PhotoSutra : The Photo Blog

D'oh! Up. Date. The. Blog. Do it!!! (ok, ok...)

2011-04-17T20:36:00.000-06:00

I saw a boat load of people in concert I didn't update in the blog for various reasons... but the BIGGEST reason: I moved from Colorado Springs to the Knoxville Tennessee area, Maryville to be exact.

So... as I finish getting relocated, hope you enjoy going back through some archived months and I'll update this (for real) very soon. Really.

Janis Ian

2011-03-18T01:01:00.001-06:00

Janis Ian a photo by butch leitz on Flickr.

Saw Janis Ian tonight in Colorado Springs at Stargazers Theatre.

She's been performing since she was 14, has had several hit songs including her stellar song "seventeen", and exhibited her songwriting lyricism skills and simple finesse with a guitar to a pretty full crowd.

She performed two encores and said several times that this was one the best concerts she thinks she's had in a while.

Also - if she ever wanted to take a break from her music career she could make a living doing stand-up comedy... check out her lyics from her song "married in london"
here.
(She performed this live tonight and I swear she used a different word than "bugger" in the last line! )

Dope Rap Edition: Free Tanya Morgan Tickets!

2011-03-09T09:17:00.000-07:00

Check out the link to get free tickets to hip hop duo Tanya Morgan appearing at The Black Sheep on Thursday!

Chester Bennington, Linkin Park

2011-02-27T22:10:00.001-07:00

Chester Bennington, Linkin Park
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

Photographed Linkin Park at the Denver Pepsi Center last night. This was a tough shoot. The lighting was really tough, alot of backlighting and smoke swirling around, but hey, you do your best!

Click the link here to see the original review with MORE PHOTOS at the Colorado Springs Gazette Soundboard Blog.

Jake Loggins

2011-02-19T18:58:00.003-07:00

Jake Loggins
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

This shooting bands thing has gotten to be bigger than *I* am. I see my photos being used all over the internet on facebook and a few other places in profiles and band web sites.

I let the low-res ones slide, I don't chase anybody down and say "bad musican! bad! don't hork my photos!". rather... i kinda dig it. most of them - i'd say 99% of them - keep the credit on there like they're supposed to.

I have been asked for prints (even from the major national acts I've shot, so thats cool), I've designed a couple T-Shirts, worked on about 4 CD covers, made a bunch of business cards for people, and have designed all the normal graphic and layout stuff people need for a collateral package for repping themselves or for public relations and marketing. Great for sending with a demo CD to get that next gig, airplay, or what have you.

What can I do for you? 719-590-7112.
See www.butchleitzphotography.com for more (currently evolving).

Here's a recent photo I took of Jake Loggins. I love hearing his band play, so it's a treat to have some free time to shoot him when I can.

Peppino D'Agostino

2011-02-18T15:03:00.001-07:00

Peppino D'Agostino
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

Laurence Juber and Peppino D'Agostino appeared together at Stargazers Theatre in Colorado Springs on Thusday 2/17/2011.

My review of the show can be seen here.

Laurence Juber

2011-02-18T15:01:00.001-07:00

Laurence Juber
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

Laurence Juber and Peppino D'Agostino appeared together at Stargazers Theatre in Colorado Springs on Thusday 2/17/2011.

My review of the show can be seen here.

Kevin Nealon

2011-02-14T00:53:00.001-07:00

Kevin Nealon
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

Kevin Nealon played Stargazers Theatre in Colorado Springs tonight. He was opened by Comedian and vetrenarian Dr. Kevin Fitzgerald.

Pretty much a full house, great crowd... alot of fun. Some of the pics I got can be seen at my flickr page(s) by clicking on the photo.

Cyril Neville

2011-02-06T21:52:00.001-07:00

Cyril Neville
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

The Voice of the Wetlands Allstars tour came through Colorado Springs yesterday and I had the opportunity to shoot it and review it for the Gazette, and to hang out and talk with the musicians at a meet and greet and later on backstage.

If you're into the New Orleans style of funky cajun zydeco (ala the Meters) - there were some incredibly awesome jams during the night. Each of the performers that are touring lead bands in their own right and all have multiple CDs to their credit.

Cyril Neville is one of the famous "Neville Brothers" family and band, was a founding member of the Meters, the Neville Brothers (band), and has led his own bands as well as been a sideman for various other musicians (like Dr. John for example). A living legend in New Orleans music circles.

Big Chief Monk Boudreaux

2011-02-06T21:50:00.001-07:00

Big Chief Monk Boudreaux
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

The Voice of the Wetlands Allstars tour came through Colorado Springs yesterday and I had the opportunity to shoot it and review it for the Gazette, and to hang out and talk with the musicians at a meet and greet and later on backstage.

If you're into the New Orleans style of funky cajun zydeco (ala the Meters) - there were some incredibly awesome jams during the night. Each of the performers that are touring lead bands in their own right and all have multiple CDs to their credit.

Monk here is the real deal: Big Chief of the Golden Eagles Mardis Gras Indian Tribe in New Orleans. He spends hours a day each and every day sewing on beads to his costume.

Versailles Passages, Château de Versailles, Paris, France

2011-01-17T08:23:00.007-07:00

Versailles Passages, Château de Versailles, Paris, France
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

Just revisiting some of the art photos I have, this is one of the top-10 photos I have at Flickr at the moment (currently the 3rd most viewed). (Click the image to view larger.)

This print looks incredible at 20x30 stand-alone for an upscale nouveau look, or in a large formal frame with nice matting. (Print versions come without watermarking, thats just used for online presentation purposes.)

The last one I sold I got to see it hung in a beautiful setting in a formal dining room (suitably framed) and it was a fabulous enhancement to the setting.

Available in 20x30 and 30x40 sizes starting at $275 mounted on a simple 2mm styrene board to ease framing.
Also available in stretched canvas.

Contact me direcly via email at leitz@butchleitzphotography.com with any questions or to place an order.

ritratto di mia figlia - SENIOR PORTRAITS!

2011-01-11T19:38:00.001-07:00

ritratto di mia figlia
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

You know a high school senior along the front range looking for something totally different than the photos you may have seen other kids get?

