Danielle singing at Bayfest 2009
Today Danielle was singing at Bayfest out on Anna Maria Island, and I went to photograph her and her band, Highway 41. The festival was out on Pine Ave, towards the North end of the island, and parking was a mess. The messiest part, of course, was that it was impossible to tell as you drew nearer and nearer to Pine Ave, how far you could go before you’d have to try and turn around because all the parking was full. I got lucky and tried my luck with a lot about two blocks away from the street itself, where I managed to snag a spot that wasn’t too far away…and the last lot with any available spaces up to Pine Ave, as near as I could tell.
When I got there, they were getting ready to play, and I got my camera ready so I could start shooting as soon as they went on. They did about an hour long set, and Danie was great as always. They played in a trailer that opened up into a stage with a solid roof over top and a solid wall behind, so I had open shade with a nice shaded background, which gave me soft light and reasonable backgrounds. Not much contrast to it, but better bland light with smooth highlights and tame backgrounds than harsh sunlight and blown out backgrounds.
Guitar closeup from Bayfest
I came home yesterday, and I got to meet up with Danie and her cat again (well, Danie actually drove home with me). We went and sang karaoke like usual, with a bunch of friends accompanying this time. For no apparent reason, once every month or two we have a whole bunch of friends decide to show up all at the same time. Of course the people we invite regularly don’t come once every week or so, they all miraculously show up on the same day. It works out well enough (and I’m sure our waitress doesn’t mind the extra tips, since Danie and I aren’t the biggest spenders), but it’s just weird that it always seems to work out that way.
The rest of the today we spent running a couple of errands, ordering in pizza, and post-processing the Bayfest photographs (while Danie wanders around on the Interwebs). When I finally finish writing, we’ve got House on Haunted Hill out from Netflix, which will hopefully turn out to be a good movie. Then it’s off to sleep so I can get up to go run camera at church tomorrow morning. There’ll be a barbecue later on in the day (maybe I’ll bring some veggieburgers and tin foil), and then who knows what for the rest of the day. For now, though, House on Haunted Hill awaits.