JCCC "Light Up the Lawn" Summer concert series
Swing the Lawn (and the sidewalk)
Friday Mary 11, 2012
Johnson County Community
College
On the front lawn of the Nerman Museum of Contemporary
Art
(northeast campus toward Quivira Road and College Boulevard - white
building)
|
|
Barefoot on sidewalk tiles. She had on
shoes.
As I came out of shooting pictures for American Youth Ballet's Swan Lake in Polsky Hall (performing the next day), loaded down with bags, tripods, laptop and other camera gear. thinking only of getting home to load my results and spend well into next morning working in Lightroom to process the take (the haul) I heard the noise (enticing music, swing music) from across the parking lot. Looking up I see the Nerman Museum is lit up with people in lawn chairs sitting to the north of the front facade which has live video playing across it. So, weighed down with equipment, weighted down with the thought of the hours and hours (and I do mean hours) of work ahead of me when I get back do I do the sensible thing and walk to the car, drive away and not look back? Oh no! No way! Not that music! Too good. So, I do the only right thinking, if totally non-sensible thing, bent over from the load, looking like an itinerant peddler with all his wares on his back, I take the hike, across the parking lot, across the road, up the wood-chip and grass incline, through the row of bushes, on to the lawn of the museum, through the middle of all those lawn chairs, to the building, near the stage, on the sidewalk. This is where I see dancers, and I plop my gear at the edge of the sidewalk. First I brought out a Sony FX-1000 with a CompactFlash recording unit and a 0.8 W.A adapter. I put this on a light tripod and starting the recording unit. Then, pulling out my Nikon D7000 DSLR and puttiing on the 11-16 mm F/2.8 Tokina (my favorite lens, an ultra wide angle, the kind of focal length I've loved for close to 30 years, I starting shooting stills. Who could not! After all, this is dance and I shoot dancers.
URL for above video URL: http://youtu.be/wIt_Ya_PlNA - opens in separate YouTube page In editing the video, I found each frame where various still shots were taken and inserted each matching still shot into a section of the video. Each still stays for 10 seconds. Look closely or go frame-by-frame to see the starting (matching) moments. There are two other shots that I liked but wasn't running video at the time. I put those in full-frame size over the top of much of the opening welcome from Grand Marquis. When I trudged onto the lawn AnnaLee and the Lucky So and Sos were abut to finish their set with the Grand Marquis to come on next. G.M. members were standing around talking, just waiting for now. Dancers just danced, saddle shoes and barefoot, hard sidewalk and high-cut grass lawn. Swingsters with spouses and babies even. It was a nice, clear, barely cool evening with only a hint of breeze, just enough.
|
