I got to this event Fredericksburg Va.
and had the incredible honor of meeting Ms. Locke in person.
It was worth the trip
Click on images to see a larger view.
For more interviews with contestants from the 2004 season aka AI3 go to my Internet Radio home page. I have recent interviews with Lisa Leuschner and Nicole Tieri a.k.a. Scooter Girl.
Greetings. Everyone. I had the honor of being able to cover the American Idol Tour for the 2003 season when it came to the MCI center in Washington dc on the 28th of July 2003 and at the Richmond Coliseum on the 5th of August 2003.
I want to thank the people at American Idol and their PR. department for granting me Photo Passes for both events.
For those who are wondering what a Photo Pass is or does (in the case of AI). It allows you to get close enough to get some decent pictures of the talent and you are allowed to have decent still camera equipment. The downside to having a Photo Pass is that you are only allowed to get pictures at certain times. In the case of the Tour it was just before and just after the intermission. The other downside is that for some reason we were not allowed to use any flash equipment which can make life very difficult. The reason is that if you are trying to get a decent picture using existing light with a digital camera (even an expensive one) you have to take into consideration that moving objects are very hard to photograph. All digital cameras have similar characteristics to film cameras and the same problems.
The audience has the advantage that they can shoot all the pictures that they want. The disadvantage of being in the audience is that if the staff at the venue (name for the location of the day) is on alert then they won't let you have any decent cameras that will take decent pictures like an SLR or a detachable flash unit.
Believe me if I had the chance to use my SunPak 36DX I would be one happy camper. This flash unit can take make a huge difference when it comes to decent lighting. It is powerful enough to light up the whole stage.
Also for some reason that I do not know: We were asked not to take pictures of Clay when he is not singing. Well as a photographer that is the best time to get a still because even under existing light you can get a really good image if the talent isn't moving. I did notice that I was able to get a lot of good pictures of Clay, possibly because there were times when he was not moving very much so then you can just keep hitting the shutter release.
Anyway I have here some of the very many images that I got at both Richmond and Washington. You will notice that the talent seems to be arranged in a certain order according to height. I was able to get quite a few good images of Kimberly Locke. Yes I am a big fan of her but I do not like to choose one over the other. I found that Julia Demato was hard to get pictures of from the Press Location, I am assuming that because she is tall that they placed her in the back and it seemed that Kimberly Locke or Trenyce was always in front of her while Carmen Rasmusen was toward the right front and easy to get pictures of. Then add to all that they are constantly moving which plays hell with your auto focus and you still have to wait for the camera to record or advance the film.
More to come
Scott Meenen
Image of Kimberley Locke coming toward the Camera. Thank
you. It makes you want to reach out and hug her.
You will notice the background is dark
black. I used Photo Shop to tweak the images so there will not be any camera
noise. Even expensive cameras have problems with "Gain noise" which is
the electronic "equivalent to film grain". To even dream of getting a decent
image while they are moving the camera shutter speed must be at least 1/60th
of a second. If you are lucky enough to have a camera with "Shutter Priority"
then you can set it to 1/60th. If you have a cheap digital then you will
have to raise the
ASA equivalence "to 400 from Auto. If you do not do this
then the camera will set the shutter to 1/30th of second and there is no
way in hell you will be able to get an image that is not blurred unless
they are sitting still or coming toward you. Even if your camera cost $5,000
or more you will still have this problem when shooting in existing light.
Also most digital cameras are too "dumb" to set their shutter speed to
a 1/60th when using flash, they will leave it at 1/30 so you will get the
flash picture plus a blurred "Secondary" image from the existing light.
This is the next image in the sequence. It seems that Kimberley Locke has decided not to run off stage but rejoin the group. It is amazing how fast things will change. You can see Kimberly Caldwell and Julia DeMato peeking out. It is just so difficult to get a real good shot while they are moving. If they had let us go to the middle of the audience then this would look a lot different.
More to come.
Scott Meenen
Thank you for stopping by. I have several hundred images of which only 10% are useable that I got from both DC and Richmond. I will be writing more about the tour as time goes on.
Believe it or not when you are up front to take pictures you have just so much time to shoot as much as you can until you are told to leave. I am as much a fan as anyone else and I love them all, however when you go up from and it is time, you forget all about American Idol, you forget who is who, you forget that Ruben is the winner and who got voted off when and you would like to get a picture of most, you forget that you are right in front of the Bass speaker and it is blasting you, all you can think about is getting as many good pictures as possible in as short a time as possible. All I could think about is getting the camera focused and the image framed (getting everyone in the center), clicking the shutter and doing it over again. Once it is all over then you can look over what you have and delete your mistakes to make room for pictures later.
I will post more images on other pages as time goes on. Please do not link to these images or take them for your own use without permission. This Tour has cost me hundreds of dollars in equipment, lost time and aggravation. If you notice that the Copyright date is August 28th, that is the day I started working on these images. If you do ask nicely I will gladly give you more.
Links to other pages:
Interview with Nicole Tieri aka Scooter Girl on my radio network Libertyfeed.com
Review of the 2004 show or AI3 with information about Scooter Girl AKA Nicole Tieri.
Images of Kimberley Caldwell signing autographs.
Images from the Simon Mall Tour back in April of 2003. Featuring Vanessa Olivarez.
An official
statement from me to anyone of official capacity with American Idol
and anyone else concerned with the content you see here.
Links to other sites:
Call me at 240-460-3820 Cell
Scott Meenen
AOL Instant Messenger: n3sjh
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