{"id":588,"date":"2014-10-24T16:53:54","date_gmt":"2014-10-24T20:53:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/wintle\/?p=588"},"modified":"2014-10-28T12:17:01","modified_gmt":"2014-10-28T16:17:01","slug":"588","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/wintle\/2014\/10\/24\/588\/","title":{"rendered":"Non-science: Concert Photography in Downtown Toronto"},"content":{"rendered":"

I seem to be morphing, at least part of the time, into a concert photographer.<\/p>\n

\"Kai<\/a>
\nToronto singer-songwriter Kai tears the roof off.<\/em><\/p>\n

Let me explain. Over the past few years, I’ve occasionally headed down to the financial district to catch a lunchtime concert at First Canadian Place<\/a>, the home of BMO Bank of Montreal<\/a>. Since my first visit to see guitarist Colin James<\/a>, I’d been a few times, work schedule and musical preferences permitting. After Colin James, I saw Celtic fiddler Natalie MacMaster<\/a>, Toronto singer-songwriter Kai<\/a>, and a couple of song-swap double bills: Mo Kenney<\/a> with Melanie Brul\u00e9e<\/a>, and Royal Wood<\/a> with Tyler Shaw<\/a>. All of these were good shows, but the one artist that really blew my socks off was Nikki Yanofsky<\/a>. Under the tutelage of none other than Quincy Jones, her latest album Little Secret<\/em> is an astonishing mix of jazzy soul and modern crunchy beats. And her stage performance… well, she is most assuredly The Real Deal, and a very dynamic stage performer.<\/p>\n

As usual, I photographed her with my DSLR, but also added some good old fashioned high-speed black and white film (Ilford Delta 3200<\/a>, rated at ASA 1600, in a Pentax ME F<\/a> wearing a Bushnell 135mm f\/2.8 lens, if you care about the details). She was even kind enough to pose in front of her promotional poster, in between autographs.<\/p>\n

\"Nikki<\/a>
\nNikki Yanofsky, indulging a passing photographer.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Nikki<\/a>
\nThe film version. Love that grainy goodness.<\/em><\/p>\n

Being at least passingly social media-savvy, I tweeted out a photo or two, linking to my full Flickr set<\/a>. Which, much to my surprise, resulted in me being hired to photograph the next upcoming act, country musician Jimmy Rankin<\/a>. And after that, three more in the summer series, and another four this fall. Along the way, I also made time for two gigs by family friend Tori Hathaway<\/a>, and a free concert on Canada Day by 80’s icons Glass Tiger<\/a> and Honeymoon Suite<\/a> – the first real rock concert I’ve been to in many a year. That show was just for fun, as a fan – but refreshingly, in broad daylight, rather than dim-even-when-it-looks-bright<\/a> stage lighting.<\/p>\n

So here I am half a year later, with twelve concerts under my belt in 2014, and a thirteenth scheduled in November. Compared with the two race weekends and one track day I’ve shot this year, that’s a lot – making me think that maybe I’m more of a concert photographer than an autosport one. Or maybe I’m still just a pretender, and some kind of scientist at heart. Whatever the truth, this has been a challenge, good fun, an opportunity to meet some amazingly talented artists, and a great reason to fight with that light again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\"Jimmy<\/a>
\nJimmy Rankin<\/td>\n		\"Pete<\/a>
\nPete Murray<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Alyssa<\/a>
\nAlyssa Reid<\/td>\n		\"Nicole<\/a>
\nNicole Rayy<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Fernando<\/a>
\nFernando Varela<\/td>\n		\"Canadian<\/a>
\nCanadian Opera Company<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Greg<\/a>
\nGreg Hanna<\/td>\n		\"Tori<\/a>
\nTori Hathaway<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Glass<\/a>
\nGlass Tiger<\/td>\n		\"Honeymoon<\/a>
\nHoneymoon Suite<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Next up: Adonis Puentes<\/a> and Pancho Amat<\/a>. Stay tuned.<\/p>\n

\n

All of my concert photos, including sets from each of the First Canadian Place gigs mentioned above, are in this Flickr collection<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I seem to be morphing, at least part of the time, into a concert photographer. Toronto singer-songwriter Kai tears the roof off. Let me explain. Over the past few years, I’ve occasionally headed down to the financial district to catch … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,190,9],"tags":[74,69,191,202,75],"class_list":["post-588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hobbies","category-music-2","category-photography","tag-first-canadian-place","tag-music","tag-on-stage","tag-photography","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/wintle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/wintle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/wintle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/wintle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/wintle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/wintle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/wintle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/wintle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/wintle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}