Photos at The Ellington

 

 A few months ago, we went to see Victoria Newton at The Ellington, Perth’s new Jazz club.   It was yet another great night there! 

I decided to bring along my camera as I love taking concert photography, even though it means having withdrawing myself from just relaxing and enjoying the music for a while.

I snapped a few shots with my D80 and 17-55 f2.8, but boy was it dark in there.  Darker than I expected!  I had to bump ISO up to 1600 and beyond, which unfortunately is really grainy on the D80.  I managed to use ISO 1600 and take some usable shots during “still” moments, but I wish I had brought my 50 f1.8 or could afford a D700 with much better low light performance.

These photos have been sitting around on my hard drive for a while, so I took some spare, but frustrating, hours last night to do them up.  Frustrating, because my only computer at home to do photo editing is an old Dell laptop with a Pentium M 1.7GHz CPU and only 1GB RAM!   Photoshop was swapping to disk like anything!  Need to upgrade my computer.

I also realised last night that I really need to make up a signature brush that I can use on my photos.  Should I just go with scanning in my signature?

Amazing Race style Birthday Party

 

Photo of team members in a shop window

On Saturday, a group of twelve ~10 year olds descended on the local shopping centre in Perth to surreptitiously play a Birthday game for our Miss 10.

This year, we were wracking our brains trying to think of a party that was cheap, unique, fun for both boys and girls and could be held indoors in case the weather was bad.  Miss 10 had ideas of an indoor sports or circus party, but it didn’t fit all our criteria.   With more brainstorming and surfing the web, we stumbled across Amazing Race type birthday parties. 

We ended up buying a Birthday Party pack from Chase Games, a website that has made up various Amazing Race type games.  We ended up choosing the Mall Photo Chase.   This game is basically like a treasure hunt, except you have to take photos of team members doing certain things or photos of certain objects/situations.

The pack is great value – it comes with rules, envelopes, score sheets, and the goals for the teams too.  Wifey and I tailored the game a bit for the 10 year olds and our group.  We used 3 fixed rounds of 15 minutes, we changed some of the goals to make them a little “safer” and Australian, and we let the adult supervisors tick off goals as we went.

So we gathered at our meeting spot, announced the teams, went through all the rules and handed out the digital camera and then unleashed the 4 teams of 3 into suburban Saturday afternoon shopping mayhem.  We also had an adult for each team providing supervision, and also to be the adult in case they got into trouble.

And boy did they have fun!  The kids had a ball trying to find all the goals.  My team, even though we were lagging behind in the first 2 rounds, eventually won by getting all the round 3 goals which were worth much more.

Even the adults had heaps of fun, sharing stories of how the teams got certain photos (like of a team mate on TV!).   Overall we found that most shoppers and shopkeepers were friendly and co-operative.

All the kids had heaps of laughs afterwards going through all the photos.  Although, it did bring up points of contention and accusations of cheating!! 

I definitely recommend this as a party option – although you need to be prepared, and if the kids are young (pre-teen), it’s best to have some adult supervision for each group.

Tips for other people:

• Check that the shopping centre allows photography (look at the rules).  We did have a backup plan – if security did want us to stop taking photos, we were going to continue as if it was a treasure hunt, but without taking the photos.
• Make sure kids don’t run or disrupt other shoppers.  Last thing you want is to attract unnecessary attention.
• Make sure kids always ask for permission before photographing strangers.
• Be prepared to explain what you are doing to security!

Many laughs at the Spelling Bee

On a cold, wet and windy Friday night, our family made our way to the Hackett Hall in Floreat to watch the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.  Yep, a mouthful of a title, it’s a musical that is currently being put on by the local amateur theatre group, Playlovers.

I love the small venue.  It’s cosy and homey, and the venue was decorated and setup just like a school gym, where the musical is set.  I love the iPhone Old Booth photos that were used in the foyer!  With the tiered seating, all seats have a good view of the stage.

The cast of locals were really engaging.  The William Barfee character, played by Lauchlan Bain, was really well done – over the top, but not overacted.  He definitely played his stereotype role extremely well and had both Wifey and me nearly crying with laughter with his footwork and slomo   It was great to see our Miss 8′s violin teacher, Jeanette Teh, play a major role too, as Marcy Park (with a role that was a little close to real life :)) and Perth lindyhopper, Vicki Kirkman, pulling off so many one liners as one of the “adults”.

I also loved the audience participation in the show.  It was a packed crowd on Friday night, and a few “volunteers” from the audience got to be participants on stage – they actually did a really great job, with lots of cheers and support from friends in the audience.   Must make it interesting for the cast each night!