Here's an example of a photo of my daughter I printed on heavy stock 3x5 cards with a high gloss uv finish, blank inside, used as thank you cards and personal note cards.

Elegant, tasteful.
Pricing varies. Scheduling now.

719-590-7112

Michael Child

2011-01-10T23:50:00.001-07:00

Michael Child
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

Since I mentioned Michael Child a second ago under the blurb about Wendy Austyn, here's a little more info about Child:

My review is here but in a nutshell, if you wanna see what a mashup of Coldplay, John Mayer, Maroon 5 and Jack Johnson might sound like, look no further.

Pretty good music, enormous potential. I enjoyed hearing him.

Wendy Austyn

2011-01-10T23:46:00.002-07:00

Wendy Austyn
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

Gettin' back in the groove from after the New Years Eve slow down in music and photo work, stuff is picking up fast again - couple commercial headshot shoots this week, some boudoir, odds and ends.

But hey:
Friday night had the opportunity to see Michael Child and his band, warming him up (figuratively but maybe literally since they're also "a couple") was Wendy Austyn.

Great voice, photogenic, should have a good future in music.

See my review here.

at the last chance cafe

2010-12-26T16:29:00.002-07:00

at the last chance cafe
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

doing some look-backs in the last year and - even though this was from 2009 - still remains one of my favorite shots and post-photo treatments i've done (esp the torn-paper edge I did using a custom photoshop brush i developed!)
i used a variety of techniques to really burn the sweet be-jesus out of this photo to get the look i wanted & it's one of the top photos (based on clicks) in my flickr photo page.

nelson, nevada (ghost town), 2/13/2009
model:brooks bacarella, mm #456103

Taylor Swift In Concert (redux)

2010-12-26T15:30:00.002-07:00

Taylor Swift
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

I was taking a break just now and going back through some of my 2010 highlights and I came across my review of Taylor Swift I made back in April.

I got some killer photos, changing out lenses several times; she's a great performer.

Thought I'd throw this photo from the review onto flickr and back here onto the blog just for fun!

a grandfather's love - i piccoli momenti

2010-12-24T00:58:00.003-07:00

a grandfather's love
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

So, I know I publish alot of concert shots here in the blog and generally haven't updated much on the "normal" studio work I should be promoting to get more business, but ... I just reflect the things I like the most at any given moment - not that I don't like some of the other work. Here's an example.

While I -do- love doing the concert reviews and the shots and the interaction with musicians, I really enjoy working with people and preserving i piccoli momenti - the little moments.

Here's one from a recent family shoot I just found endearing - the tenderness of this otherwise big tough dad/grandfather... when holding his granddaughter in his arms....

Sean Stockham, Middle Class Rut

2010-12-24T00:19:00.002-07:00

Sean Stockham, Middle Class Rut
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

Middle Class Rut warmed up for Ok Go, and they were wild...

a two person band, this photo of Sean Stockham is one of my favorite ones from the night!

You can read my review of Middle Class Rut, here.

Damian Kulash, OK Go

2010-12-24T00:15:00.002-07:00

Damian Kulash, OK Go
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

ok, OK Go take two: I was dying to show you this photo just in case you dont read the fantastic review i wrote!!!! (lol)

Did i mention you can read it here?

Naomi and Wynonna Judd: The Judds!

2010-12-24T00:10:00.003-07:00

Naomi Judd
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

I'm not a big country fan, I've fessed up before. But it was nice seeing The Judds work their magic to a big room of adoring fans recently at World Arena in Colorado Springs.

Naomi liked one of my pictures from the review so much she asked me for a copy, which I was too happy to oblige her with!

Here's a link to my review of the Judds I titled "Two Steppin’ In the Shadows: The Judd’s Final Encore".

Naomi actually asked for copies of the first two photos I posted with the review. What do you think? Did I do them justice?!?

Chris Duarte

2010-12-24T00:05:00.002-07:00

Chris Duarte
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

One of my favorite guitarists is Chris Duarte. He's been through the Springs several times in the last couple years but I've always missed him - until last friday night!

And wow: what a show... he can get "out there", but he can funk, rock, and blues out pretty much in a class all his own!

See my review I posted at the Gazette here.

Damian Kulash, OK Go

2010-12-24T00:03:00.002-07:00

Damian Kulash, OK Go
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

I got some crazy photos at Stargazers Theatre last week seeing OK Go! Here's the most "normal" photo I got of front man Damian Kulash standing on a pelican case in the middle of the dance floor surrounded by people during Damian's "hippy moment" [sic]!

See the review here.

Chopstick Gardens

2010-12-23T23:59:00.001-07:00

Chopstick Gardens
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

Just for fun...
chinatown, san francisco, cali-forn-yah

Americana and the Blues - intertwined music that works: Mo' Kauffey and Jake Loggins

2010-11-20T13:51:00.000-07:00

Just saw a real nice act last night at Stargazers: "Mo' Kauffey" - who plays Americana "folk'n'blues" (don't say it fast with an English accent) played together with area blues musician Jake Loggins. Jake has really evolved since the first time I saw him.

Loggin's has always had this balls-out blues style but last night opened with "Mo" on an acoustic guitar filling in with these sweet dynamically styled riffs against Kauffey's raspy folky music. Jake's full band came on and played with Kauffey, then the band took sole possesion of the stage.

Read my review and see a few more photos here.

A jazzy little club with a jazzy band... Flute Daddy rules jazz flute on the front range

2010-11-20T13:45:00.001-07:00

Flute Daddy Joseph Liberti plays the Loft in Old Colorado City the frst Sunday of every month. The band includes some of the best jazz talent in the Springs, so this was a real nice evening. Check out my review here.

Soul Lady sings the blues - whoa momma...

2010-11-20T13:40:00.000-07:00

Hazel Miller, soul, blues, and a big heart.

Saw her play Stargazers 11/5/2010. She's all of a sudden gigging around everywhere it seems like - she'll be back to Stargazers in a few weeks with Dotsero - the great progressive jazz band out of Denver that Hazel's performed with around the area a few times.

