Steve's Burning Man Images - 2009 - Friday Night Variety Show - Center Camp
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The Friday Night Variety show was a challenge to photograph due to the low light, large crowds at times, distance to the performers, etc. Back in Portland, I had been attempting to improve my equipment and skills for this kind of situation, but I think I still have a long way to go. I used a 50mm f/1.4 lens for all of these images. For most of them, the f-stop was 2.8 and the ISO between 1600 and 3200. I think I should have pushed the f-stop even lower (wider aperture). Many of the images are highly cropped, due to distance to the performers. There is quite a lot of blur and noise in the higher resolution shots, especially if I did not use flash. The images are also highly post-processed, sometimes adding vignetting to try to suggest more interesting lighting. So, today (9/19/09), as I'm working on this webpage, I have obtained a 135mm f/2 L lens for use in the near future at some events...and maybe on the playa, for events in 2010. OK, here goes, I'm going to try to include at least one photo from each act:
...so I retreated a few rows back, in a vain attempt to keep my gear as clean as possible.
Right: Tango aerial duet
Right: Hannah Griffith
Left: Black Rock City Ballet
Right: Phat Mandee
March Fourth Marching Band - winners of the highly coveted $teven Ra$pa Trophy
March Fourth
Left: March Fourth
Right: Titanium Sporkestra
Left: Environmental Encroachment
Right: Orkestar Zirkonium
Gamelen X
Left: Gamelen X
Right: $teven Ra$pa
The Burning Band
Castaneda Dancers
Left: Castaneda Dancers
Right: Dizzy Hips
Dry Eye Crew
Cosmic Sages
Left: Cosmic Sages
Right: unidentified (but good)
Left: Cosmic Sages
Right: Dixon
Morph's Saru - they earn bonus points for dubbing in NASA astronaut communications into their music. And, they told us that Morph's dad (Morph being the electronic guru) was an astronaut!
Return to Steve's Main 2009 Burning Man Page