Overall, the show was entertaining – the audience definitely laughing and enjoying the show.  Well done to all involved!  Definitely recommend going out to see this with some friends!  Hurry, last show is on the 30th I think.

One small gripe – at times, the actors were a little soft (volume).  Would’ve loved their mics to be turned up a little more.  And I was confused as to why there were 2 musical directors alternately conducting.  Was this confusing for the orchestra/band and cast?
More info here: http://www.playlovers.org.au/SpellingBee.htm

More reviews here: http://www.theatre.asn.au/theatre_reviews/spelling_bee_playlovers

Fairytale Violin Sheet Music

It was great to see so many string instruments featured in the different songs for Eurovision this year.  I remember a few years ago, it seemed that large African/Oriental drums were the “fashion”.   This year, it seemed to be violins and cellists who played standing up!

As a treat for Eurovision fans who play the violin (but mostly because I had to figure it out because it’s been stuck in my head for the last few days), I’ve transcribed the violin riff from Norway’s Fairytale song by Alexander Rybak!  Have fun pretending to be Alexander!

 

Violin Riff from Fairytale by Alexander Rybak, transcribed by Jason Chong

 

Fineprint:  Song copyright obviously owned by Alexander Rybak.

Eurovision Song Contest 2009

And so our family spent the last weekend in front of the TV watching the Eurovision semi finals and final.   We all had our favourites and were barracking for our countries through the show.    It’s good that Miss 8 and Miss 10 are now at the age where they remember previous year’s shows and were really looking forward to this year’s show.

The winners?   Well, I think the songs that last and are remembered after the show definitely are successful.

A few mornings ago, Miss 8 was singing 2 songs, after really only hearing the songs twice.   The 2 songs were the Norway winning song, Fairytale, and Turkey’s Dum Tek Tek.   Just shows you which melodies and lyrics sticks in kid’s minds!

Body Hurt

My body still hurts…

On the weekend, Wifey and I decided to tackle the Aerials class held by SwingIt.    It was fun and physically challenging – trying to co-ordinate with each other to flip Wifey around.   Shane and Ruth had obviously been doing these for a while and practising because they did them nice and clean.

Aerials are weird..  it’s not all strength.  It’s a lot of timing between each other, and also the mental “I can do it” attitude…  which for some unknown reason I was lacking a little.  Not good!   No accidents, but I think our aerials could’ve been smoother and more successful.

Whoa are we feeling it now!  For the past 2 days, we’ve been hurting all over…

Just so I don’t forget what they look like! (we didn’t take any class review video) -

Hourglass

Hip flip

Backpack

Similarish to this but entry from side by side charleston

Flip from guy lying down (what is the name for this?)

24 seconds into this:

Presenting Miss 10!

Miss 10!

Our eldest princess has turned 10!  Miss 10!

I can’t believe how fast it’s gone.  Too fast, so fast that I struggle to remember details of your early years.  I try to replay your baby and toddler years in my head and only get highlights, or moments that center around photos or videos that we’ve taken.

I’m so proud of how mature you’ve become in 10 years.  Responsibility, self control, caring for your sister, saving Birthday and pocket money, not wanting everything, service and love of God and the love of your family, your honour, respect and fun with friends, keeping your room tidy (maybe too much!), knowing when to give things up to make more time for yourself.

I’m so amazed at what you’ve learnt in 10 years too.  From being a newborn that is totally helpless, you’ve learnt to feed yourself, clean yourself, dress yourself, walk, talk, dance, learn abstract concepts like maths (although you still struggle with long division and your times tables), operate Windows XP, Tivo and PS3, sing in different languages, play the Cello up to AMEB Grade 2-3 standard, center focus and recompose, learnt to play some easy piano by yourself.

You still amaze me with your familiarity with musical theatre and music songs.  Just the other day you were reprising songs (and some choreography) from nearly every major musical, Les Mis, Cats, Singing in the Rain, Fosse, Wicked, Hairspray, Flower Drum Song, Poppins, Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, Oliver, West Side Story, and the list goes on.  You can often re-sing a song you’ve heard only once.  And you’re just 10.

I love the huge hugs you give me and when you whisper, “I love you Daddy!” in my ear. I keep on saying to you that I wish you could turn 4 again, but 10 is really nice too   And you still occasionally sleep in our bed!  Even though, 5 years ago I was predicting (and lamenting) that you wouldn’t by the time you were 10.