This will be a killer show... if you're into blues and soul, read my review of this concert I saw here.

Can you say "eclectic"? (take two) Suicidal Tendancies: abject craziness

2010-11-20T13:34:00.000-07:00

October 26th I saw Suicidal Tendancies at the Black Sheep in Colorado Springs.

"Black Sheep" is an intententional tongue-in-cheek moniker for this cement-block constructed rectangular hole with a stage at one end and a bar at the other.

There were more piercings and tats per square inch than almost anywhere else I've been lately (except for maybe the Triple Nickle which has been getting in Indie music and if anything is as "Indie" as you can get without feeling like you're taking your life in your hands like at the Black Sheep). (I'm kidding, peeps at the Sheep were actually pretty cool - scary looking, but cool enough. I had some great conversations in the long line waiting to get into the delayed show).

Ok, nuts and bolts - see more photos and read my review at The Gazette Soundboard blog here.

Can you say "eclectic"?

2010-11-20T13:28:00.000-07:00

On October 15th I got the chance to talk to and listen to and shoot the Tannahill Weavers in Colorado Springs. Either you're into them, or your not. If you're not, in a nutshell: They're like the Crosby Stills Nash and Young of Scottish Music. If you are, well, you're already jealous!

They were cool guys, and the music was fun and entertaining. Read my review and see more photos at my review at the Gazette's Soundboard blog, here.

ROCKTOBER PHOTO SHOOT SALE!!

2010-10-13T09:31:00.001-06:00

Help me to hold a sale, and you could get "money for nothin'"

or a studio photo shoot out of the deal for no charge!

We're knee deep into "Rocktober", and as a loyal (you are loyal, right?) reader of my blog, here's a chance to make some money or get a free photo shoot for yourself or family:

Refer anyone for a Rocktober photo shoot, and I'll give them a one-hour no-holds-barred (and no music banned!!!) photo shoot - normally a $225 value - for $75!!!! HERE's THE BEST PART: I'll give you $25 in cold hard cash as a thank you!

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!!
Recommend 5 people - families, high school seniors, professionals needing to update their resume or web sites - and I'll give you a FREE ROCKTOBER PHOTO SHOOT as a way of saying thanks (on top of the $125 you will have earned for passing on some referrals to me!)

Offer ends 10/31/2010 - payment to you made after I receive payment from them...

IT'S LIKE MONEY FOR NOTHIN'!!

Sting. No review, just sayin'. Wow.

2010-10-13T09:25:00.001-06:00

I so seldom go to a concert any more as an innocent bystander: I'm usually lugging 40 pounds (or more) of camera gear, a couple notebooks, a couple pens, and press credentials.

So it was just a whole lot of fun to be travelling recently in the UK and getting to go see Sting in concert in Manchester without having to think too hard about the show and what I might write about it.

Now - unfortuneately - my brain doesn't shut off quite so easily, so I found myself comparing this show to Sting's show at Red Rocks I reviewed in the Gazette's Soundboard blog in June which you can read (and see some killer photos from) here.

Ok, here's one photo from that concert taken by me from the sound board at Red Rocks:

He had added on a few dates to the end of his Symphonicity Tour with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra to play London (on his 59th birthday just two days before I saw him in Mancs) and Manchester.

Sitting in the first row of the balcony at the O2 Apollo, I got a perfect view of Sting doing what he does best, engaging the audience and making incredible music that has passion and soul. This is a thinking man's musician, but the lay-person can still just kick back and enjoy his music.

Definitely a more casual show than when I saw him in June being filmed in Concert at Red Rocks (which is already playing the airwaves in Germany and England), he mixed up the set list with enough new material to make me in awe of the arrangement power he has and the skills of a full symphony behind him. Another incredible show. I highly recommend seeing him if you ever get the chance.

Melanie. Melanie who? Read on.... (cause she's worth knowing!)

2010-10-13T09:15:00.000-06:00

Back in the day there was a little show put on in upstate New York by a bunch of idealist music promoters wanting to bring alot of bands and music together.

"Woodstock" in 1969 pretty much defined a turning point in American culture and music.

And one of the star performers who's name now has become clouded and left out of many discussions about Woodstock or even discussions about 60's music was a young woman who went simply by the name of "Melanie".

She was in Colorado Springs performing on 10/10/10 and I got to spend some time talking with her and her record producer husband Peter Schekeryk.

Read my review at the Colorado Springs Gazette's Soundboard blog to learn some of her pedigree including why she rivaled none other than the Beatles for music-chart dominance during the peak of her career, and why she might be the most famous person you never heard of.

Frickin' Leon Russell, man!!! Wow!

2010-10-13T09:07:00.001-06:00

If you're an old fart like me, you remember Leon Russell - studio musician extraordinaire - busting onto the scene with a killer set during the Concert For Bangladesh back in... wow, when was that? 1971 I think. (I mention it in the review with the correct date, I'm just winging it as I write this blog entry).

He's had a loyal following ever since.

Leon's another one that maybe showing his age around the gills a little bit, but if you like swamp-water boogie-woogie then Leon's still your man. He wasn't just "good" on the keyboard, he was "powerful" as he pounded out the licks, runs, and numbers that he's made famous (or that he's written or played on for hundreds of other famous musicians).

And his trademark voice was strong and awesome! I still can't believe I got to see this amazing performer!

Was I excited by this concert?!?! Duh! Can you tell?!?

See a few more photos I took and my review of the event at my posting at the Colorado Springs Gazette Soundboard blog.

Mose Allison: Mose Knows, The Oracle of Jazz, and more...

2010-10-13T09:01:00.000-06:00

Mose Allison's name is synonymous with jazz although many think of him as a blues musician. His show is definitely New York jazz-trio-ish, so thats that.

He's up there - 80 years old - but he has an amazing way to turn a phrase into social commentary with a cutting edge. His voice never was something special - kind of a sqawky half talk half yell sometimes thing but the passion is all over the place.

See a few more photos I took and the review I posted at my Colorado Springs Gazette's Soundboard blog entry.

