One of my passions is “Event Photography”, specifically Jazz performances. I love the joy of necessarily impromptu photography resonating with the inventiveness of the music. For “impromptu”, you can read: difficult, challenging, frustrating and full of lost chances - at the same time as it is: surprising, moody, inspiring and serendipitous. The images below fall into the serendipitous category, as far as I am concerned, for a number of reasons I explain below.  

I See You GaelCOPYRIGHT 2008 Paul Grayson AMDG

I See You Gael

While the talented bass player Gael Petrina was lost in his music, I was lost in my eyepiece, as I was gripped by the visual power of Miles Davis’ spirit critically encouraging the younger, living artist.

I was deeply touched by the greeting “I see you”, used by the Na’vi people in the film Avatar.  It seemed to convey, all at the same time, love, respect, knowledge and compassion. That is what I saw in the stern gaze of the older master gazing over the shoulder of the young, still-developing artist. A case of trumpet encouraging bass and experience providing inspiration, long after the trumpet fell silent.

From a cramped position in a poorly lit venue, I shot numerous rapid-fire images, always trying to capture the emotion of both the living and the dead artists and the strange dynamic that seemed to link them across the years.

Finally, I personally like the youth and angle of Gael's head, which for me resonates with the other-worldly look of characters in Renaissance religious painting.

I See You Boney

Another venue and another artist, this time a talented Jazz trumpeter of today Boney Fields, who had another audience from the past in Louis Armstrong. But what a difference in character and feel, as the good-natured Louis beams encouragingly at his modern  follower!

Again a cramped and even worse-lit occasion, except that this time  I had a technically improved  camera and development software at my disposal.

I See You BoneyCopyrighted Digital Photograph

Aesthetic, Social And Technical Choices

In each case, moving a couple of inches to the right or the left gave marginally different angles of view of the Jazz posters and the live musicians. So I shifted about in my seat so as to not disturb the other audience members too much. For the same reason and so as to not disturb the mood of the music, I almost always avoid using flash.

For the Gael capture using a D300, I had less ISO available than I do with a D800 and I had to accept that in order to have a little depth of field to capture the poster of Miles Davis together with the musician (f 3.5), I had to try and find the exactly right moment to use a slow exposure of 1/40s.

For the Boney image, despite using a boosted and much higher base ISO, the lighting was so poor that exposure was even slower than for the Gael image. Also, I was using a prime lens with no vibration reduction, so I compensated with a monopod, a steady hand and good timing. I had no latitude for an aperture choice to enhance depth of focus, but, luckily Louis is such a powerful visual icon, that viewers of the image can understand the reference immediately, despite the soft focus, I hope. 

Shooting Jazz

Given the choice of flashless, slower photography, I have gained a lot of practice in anticipating musicians actions and timing the moment of exposure when there is a fraction of time when the scene is both somewhat in repose and interesting. This requires some knowledge of the music and can often mean accepting some movement of hands or background while focusing in on my target part of the scene. I feel that it also results in a certain style of shot that reflects my desire to enter into the inspirational process of the Jazz performers.

Finally, lighting is the perennial wild card in such venues. They are lit for ambience and not for visual clarity, mainly in red, with scattered bursts of random primary colours. My most-used solution is to develop in black and white, which evens out the worst of the color contrasts and provides much improved definition for faces "blown out" by the red.

Data for I See You Gael

Camera: Nikon D300

Lens: VR 70-200mm zoom f/2.8G

Focal Length: 95mm

VR: ON

Focus Mode: AF-C

Aperture: f/3.5

Shutter Speed: 1/40s

Auto Focus -Area Mode: Single

Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority

Exposure Compensation : 0EV

Metering: Centre Weighted

ISO Sensitivity: 2500

Hand held

Data for I See You Boney

Camera: Nikon D800

Lens: 60mm prime f2,8

Focal Length: 60mm

Focus Mode: AF-C

Aperture: f/2.8

Shutter Speed: 1/13s

Auto Focus -Area Mode: Single

Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority

Exposure Compensation : 0EV

Metering: Matrix

ISO Sensitivity: 0.3 EV over 6400

Mounted on a Monopod

I hope that you enjoyed seeing these images, as much as I did in capturing them, at the same time as I was enjoying the thrill of the music.

Copyright ã Paul Grayson 2014