The final concert for the BDAA conference was last night. It was impressive, FILLED with incredible talent. But a little disappointing for me, because it was very "orchestral" in feel, and less "gypsy" as some of the past concerts have been. I took some video, and I'll try to string some together for you later this week, but know that it's not the typical Balalaika concert I'm used to and have been explaining these last couple years. Next time I go to one of THOSE I will videotape it so you can see what I'm talking about. :)

So, since I was disappointed by my photo ops and results from last night, I found myself another victim today. We were watching tv when all of a sudden Dante walked over to the corner of the coffee table looking VERY interested! When I saw what he was looking at I immediately told him to "leave it!" I was afraid he'd hurt it, inadvertently, and I didn't want it hurt. I wanted to shoot it, and then let it go outside. Thus the title for this blog. ;) C'mon, you wouldn't REALLY think I meant anything other than something along these lines, would you?

How aaaaawesome is this mantis? I love these bugs, I must admit. I love their curiosity! My biggest problem in shooting this? Trying to get close enough to shoot him, but keeping far enough away that he wouldn't keep climbing onto my lens! After shooting him, I took him out on a piece of tupperware and left him to regain his senses (after all that flashing) in the weeds beside the house.

Hope you all have a great upcoming week. :)

I did it! I got up to 5 steps on the ladder before I felt like my heart was going to explode, but 5 steps was just high enough. Jeremy said, as he was holding the ladder that didn't really NEED to be held, "Do you want to go up one more step?"

"Not if I want to live through this."

:)

The setting wasn't the most beautiful .. tonight's photos will be much better. But I did it. *whew*

Thought I'd share one of my "oops"es, too. After the big group photo I told everyone if they wanted smaller group/individual shots, I'd be happy to take them for them. Some of you know I gave Steve a bit of a hard time in some recent wedding photos, where the groom was dipping the bride and in the background was a fencepost, so it looked like he was about to impale his new bride's head on a post. haha. I told him that's one of the biggest challenges of wedding photography - watching the background while still getting "the moment."

Well, there are two musicians at this event who are supposed to be THE top in the world of balalaika/domra musicians. There simply are none better .. they are world-renowned. So there were TONS of people wanting photos taken with them.

Here's one of them.

The shot will be cropped and edited, but do you see my mistake?

We went out to lunch after shooting and as I was sitting there chimping (ask Jeremy, if you don't know the term), I came to this shot and just groaned. *sigh* I showed Jeremy, and he instantly saw it, too. Had I been paying attention to the background, I'd have moved them. Unfortunately, they didn't speak much English and I DEFINITELY don't speak Russian, so I was definitely not focused on the right thing.

Ah well. I'm sure I'll do better tonight! Hope you're all having a fabulous weekend. :)

Tonight I photographed the opening concert for the Balalaika Festival. Well, I don't think that's the technical term for it. Basically, for the next 7 days, there will be music and poetry and dancing and LOTS of drinking, and over 150 balalaika/domra musicians from around the world, celebrating their art in Reno. Jeremy works with one of the guys who is in the Sierra Nevada Balalaika Orchestra. Once, a couple years ago, he asked around work to see if anyone would like to come see a concert. Apparently it's not such a hot topic, because only Jeremy and I and one other woman went. She left halfway through. I, on the other hand, was enthralled! I'd never heard anything like it. It was an outdoor concert under the stars and there was an energy I'd never experienced before. I took pictures. A lot of pictures. Afterwards, I made a little web page with some of the pics and sent the link to Jeremy. He forwarded it to his co-worker, who forwarded it to the other musicians.

Fast forward in time, and Jeremy and I photographed the leader of the SNBO, Zeny's daughter, Jaime's wedding last year. I've photographed a few concerts for them. And, when Zeny found out that they would be having the 30th annual conference in Reno this year, he asked if I would be interested in photographing some of it. Would I?! :)

So, this was the first concert, in Wingfield Park, which is actually an island in the middle of the Truckee River. Next, I'll be photographing their Vodka tasting Tuesday night, and then their group photo (150+ musicians, with instruments) next Saturday morning and then their final concert Saturday evening. I love the music. It makes me smile. :) It was fun watching the little girl in the bellydancing garb enjoying her dance, too.

Driving home hurt. After standing for an hour and a half, my leg was lodging its complaints. Thank goodness for cruise control, because switching from the gas pedal to the brake pedal and back was a bitch.

So, then I came home and terrorized a moth. :)

Hope your weekend and evening was as exciting as mine. ;)

(You bring the bruschetta!)

Wow. I am overwhelmed. The Sierra Nevada Balalaika Orchestra, whom I photograph every now and again (they are great people, lots of fun, and the music and outfits and dancing are incredible!) have sent me a very thoughtful gift. The first time I photographed them, it was really nothing planned, and it was before we had our new, good lens. Even then, they were really kind and gave Jeremy and I a generous gift certificate to a local sports bar. Back in February, I went to the concert specifically to photograph it with the new lens and it worked really well! Apparently, one of the musicians (who works with Jeremy) asked Jeremy if I liked wine. Jeremy told them I like Shiraz and what you see above is what I got! WOW! Once we saw what was in there, it explained the misspelling in the card:

"Thank you for the great pictures from our last concert. We're very grapeful. Sierra Nevada Balalaika Orchestra"

:)