Smokey Robinson

2010-10-13T08:56:00.001-06:00

Wow! Smokey Robinson! For 25 years, Robinson was VP of Motown records, and it seems like he's been on the music charts in one for or another for over 40 years. He's getting up there in age, but proving it's all in your head, he still puts on a good show wih alot of steamin' sexy griding moves, great vocals, and touring with a solid band...

Read my review and see more photos at the Gazette's Soundboard blog, here.

America

2010-10-13T08:44:00.000-06:00

Got to see America, one of the great acoustic guitar bands from the 70s who have been playing for 40 years recently (in fact I think they were billing this tour as their 40th anniversary tour).

You can read my review and see more pictures from the concert at the Gazette's Soundboard blog, here.

John Mayer at Red Rocks

2010-10-13T08:39:00.000-06:00

Got to see John Mayer again, this time at Red Rocks. I think this was getting towards the end of his Heartbreak Warfare tour; he was definitely loose, screwing around alot onstage, riffing with the audience alot, and it was being filmed (i think).

Click on this link to read my review posted at the Gazette's Soundboard blog.

Trestles

2010-10-01T05:06:00.002-06:00

Trestles
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

Was in Southern California last weekend and managed to get in some time shooting the surfers at "Trestles".

Trestles is a series of surf locations south of San Clemente at San Onofre State Beach in San Dego County, California. You have to park, like, a mile away across the I-5 then hike down to the beach through an access path. Savvy surfers trundle their boards down on little rigs towed behind bicycles (makes it easier for coming back up the hill to parking). Everywhere you look on the path heading down to the beach on sign posts, electrical boxes, etc, there are stickers from surf vendors stuck there by people going by.

The ASP World Surfing competition is held here.

This guy was one of the hottest surfers out there, he's on a real shortie and was just carving like crazy. He hit this one wave back up after the break, shot out and over the wave, landed into it and swept around like nothing happened. Totally sick move.

Seniors, models, musicians... oh my, oh, and a few corporate headshots, a household move, and all sorts of fun.

2010-08-30T01:09:00.001-06:00

Just realized today I've been so busy with concerts and personal stuff (like moving into a new apartment) that I hadn't updated the blog in quite a bit.

I just got back from a 2600 mile driving trip from LA to Vancouver. It's not 2600 miles in a straight line... i just took the, uh, scenic route, saw friends and had a great time.

After the trip is when I moved, at the same time squeezing in a couple senior shoots, a couple pro shoots (professional headshots) and sundry other goodies.

I'm in photo editing craziness now... I'll post more and some photos when I get caught up some!

In the mean time: BONUS: If you read this, you just qualifed for either a 50% off photo session or 30% your photo order (new customers only). To qualify for this deal, you must book a session (even if you don't purchase photos right away) by 9/15/2010. Woot!

Call me at 719-332-2443 to schedule a NO OBLIGATION meet and greet to talk about your interests and what you'd like to have done.

review: Direct from Ireland, 2Duos and Cara hold a Celtic throw-down by two bands but seven tight friends.

2010-08-28T01:02:00.000-06:00

2Duos and Cara, Stargazers, 8/27/2010, by butch leitz

I have been to Stargazers on nights when there was a cream-of-the-crop touring band when the house wasn't packed... and to shows like this one where I wasn't sure how many people would show up and I ended up almost not being able to find a parking space!

This was a fun show, these musicians who are excellent in their own rights made great music together, are friends "in real life" - and it shows. Alot of harmony on and off the stage, laughter, and a really "nice" time (in the good sense).

See my review and more photos here.

review: Laughing and great music with Liv Taylor

2010-08-21T00:56:00.000-06:00

Liv Taylor, Stargazers, 8/20/2010, by butch leitz

I had a great time talking to Liv before the show at Stargazers and really got a feel for him. When the warm up act was playing we talked a little more prior to him going on (he didn't have on the bow-tie at that point... not sure why he added that affectation).

His show was fun, he had the audience laughing over stories, and the way he'd sing chord changes and bridges from one song to the next. He has an amazing depth and repetoire, and the Taylor vocals he shares with his bother James (who I had seen a few weeks earlier in Denver with Carole King) were in mostly fine form (albeit he admitedly wasn't hitting some of the high notes in the some of the songs the way he wanted. But he was endearing about it, so it didn't matter to the audience one bit).

Please see my review and more photos here.

review: Paul McCartney totally rocks. Yup: he's an old fart but he really (really) kicks ass in concert, I'm not kidding!

2010-07-16T00:48:00.001-06:00

Paul McCartney, Pepsi Center, 7/15/2010

Ok, i'll admit I had reservations and mixed emotions about seeing Sir Paul. I mean, for all my life I've seen him, you know, being the "cute" Beatle... being a cut up, and as he got older frankly a little dorky.

I had bought a few of the solo albums across the years too and liked them... but live? Paul McCartney? Friends said: "GO! GO!" So... he came, I saw, and he kicked my ass! WHAT A GREAT SHOW!

Read my review and see more pics here.

review: James Taylor and Carole King

2010-07-15T00:38:00.000-06:00

James Taylor and Carole King: The Troubadour Reunion Tour, Denver Pepsi Center, 7/14/2010

Had a -GREAT- time at this concert the circular stage not withstanding. The voices, pure and true... what a blow-back into time. Please read my review here.

Janiva Magness, Crystola, 7/8/2010

2010-07-11T21:27:00.001-06:00

Janiva Magness
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

Janiva Magness is a blues/jazz singer who's won numerous awards including Female Blues Artist of the Year (more than once!). Click Here to see my review of Janiva Magness in the Colorado Springs Gazette.

London Radio at Tejon St. Bike Fest

2010-07-01T09:34:00.005-06:00

fairlight moriah, radio london
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

Saw London Radio at the Tejon St. Bike Fest last Sunday. Fairlight Moriah has now joined the group and is fronting for them (and is as awesome as ever!)

Read My Review Of Radio London Here

(Photo of Fairlight Moriah)

Click the photo to see more images of bands, bikes, and bikinis at the Tejon Street Bike Fest.

d i s t r a c t i o n s

2010-06-29T10:47:00.001-06:00

d i s t r a c t i o n s
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

Ok, you know, if you're walking through a busy downtown area during a street festival wearing something like this, it's a distraction (or an attraction?). Leaving auto pile ups and people bumping into each other in her wake, she's just... distracted.

