Busy Weekend of Pucks and Music

My camera was busy this past weekend with a hockey game and two concerts. Lots of shots from all three events at the usual place.

Friday

The Carleton Place Canadians continued their drive to a playoff spot, with a victory over the Nepean Raiders. The win gave them the fourth best record in the league, one point in front of the Raiders. After a ninth place finish and missing the playoffs last year (their first in the league), this is a different team with lots of potential.

Photo Notes: Nikon D700 with f/2.8 70-200mm lens, and a 1.4 extender; shooting from just inside the blue line, I can get extremely good close-ups of the near net, and the 280mm extended lens gets me close enough to the far net to pick up the action there.

Saturday

On Saturday night, the Folkus Almonte series of concerts continued with Selina Martin opening and Dave Bidini headlining. Selina is a local girl with a “folk-rock” leaning and puts on a great show.

Dave Bidini is a little more “rock” than “folk”, and brings a lot more intensity to the stage. He is a founding member of the now defunct Rheostatics, an accomplished book author, and a regular columnist with the National Post. Interesting person, music, and concert.

Photo Notes: Nikon D700 with f/2.8 70-200mm lens, and my trusty Manfrotto monopod; the Old Town Hall in Almonte has good stage lighting (actually it is excellent lighting for a small venue) and even the band members were reasonably well lit. There was less than a full house, so I was able to move around fairly well and even took some front row seats for a while to get some really good close-ups.

Sunday

On Sunday afternoon, the local Presbyterian Church held a hymn sing with Garth Hampson, now retired from an extensive career with the RCMP, mainly in northern Canada. Along the way, he was the lead soloist for the RCMP Concert Band for over 25 years, and was the star of hundreds of concerts and productions. With citations and awards way too numerous to mention, he is now heavily involved in charitable fundraising, in particular for our First Nation communities in the north.

Photo Notes: Nikon D700 with f/2.8 70-200mm lens, again mostly on my Manfrotto monopod;  whoever first thought of using churches for concerts certainly had a great idea! The locations are beautiful, the sound is superb, and there is usually lots of good light. St. Andrew’s in Carleton Place is certainly all of the above.

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