Cup Of Jazz

210 Patrons Enjoying Saturday Morning Jazz

Do you enjoy music or having a good time?  Enjoy food and good company?  I know a place where you can find it.

For some weeks I have been hearing rumblings of fun times and good music coming from the Saturday morning gathering of musicians and music fans at 210 in downtown Visalia (210 Center Street).  Last Saturday I was able to break free from work and experience it myself – and I plan to return soon!.  Of course, camera in hand, I took some photos.

Musicians, singers and dancers (some from the audience) making music together.

I have not done any proper journalistic investigation on how this all started, but I gather the very talented man behind the piano, Richard Garoogian, has gathered some friends to  play a variety of jazz each Saturday morning from 10:00 AM to Noon.  And the talent is tremendous!  Did I mention, this musical event is FREE too.  (Apologies up front that I could not stay longer and get the names of everyone).

I liked that Richard gave stories of how some of the music/lyrics were created from the artists he has rubbed elbows with over his career.

Jazz on the Flute

Jazz on the Harmonica

Add some delightful singing

Larry on the Bass

Singing with both musicians and audience participation

A little Soft Shoe next to a Barista doing Tap Dancing

When I took this next photo, it was with the idea of showing the yummy goodies to eat at 210 – and the person eating it had character.

Eating one of 210′s delicious pastries

Then I watched as he grabbed the microphone and belted out a number of hits.  Clearly “New York Dave” has done this many times before.

“New York Dave” belting out the hits

A little Latin Dancing to Beethoven’s Für Elise – probably my most favorite creative piece of music for the day

Once upon a time in another life, I dabbled at the piano.  When I was young my Aunt Sue played magnificently Beethoven’s Für Elise in our home and over a long time I pecked away at it until I had memorized it.  So I was surprised when Richard starts playing the traditional piece on the piano and soon it magically morphs into a Latin Tango, yet you could still recognize Für Elise in it.  Magnificent!  Wished I had shot video of it to capture the music.

I had a delightful time and cannot wait to return to more musical enjoyment.  Hope you stop by 210 on a Saturday morning and take it all in.  Bring your appetite too – the food is good.

146 more photos of this morning posted here: Cup of Jazz

   Ron Ludekens 2-13-13

Frosty Morning at Deep Creek

In the Central Valley of California, the most diverse agricultural area in the world, deep freeze is not the farmer’s friend.  Over the last 3 days, that is exactly what was forecast and the farmers were scrambling to protect their crops – especially the citrus growers.  Temperatures were going to drop into the low 20′s for long durations.

Saturday morning, I set the alarm to wake extra early for the purpose of going to the citrus belt to the east of us.  I wanted to make images of the icicles on the orange trees made when the farmers spray their trees with water to keep the freeze from damaging their crops and trees.  I did this during the freeze of 2007 and hoped to improve on those images.

When I got to the closest citrus groves I was surprised to find most of the wind machines not even running and water running out of the groves instead of ice.  Much to the relief of the farmers, a narrow band of clouds arrived in the early morning and prevented the deep freeze.  So my goal was thwarted.

Instead I was in for another treat.  Clouds are a photographer’s friend and the sunrise was promising to be nice.  I stopped along Road 196 where it crossed Deep Creek.  I had always wanted to photograph this area and the old train trestle that crossed the creek.  Today was my chance.  Unfortunately I missed the best part of the pre-sunrise skies while trying to negotiate the slippery slope and barbed wire cattle fence.

None-the-less, I was happy to come away with a number of “keepers” from the morning’s efforts.

I liked how the ground fog was billowing in the morning light.

Complete gallery of images here: Frosty Morning Sunrise at Deep Creek

Now all I need to do is find some good gloves for photographers because when I got the feeling back into my fingers, they really hurt.

A most satisfying morning enjoying God’s beauty.

Ron Ludekens 1-13-2013

Tried Something New – Reined Cow Horse Competition (Part 2)

In the first post, I mentioned the friendly family atmosphere.  In this post, I’ll mention some of the other photography challenges I observed.

Photographing this competition is not as easy as it seems to get good, compelling photos.  It had a lot of challenges.

The arena was dark (for a camera at high speed) with a bright background.  Flash was needed and had to be relatively close to be affective.  Too close and the telephoto cuts off the horse’s legs.

Challenge #1: The competition arena was under a large shed – pretty dark with contrasting bright sunlight blasting in the sides across the arena from the viewing stands.  Without flash you get silhouettes of horse and rider.  Question: do I dare use flash?  After all, these are animals with riders at risk on their back.  Last thing I wanted was a freaked-out horse crushing a rider or an angry rider mad over a flash affecting the horse’s performance.  Answer: Seems to be OK to use flash.  Saw a professional photographer by the business name of Big Daddy Photography who was shooting away with (counted them) 7 Alien Bees strobes on tall light stands. 6 were 1600 watt-second monsters and when they all fired they nuked the arena.

This puppy will put out a great burst of light. Big Daddy had 7 of them!

You could see and hear them an eighth mile away.  Big Daddy said flash “should not be a concern.  If they want to compete, the competitions that are bigger than this one have hundreds of flashes going off all the time.  If it affects them, they are not ready”.  OK, mount flash and make better photos and hope the horse and rider are not new to it.

Challenge #2: Would like to have shutter speed 1/1000 or faster to freeze motion.  In those dark conditions it meant high ISO settings and associated noise – even with flash.  In my gallery you will see a handful of images from the competition.  But I knew my results would not be to my liking so I spent most of my time in the practice/warm up arenas under bright morning sun using fill flash.  Next time I won’t be afraid to bring my Einstein strobes (related to Alien Bees but only 650 watt-seconds) and see if I can get competition images.

I tossed a lot of photos like this because I kept chopping off the hoofs or tail.

Challenge #3: I kept cutting off the horses feet or tails.  I always tried to make the rider be in focus with a shallow depth of field to reduce background distractions so I kept my focus point on the rider.  Zooming in I kept getting feet or tail out of the frame.  Maybe that dream camera (Nikon D800 with 36 MP images) would have allowed me to shoot wider and still crop for quality close ups. (Sweetheart – hint, hint).

Challenge #4: Everyone wears a cowboy hat.  In bright outdoor sun it casts strong shadows across the faces.  Candid shots are not so candid when I have to get close and low with the fill flash to light under the brim.  Needless to say – most faces are in partial shadow.

Hat, spurs, chaps, boots and Smart Phone – basic necessities.

This morning’s experience was a good one and I want to do it again when I have more time.  To those who shoot rodeos or other horse competitions and do it well, my hat is off to you!

Photos I took from this day’s events can be found here: http://www.creatorspalette.com/Events/VCHA-Horse-For-A-Cure/

Enjoy.