Just sayin'.

I took this photo during the Tejon Street Bike Fest in downtown Colorado Springs this past Sunday. There were several bikini contests at different bars, so there were more girls walking around like this than you'd ever normally see in a downtown metro area.

Well, I thought it was funny, anyway!

One of several fun shots from the Tejon St. Bike Fest, click on the link to go see more photos at my Flickr site.

Tejon St. Bike Fest

2010-06-29T10:42:00.001-06:00

beautiful paint
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

Thousands of bikers converged on Tejon Street in downtown Colorado Springs this past Sunday. This was the same day as the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, so it was a big day for gear heads.

One of several fun shots, click on the link to go see more photos at my Flickr site.

Polaradio

2010-06-17T23:07:00.000-06:00

David Ashley, Polaradio
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

I saw Polaradio at Studio Bee at Pikes Peak Center Thursday June 17th during a showcase for local musicians who write original material.

I didn't do a review, but I did take a bunch of photos which can be seen here.

Tinsley Ellis

2010-06-12T20:55:00.002-06:00

Tinsley Ellis
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

Tinsley Ellis was at Castaways in Manitou Springs lst night and I was there to shoot some photos and write a review. Had a few chances to talk to Tinsley & got him to sign a CD for me. Here's the review at the Gazette's soundboard with a few more photos... here.

Sting at Red Rocks with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra

2010-06-10T18:02:00.001-06:00

Sting performed at Red Rocks last night, and I was there. For the review and more photos, see the Gazette's Soundboard section here.

LeAnn Rimes In Concert

2010-06-10T08:13:00.003-06:00

LeAnn Rimes In Concert
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

I was going to blog this morning about seeing Sting at Red Rocks last night (which I'll do later this morning) but: WHAT is going on with LeAnn Rimes? Really? 168 hits on this photo in my flickr account (so far) this morning and it's not even 8 a.m.? And the count went up by 15 while I was trying to figure out why this photo is spiking hits. Did I miss some LeAnn Rimes news or something? Wow... this is totally random. So I ask again: What is going on? This and a couple other photos I have on flickr are getting some mental traffic today. (maybe links were cross posted in somebody's fanzine is all I can figure. except alot of the traffic is coming from Yahoo searches. LeAnn if you see this, you bein' good honey?!? LOL)

RUGBY, RUGBY, RUGBY!!!

2010-06-07T10:52:00.011-06:00

Phew, just back from shooting rugby all weekend in Denver for RugbyMag.com! Saturday started off bright and early shooting USA National Club Semi-Final games, but mid-day I shot 2 Churchill Cup Round-Robin games as well, all at the Infinity Park complex in Glendale (Denver), also known as RUGBY TOWN, USA!

Sunday was USA Mens Rugby Finals, and I shot Division 1, 2, and 3 finals, edited some photos onsite and filed them for use at RugbyMag.com.

I think I shot a total of 11 matches saturday and sunday, with me on saturday running (walking fast at least) between two fields, back and forth! Alot of work for a weekend!!! :-) Plus it was insanely hot. I didn't use suntan lotion the saturday and got a wee bit red on the arms and face... sunday I bathed in lotion but it didn't help much. At least saturday night for the last game of Belmont vs Palmer (Belmont won) it rained during the game so everybody got a little cooled off then. (If was funny seeing the tough-assed rugby players who had played earlier in the day cowering under ledges and tents to stay dry while media and fans just stood out in the rain getting wet!)

NOTE: Click on an image or a caption to go see the article by Pat Clifton with photos by Butch Leitz at www.rugbymag.com.

USA vs RUSSIA

Las Vegas making the try in semi-finals of USA Nationals Division 1 Rugby

USA DII FINALS: TAMPA KREWE over DOYLESTOWN

There are alot more articles with photos from me from the USA Nationals at http://www.rugbymag.com/

Carrie Underwood, Craig Morgan, Sons of Sylvia Concert Photos and Review

2010-06-07T10:39:00.001-06:00

Reviewed Carrie Underwood for the Colorado Springs Gazette on friday night, 6/4/2010. Photos and the full review may be found here.

Natasha Rainey

2010-05-29T05:10:00.003-06:00

Natasha Rainey
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

From the War Of The Gods party and fashion show thursday night at Wicked Garden in Denver...

Che Rise Tren

2010-05-29T05:10:00.001-06:00

Che Rise Tren
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

From the War Of The Gods party and fashion show thursday night at Wicked Garden in Denver...

Sirocco Lee

2010-05-29T05:08:00.001-06:00

Sirocco Lee
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

From the War Of The Gods party and fashion show thursday night at Wicked Garden in Denver...

review: A New Brain For Arnie

2010-05-28T21:09:00.001-06:00

Here's my review of "A New Brain For Arnie" which ran on the Gazette's Soundboard section last week:

A New Brain For Arnie, Stargazers, 5/21/2010

PHOTOS AND REVIEW BY BUTCH LEITZ

Bassist Kim Stone took the stage unobtrusively with the house lights up. Canoodling with one of his bass guitars, looking and sounding like he was double checking his tuning, he sat between the drums and keyboards. People were talking, finding seats, but something in my brain fired off: the initial seeming randomness of the notes while the surrounding environment was in flux was performance art taking shape, a head fake. Something in the subtle but pure notes had little nuances, almost carelessly applied, yet studied. Thoughtful. Intentional. Something was going down and nobody else seemed to be noticing. Like a private joke. But deeper than that. I noticed a few more people watching. Listening. Laughter and greetings from a crowd of people arriving and seeing friends wanted to distract me. I noticed drummer Dewey Steele working his way past amps & equipment, sitting down behind his kit, the rest of the band emerging from cubby holes backstage, all getting into place, the lights slowly dimming.

Suddenly and without provocation Stone and Steele laid down a solid funk groove the band immediately jumped in on: welcome to A New Brain For Arnie.

