August 1st -
I went up to Musikfest today to pick up my press credentials for shooting Musikfest. I wasn't planning on shooting anything. But, I took a camera and 2 lenses along just in case. I wanted to get to know my way around a little since I never shot there before. After checking the schedule I saw that there was a few Rock/Blues bands playing over at Liederplatz. so, I took a walk over to see what was going on. I ended up shooting "Webb Wilder and The Beatniks" and also "Eric Steckel and Friends". Both bands sounded great and the crowd loved 'em. Eric Steckel reminded me of a young Joe Satriani. I shot 3 rolls of film. I'll be back up there for the Surf bands tomorrow and after that I have to head over to Crocodile Rock in Allentown to shoot Ratt, Extreme and Mean Venus. It's going to be a busy day. Check back for daily updates about Musikfest.
Webb Wilder and The Beatniks
http://robvalineimages.com/-/robvalineimages/gallery.asp?cat=123074Eric Steckel and Friends
http://robvalineimages.com/-/robvalineimages/gallery.asp?cat=123148August 2nd -
I didn't make it to Musikfest today. We had violent thunderstorms in Pottstown today. Since I've been riding my motorcycle back and forth and Musikfest is over an hour away from Pottstown, I decided against going. I did however make it to the Ratt, Extreme and Mean Venus show at Crocodile Rock later in the day and It Rocked ! I'll be posting photos when I get them back.
August 3rd - I won't be shooting Musikfest on August 3rd.
Tuesday, August 4th -
I shot 8 rolls of film today at Musikfest. Bands I shot were The Deb Callahan band, BC & Company, The Lovell Sisters and Ronnie Baker Brooks. Ronnie Baker Brooks put on a stellar performance and was a crowd favorite for sure. There was quite a line of people waiting to buy CD's after the show. I decided to buy one and I got it autographed by the band. I thought Ronnie sounded a lot like Stevie Ray Vaughn and I'm a big SRV fan. Now I'm a RBB fan too. This guy can play the blues. He's one of the best I've seen.
BC & Company
http://robvalineimages.com/-/robvalineimages/gallery.asp?cat=123474The Deb Callahan Band
http://robvalineimages.com/-/robvalineimages/gallery.asp?cat=123479The Lovell Sisters
http://robvalineimages.com/-/robvalineimages/gallery.asp?cat=123496Ronnie Baker Brooks
http://robvalineimages.com/-/robvalineimages/gallery.asp?cat=124875Wednesday, August 5th -
I shot 3 rollls of film today. Some of the things I shot were "Steve Brosky & His Big Lil' Band", "The Chandler Travis Philharmonic", "City Rythm Orchestra" and "The Stars of Bethlehem". The Stars of Bethlehem was a contest in which singers competed for the opportunity to be crowned the star of Bethlehem. The winner of the contest will receive $500.00 and be scheduled to perform at Musikfest 2010. 10 finalists were chosen out of about 500 entries. A winner was chosen out of those 10 finalists. There were some very talented singers and I'm sure it was no easy task picking a winner. They all sounded great. The winner of the Stars of Bethlehem contest was Elana Zerbos. Elana delivered some very powerful vocal performances to make it to the top. One of which was an a Cappella number with no musical accompaniment. The runner up in the contest was Kalli Georgellis. Kalli also performed some very moving numbers and in my opinion could have easily been the winner. Some of the songs she sang were "Somebody to Love" by Queen and "I Will Always Love You" by Whitney Houston.
If I can find time between shooting the bands, I'd like to do some shots of the foods at Musikfest. There's an endless variety of things to eat. I'm still amazed at the enormity of all this. I've been there 3 times now and I still haven't seen all the stages or all the vendors.
The Steve Brosky band
http://robvalineimages.com/-/robvalineimages/gallery.asp?cat=126941The Stars of Bethlehem
http://robvalineimages.com/-/robvalineimages/gallery.asp?cat=126943Musikfest 2009 Miscellaneous - This folder contains foods, crafts and some of the smaller stages and bands where I did about 10 shots or less. Also some of the sites I saw walking around at Musikfest. Some of the bands in this folder are:
John Stevens Doubleshot
John Frinzi
Runa Pacha Wind Rhythms
The Chandler Travis Philharmonic
City Rhythms Orchestra
The Fabulous Greaseband
http://robvalineimages.com/-/robvalineimages/gallery.asp?cat=126946Thursday, August 6th -
I shot another 6 rolls of film today at Musikfest. The first band I shot was at Americaplatz. They're a band I've been wanting to shoot for quite a while, ... "Friar's Point". "Friar's Point" is a Blues Rock band from Kutztown, Pennsylvania with Mary Dunbar as their lead vocalist. They put on a moving performance and I really enjoyed the show. The next band up at Americaplatz was "The Todd Wolfe Band". Todd is the former lead guitarist for Sheryl Crow and is from the Easton area. The Todd Wolfe Band put on a great show and invited a few friends on stage to perform as well. Friends Sarah Ayers and Rosemary Hawkins joined Todd on stage to each sing a few numbers. After the bands at Americaplatz, I just kind of wandered around a little. I did some food shots and got to sample some of the foods at Musikfest. One of the benefits of being a food photographer at Musikfest is that the vendors tend to give you samples of their creations. I ate good today. There's an endless variety of foods at Musikfest. To end the night I did a few shots of "The Fabulous Greaseband". They had quite a crowd at Festplatz and put on a lively perrformance.
