Your humble photographer got some love from LAist.com writer Jeremy Oberstein when in his review of Wilco he referred to me as “the inimitable Michael Orlosky.” Clearly this was just an example if the publication’s ebullient tone run amok, but it’s nice to see.

Jeremy’s review of the show at the Wiltern even tied in the imagery with some colorful copy:

Visually, the show was gorgeous. Deep red lights bathed the aggressive Bull Black Nova, from the new album and during the beautiful Reservations, from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, elegant blues showered Tweedy and Co. with great effect.

I like that.

Here’s a shot that didn’t make LAist, because I was late in processing it.

Local hipsters Castledoor met Brooklyn rockers Hopewell at Spaceland on June 8th. I was there shooting for LAist.com. Jeremy Oberstein was there to write about it. See the feature just posted over at LAist.com.

Hopewell, Castledoor @ Spaceland, 6/07/09 on LAist.com

I had major troubles with the lighting. I’m not at all happy with the lack of truly sharp frames from this show. I carried with me the 50mm f/1.4, the 85mm f/1.8 and the 15mm fisheye. I left the 24-105 f/4L at home. I learned more lessons — but I’ve also found more confusions. I tried to use the ST-E2 IR transmitter without a flash, trying to get help from the auto-focus assist beam it has. Results were mixed. I got things close to being in focus, but it was very slow. There is a beat pause after you press the focus button to when the beam goes out. This is not great when people are moving around. Still, I took plenty of frames when the singer was at the mic, and still I found a lack of sharpness. Was it the extreme aperture of my lenses? I tend to think so, but I have good examples of sharp focus from at least f/1.6 with that 50mm before. So what was the issue? When Hopewell was on the stage, they asked to turn the lights down. Damn them! So there was one white light off to the side that I had to work with. I should have gotten some sharply focused frames, but it feels like I didn’t. Was it camera shake? I used to think 1/160th of a second was the slowest I could go. Now I think 1/200 is the absolute slowest I should go. When Castledoor was on the stage, the lights were just red and blue the whole time. I am sure the red makes it hard for a red autofocus beam to operate.

Should I go with my own flash? Probably. I try to avoid it, but maybe I could try it for a few shots. We’ll see. If I shoot Spaceland again, I will definitely bring a flash on a bracket or something.

And, I’ll buy a 16-35 f/2.8L. Maybe.

Hopewell on Myspace
Castledoor on Myspace

P.s. I was extra disappointed with my photographic results, when I discovered that Castledoor’s keyboardist is a stunning photographer in her own right. I should at least take better pictures than the band!

I remember tales of Serious Photographers who wouldn’t be caught dead shooting a wedding. I guess it can be considered base or mercenary. I’ve heard stories of photogs doing weddings on the weekends for money but keeping it Very Secret from their contemporaries.

Then there are some photographers I admire who do weddings for fun or profit. They are not so pretentious and see the world as filled with opportunity for great photos. That seems reasonable to me

I recently discovered that concert photography also suffers from a similar lack of respect. Some of my friends and neighbors consider the photography of pop musicians unartful, silly, boring, or even (gasp) too easy. I’ve been told directly by Serious Photographers that concert photography lacks merit and impact!

I don’t care. I love it.

I’ve recently joined the pool of photographers shooting concerts for the Los Angeles life and culture blog LAist.com. You may recall one of my photos being picked as Photo of the Day over there a while back. My first assignment for them was last month to take pictures of a couple great bands: The Dears and Great Northern. The feature was published on LAist.com over this past weekend, and I’m thrilled. The writer of this piece, Jeremy, is very talented and a nice person as well.

I see concert photography as a unique and unparalleled look at human expression, I see sides of humans that can be captured no other way. I think like any photography, it can be easy to do, but hard to do well. I believe it’s valid, worthwhile, and above all exciting. I’m looking forward to doing more concert work for LAist.com in the months ahead.

Great Northern, The Dears @ Echoplex 5/23/09 – LAist.

LAist: Add This to One of Our Favorite Photos of LA.

Just noticed that LAist.com liked my photo of Los Angeles. That’s so great. I’ve always liked those peeps.

View it large and on black, too.

I took this photo a couple weeks ago when I walked up to Griffith Observatory. I developed the film and scanned it this past weekend. Such a great feeling!

Play this: “People Get Ready” – The Frames