A New Brain For Arnie plays improvisational music with a jazz and funk bedrock, but like any improvisational style, defining the content is hard to classify. This is music that may be heard differently by different people. There’s consistency, but lines get crossed, themes emerge then disappear as they’re overtaken by new ones. You have to let yourself get caught up in the emotional content, and this is an uncomfortable place to be for many people. If you need a simple defined musical space like 12 bars, bridge, turn-around, 2nd verse, chorus, date-night top-40 R&B stuff, you’re not going to get that here consistently although it may happen. Said another way: this is not beer music (well, not domestic, anyway) this is wine music. Ok, let me try again:

Their sound is like this: throw the incessant drive and quirkiness of Weather Report’s Birdland together with a little lighthearted hoedown country rock from Little Feat’s Dixie Chicken, squeeze out some of Frank Zappa’s trippier backgrounds and wall-of-sound psychedlica with rapid-fire guitar arpeggios, jam on a little Duane Allman overlaying some funked out James Brown groove and break it down with reggae accents and you have an idea of what can go down. But here’s the thing: your mileage may vary. What they played this time may not be what they play next time. And the way I heard it may not be the way you may hear it. Sound confusing? It was not bad. In fact: it was very good. Trippy in spots, but by and large danceable and fun.

There are non-verbal queues the band employs for signals: a slight head nod, or Stone reaching up and curving his hand back down to change dynamics or close a song out, some eye-to-eye contact, etc. Alot of watching each other. But it’s an employed sense of composition, theory, and feel that adheres the group together and glues the audience to it. Like a school of fish suddenly changing direction en masse, the band’s direction can change that quickly. The “songs” average 10 minutes. Some longer. Some shorter or perhaps acting like bridges between other songs.

There is an inherent risk with improvisational music: you can get out in the weeds with too much self-indulgence. It may become non-committal. That did happen at least one time during the performance (the way I heard it anyway). At one point all the musicians were off playing “something” but it was an acoustical train-wreck barely strung together by a consistent beat while everyone was searching for a soft place to land and merge again. A little awkward sounding but mercifully brief before a tight funk groove came out of it. But you have to discount these aberrations as a side-effect of the genre and just roll with it if it happens.

Stone’s mastery of bass guitar is evident: slap-and-pop here, multiple note chord progressions there, ethereal riffs consistently applied then lead bass lines breaking out. Steele’s timing and force on the drums was intense but at times playful, but always insanely solid. Guitarists Michael Reese and Wayne Hammerstadt played soaring lines and wistful notes off each other while guitarist Tommy Gallagher provided balanced rhythms, accents, and counterpoint. Keyboardist Bryant Jones added various dynamics and range with anything from soft synth fills to Fender Rhodes R&B sounds to growling and snarling organ work from his Hammond B3 and 50 year old Leslie speaker system.

The overall the production and sound quality at Stargazers for this show was possibly the best I’ve ever heard there, a big fat heavy band sound well mixed and punchy but with a nice clarity. This was an enjoyable show and something that any music lover would enjoy seeing at least once. And who knows? You might get hooked.

review: Goo Goo Dolls

2010-05-25T23:00:00.002-06:00

I didn't get to shoot at the Goo Goo Dolls concert last week in Colorado Springs, but I wrote a review you can read by clicking here.

review: The Eagles at Pepsi Center

2010-05-21T12:55:00.006-06:00

LIVE REVIEW: Eagles show they still can fly at Pepsi Center

Had a great time shooting the Eagles at Pepsi Center in Denver last night. Met some, umm, interesting people where I was sitting in a group of fat cat daddies in a few chairs behind the soundboard and light boards.

I thought I saw Calista Flockhart sitting a couple chairs over from me. Turns out it wasn't - it was Joe Walsh's wife with a couple other family members.

I have ALOT of anecdotes about my experience at this concert which didn't make it into the review (read: there was stuff that happened that I couldn't or shouldn't talk about in print for the Gazette, so next time we're out at lunch, ask me about that night!!! LOL!!!)

Llamapalooza 2010 at Colorado College, Saturday 5/8/2010

2010-05-09T23:00:00.001-06:00

the Llamapalooza 2010 scene
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

Spent most of the day on Saturday 5/8/2010 at Colorado College at their annual Llamapalooza Music and Arts Festival. My review and more photos can be seen here.

review: Sonos A'cappella Sextet

2010-05-09T22:44:00.002-06:00

Sonos A'cappella Sextet
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

My review of Sonos, an A'Cappella Sextet band that appeared at Stargazers recently on 5/6/2010 can be found here:
Sonos review

review: Ronnie Baker Brooks on 4/24/2010 at Cyrstola

2010-05-09T22:39:00.003-06:00

ronnie baker brooks
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

My review of Ronnie Baker Brooks can be found here. This was a great show!!

http://soundboard.freedomblogging.com/2010/04/25/brooks-opens-a-flood-of-chicago-blues-on-crystola/2553/

review: Tony Exum

2010-05-03T13:24:00.002-06:00

Tony Exum
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

Attended Tony Exums CD Release Party at Stargazers in Colorado Springs, 5/1/2010

See my review here:
soundboard.freedomblogging.com/2010/05/02/live-review-jaz...

keith emerson's synth setup

2010-04-29T05:30:00.003-06:00

keith emerson's synth setup
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

Welcome Back My Friends To The Show That Never...Starts???

Keith Emerson and Greg Lake you may have heard of from Emerson, Lake and (Carl) Palmer (or ELP). The two are on tour together in the US heading for a UK reunion with Palmer in July. But on this tour, so far they've cancelled concerts 6 times (including the show in Colorado Springs at the Pikes Peak Center where I took this photo last night).

Official cause: Lake got sick (possibly due to altitude) and a doctor was called in onsite. The unofficial bitter rumor-mongering excuse which makes for better press (but we'll give the guys the benefit of the doubt that this rumor isn't true) : they saw the 2000-seat hall was half-full and one or both of them walked out. I'll take the high road and assume the altitude legitimately got to Lake. The 6,000 feet+ altitude has been known to affect people passing through.