Looking forward, the next 10 years will bring so much change and life events again.  By the time you’re 20, you will be thinking philosophically and religiously independently, you’ll have your driver’s license, you might have found a way around NetNanny on your netbook, finished High School and may be at Uni, you would’ve been into pubs and clubs by yourself, you will have many crushes and experience the emotions of relationships and love, rejection, self identity, peer group pressure, you may be tempted by drugs, alcohol and smoking, you may have a boyfriend or two that you will invite over to our house.  You will dislike and maybe hate me many times, be grounded many times, and you may even have moved out of home or tried to run away, or sneak out.

Ironically, at some stage, you probably will tell me to stop blogging about your growing up.

But lets stop thinking about that, and enjoy and cherish what we have now.

Hope you had a beautiful Birthday Miss 10!

Beethoven Violin Concerto with Kyoko Takezawa

When I was young (and still living at home obviously!), my Dad used to take me to violin concerts.  I think I didn’t know any better at the time, but we did see some great concerts.  I do remember actually sitting on the Perth Concert Hall stage watching Yehudi Menuhin play!

Last night, I had another date with my Dad.  We went to see WASO, primarily to see, really listen, to the Beethoven Violin Concerto.  The soloist last night was Kyoko Takezawa.  I must admit, I hadn’t heard of her before, but her resume is quite impressive.

And so she came on stage, quite small, but polite and smiley.  WASO started with a reduced orchestra, maybe too reduced as I was missing that really warm string section sound.  When Kyoko started playing, you could see the emotion she was drilling into her violin.  From where we were sitting, very crystal clear playing and spot on intonation, and even though she played really well, it wasn’t doing anything for me yet.

And then the cadenza for for the First Movement came.  And suddenly there was magic.  I was totally captivated, hanging off every note.  And I think the whole of the packed Perth Concert Hall was too.  It was like we were all hypnotised, mesmorised by her solo violin, singing out the multiple rising voice lines.   The end of the cadenza was most beautiful, and I think she must have inspired or lifted wASO up a notch because they came to the party too.

The audience applauded after the First Movement, but she deserved it.  Magic.

That’s one of the reasons why I love classical music.  When the feelings and emotions are poured out by the soloist, and connected directly with audience.  It’s more than just “listening” to music, or your eardrums picking up vibrating air particles.  Sometimes a connection is made, dare I say, at the soul level that can move you to tears.

It’s put me in a quandry now – she’s inspired me.  Should I return to the Beethoven Violin Concerto?  It’s one I started learning towards the “last” years of my violin days in my youth, but never finished.  But I know from when I tackled it, it “seems” easy to play – mostly scales and arpeggios (except the candenza!).  But it’s SO very hard to play it beautifully and maturely, to sing the legato lines.

The rest of the program featured the full, really full WA Symphony Orchestra.  There’s something wonderful about getting that many good musicians together and really playing it out – the SOUND of a full symphony orchestra is uplifting!

If you can’t make it to the Perth Concert Hall tonight, iiNet will be streaming the WASO concert live here – http://media.iinet.net.au/index.cgi?id=waso, at 7.30PM Perth Time (GMT+8).

Sibelius at the Freo Eisteddfod

All yesterday, I was just riddled with nerves.  I had that weird sick feeling in my stomach all day at work, knowing that my Freo Eisteddfod heat was later that day.  I did try to calm down, clear the worries out of my head.

As my Wifey told me, I shouldn’t need to have nerves.  I mean, I hadn’t even played yet!  No-one is going to die, no-one is getting injured, the audience aren’t there hanging on the edge of their seat waiting for me to make a mistake, they’re there to enjoy music.

But that still doesn’t help.

So I turned up after 8pm and found that there were still 4 or so to go before me.  Bad.  It meant I had to wait.  I didn’t want to watch the others so I hung out in the main hall.  There was no real place to warm up as the whole building has so much echo that it would leak into the main hall.

But all that circulated through my head for that hour was the thought of having a memory lapse.  I was replaying the concerto in parts in my head and would find a part that I “forgot”, rush to the music to check what’s next.  Bad.  My hands were cold and clammy which would make it harder to shift and play the fast passages mroe agile.

The other players before me played really well.  Pianists, violinists – I resigned to the fact that I couldn’t compete with them.  Many are Uni music students.  I wasn’t there primarily to compete anyway.  That was not my prime objective.  But that still didn’t stop the adrenalin from rushing in my head.

Then it was time for me.  I was called up, I walked to the bare stage at the Freo Town Hall, a place I hadn’t played a solo on since my Saint-Saens Introduction and Rondo Cappricioso with WAYO so many years ago (is it 14-15 years ago?).

I tuned up and tried to loosen up, listen to the acoustics in the hall, playing some long notes on open strings.  I looked out on the audience, saw the judges sitting in the upstairs gallery seating.

A thought went through my head that I was going to forget some part of the concerto again…  but I took a deep breath, looked at my accompanist, gave him a small nod and we started.

