Greenwich Village, New York
Mar. 26, 2009

Lake Harriet, Minneapolis;
Feb. 8, 2009

Buffalo Bayou Park, Houston;
March 2007

Biodome at Olympic Park, Montreal; Aug. 15, 2008

No photos or blathering about old concerts from me for a few days. I got (re)started Sunday on a long neglected project, creating a web site for a band in which I used to play. Didn’t take as long as I expected. The result is here.

Hong Kong, Dec. 2008

Beijing, Dec. 2008

Phil Price, a photographer whose blog I’ve been following for about a year now, challenged readers to take a photo of his and process it to their hearts’ delight.

I finished mine last week, but didn’t get it posted in time for the midway point of his friendly competition:

I see from Phil’s post on the results so far that my instincts run concurrent to a lot of his readers.

I tried couple of different ideas, but kept coming back to a simple contrast theme that essentially reverses the original’s color scheme. I used a couple of free Lightroom presets I found online – a Moriyama-inspired b/w preset for the sky and the Creative Catalyst 12 preset from Wonderland Presets to create the stunning blue building.

It’s been a fun experiment to participate in and I thank Phil for letting folks have a go at his photo. I’m interested to see what others come up with.

Phil’s original:

My son Ben blogged last week about a moment of pure joy he got from one in-tune note he coaxed out of his student band. He described the sensation in cruder terms, but I know exactly what he’s talking about.

I have some musical ability, although very little talent.  Still, I’ve played enough to have shared in those moments of bliss when everyone in the band is “on” and the music takes on a life apart from the musicians. It’s like riding down a steep hill on a bike and taking your hands off the handle bars.

And it doesn’t matter what kind of group you’re playing in – I remember that sensation back in junior high band, in the pre-punk band I played in during high school and the band of work buddies I played with in my 30s.

The whole notion of capturing those perfect musical moments was the theme of my favorite episode of the best “kids” program ever, The Adventures of Pete and Pete. In Hard Day’s Pete, Little Pete hears a garage band (featuring Marshall Crenshaw and Syd Straw) playing what instantly becomes his favorite song and he spends the episode searching for it before the memory of it disappears. The conclusion is predictable, but for me, at least, that doesn’t detract from it’s impact:

Near Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu, India; Oct. 2007