Taking to people after the cancellation I met (more than a few) people who had travelled thousands of miles to see the show, and one guy who had tried to see them in Virginia where the show had been cancelled also. (Don't get on a plane with that guy!)

Lamented one aging fan - "I'm sorry I didn't get to see them tonight cause who knows how much longer any of us are going to be around? We're not getting any younger."

Dierks Bentley with The Travelin' McCourys

2010-04-24T10:16:00.001-06:00

Dierks Bentley with The Travelin' McCourys
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

Bluegrass is alive and well and maybe making a come-back. Saw Dierks Bentley last night with "The Travelin McCourys"... like a hoedown in Appalachia somewhere. Pretty fun.

outtake : alisha jamming

2010-04-16T09:37:00.001-06:00

outtake : alisha jamming
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

Haha, this is just for fun, this was an out-take from a studio session a couple years ago. I have this in my flickr photos somewhere and somebody searching for "air guitar" out there on the net pulled it up (I check my logs every day & saw this come up). Kinda cracked me up, suits my mood today... have a great friday & weekend!

spock's still got it.

2010-04-15T23:33:00.001-06:00

spock's still got it.
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

Actor, writer, director, poet, and photographer Leonard Nimoy spoke at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs tonight at the final night of the Space Foundation's National Space Symposium. Here "Spock" is throwing out his Vulcan greeting 'cause, you know, people expect it. Fer you youngin's, Mr. Nimoy was the original Mr. Spock from the original Star Trek. He's the real deal.

LIVE REVIEW: A Swift country rock extravaganza

2010-04-09T10:17:00.003-06:00

Click to read:
LIVE REVIEW: A Swift country rock extravaganza

Mo' Tab Benoit

2010-03-29T00:49:00.001-06:00

Tab Benoit
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

I couldn't resist showing this image off...

Tab Benoit

2010-03-27T12:05:00.001-06:00

Tab Benoit
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

Tab Benoit, Stargazers Theatre, 3/26/2010, Colorado Springs

Closing my eyes I could almost smell the delta: scarfing down a pulled-pork BBQ slider & that great 'slaw Stargazers Theatre has while enjoying libations, jokes and music with Monsieur Tab Benoit and about 500 of my closest friends last night was the most fun thing I did all week.

Tab Benoit is one of those guys that you just want to hang out with: funny, socially conscious about his home state of Louisiana and the devastation from Katrina, and a helluva good blues guitarist. Playing an old beat-up looking Fender Telecaster aged with sweat and Courvoisier - the best paint stripper known to man according to Benoit - the trio of Benoit with bassist Corey Duplechin and drummer Doug Gay ripped it up with their own fais do-do on stage. People were dancing and jumping everywhere else in the house and during the slow bluesy numbers I saw more than one couple making out, so you know the emotion in the Benoit's playing was moving people!

Also one interesting side-bar, George Whitesell - who along with wife Amy run A Music Company Inc who produced the show - sidled up to me and told me to check out the pedals Benoit was using: there weren't any! While almost all guitarists from any music genre use effects pedals to change the tone and sounds of their guitar, Benoit relied on his amp, fat strings, and on-board pickups to express his tonal range which went from fat and bluesy to twangy through roaring progressions and sweet laid back riffs.

Playing songs from several of his albums and requests called out from fans, styles ranged from slow to up-tempo boogie and shuffle numbers and like "Too Many Dirty Dishes", "Power of the Pontchartrain", a zydeco feeling "Stagolee", "Hot Tamale Baby", a soulful version of the bluesy "Nice and Warm", and ending with a totally jamming rendition of "Bayou Boogie".

A couple surprises: Benoit performed a couple solo guitar numbers after intermission before moving to the drums. After playing an excellent drum solo for several minutes that would have been appreciated by any drummer and had the whole audience riveted, Benoit was joined on stage by bassist Corey Duplechin. Together they drove though an amazing syncopated jam between drums and bass that had everybody stopped dead in their tracks. Drummer Doug Gay came out and squeezed around Benoit and took over mid jam while Benoit strolled back to his guitar & strapped it on and led the band into a great version of "Night Train".

Lastly, Benoit is a seriously funny guy: he riffed with the audience on topics from Dan Rather to Autoharps to Alligators throughout the evening with his wry bayou accented deadpan drawl. He could easily have a decent stand-up career if the whole "music thing" doesn't pan out. But I don't think he needs to worry about that happening!

Distracted Much?

2010-03-26T10:12:00.003-06:00

Just realized I never posted photos or the review I did of Loggins and Messina a couple months ago here. The funny thing is, Jim Messina posted my review at his web site (well, maybe I saw it at his Facebook page, I know I saw it somewhere of his).

But I just looked (down) here in the blog and... I don't see it. Archived off? I dunno. I looked in my Flickr site & didn't post any photos there, either. Sheesh. Must be distracted.

Ok, so at the risk of being redundant being (joke), I'll go find that L & M review & post it.

Right after I complete a couple Senior orders I have in. And after the editing the shots of my daughters in a fashion show last night. And after completing a sports order I got in. And after the Tommy Castro collage I was asked to do. And after...

Oh crud. I just looked at a quick and dirty search engine "buoy" page I have to help crawlers find my reviews and photos - the one hiding here and see that there are several reviews and photos I never posted here.

I gotta get better at this whole blog thing.
Yikes.
:-)

John Mayer, Pepsi Center, 3/23/2010

2010-03-24T17:04:00.003-06:00

John Mayer, Pepsi Center, 3/23/2010
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

John Mayer, 3/23/2010, Denver Pepsi Center

Snow played a big factor in getting to see John Mayer last night in Denver's Pepsi Center, but 15,000+ people managed to attend despite highway closings and power outages on the streets of Denver. John Mayer is touring with a large arena style production including alot of lights and a huge screen dominating the stage behind the band. This allowed for video generated from the stage as well as graphics, video, and other animations to resemble a tricked-out light show from the 70's updated with just the right elements of grunge and scratchy vintage super-8 to be "hip" for today's market. One of the top touring pop performers, John Mayer was totally in control of the night after Pop/Reggae/Rapper/Rocker Michael Franti and Spearhead opened the show and warmed up the crowd.

