The Junior Musical Recital.

[jiro]

2 of my kids was asked to perform or should I say play a music piece for this years Junior Musical Recital at their music school. Both of them would be playing the piano. Seeing this as an opportunity for me to further practice timing my shots, thinking about composition, and trying to learn more about my Nikon D70, I brought my camera to the occasion.

It was breezing cold in town and maybe that is why only few people went to the recital. Nevertheless, The kids are excited to perform their pieces. Most are really nervous. Some are even too shy to talk on the mic as you can barely understand what they're saying about the piece they would perform but all is well.

The recital was inside the local mall. Of all the possible locations available, they decided to place the stage and the piano at the end part of the cinema alley where all sorts of lightings are available. Great! Another nightmare for the camera's white balance settings. Neon lights are everywhere, not to mention the multiple fluorescent lights coming from the adjacent stores surrounding the alley. Still, I decided to put the D70 to auto white balance and hope that it wouldn't be that too bad. I used my 50mm f/1.8D lens so I can still get a good hand holdable shutter speed for my shots. I set the ISO of my camera to ISO 800 and again, Due to the multiple lighting sources, I already set my mind to convert my shots later to B&W.

Here are the shots I got. Oh, before I forgot, I initially tried to determine who was the event organizer and asked her permission if I can take shots of the kids while they are performing. She agreed to the idea provided I give her a copy for the school. I happily obliged. I kept both the colored and the b&w versions so we'll see if she'll like both or the other. All images were taken using my Nikon D70 and a Nikon 50mm f/1.8D lens. Exposure is at ISO 800, f/2.0 @ 1/50 second.

First stop was this cute young cowgirl playing the guitar.


The next performer was the guitar duo of this teacher and his student.



The 3rd one was this happy girl who's going to play the piano. Here she is introducing the name of the piece she'd be playing.



Now, the 4th one was this young and very confident piano student.



The next one performing, the 5th one is this fine, young girl with a very nice voice and a good piano player. I was having a hard time with my focusing so pardon the blurriness of my main subject. It's a hit and miss for me on this occasion.



The 6th performer is this young lady. She has the most challenging piece of all. Here, she was playing together with her mentor as the piece is for a duet in piano. They needed the other piano teacher to help them out as their page turner. What a lovely page turner she is.



The 7th performer was this nice little kid. They all really tried to perform as good as they can sight-reading. I knew it was a big challenge for all of them besides the fact that they are performing in a crowd. Luckily, most of them performed flawlessly like her.



The next girl to perform was this little lady. Again, this was a duet in piano. The teacher was also the head event organizer. The piece was really nice though I forgot the name of the piano piece as I was busy trying to find the appropriate angle to get some good shots.



Here they are performing together on this next shot.



And of course, for every occasion like this, there will always be proud parents who wants to record all these nice memories of their kids.



This little girl was the 11th to perform for the recital. Her teacher was really very supportive as she sometimes forgot the notes to play. She was able to finish the piano piece in a good way.



Again, some more proud parents taking pictures and video recording the event.



This fine, young lady performed again with a definitely more challenging piece on her own. She finished playing it with flying colors.



As the event was nearing its final moment, I saw the head coordinator somehow hoping or should I say praying for thankfulness for the nice outcome of the whole recital.



There was still about 5 more kids to perform but the weather outside is really getting nasty so we decided to head home. Before I go, I talked to her and told her that I will be e-mailing the shots so she could see all of them. All in all, it was a nice day of shooting. I learned a lot again from the experience, and still, trying to learn more on how to take good photographs.

Thank you very much for looking at this post up to the end. :thumb

[speedneeder]

I really like the last one, in the context of the music teacher at the concert.
I wonder what she is thinking?

[Donald]

Willie

A fine set of images and which ones we prefer or don't prefer will, I'm sure, be a matter of personal taste.

For me those that stand out are these three

I think each of them tells a wonderful story. A story of commitment, determination, pride, support, effort and so many more things.

On top of that they are, I think, wonderfully crafted images. You have 'captured the moment' and done so very competently. They are wonderfully composed, well lit and well processed.

[jiro]

I really like the last one, in the context of the music teacher at the concert.
I wonder what she is thinking?

I think it would be more of thankfulness and pride that all came out pretty nicely with the kids. Thanks, Brian.

[jiro]

Thanks a lot, Donald.

[dave keeley]

There is a nice photo essay here well told, a difficult enough subject but you seem to have had great light which you used well.

I have only tried a similar subject on one occassion with mixed results, what i found worked was a limited dof to isolate the subject from the background, also gives advantage of freezing motion in the important moving parts.
http://pix.ie/nikondave/2222364

[GrahamH]

I'm with Donalds choices. Especially the second one. Something about the intensity, the focus comes through.
Great opportunity. You seemed to be able to move around some, foot zoom is great, do more. It'll give you more compositional choices as well.
I've done this sort of thing a couple of times (charity events, as you have here). My main concern initially was that I would be a distraction. However, it seems if you have big camera around your neck and act as if you belong there, no-one else seems to see you. A great way to become invisible. Even works at weddings. People also move more readily for you.

Graham

[JPS]

Nothing more to add that has not already been said, but just wanted to say a great set of picture and a great story board.
Well done.

[Crovean]

You captured an awesome image on the last photo.

[speedneeder]

I think it would be more of thankfulness and pride that all came out pretty nicely with the kids. Thanks, Brian.

Maybe pride, I see a tremendous sense of accomplishment. Perhaps the same, though to me not quite.

Edit - you know, looking at it again, I see only appreciation and accomplishment.
I get the feeling that she really respects the accomplishments of the musicians.

[Loose Canon]

Hi Willie!

There is absolutely nothing I could tell you about these shots that you wouldn’t already know.

Well, except maybe for this, and this is just my first thoughts/opinion!

They all have a pretty huge “awesome” factor and there is no doubt that the Event Organizer/Teacher, etc. would be thrilled to have these. The “A” factor goes way beyond any technical aspects and way into snagging these young musicians doing their thing, dealing with stage fright, and making sure the “Show Must Go On”!

I know what they are going through as a first time on “stage”. One thing you mentioned about they (some?) are doing this recital reading really caught my attention. It is hard enough to read a piece first time seeing it. But to do so in concert is absolutely amazing. My hat is off to their Instructor and especially to the Musicians.

The only technical aspect of these photos I could critique is that they don’t come posted with sound! Seeing them and reading your leads makes me wish I would have camped out for tickets!

Well done, sir, and a hugely fun post to read.

[Antonio Correia]

Excellent set of images Willie.
You and the black and white

Were people disturbed by the noise of the camera ?