I was going in cold – not having warmed up.   F1 drivers have that warmup lap where they try to get their tyres to the right temperature.  I was thinking – why couldn’t I?  Oh well..   The nerves definitely died down once I had my bow on the string.

I played my heart out on that violin.  It was definitely more passionate and had more feeling than I usually play.  I really “milked” it.  But my intonation was a bit more shaky in parts.  And my left hand was still stiff from adrenalin, making runs not as crystal clear.  Luckily I did get the huge interval jumps and most of the double stopped octaves and sixths were OK.  The cadenza part came off better than I expected.  It was weird, at times I almost felt like I was observing myself play.  It wasn’t in “automatic” mode, but almost like my soul had lifted out of my body and was watching from outside myself.

All of a sudden, it was coming to the 2 last pages in my head.  No memory lapses so far – good.  But I started my run into the high E trill a little too fast because of nerves and so my accompanist thought I wanted to go fast.  But no!  I didn’t mean to!  I tried to pull the tempo back but too late, the horse had bolted.  I stressed – I knew I couldn’t play the last runs at this speed, but I had to try.  We got a bit of out sync with each other with all the action and passion and notes speeding by, and my last fingered octave scale run was not good at all. And then it was all over so quickly!

I was disappointed.  I know I can play those last 2 pages MUCH better.  My performance was definitely not indicative of how well I could play this piece.  But a different setting, nerves – it all adds different elements than just playing in trackies in the comfort of my lounge room.  But then, all competitors are in the same boat – it’s your performance on the day that counts.  It’s not just who can play, what you can play, or how you play it – it’s also a test of how well you can play in public under stressful conditions.  Not having played like this in public for 14-15 years wouldn’t help.  Maybe I need to do some small public recitals for Musica Amica or the Royal Schools.

I was so relieved.  It was over.  No more nerves or sickly feeling in my stomach.  What a blast!  My Wifey and my Dad who came along thought I played really well, better than they expected    Wifey said I even put a tear in her eye and didn’t realise how beautiful the Sibelius violin concerto is.

I didn’t get through to the final 4.  Interpretation and passion are not the only factors adjudicators judge by.  Ensemble and my last 2 pages definitely was a negative.  They did say that they were clear on 3 of the finalists, but not the fourth.   I’m going to live with the hope that maybe I was a potential candidate.     I was disappointed, but I keep reminding myself that that wasn’t my goal.  My goal was to work on the Sibelius first movement and play it at the Freo Eisteddfod, as something to work towards and because I LOVE the Sibelius violin concerto.   Actually, I am relieved that I don’t have to go through all the nerves again to play it on Friday night!  But it would’ve been nice to play it in front of a larger audience.

So from here, I get to put that aside and work on something new.  I think I’ll do the 2nd and 3rd movements, then move onto the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, and then the Brahms.

Christian Fletcher workshop

I had been down on Christian Fletcher’s workshop list for a few months.  He doesn’t hold them very often, and I missed the last one down in Dunsborough.  But luckily, he held one up in Perth last week, so it wasn’t too far to drive.

Although he basically just talked for 4 hours, it was satisfying to hear that he is human!  I mean, that the techniques he uses aren’t too out there, his equipment within reach (although unfortunately above my budget!).  

And that post production can make a heap of difference.  I think this is where I need to have more time to play around more.  I just don’t have the time to sit in front of the computer and play around with different settings and stuff at the moment.  But this is where a plain photo can be turned into a stunning image.  I guess it’s the equivalent of locking yourself up in a darkroom and dodging, burning, playing with chemicals, etc.

It was good to hear he’s beginning to like Nikon users and nice to see he was wearing the infamous iTNFP T-shirt.  I’m definitely not worthy of that T-shirt yet!

On the endless quest to spend more money on photographic gear, I’ve added some things to my wishlist now:

Manfrotto 338 (3416) Leveling Base
To make it easier to level the camera body on the tripod.  At the moment I’m using the tripod legs to do macro adjustments, which I found inconvenient and a bit dangerous when standing precariously on a slippery rock.

Manfrotto 804RC2 Quick Release Basic Pan/Tilt Head
I’ve only got a small ball head at the moment.  Which is good for some applications, but for landscapes and vertoramas where I really only want to be rotating on 1 axis only, the ball head is useless.  This 3 way head should give me all the flexibility I need.

Manfrotto 341 Junior Elbow Bracket
Christian recommended using one of these to place the nodal point of the camera on the rotational axis.  There are much more sophisticated and more expensive brackets for panoramic work that let you precisely align your camera, but this one seems to do the job fine.

Future Christmas presents?