Just got back from a concert where I got to watch Bill Allard at work. Among his many accomplishments... <http://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/biographies/blues.html> or <http://www.theimagingsummit.com/william/> ...he's the father of Terri Allard, a seriously good folk/rock/alt-country singer with a gorgeous warm, smoky voice... <http://www.milestown.com/terri/> Terri played an outdoor concert here in C-ville (hometown of both Allards) this evening (same venue as my July and September PUG submissions), and her father was there to sing back-up on several tunes. He took his camera (Leica M6) with him when he went on stage. And let me say this about his shooting style (one of them, at least): He's very, very smooth and very, very quick. When he wasn't singing, he was shooting. Not all the time. Selectively. But so unobtrusively that I was hardly aware at first what he was doing. Camera up, down. Terri. Guitar. Harmonica. Drums. That quick. He wasn't zone focusing--I could just see the movement of his thumb and forefinger as he focussed. He was simply very fast, very economical of movement. I tried to shoot him shooting Terri (if I got the shot, look for it in an upcoming PUG). It wasn't easy. He also changed a roll of film--on stage, during a song--and I bet most people in the audience didn't catch it. I barely did. He was that smooth. And this was a Leica, mind you, not a P&S that loads itself. Amazing to watch. I was sometimes at the foot of the stage, not more than 25 feet away. You got a sense of how it's possible for him to get the images he does. Without being in any way surreptitious, he draws no attention to what he's doing. I'll bet that very often people probably don't register the camera. If they do, they forget about it. I'm not particularly into Zen, but there's no other way to put it, Allard and his camera are one. As I was saying, that's one of his styles. When he wasn't on stage, he worked much more slowly. Camera spent a good deal of time at his eye, but he wasn't shooting a lot. Waiting for the shot he wanted, I suppose. First time I've been in the presence of a true master, when he was working, not a lecture/slide show/seminar/ demonstration/gallery opening. Wonderful to see. Cheers, John Oh? My style? This evening, I knew the venue well, so no need to scout camera angles. First roll of film, make sure I've documented the event--all the performers, lots of the headliner, the crowd. Following rolls, work, really work, the subjects. Look. Shoot. Look again. Ten minutes with the bass player, fifteen with the singer, eight and a third with the pedal steel, ten minutes with group shots. Move. Look. Do it again. ===== John Edwin Mason Charlottesville, Virginia email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] alt email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
