Had a busy weekend last weekend. A good busy. Doing things that I enjoy. Unlike my day to day things, these are things I love to do. Photography and singing. To be specific photography, singing, and then more photography.
This second post of three is about a concert I sang in the same evening as the photography workshop I mentioned in my last post. I have sung with 100 Men In Black on and off for many years. The first break was when Dad (me) was needed at home during the middle school years. I did stay in regular contact with Marlon West…
…the founder and Director of 100 Men In Black. I had been the self appointed photo documentarian,…
…even landing the front page of a local paper.
So Marlon brought me back for a group photo session.
He even asked me to lead a song I used to solo that evening. Felt good. When the kids were in High School I rejoined the choir once again. The second break was when they disbanded the chorus during the pandemic. I felt comfortable returning last year. This time as a smaller ensemble grouping. And we have done events here and there, including the African American Cultural Celebration held at the North Carolina Museum of History earlier this year.
You can even briefly see my mug in this new video. This day was our first full fledged concert since we started up again. It was hosted locally at a church in Durham. The venue was great. The audience was great. The musicians were great. The chorus was firing on all cylinders. I was co-lead for one song and that went well.
When I lead I usually sing tenor, but otherwise I usually sing in the baritone section. Bass is my happy place but Marlon asked that I sing baritone and I obliged. Here is a link to a video playlist I created. A great evening oof friends and family followed by dinner with family at a favorite local restaurant. A great day.
And the chorus even got together one evening the next week as Marlon treated the chorus to dinner. As we do, we also closed out the dinner with a song.
Video Sidebar: Please forgive my questionable video skills. As a videographer I make for a decent still photographer. Said another way… not my specialty or area of passion.
Video Notes
But… I must mention that the last close cropped video would have been worse were it not for some Sony post processing trickery. I chose a great fast 50mm lens to capture candid pics.
The issue was when I got the idea to capture video with a relatively tight lens for the occasion in tight quarters while panning. The result? IBIS did not stand a chance and I ended up with video that was nearly unwatchable. Then I remembered something. Recent Sony bodies capture gyro data for video smoothing after the fact. So I went ahead and downloaded Sony Catalyst Browse and gave it a go. And the free version has the video smoothing feature. Worked perfectly. Turned a motion sickness triggering video into one that I could watch. Next time I will use a wider lens or step further back since the software introduces a crop as a part of the process. But that is user controlled. I have nothing but praise for the gyro data capture feature and the post processing software. I occasionally have considered purchasing a gimble but for the amount of video I capture (Not often.) this solution makes far more sense.
Conclusion
So that was Saturday. Still have one more day and one more post to go.
Happy capturing.
-ELW
Eric L. Woods 