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GALLERY: Musicians In Motion:
Candid Jam Photos - A Work In Progress
Shots from my two years of experimenting with
slow shutter speeds and
natural figurative movement of musicians playing music
by Rick Doble

As the author and practitioner of Experimental Digital Photography, I am always experimenting -- trying to push the boundaries of imagery, trying to capture a bit more of the vitality of life in my photographs. What you see in this gallery are real photographs of real people playing music in real time -- no computer graphics or software special effects were used.

I have been taking candid, slow shutter speed, long exposure photographs of musicians at a local weekly jam under available light for over two years now.

This gallery is a work in progress -- something that most photographers do not show to the public. I consider many of these photographs to be 'sketches' -- meaning that they are studies for what I am after, but not complete in themselves. I show this work partly because I believe more photographers and artists should show their work as it develops, rather than only showing the final finished product. I believe the process is as important as the final result.

My goal has been to capture the feeling and the energy of the music by recording the movements of the musicians as they played. Ideally I would like an image that is both sharp and blurred -- certainly a contradiction but attainable as the movements of the musicians are often recorded as sharp planes or lines -- not unlike the cubist paintings of 100 years ago.

I am also looking for imagery that is like the abstract expressionist painters of the 1950s and also the French painter Nicolas de Stael who tried to walk the delicate line between figurative work and abstraction.

Since my work is experimental, I am often surprised by what I capture. For example, the first picture in this gallery is a 2 second handheld shot of a musician as he played, yet it looks almost still. This was completely unexpected.

Every week I learn a little more. I will keep doing this for many more years.

EXPOSURE INFO: Exposures of the musicians ranged from 1-2 seconds handheld. The audience pictures were shot at 4 seconds handheld. The white balance was adjusted to the available light which was multi-colored stage lighting. Focus was set manually and I used a high aperture. The ISO ranged from 400 to 3200 with 800 & 1600 being used most often. The strong colors were due to the stage lighting and were not enhanced.

All work is copyright by Richard (Rick) deGaris Doble 2011.

NOTE:See a list of my other articles here at PIXIQ. www.pixiq.com/contributors/rick-doble

For more about my approach to photography see my book: Experimental Digital Photography.

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