The Altar Bar

A few weekends ago I attended a concert at the Altar Bar in Pittsburgh and tested out my new 55-200mm lens. The wonderful band Wine & Spirit was playing along with several other local bands providing me with plenty opportunity for testing under various conditions.

I'm not quite used to how much it zooms in. All the cameras and lenses I've used in the past didn't even come close to the amount of magnification it performs. My least magnifying lens is 18mm. That's more than 10x magnification! It may seem insignificant to you but to someone like me who's only seen that amount of magnification in microscopes it is kind of a big deal.

The lens far exceeded my expectations for zoom. I was able to capture close-ups of the people at the back of the stage.

This was also the first time I need to switch lenses while on my feet. Things happen so quickly at the concerts that there is no time to return to my camera bag to swich lenses. I was nervous through the whole procedure. I kept my other lens in a small bag over my shoulder so I wouldn't need to carry my big camera bag. When the time came to switch, I brought the small bag to my front and opened it. Once there I switched the lenses and put the bag back behind me. All this while being careful nobody walked into me, it is a bar after all.

Not Much New Here

I recently purchased a new camera (Nikon D3100) and wanted to shoot some victims people with it. Wine & Spirit presented me with the first opportunity with their little concert at Garfield Artworks with Verona Red and Atlas. And it was an excellent opportunity to test how the camera performs in low light. The artworks had only one light directed toward the stage. In the photo above you can see it shining on the left side of the image. Plus it didn't help that all the walls and ceiling were stark white creating a poor background. Needless to say I didn't get many shots I consider worthy of public viewing.

More importantly I heard and met a wonderful new band! Verona Red played songs which I didn't want to end. All of their songs impressed me, which is quite an accomplishment. You should listen to them on their myspace page. They also had some of the coolest merchandise I've seen in a while. If you didn't attend the concert you really missed out. The band has local ties so there's a good chance they'll return in the future for you to see and hear.