Rocket 88

Here is another set of great photos that I have been remiss in sharing. One of the great bands I saw at Tropical Heatwave a month or so ago was Rocket 88. I'd never been to see these guys, as they are based over in Orlando, and don't make it over to Sarasota as far as I know. I did, however, manage to see The Midnight Ramblers several times, a spin-off group of sorts, featuring several of the same guys, and those were always great shows. So I had high hopes. Looking at that first photo above, you might think this was going to be a plain old ordinary show by guys in shiny suits.

Even the keyboard player looks as if he might be more inclined towards Beethoven than Bo Diddley.

Well, first impressions can be deceiving. These guys jumped into a set of flaming rockabilly that didn't let up until all the amps were fried and my ears were ringing. I don't think I knew any of the songs they played, but I was jumping around and screaming along with the rest of the audience. These guys knew how to put on a show.

I was surprised at some of the pictures I got. I didn't think I would get any shots at all of the drummer, as he stayed back in the dark for the whole show. But I got lucky a few times.

And the keyboard player got into the act quite a bit as well. (The keyboardist from The Midnight Ramblers, who I thought was in Rocket 88, used to pour lighter fluid on the fake piano built around his keyboard and light it up. This guy didn't do that, but he was still pretty good.)

The guitarist made that thing talk.

And the bass player made it talk, too. Or maybe it's just a really big guitar. Hard to say...

The lead singer? Well, he's not one to let the audience down.

He even let the audience sing a few bars every once in a while. That guy you can't see too well on the right of the picture was trying to swing dance down in front of the stage. Several times I felt his partner's feet whiz past my head as he was throwing her up into the air. Who knew dancing could be so dangerous.

I think he was channeling some demon here, or maybe Sid Vicious. Not sure... That shirt gave my camera fits the whole night.

Sometimes things got a little topsy-turvy down at my end of the stage.

This is right towards the end of the show. The bass player climbed up on top of the bass, and was playing for all he was worth. I was down on my knees trying to shoot upwards for a better angle.

Next thing I knew, the lead singer is down in my face, singing (or screaming) into my lens.

All I could do was hold down the button and hope for the best. I wasn't disappointed. If I were you, I'd go out and buy a Canon camera. They are the best.

And be sure you get a Rocket 88 CD!

There's nothing better than a little in-your-face rock and roll. This is why you want to be down front at the show.

Oodles Of Doodles CCCXLIII

Another week, another doodle. Actually, I think it's been more like two or three. Anyhow, here's a great doodle from Mozelle Thompson, much more of whose work can be seen here. This comes to us from the flipside of George Feyer-Memories Of Popular Operas (RCA Victor LSP-1926, 1959). When I found this doodle on the back of the record, it was in terrible shape. The top and bottom of the art were covered in strapping tape, and it took a lot of work to get the image out from under there. I, of course, was too lazy and inexperienced, so I asked my friend Inkydog to see if he would take a crack at it. He did, the results look great, and I thank him very much!

Hey Bo Diddley!

I read on the internet where Bo Diddley passed away today. I figured now is a good time to share my brush with Mr. McDaniel from many years ago. Cue the harp... Picture yourself back in the early 90's. I was volunteering as security for some branch of student government at UF that hosted concerts at the bandshell near my apartment. I don't think you'd call me a security guard or anything formal, since we didn't get any training or even a radio. There may have been a free t-shirt, but I don't recall. Anyhow, I was out there several hours before a concert was set to begin, just hanging around killing time trying to be helpful, when I see Bo Diddley and his grandson playing catch with a tennis ball. The grandson missed the ball one time, and it rolled to my feet. I picked it up and tossed it back to Bo (the grandson, like any small child might be, was distracted by something shiny and wasn't paying attention to me). I guess that Mr. Diddley was distracted, too, because even though he was looking right at me when I tossed the ball back, he didn't make any move to catch it, he just let it bounce right off his shoulder. He didn't get mad or anything, he just bent down, picked up the ball and went back to playing catch. And that's the story of how I hit Bo Diddley in the shoulder with a tennis ball. Somebody should write a song about that!

A Non-Water Lilly

Also from Mom's garden, here's a spider lilly for you. These things are tough for me to photograph. I always get something distracting in the background, or important parts of the flower are out of focus or overexposed. But I think I did pretty good this time. There's just a little bit of blow-out at the end of one of those stamen, and the background is nicely blurred to avoid distractions. I like it.