Friar's Point
http://robvalineimages.com/-/robvalineimages/gallery.asp?cat=123947The Todd Wolfe Band
http://robvalineimages.com/-/robvalineimages/gallery.asp?cat=124025 Friday, August 7th -
I decided to stay home today and try to get caught up on some scanning of negatives.
I'm getting quite a pile to sort through. If you were one of the bands or people I shot at Musikfest, please try to be patient. It could be a while until I get everything sorted out.
Saturday, August 8th -
This was a busy day. I shot 9 rolls of film today. As soon as one band was finished playing on one stage, I headed to another stage to shoot a different band. I didn't have much time to sample foods today. I grabbed a quick Taco between bands and kept shooting. I did do a few food shots. But, I was mainly shooting bands today. The first band was "Mike Dugan & The Blues Mission" at Americaplatz. As soon as they were done playing I headed over to Pennsylvania Lottery Volksplatz to shoot "Witches in Bikinis". I never shot at this stage before and didn't know what to expect. This was by far the most difficult performance for me to shoot at Musikfest so far. The main problem was the crowd completely blocked the front of the stage and there was no room to move. I did a few shots from in front of the stage with a 50mm lens then I shot from side stage (both sides)and actually was on stage. Lighting on this stage was also a bit of a challenge. It's a good thing I was shooting with 2 cameras and could change the film in one of the bodies. ISO 400 was useless, I did a few shots with ISO 800 and then put in Provia 400X pushed 2 stops to ISO 1600 and that seemed to work. Hopefully I got a few decent shots. I had one hour to shoot "Witches in Bikinis" and then I had to head over to The Sands River Place to shoot "George Thorogood". 3 songs from the pit, No flash and out. George Rocked and the lighting was great. After George, I headed back to Americaplatz for "John Lee Hooker Jr." John was another crowd favorite and he put on a great show. I'm looking forward to seeing the photos from today.
Mike Dugan and The Blues Mission
http://robvalineimages.com/-/robvalineimages/gallery.asp?cat=124404Witches in Bikinis
http://robvalineimages.com/-/robvalineimages/gallery.asp?cat=124751George Thorogood
http://robvalineimages.com/-/robvalineimages/gallery.asp?cat=127553John Lee Hooker Jr.
http://robvalineimages.com/-/robvalineimages/gallery.asp?cat=125642Sunday, August 9th - The Last Day of Musikfest 2009
It was another busy day at Musikfest. I think I shot 5 rolls of film. Unfortunately, I didn't make it to shoot everyone that I wanted to. My plans were to start out shooting "Scott Marshall and Marshall's Highway" up at Americaplatz. It didn't quite work out that way. I stopped in Festplatz to get a few shots of "Brave Combo" because it was right next to the press trailer. While I was shooting "Brave Combo" it started to rain and pretty darn hard. I was starting to get a little concerned about all of the electrical wiring and power cords being under water. I stayed at Festplatz until the rain stopped because it's under a tent and I didn't want to go out in the rain with my camera gear. The rain didn't seem to have much of an effect on peoples spirits. People were walking around in ponchos and carrying umbrellas. After the rain stopped, I went up to Americaplatz hoping to try to catch Scott Marshall. But, they were already gone. Apparently, they stopped playing early because of the rain. The next band up on stage at Americaplatz was "The Guitardogs". I got quite a few shots of The Guitardogs. The lighting was good and I was able to shoot ISO 400 film without flash with no problem. The next band up was "The Philadelphia Funk Authority". The crowd loved this band and they put on a great show. After shooting "The Philadelphia Funk Authority", there was a fireworks display and I was ready for photos with my tripod. I shot a roll of ISO 100 speed slide film of the fireworks. The fireworks show was spectacular. I hope I got some good shots. Now I just need to sort everything out. I have 19 rolls of film in my fridge that need to go to the lab and there are 9 that I sent out earlier this week that should be back soon. It could be a few weeks until everything is sorted, scanned, edited and uploaded to my web site. For those of you that I photographed, the only thing I can tell you is check back every couple of days for your photos. I think I should have a T Shirt that says "I Survived Musikfest". I rode my motorcycle back and forth an hour and a half each way, every day throughout the entire event. I got rained on, I ate bugs riding back and forth, I got a fifty dollar parking ticket for parking in a handicapped zone (I didn't see the sign). I actually had parking passes from Musikfest. But, being new this year, I didn't figure out that there was a map on the back of the passes of where I was supposed to be parking until after I got the ticket. I lugged around a backpack full of gear while wearing a photographer's vest in ninety degree heat. The backpack is waterproof and I needed it to protect my gear in case of rain. I brought a rain coat with me every day just in case it rained and the one day I forgot it, It rained, of course. I was soaked by the time I got home on the motorcycle. I shot a total of 36 rolls of film. Would I do it again ? We'll see, I have a year to think about it. This is going to be an event to remember for a long time and I have the pictures to prove it. I made a lot of new friends, met some extremely talented musicians and got to push my photography gear to the limits of it's abilities in challenging lighting situatons. I'll post links to the photos when everything is sorted out.
Brave Combo
http://robvalineimages.com/-/robvalineimages/gallery.asp?cat=126966The Guitardogs
http://robvalineimages.com/-/robvalineimages/gallery.asp?cat=125187Philadelphia Funk Authority
http://robvalineimages.com/-/robvalineimages/gallery.asp?cat=125232Musikfest Fireworks photos
http://robvalineimages.com/-/robvalineimages/gallery.asp?cat=124617Keep Rockin' !
Rob Valine
www.RobValineimages.com