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!

VBS Through My Lens

I got a chance to try out each of my lens this week for VBS.  I used my all purpose 18-200mm, 35mm/f1.8, and 50mm/f1.4 lens.  My favorite turned out to be the 50mm.  I was consistently getting great images and skin tones.  At any given hour, I would go from inside the church sanctuary activities, to an indoor market, to outside for games.  While the 18-200mm worked great for zooming in and out, it didn't do as well in the sanctuary.  Even with flash, it tended to produce grainy pictures.  I'm so spoiled with the 50mm/f1.4 lens.  

Here are a sampling from VBS.  I'll be back to post the picture specifics for each one:  

In the marketplace, painting coin boxes

Huddle time in the Sanctuary

Eunice and Martha at Martha's house

The Dye Shop - where everyone got a chance to create a tie-dye scarf

Huddle time in the Sanctuary

I tell them to "smile" and this is what I get...lol!

Even the adults got to have fun with at the Dye Shop

This is a work of art

Fun with the beach ball

Water balloon toss

A farmer giving a lecture on planting beans

The sanctuary with a wall of stone

Eunice in Mary's house

At the Dye Shop

A Holiday with No Flash

Over the long Thanksgiving weekend, I ended up taking roughly 500 pictures.  My brother was in town and we decided to make this a photo opportunity and visit local places. 

We took the Metro and headed down to Georgetown.  Here we are at the Canal.  Georgetown Mall would be on the right and Pantagonia shop on the left. 

 

I couldn’t resist taking a picture of this dress (window display) inside the Mall. 

 

This picture is not as clear, but still the dress is beautiful. 

 

We headed north on Wisconsin Avenue and I just happened to look to my left and spotted these old tracks. 

 

Another day, we headed out to Merrifield Garden Center for another non-flash photo opportunity. 

Happy July 4th!

Today doesn't feel like a Sunday to me, but a true holiday. I spent most of today running errands and well, just having a fun day. You can tell it's a holiday...there just doesn't seem to be that much traffic. Folks are either visiting friends and relatives or venturing downtown (Washington, DC) to take part of the festivities there. I prefer to have a nice, long, quiet weekend. Doing my own thing.

By mid morning, I ended up in Old Town Manassas. Armed with my Canon S90, I went on my picture-taking adventure before the crowds arrived. At first I felt really restricted only having a small P&S camera with me. It felt good not to be bogged down in hot weather carrying heavy equipment. So, I put my camera to the test to see how well it does in bright sunlight and in low light situations. Here are the results:

In the middle of Old Town


One of the decorations around the train station


Okra's got a new facelift...bright yellow!


The gazebo at the Pavilion


At the Pavilion


Tractor ride


In the middle of the train tracks


Signage at the train station


Train on display


A close up


Enjoyed chatting with these two ladies waiting for the train to arrive


School Must Be Out - Taken at stop light while in the car



Early afternoon, I was thinking of my DH, and decided to pick up some lunch and some Mango Smoothies and headed over to the garden center. Hmmmm, another picture-taking adventure. The indoor shots were taken without flash. Amazing.


The patio - indoor display


The blue room - indoor display


The orange room - indoor display

Gardening Wear


A False Window Display


A Fish Wine Rack


Orchids in the greenhouse


Merrifield's own


Need pots?


Outdoor patio display


Spectacular color arrangements


Couldn't pass up taking pictures of these colorful chairs


Another outdoor patio display


Hibiscus in bloom


A Lonely Wagon


Nap Time!


The temperature gauge in my vehicle registered 101. It really felt like it. The humidity wasn't too bad, though tolerable.

This turned out to be a fantastic no flash day for me. I left the camera on "P" mode and just snapped away. The S90 did a fabulous job with the indoor and low light situations. The battery lasted for 255 pictures. I kept snapping away even when the red battery light kept blinking. Eventually, the lens retracted and the camera turned itself off. And yes, I did have a spare battery with me.

Overall, I think my camera did a great job. It took me awhile to get used to holding a small camera. Then I had to get used to looking at the LCD versus a viewfinder to take a picture. To keep the camera hanging from my wrist, I used an adjustable heavy wrist strap that worked better than the flimsy Canon strap that came with the camera. I've ordered a Canon leather case for my camera that should arrive in a few days. In the meantime, I picked up a Lowepro Ridge 30 padded case to use while on travel.

A wonderful small camera that's almost as good as a DSLR. Almost.

Fireworks - Scene mode


Camera: Canon S90
Lens: 28-105mm
Mode: P-mode
Flash: none