Tag Archives: JPC

Natalie Stovall and the Drive

February 27, 2014 Michael Banks Leave a comment

Concert Photography… That is a tricky one as always… You have to deal not only with the low light and not using a flash, but on top of that you have these crazy colors going on at the same time… A few days ago I covered an event on Georgia Regents University called Jaguar Jam, which was an event focused around GRU Athletics and Homecoming. It was located at Christenberry Fieldhouse. Natalie Stovall was the entertainment for the night and she sang many songs that night that were incredible.

Natalie definitely was a great singer and I really enjoyed how she kept the crowd’s energy up as well.

Since I had to shoot without a flash I had to push that ISO and utilize some noise reduction in post. I shot it with my go to lens, a 70 – 200mm f/2.8, since there was a stage and I didn’t want to go through the process of getting all the way to the front in other people’s way.

For me with concert photography it is very difficult to get consecutive good shots because you usually will get one of two things: An Actions shot of them singing or A flattering picture of them dancing or singing. There are many things that hinders that shot from their microphone placement and other like interesting variables that have them covering their face or instrument.

I ended up with only half the photos I shot. I definitely like some of the photo results I got and overall satisfied with my performance at the event.

I will definitely be doing concert photography more often. (if I can) Definitely a challenge.

Blog, Portfolio

Exercising to KEEP you going

December 15, 2013 Michael Banks 1 Comment

Exercising by way of music or dance is by no means a new or revolutionary concept, but it is definitely a way to motivate yourself to continue exercising when you get discouraged or don’t feel like exercising. I personally have done structured exercising programs like Shaun T’s Insanity that are great at pushing you to exercise. Recently I took pictures at an International Festival at Georgia Regent University put on by the Jaguar Production Crew and they featured a local Zumba group that danced to about 7 songs back to back and it seemed like a great cardio exercise that a lot of people seemed to enjoy. I personally have never done Zumba, but I know there are loads of people who do it and see results. Photographing them on stage though required me to use a faster shutter speed since, in Zumba, they are moving pretty fast. Find something that gets you active like music or a video and do exercise to it other than the normal day to day things to keep you exercising.

While I was at the festival I also made a neat Auto Awesome Video that I will include in this post for your pleasure of watching that includes a good bit of Zumba footage and how everyone enjoyed it as well.

Blog, Events

Low Light Photography is not as easy as it looks

August 30, 2013 Michael Banks 1 Comment

I have taken photos recently at an event at Brunswick National Lanes called jaguaRave. It was a social bowling events. The event started at Midnight so they turn off the regular fluorescent lights and turn on the colorized neon light. I love the vibe and colors in person, but capturing what you see in person was a definite challenge.

Figuring out what camera settings to shoot the event at wasn’t too much of an issue. The only issue I had at times was the ability to grab focus, while keeping a low ISO, WITHOUT using flash. This was a bowling alley and I didn’t want to upset the vibe with using my Nikon SB-910.

I decided to use my 70-200 f/2.8 to cover the event that way I can fill the frame and capture action without being in the way. I shot all of the photos at 1/6oth of a second handheld.

Blog, Events, Portfolio

Starting the GRU Year Greek!!!

August 22, 2013 Michael Banks Leave a comment

The Jaguar Production Crew hosted ClubFest yesterday. ClubFest is a biannual event welcoming students back to school. It is an opportunity that provides student and campus organizations an occasion to share information about their organizations with incoming and returning GRU students. They were able to set up their tables with the decorated table cloths and tri fold boards.

One set of the organizations many eager to meet were the Greek Organizations and they were well represented.