images and music in the background. I play the first one a lot also...

Here's a black and white conversion:



Chuck

[JohnC]

I play acoustic rhythm guitar too,Chuck (and the piano) and also have a Fender Strat 1958/9 re-issue, fiesta red with maple neck... made in California along with an original Roland Echo/Chorus RE-301 (tape unit) Here's Bruce Welch-The Shadows -with the Strat. http://www.brucewelchtribute.com/guitars/stratred.html

I'm Trying to finger how I feel about the B&W image .. it's more intense than the colour image and that's probably because they're playing this time and maybe neither were playing in the colour shot (obviously not the saxophonist) but the lady,in the colour shot, has a very serene/calm look and that certainly impacts and she also has a very clean complexion - lovely skin tone, also colour distracts the eye as it moves around a photo and that doesn't happen with B&W and so the concentration is focused more (I'm not an art critic ..lol it's just what I 'think' may be happening) so, I do prefer the colour shot and in the last shot (I've spent some time going over these photos. lol) is that the big smile (laughing really) of the man nearest to you is uplifting- that he's really enjoying his dance comes across very strongly, maybe the lady just told him a joke

Not many here listen to or even know what Bluegrass is - rather than the Bill Munroe style I prefer the better known 3 finger banjo-plucking style introduced by Earl Scruggs who, as you'll know, was brought into Munroe's Blue Grass Boys band in '45. where he met Lester Flatt. A couple more tunes I have are Black Mountain Rag- Big Black Train, Round Town Gals and Bending the Strings.

Just on this music theme I have an LP - must be a rarity now- of Lightnin' Hopkins whose style of Blues I really like - a name little known here, if at all. Here's one of my favourites- Lonesome Road http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVF-0JKLnd4

I've just shown my wife the website slide show -absolutely stunning she says - she's one grade below teaching piano so appreciates the music too - Debussy-Claire de lune, you'd have a job choosing anything more fitting than that piece.

[CNelson]

I enjoyed Lightnin' Hopkins....more talent in his little finger than I'll ever have. Your Fender Strat has me jealous....in my teen years when I played in a tenny-bopper band I would love to have had one...it cost $500 at the time but today the same guitar is worth several thousand. I play a couple Martin guitars which are good for bluegrass. (One at a time though.) Thanks again for the kind words and "keep pickin'."

Chuck