Lilly Of The Water

I went by Mom & Dad's house today after work, and the water lilly that I gave Mom last year was blooming in her fish pond. I don't think it ever bloomed last year, so I was pretty excited to see it. I love taking pictures of flowers, especially close-up pictures that really get you right down into the thick of things. These were my favorites of the hundred or so shots I fired off. I could have spent hours more, but the light was going away as a storm blew in.

Dugong

While I'm busy showing you critters from this weekend, here's one that I spotted yesterday in the Indian River right after the shuttle launch. It's the back of a manatee. Not the best picture in the world, but these guys are tough to shoot. Trust me, it's a manatee. Right after this shot, his tail flipped out of the water in what would have been a great shot, had I caught it. Oh, well...

The Inevitable Gator

And what is the thing that people go to Myakka to photograph? Why, alligators, of course. I didn't get really close to one until right at the end of my day, but it was a pretty good one. Probably 10 feet long or so, this fellow surfaced right under the bridge I was standing on, and hung around for maybe five minutes of pictures. I felt pretty safe being more than six feet over his head, but I wouldn't have wanted to be only six feet from him if I were in the water.

Squawk!

Maybe I should have combined all these posts about Myakka today into one big long post? Nah, this way it looks like I'm posting more than normal. I followed the sound of this red-shouldered hawk for a few minutes before I caught up to him. There were actually a pair of them chasing each other through the treetops, but I only ever found this one. For whatever reason, he was the only one making noise. As you can see, I caught him in mid-squawk.

Fluffy

I showed you several pictures of a tri-colored heron the other day, but I didn't have any like this. I caught this guy in the middle of a feather shake. He only looked like this for a second, but this is how I look when I go without shaving the whole weekend. Again, this is a shot from my trip to Myakka today.

Lunch Break

Speaking of Myakka, here's an osprey I shot during today's outing. He grabbed some quick lunch out of the water and is taking it back to the nest.

Dragonslayer

Just wanted to show you this dragonfly I saw at Myakka River State Park today. Gotta love a long lens.

The Launch

As promised, I took a drive over to Titusville today to see the shuttle launch. When we first parked the car, it was pouring down rain and you couldn't see 50 feet out the window of the car. We went and got some lunch, and when we got back, the weather was near perfect. We had less than two hours to go until launch, and the time flew by. I actually got the right launch pad this time, unlike last time when I was zoomed in on the wrong pad. The shuttle took off from 39A, which is the one to the right. I need to remember that for next time... For the longest time there wasn't much to see, just a hazy launch pad, almost 12 miles away.

Suddenly, there was smoke! I thought it was still a minute or two before the actual liftoff time of 5:02 PM, but I was wrong.

More smoke, and you can just barely see the tip of shuttle Discovery peeking above the launch tower.

And there she is, Discovery, after clearing the launch tower and just about ready to start rotating around and assuming the correct orientation for orbital flight.

Compare this picture to the previous one and you can see that the shuttle has rotated about it's axis. It's amazing to me that they can control all that power.

The roll maneuver continues as Discovery emerges from behind a low cloud.

She finally got into the right position and from there on out it was just foot-to-the-floor raw power. This is probably the best picture of the day, with the nice blue sky, the colors of the shuttle are close to correct (and dark) and the fire is beautiful!

Eventually, my 400mm telephoto lens with 1.5X auto-converter and 1.6X digital cheat couldn't keep up with the rapidly-climbing bird. She's just a dot at the top of a flame that's leaving a trail of smoke across the sky.

You may recall that I got a new camera last weekend. Well, I put it and the old one both to good use this weekend. I used the new one with the long lens to capture the close-up shots you saw first, then I used the old camera with one of the new IS lenses to capture these two shorter shots, so you can see as little bit better what the launch looked like to the naked eye. I remembered that when I shot the launch last year, I'd hated the fact that I couldn't zoom out and capture the smoke trail like I wanted. But not this year. The shots above and below are both great and give you a sense of what the launch looked like to the people on the ground. I always wondered why I saw professional photographers lugging around more than one camera at big events. Now I know. There's no time to be swapping lenses when things are happening in a hurry. And there's no such thing as a truly do-it-all lens. Not that I intend to carry two cameras around all the time, mind you. But it's a great trick for when the situation demands it.

