0Posted by Nate Ludens on October 10, 2010 at 6:57 am
I’m kinda on a Black & White kick lately. In some instances, color can distract from the emotion I try to tap into when shooting concert photography…I like to get shots that the viewer can feel. The shot below of Sin City Sinners’ guest guitarist, Jimmy Crespo I feel captures a moment where the note is penetrating our ears and souls. You’ll see more shots like this one in some of my other posts. I can see a series of these shots down the road, if I get back into gallery work. I think I’d call it Sweet Emotion Series. Partially for the great Aerosmith tune (Crespo’s old band, coincidentally), and partially because this type of concert photography really does steal some sweet emotional moments.
These shots were taken June 19th at Club Madrid inside Sunset Station – for the Sin City Sinners, a Vegas band that plays originals and cover tunes of classic hard rock tunes like GNR, Cheap Trick, and everything in between. Go see them. I promise you won’t regret it.
0Posted by Nate Ludens on October 3, 2010 at 12:17 am
Going into June, I had a unique opportunity to interview Steel Panther’s lead singer, Michael Starr. (You can check that out on the Station Casinos Blog if you want). The following week, they returned to Green Valley Ranch with a packed house. I was lucky enough to be the house photographer for the show. All I can say is: hhhahahahahahahahahahahhh ahhahahahah ahahah aahhhhhhhahahahahahahahahahahahah.
These shots are pure fun. The stageshow at Ovation is great, and Steel Panther takes advantage of it. Their show uses every bulb, color gel, smoke machine, and outlet available to rock your ass off like it was 1987.
0Posted by Nate Ludens on September 26, 2010 at 12:10 am
I had a wonderful summer behind the camera, friends. I thought I’d use this blog to show you my favorite photos from Summer, 2010, starting with this post.
Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas kicked off their Party On The Rocks Concert Series on May 22, and kicked a dent in the Las Vegas Concert Scene at the same time. These shows are fun as hell. They’re so diverse, sometimes you have to google who they are – but rest assured, none are a disappointment.
I was blown away by Robert Cray and his intensity – but moreso by his legendary techniques. Furthermore, I instantly became a fan when I saw how much he purely enjoyed his time on stage with his guitar and his bandmates. I think these two shots capture Mr. Cray’s intensity and his passion for wonderfully piercing bluesy guitar riffs.
0Posted by Nate Ludens on September 21, 2010 at 6:23 am
Another fun night of rock with Vegas’ own Cherry Hill, Big Friendly Corporation and The Ryan Whyte Maloney Band. Check out the slideshow and let me know what you think.
This concert was shot with a Canon 5D Mark II with Canon EF 24-70mm and 70-200mm lenses. No flash, just super high ISO’s. Noise was nuked in Lightroom 3, and I experimented with various saturation settings and white balances.
0Posted by Nate Ludens on August 30, 2010 at 1:54 am
Hey friends, if you know me personally, you probably know my summer has been a total zoo. (If I cash in all the “Rain Checks” I have issued, I’m going to be out of the house until Christmas!) I recently became a father, remodeled a home, moved my family into it, and turned my old home into a rental – all while working full time with no vacation time and the amount of sleep you’d expect with a 5 month old in ‘da house. All that said, Project Dinner Table is a can’t miss event in Las Vegas. I wrote about it earlier this summer here. Be sure to visit the official PDT site – check it for schedules, pictures, menus, videos and – no brainer – to buy your tickets!
Below, I’d like to share some photos from the last Las Vegas dinner event held in front of the El Cortez in one of my favorite places – Downtown Las Vegas, where it’s as funky as it is fun. Coincidentally, the next Project Dinner Table Event will be held only a few short blocks away, at the Historic 5th Street School – a truly cool space that really gets what it means to contribute to building culture in Las Vegas. From AIGA to The Vegas Valley Book Fair – each time a creative group needs a venue, Richard Hooker and the good people at the 5th Street School have their hands up willing to help. I hope to see you there on September 11th. I’ll be the guy with the camera
0Posted by Nate Ludens on July 29, 2010 at 6:06 am
Here in Las Vegas, design means commerce. Here’s a testimonial that says this is not always the case.
