The Magical Bouncing Kaskade
I'm sure some of you are reading this and wondering, what in the world is a magical bouncing Kaskade? Well, it's pretty simple really. Kaskade is one of the top house music DJs in the world who hails from San Francisco. His style and skills on the turn tables make him a magical artist in the electronic music world. And when Mr. Kaskade, a.k.a Ryan Raddon, gets going behind the decks of a major nightclub, he bounces.
This is great for the hoards of dance music aficionado's who were packing the dance floor of FUR Nightclub last Saturday night. But not so great if you're a
photographer trying to capture the perfect shot in low light. Seriously, it seems as though every single week is a new challenge facing me in these clubs. Two weeks ago it was the incredible dying flash. This week it's trying to get Mr. Kaskade to appear without the crazy blur surrounding his head. Needless to say, I found a few ways to make this work in my
latest nightlife gallery.
To be perfectly honest, aside from the bouncing, shooting Kaskade is always a joy. His style is so perfectly suited for a live performance because he has such energy during his sets. Though I can recall from my first time shooting Kaskade at the
Electro-Techno-Disco Popsicle show in SF, he didn't bounce quite like he does today. Either way, both times I've had the opportunity to shoot photos of this world-class DJ, I've walked away with something I would gladly display on my walls. The 3 photos you see here are my favorites and will probably grace my walls one day in the near future.
Labels: Clubs, Entertainment, House, Music, Nightlife, Techno, Trance
Hockey Invasion
The NHL continues to press themselves into my life with the Washington Capitals facing the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. For hockey fans, this is a dream match-up because it puts the game's top two players, Caps forward Alex Ovechkin vs. Pens captain Sidney Crosby face to face. For sports fans in general, it's pure excitement at it's highest level. And for me, well...I can't get enough of it!
The series has not disappointed and it's not for the faint at heart. All but one game has been decided by 1 point. 3 games have gone into overtime. Crosby and Ovi have combined to score 13 goals and 10 assists. It has been drama in every single minute of play. And the best part of it all... the series is tied 3-3 and it comes home for game 7 in DC tomorrow night. Yeah...a sea of red will welcome back our boys for one more night of chaos on ice.
The photos you're seeing here are from game 5 last Saturday night when I got the chance to take Sup to her first hockey game. I mean, not only was it her first game...it was the darn playoffs. Talk about being thrown right into the mix. And she fit right in. She wore a Caps hat and emptied her lungs trying to will our team to victory. The Caps lost that game, but they play on once more. And hopefully they have a new fan in Sup.
Labels: Capitals, Hockey, sports
Loose Marbles Packs Tempo at Muse
I'm falling behind on my blog updates, so I figured it was time to get everyone up to speed on all the happenings in DC. Last week was absolutely incredible in the amount of energy and things to do. We had dancing, we had playoff hockey, we had great food and we had mothers day. No rest for the weary!
So as most of you know, I've started hosting a weekly lindy hop dance at Muse Lounge. We call the dance "Tempo" and it's typically DJ'd by some of our local jazz music talents. About a month ago when all of this was announced, Lily Matini sent me a note asking if Muse could handle a band. This is a lounge/nightclub in downtown that usually has house music DJs pumping tunes while go-go dancers strut their stuff on perfectly positioned podiums throughout the venue. So my first reaction was... nah!
But Lily kept after me, we talked with the GM and we quickly learned they in fact could handle live music. So the table was set to bring in New Orleans jazz band The Loose Marbles. Most dancers in the lindy hop world know of Loose Marbles because they were the band who performed the music for the competitions this past year at ULHS. So when we announced this band was coming to DC, reception was very broad and positive.
Well last Wednesday night the Marbles performed to a packed house at Muse. We had over 100 people show up on a rainy night in the middle of the week to see this band. I didn't even dance that much because I was too busy socializing and just enjoying the sight of so many dancers showing the DC love to the band. It was a special night to say the least.
I want to send out a special thank you to Lee Tucker for DJing the band breaks, Paul Roth for taking these photos, Debra Sternberg for booking the band and Ms. Lily Matini for being the thorn in my side to make all this happen. And thank you to the 100-plus dancers who came out to support one of the truely talented bands of our time!
Labels: Dancing, Entertainment, Lindy Hop, Music, Swing, Swing Dance
The Terrace Ringleader: Cedric Gervais
I've been shooting nightlife photos for over 4 years now. I've been in big clubs, little clubs, well designed clubs and holes in the wall. I feel like I've seen it all when it comes to the nocturnal experience. But never before (luckily) have I ever experienced serious technical difficulties while shooting...until this past weekend.
On Saturday, May 2nd, Club Glow and FUR Nightclub
hosted Space resident Cedric Gervais from Miami. Gervais is one of these DJs that's easy to hate on. He's French, looks incredibly cool in sunglasses, is resident DJ at one of the top clubs in the world, has hit dance records, has worked with several major rock stars, and is followed by a clique of unnaturally good looking female fans known as "The Gervettes."
There is, however, more to the Marseilles native than meets the eye or the ear. Recent years have seen the Miami DJ/Producer catapult into the ranks of electronic music stardom. His snowballing success and rock star persona is as intriguing as it is evident. In a time when its normal to speculate about the artistic validity of artists that have "the look," Cedric boldly accepts that he's a product and demonstrates that he's got the substance to back up the style. Just ask Deep Dish or Lenny Kravitz what they think of him and his music.
So you can understand how frustrated I was when the first few shots I took of opening DJ Sultan failed to produce a decent image. Were my settings off? Did I get bumped while taking the shot? What was going on here??? That's when I realized my camera wasn't focusing. I looked at the front and noticed my light meter wasn't firing upon focus. When I removed my flash, it worked. All I could think was, am I going crazy here??? Did I mistakenly turn it off somewhere?
Long story short, the external flash batteries had died. The external flash has a meter that typically fires for auto-focus. Because the batteries were dying a slow and painful death, I was able to manually focus a few shots while still using the flash. But then after about 20 minutes into Gervais set, the entire flash was dead in the water. So I went back to my roots and took what I could using the stock flash on the camera.
Sometimes it's good to just turn your flash off if you're trying to capture lighting effects without much attention on your subject. So I think overall I was able to capture some pretty decent shots considering. But man is it frustrating when you're in a DJ booth with a world-class DJ, trying to do your job and suddenly your equipment fails. Ugh!
The good news is, I now have back-ups. I also have
a decent set of pictures from the night and a lesson learned. And if you're wondering, Gervais put on a great show. His set was ripe with hard-hitting electro and progressive house that I could feel in my bones hours after I left the show. Just another night on the DC nightlife beat.
Labels: Entertainment, House, Music, Nightlife, Trance
I'm sure some of you are reading this and wondering, what in the world is a magical bouncing Kaskade? Well, it's pretty simple really. Kaskade is one of the top house music DJs in the world who hails from San Francisco. His style and skills on the turn tables make him a magical artist in the electronic music world. And when Mr. Kaskade, a.k.a Ryan Raddon, gets going behind the decks of a major nightclub, he bounces.
