Breath of Life Quartet and Heaven's Song...Concert

Hubby and I went to a concert at our church.  I took my D7k and my trusty 18-200mm lens along with my 50mm and SB-600 flash.  I wasn't sure what to expect with the limited lighting inside the church sanctuary.  We sat in the second row and much to my surprise I was able to take lots of pictures of the concert from my seat.  Heaven's Song opened up the concert and they were truly amazing singers.

Heaven's Song
(27mm, f5.6, 1/200, ISO 3200)

At an opportune moment, I left my seat to walk towards the back of the church to take this shot (no flash):  

Breath of Life Quartet (BLQ)
(18mm, f3.5, 1/200, +0.67, ISO 6400, no flash)

One of the neat advantages of being the unofficial photog for the church is the ability to move around without causing too much distraction.  Folks are used to seeing me with my camera.  

The Breath of Life Quartet was pretty amazing and their music was very uplifting.  All I can say, they have awesome vocals and harmonies.   

BLQ - Loren Mulraine, Ron Woodfork, Desmond Pierre-Louise, Duane Hamilton, & Adrian Westney, Jr.
(28mm, f5.6, 1/200, ISO 1250)

BLQ
(29mm, f5.6, 1/200, ISO 1000)

At the end of the concert, both groups were on stage to give the final performance for the evening:

Heaven's Song and Breath of Life Quartet
(24mm, f5.6, 1/200, ISO 3600)

Concert Finale with Heaven's Song and Breath of Life Quartet
(48mm, f4.5, 1/100, +0.67, ISO 6400, no flash)

The concert lasted for 2 hours.  We thoroughly enjoyed it and I was able to purchase a few of their CDs.  I am currently listening to Loren Mulraine's CD - Fall on Me as I'm typing this post.  Uplifting and inspirational!

Who Did I See?

Over three of the four days during the commemoration, I kept going back to the Manassas Museum camp site.  It just seemed really interesting there.  A comfortable place to visit.  

Here are a few that I found:

Maj Charles Pickett

General Grant

Abe Lincoln

Root Beer Anyone?

Before I left Camp Manassas, I decided to stop at this refreshment stand.

Very colorful stand

One of the signage at the stand

There were several kegs holding homemade cold refreshments.  Immediately, I was drawn to the bottles:

Keg of wonderful refreshment

You pick the bottle and then your pick your refreshment (root beer, cherry fizz, or lemonade):

Cool looking bottles and great colors!

I took home a blue bottle filled with some fantastic root beer for my hubby.

Charge!!!!!

This morning, I headed out to another location near Old Town Manassas where other soldiers were camping out:  Camp Manassas located near the grounds of the Jennie Dean school.  I wandered out to a field to take pictures of some cannons.  In a distance I saw a group of riders who were in formation.  I heard the bugle and then "Charge!"  I snapped a couple of shots and realized they were coming at me.  A few seconds after this picture was taken, I almost stumbled.  I wasn't sure if they were going to stop in time.  They did...in unison about 10 feet away from me.  My heart was racing.

There were many vendors from the Civil War era:

Coon River - sold custom made uniforms

Working on a leather belt at Heritage Leather

Using drop spindles and carded roving (fiber) to create twisted yarn

The yarn wool yarn was beautiful!

The wool shop

A funny sign that caught my attention

Getting ready for their charge...notice the Bugler in the back middle

Young and old they did a great job

Cannon and artillery

Wagon used for transporting the injured

Basic Tools

Toys and candies

Shopping in the Emporium

Variety of woolens and accessories at the Emporium

More accessories at the Emporium

It was a mostly cloudy day and the thick humidity stuck around.  I endured.  There was so much activity going on at this site and so many pictures were taken.

I left my camera on "0" exposure and I thought it did a pretty good job.  The clouds helped a lot.  I used my 18-200mm lens as I knew I would be zooming in and out a lot and couldn't rely on my feet to move fast enough.

As I look back on the last few days of my photog experience, I should have gone out in the late evening to take night time shots of the camp sites with their candles glowing.  Hmmm...there is another commemorative event coming up next month...the Second Battle of Bull Run/Manassas.

The Official Blue and Gray Ball...Civil War Commemoration

This evening I spent a few hours in Old Town Manassas to capture the Blue and Gray Ball.  The temperature was 100 degrees, but felt like 110 degrees with the high humidity.  As the evening wore on, there was a slight breeze...which helped.  

I happened to be walking down a side street as the doors to the Center for the Arts opened and these fine ladies came out.  Their gowns were beautiful!

As you can tell, I used my 18-200mm lens and I didn't bother to carry an external flash with me.  I figured I would let my D7k can handle the low light situations.  The only post-production items I did was to crop a few pictures and add my copyright notice.  I let my camera do all the work.

Manassas - 150 Years Civil War Commemoration

Hubby and I were in Old Town Manassas checking out the 150 year Civil War Commemoration events.   The temperature was well over 100 degrees.

Our first stop was the Harris Pavilion where the Blue and Gray Ball was taken place.  Plenty of folks were dressed in period costumes:

A trio was playing historical folk music:

The Camptown Shakers

I enjoyed watching them play.  

Inside the Pavilion

More of the Camptown Shakers

We walked along Center Street and I found these two young ladies willing to pose for me

We headed down to the Manassas Museum and came across this camp site:

Horses being tended to

Looks like Gatorade and Pepsi to me

It was a sweltering evening here in Manassas.  I don't think I could last the evening sleeping in one of the tents.  When you think about it, back in the Civil War era folks didn't have Gatorade or the vehicles that brought them to here to Manassas.  Something to think about....