For the 2nd year in a row, I’m designing shirts for a memorial bike rally honoring a family who recently lost 2 brothers (husbands, fathers, friends) in Nebraska and Wyoming, near my hometown. Long-time friends of my family as a kid, and good guys to have a cold one or catch a concert with. And, for the 2nd year in a row, I’m feeling lucky as hell that I can contribute to the event. Today I received photos of the last event and it really hit home, especially now that I’m a father.
I’m reminded of a song by Rancid called Indestructible. The jist of it is that as an artist, you can live forever – indestructible – through your art. I get it. You can, without a doubt. Another way to be indestructible is to be a good friend, a father, a brother, a mother, a sister and leave your mark on things through helping other people and causes. That’s what these types of projects are about. Try getting this kind of emotion, longevity and gratification from a routine paycheck. Fat chance.
0Posted by Nate Ludens on July 11, 2010 at 1:13 am
If you work in social media like I do, you probably see a lot of tweets, blogs, emails, mobile messages and status updates. We probably read more updates in a week than most people see in a year. Here’s six things I am seeing more and more often, and its kind of disturbing:
1. Wannabe media outlets - If you get your “BREAKING NEWS:” tweets from a fish bait shop or a seamstress, please be skeptical.
2. Google update – fed auto blog posts and auto tweets. Seriously?! You are the equivalent to roadside litter. (Forgive me for this: “Twitter Litter.”) Do you want to read a blog post from someone who never took one second to type even one letter?
3. twitter spammers - If you see a tweet from a profile with an account with a default avatar, 5078 followers that’s following 0, it’s most likely a bullshit account. In fact, I think twitter should restrict users with no avatar. Like, no RT function and a cap on followers until you enter a Captcha word. Or – better yet, make us users enter a captcha word at random sometimes. Like a DUI checkpoint, kinda.
4. facebook event update madness. I have said for a long time that facebook should overhaul their events functions. Again, more captcha, please. I’d love to see more targeting and less “Update All Fans” – but that would be a conflict for facebook, as they rely on event ads for revenue. Investing in more customization in free features probably goes against their bottom line.
5. Everyone’s an expert. The majority of SM experts are really sharp and I appreciate the hell out of them, but some aren’t practicing what they preach. Reduntant tweets for the same blog post? Isn’t this the same as sending me repeat email blasts? What about those who preach authenticity, yet schedule and cross-post (see #6) their tweets, sometimes 20 at a time?
6. Duplicate posts across networks. Some of my friends do this and it drives me kinda crazy. Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter = all different animals with different uses. Mix it up a little, if you must cross-post. Honestly, when are people going to accept that LinkedIn is a virtual resumé. Would you attach a sheet of typed out tweets to your resumé? I didn’t think so.
What’s the most annoying new trend you’re seeing in Social Media, as the industry evolves?
I had the pleasure of shooting photos of the 3rd Las Vegas Event for Project Dinner Table. It’s a great event put together by really cool people – benefiting great causes, too. You can learn all about it – and buy tickets to the next one on their website here: http://www.projectdinnertable.com/
The PDT site does a really nice job of getting you the important information, so I’ll keep this post geared to my photographer friends & family. This assignment was a challenge! I shot it with two Digital SLRs, a Canon 5D Mk II with a 24-70mm f/2.8 lens, and my backup camera, a Canon 20D with an 11-18mm lens for the wide stuff. Hey, it was a LONG table! I swapped out and used a 70-200mm f/2.8 IS lens toward the end of the evening, too. The calculation with the smaller sensor makes it an even longer zoom than 200mm.
The most challenging part of this assignment was to get shots quickly – especially the chefs preparing the food – then, jump out to the dinner to see guests enjoying the meal – and be careful not to miss any of the fun activites like the 7th inning stretch poety reading, the presentations, or the singing of the national anthem. There were even some action shots of guests tossing the ball around the diamond!
It’s been a while since I shot events – I used to hate it because I was changing batteries all night with shoe mount flash units, that I didn’t ever really jive with. Now, with the advent of higher ISO settings, I can capture much more color in much lower light. Not to mention have a LOT more fun!
Hope you enjoy the photos as much as I did taking them. Cheers!
