2006 with Dare 2 Dream

This year's new years eve is one of my two most memorable New Years Eve's ever. Considering that the other one was spent hiking, and camping over night in a Cave, this one was quite an improvement.

Thanks to my friend Jon Lamborn who invited me along on a road trip to Elsberry Missouri, to photograph Dare 2 Dream (D2D), a worship band. What a great idea, to offer a youth event at churches to ring in the new year. Here is a site that links to many of St. Louis area worship bands and events http://stlcma.org/index.php

Church photography has it's challenges, as any wedding photographer can tell you. The lighting is usually poor, so you need a powerful flash to compensate. I've met some people who don't allow flashes at their weddings, well, they are going to get bad pictures. In low light conditions the camera keeps the shutter open longer to allow more light in. Fine if you are taking a picture of something that doesn't move and you use a tripod. For moving subjects you will get a blurry picture. This occasionally works to your advantage, for an artistic effect, but most of the time it just looks bad. If you have a subject who can keep perfectly still, you can use existing light for an interesting effect. But since most people can't hold perfectly still, using a flash for most shots is still perferable. Pop up flashes don't go very far, only about 10 to 12 feet, and the light from the flash drops off considerably after only about 5 feet. So you need a powerful flash if you can't be close to your subject. Flashes are rated in guide numbers. A guide number of 100 or more is preferable. For best results, use the same manufacturer as the camera. Today's cameras communicate focal distance information between the camera and the flash. The nice part about that is you can set the flash to TTL, for automatic, and the camera will tell the flash how far to send the light. The downside is that flashes are very expensive, and knock off brands just don't do as well as the flash made and tested to work with the camera. For this event I was shooting with the Canon 20D and the 580EX flash.

This is the second photoshoot I've done of D2D. Here are some tips for photographing a band.
1. Get the band's permission to photograph them.
2. When possible photograph them during warm up practice, when the lights are still on full.
3. Get close ups of each band member.
4. Get group shots that include everyone in the band. Take lots of shots to maximize the chances of getting all members faces in the shots.

The band member that is most difficult to shoot is the drummer. He or she is in the back, and often obscured by other band members. Make an effort to get access to the drummer. You can get some great shots with those sticks flying if you can get back stage or on the stage during practice.

Group shots are very tricky. Use a wide angle lens and a high enough f-stop for enough depth of field to compensate for the varying positions of the band members.

Enough tips, here is the rest of the story. The road trip up was fun. We had two vans, a full size and a mini van. We got to Elsberry in plenty of time since D2D wasn't scheduled until 11:30 pm. So we went in search of the hotel. The nearest hotel was over in Troy Missouri, and I had printed directions to the hotel from MapQuest before we went. I made the reservation in advance, to be sure we'd get a room, which locked us into finding that specific hotel. For some odd reason the directions took us down a gravel, winding road out into the middle of back country Missouri, and we landed at a ranch of some sort. With everyone's navigation tips, we eventually followed the lights to the population center and managed to find the hotel. The stars were nice out in the country. Ah yes, road trips are always fun.

Back in Elsberry, the band warmed up and I had a great time listening and photographing the band, both during practice and during the performance. This was a youth event and it was great to see the young people singing and worshiping God. The band was great and the church was hopping. Everyone was on their feet clapping and singing throughout the performance.

We got back to the hotel room at 2:30 am, and up at 6:30 a.m. to go on a wildlife photoshoot. The eagles are back in Missouri, although the weather has been so warm they haven't had to congregate at the damns to get fish (no ice). That just reduces your chance of seeing an eagle. We drove first to Clarksville and saw some eagles fly right over head, later we visited Winfield Missouri, farther south. Jon is a great photographer and got some excellent shots of the birds as well as area landmarks. We had a great time, and so did Jon's Girlfriend Katy and my daughter Brenda, who slept through the photoshoot. Can't say as I blame them.

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