I guess there are only a few shuttle launches left until they retire the fleet. I hope I get the chance to go to more of them. It's really an awesome sight and a great photo opportunity.

The Countdown Is On

In about 24 hours, the shuttle Discovery is supposed to fly again. I'm hoping to be able to get over there for this launch, so keep your fingers crossed for me. The grainy picture above is a greatly enlarged and very enhanced version of a shot I took of Atlantis during the last launch I went to. It's not the best picture, but what do you expect for a picture taken from over 11 miles away?

11.77 miles! That's about as close as you can hope to get without an on-base pass, which I'm not going to get. But I may try a different angle this time, maybe that Southern causeway...

Last Night In Town

Rumor has it that Christine Desiree's Pulse is going to be moved to its new home tomorrow, so I wanted to get out and shoot it for what may be the last time. These first couple of shots feature my 16-point starburst filter. I don't use it too much, but when I find a use for it, it makes for a great effect.


The shot above shows off the image stabilization feature of the new lens pretty well. That's a handheld shot at a pretty low shutter speed, and it's only a little blurry. If it wasn't so late already, I'd take the time to find the least blurry version, but I'm tired. I'll have to go back to the metadata on the original file, but I may have also used the flash on this shot. Not sure... (Nope, no flash, 1/8 sec. exposure) And it wouldn't be Ernie shooting the cube at night if I didn't include at least one of the zoom-with-the-shutter-open pictures. I never get tired of these.

Cat Under Bed

I'm still playing with the new camera, trying to explore the limits of the Image Stabilization (IS) feature of the lens. So I was shooting pictures under the bed, and what should I find but a cat! Not a bad looking picture for shooting in the dark under the bed. And handheld without flash no less!

North Carolina (11/50)

I didn't know that North Carolina offered a Gator license plate, but here is the proof. How odd. I'm sure that Florida would never offer a Tar Heels plate. I believe that the state of Georgia also offers a Gator plate, but again, Florida isn't going to offer a Bulldog plate. It's great to be a Florida Gator!

Previous states: California, Virginia, Alaska, Connecticut, New York, Maine, Hawaii, Washington, Ohio, Wisconsin

The New Camera-Part Two

Here are some more photos from the new XSi camera. This is a tri-color heron, which is one of the ones you don't see very often. I've never seen one that had this much blue on his beak. I'm wondering if maybe that's not something do do with mating season. I suppose I need to look that up. These guys are neat to watch when they are hunting, as they contort their necks to get a better view and herd the fish into the best position for eating. Unfortunately, he didn't catch anything while I had my camera trained on him.

A New Camera

Well, after three years, I figured it was time for a new camera. The old Canon Rebel XT has been a great camera, but ever since the new XSi model came out last month, I've been jonesing for it. Today I got a coupon in the mail for 10% off at Best Buy, which combined nicely with 18 months to pay it off interest-free. I figured it was as good a time as any. The new camera is 12 megapixels, versus 8 for the old one, so I'm hoping my pictures will be a little more detailed. It also came with a fancy image-stabilized lens, which I am really excited about. I should be able to get better shots at lower light levels than before. I went out today and shot about 600 pics once I got the battery charged, and I'm pretty excited by some of the results. I stumbled on this night heron at Island Park, and was able to catch him in mid-flight. These are crops from the full frames, and you can see that there is still plenty of detail there. I'm hoping that a new camera will get me more excited about getting out there and taking more pictures, as I've been a little on the blah side about it lately. We'll see.

Oodles Of Doodles CCCXLII

A little bit of old-school military might for you here tonight, doodlewise. This artillery comes from the back cover of Felix Slatkin Conducting The Light Brigade-Charge! (Capitol T1270). I don't think this group has anything to do with the Enoch Light big band of the same name. I'm pretty sure Enoch's band was well known by this date, so it's odd that they used the same name. The liner notes make reference to Alfred Lord Tennyson and The Charge Of The Light Brigade, but still... This is the second doodle of a cannon that I've brought you, the other being from the inimitable Billy May. (Speaking of whom, I've got another doodle from one of his records coming up soon.) You know, looking at that other cannon doodle, I'm thinking they are by the same artist. Shame that neither one is signed. Oh, one more thing. Click here for some Felix Slatkin Christmas tunes. Good stuff!