Kaval

In what is fast becoming an annual event, My Lovely Assistant and I vistied the FestivArt de Frelighsburgh on Sunday.  Sadly, the weather wasn't that great and we showed up a little bit later in the afternoon than usual.  There seemed to be many fewer artists on display this year, though that may have been due to our late arrival and the bad weather.  We stopped to sit on a park bench after walking the streets for a little bit and noticed that there were preparations being made for a concert.  A small stage had been set up and the group were going through a sound-check in the rain.  I had left my camera in the car since I didn't want it to get wet, but as the sound-check came to an end and the concert began, I decided that this was an opportunity that I shouldn't pass up.  There weren't that many people at the show, again, probably due to the crummy weather, so I had free access to get right up to the front of the stage.  I took a second to ask permission from the guys at the sound board, and after getting the okay, and getting a helpful push from My Lovely Assistant, I made my way to the front of the stage and began shooting away. The name of the group is Kaval, you can follow that link to their homepage.  The also have a Facebook page that you can visit right here.  They describe their music as blend of jazz, funk, pop and reggae, but mostly as music you can make you move.  We enjoyed the short part of the show that we saw, dinner was waiting to be served and we had to leave before the concert ended.  I took a few shots, trying to keep some words advice from a friend in mind, let your photos capture the feel of the show.  I think that my photographs capture their essence, that being music that makes you move, as there is lots of movement in these shots.  I even took the time to engage in a personal challenge.  Drummers don't usually get to be photographed as they sit near the back of the stage and the lighting isn't that great.  That wasn't the case here as everyone was lined up along the stage.  I wanted to capture a shot of the drummer, with his sticks in mid-air. I managed to get that with the fourth shot you see here on the page and I was quite happy.  Here are the technical aspects of the first four photographs, and we'll finish things off with a few more of the photographs I took during my time at their show.  The first photograph was taken at f/5, 1/125sec, ISO 100 at 42mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/5, 1/160sec, ISO 1000 at 55mm.  Photograph number three was taken at f/5, 1/200sec, ISO 1000 at 51mm.  The fourth photograph of this first set was taken at f/5, 1/125sec, ISO 1000 at 63mm.  You may have noticed that all of the shots were taken at f/5.  I wanted to use an aperture that would give me enough speed to capture the action in the low light, but also nothing so large as to leave lots of the scene out of focus.  Now, as promised, here are a few more photographs that I took during the show.

f/5, 1/400sec, ISO 1000 at 70mm

f/5, 1/200sec, ISO 1000 at 51mm

f/5, 1/250sec, ISO 1000 at 70mm

To finish things off, there's a group shot of everyone on the stage that I cropped to 12" x 4" that was taken at f/5, 1/200sec, ISO 100 at 68mm.  If you don't mind, I'd like to give a little bit of free advertising to the band since I was allowed to photograph their performance.  They'll be having a official launch of their first album, En Cavale, at the Sutton Jazz Festival.  You can find out ticket information, available September 3rd at this link.  That link will also lead you to more information about the Sutton Jazz Festival itself.  Kaval will also be doing an album launch in Montreal on October 4th at O Patro Vys (356, Ave. Mont-Royal, Est).  Best of luck to them.