Thursday, July 31, 2014

MACPHUN Tonality is here!

I've been a beta tester for about a month for this software which has just gone live. And, all humility aside, the photo (see below) was used as a publicity shot for the announcement on Google+. Just shows what incredibly good taste those folks at Macphun software have.


Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Intensity

As I mentioned in my previous post, this past weekend I had the opportunity to spend time with a special friend with whom I played music back in my college days, David Grisman. I had the chance to give my Fuji X-T1 a workout in a concert environment with the 55-200 mm lens. First time on the X-T1, although I have used the lens on the X-Pro1. All the shots were made with the optical image stabilization, otherwise the ISO would have been at 6400 and the shutter speed too slow for crisp images.

Intensity:



This is an old Bill Monroe pose:



The new David Grisman Sextet:


Sunday, July 27, 2014

David Grisman At Caramoor

I had a wonderful opportunity this past Friday night to visit with an old friend and bandmate, David Grisman, who was performing at the Caramoor Arts Center in New York. David and I played in the New York Ramblers, a city bluegrass band, for about two years. During that time, in 1964, we performed at the Union Grove Old Time Fiddler's Contest and came home with an assortment of ribbons and the World Championship trophy for that year. Shortly thereafter we performed at NY City's folk mecca, Gerde's Folk City and that summer at the Newport Folk Festival.

The band stayed together for a little while after I left to play fiddle for Bill Monroe. David played with an assortment of ensembles and began to develop his own style, which he later dubbed Dawg Music. He began his own recording label, Acoustic Disc, and has tons of material available for free download on his website Dawgnet.

I had some great opportunities to photograph him during the sound check and performance. Between sets backstage he posed for me on a small stage sitting between a grand piano (on his right - duhhh) and a Theramin (on his left). That strange contraption above his head is the Theramin's speaker.