When you look at a performer like John Mayer, you have to wonder where the tipping point is that transforms a musician from a large regional act or smaller national act to the world-wide near super-stardom he's experiencing now. The song-writing, the voice, the delivery, the packaging, and the confidence of John Mayer... and maybe the marketing, the tabloids, and his personal life all join in the mix.

The overall production looked at times more like a polished music-video and it was easy to forget that, hey, this is "real"... these guys are professionally blended musicians making delicious fresh-fruit music smoothies right here and now. And maybe the enjoyment lasts about as long. Nice melodies in older songs while working in newer material coupled with Mayer's casual banter to the audience made for a nice satisfying evening, but does he have the staying power of a full steak dinner?!? Time will tell: where Mayer goes professionally in the future may be a war between his apparent desires to be the anti-pop commercial star he's become and his musical heritage. I'll say this though: despite the at-time superficial stylings and over-the-top stage production, he can *really* play the guitar. He has a great sense of timing, nuance, dynamics and style when he plays... and showmanship. At times tapping out riffs with both hands (as opposed to strumming with his right hand), or once using a drumstick to beat out a lead, or then later laying a guitar down on the floor and both hitting it and sliding fingers on it like it was a steel guitar on blues-rock steroids, he can *play*.

Opening with "Heartbreak Warfare," "Crossroads," and Vultures", he moved through various styles of songs from his repertoire also including "Slow Dancing in a Burning Room," "Perfectly Lonely," "Assassin" and others. A few chestnuts like "Freefalling" and "Waiting on the World to Change" continued to show off his songwriting and his hey-I'm-just-part-of-the-human-family-too-but-with-a-guitar outreach that he appeals to. "Half of My Heart" led into "Dreams" before closing the night with "Why Georgia". An encore brought him back out for "Who Says" - played behind the closed transparent white stage screen with him backlit while video was project over top of it all on the enclosure giving an ethereal surreal feel to the number. His hit "Gravity" provided the big finish of the night.

Guitarist Robbie McIntosh was extraordinarily professional in his sweet and subtle lead and fill guitar work intertwined in Mayer’s songs when Mayer wasn't laying down rock or blues laden lines himself. David Ryan Harris provided other backing guitar work while Sean Hurley on bass, Steve Jordan on drums, and Charlie Wilson on keyboards rounded out the instrument components. Kenna Ramsey and Melanie Taylor provided backup and accent harmonies.

At times dancing in the aisles, hands swaying over heads, the audience participation provided a sense of shared community that was palpable and enjoyable. All in all the show was a satisfying guilty pleasure shared between Mayer and thousands of adoring fans.

More photos from the concert can be seen at my flickr site, here.

amy sue hardy

2010-03-04T23:15:00.001-07:00

amy sue hardy
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

Just a little thing from the Head Full Of Zombies shoot of Amy Sue Hardy. You gotta love that hair. Wow.

Blues legend John Hammond

2010-01-30T11:17:00.012-07:00

John Hammond

Here's a review I did of legendary blues performer John Hammond which appeared in the Colorado Springs Gazette's Soundboard web site:

John Hammond, Armstrong Hall, Colorado College, 1/29/2010

"Two degrees of separation." That thought crossed my mind shaking hands with John Hammond Friday night at Colorado College. Here's a man that is one of only 3 or 4 white blues players who is still touring and making albums who was there at the beginning of the 60's blues music revival. You may get to see him Sunday night on television if you watch the 2010 Grammy Awards - his latest (33rd) album "Rough & Tough" (Chesky Records/Jan 2009) is nominated for "Best Traditional Blues Album".

John Hammond

Hammond has been nominated 6 other times for Grammy's and won a Grammy in 1985. By the way, Hammond has also won 3 Blues Music Association awards, twice for "Best Acoustic Blues Artist", once for "Best Acoustic Album". He's known and played with many blues greats including names you might have heard of: Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and John Lee Hooker. He's also played with Duane Allman, Mike Bloomfield, JJ Cale, Tom Waits, The Band, Dr. John and is the only person in the world that can say this mind-blowing factoid: he had Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix in a band together on stage at the Gaslight Cafe in New York City.

It's hard not to talk about the past when talking about John Hammond. His style is very traditional in the country or delta blues vein - characterized by the use of acoustic slide guitar or dobro and harmonica. And while he may channel blues legends like Robert Johnson and Son House, Hammonds gritty down and dirty vocals while demonstrating a total mastery of his instrument brings his own flavor to traditional and original work.

Fairlight Moriah

Warming up the crowd at Armstrong hall was singer Fairlight Moriah accompanied by keyboardist Ken Jantzen. Fairlight's blend of bluesy spiritual tonal work was uplifting and at times moving, such as in the piece "Make It Up To You" about watching kids growing.

John Hammond opened his solo 90 minute set with "I'm Just A Fool", a mid tempo 12-bar blues shuffle with crazy riffs and licks alternating vocals and harmonica with ad-libbed harmonics on the guitar. He followed this up with his song "Heartache Blues" done in a slower traditional style throwing in his own lead riffs during the versus and blowing the harp with what I swear sounded like multiple single lead notes over consonant drone base notes on the harmonica - it was amazing work.

John Hammond

A Lightnin' Slim number, "The Mean Old Lonesome Train", "That’s Alright" by Jimmy Rogers, some Howlin' Wolf, and some Robert Johnson all followed demonstrating Hammonds mastery and encyclopedic repertoire. "You Know That’s Cold" by Hammond and "Love Changin' Blues" by Blind Willie McTell (featuring some truly amazing slide work by Hammond) came next. A Hammond original "Come To Find Out", another mid-tempo delta blues styled offering with a walking bass underpinning accented by staccato strum attacks and harmonica fills had Hammond also singing in a reflective vocal style unlike some of his other work.

John Hammond

Numbers by Sleepy John Estes, Little Walter, and Hambone Willie followed. Between many of the songs, Hammond gave a little history or background on where he was when first learned the song (in many but certainly not all cases from the original authors). He told an extensive and humorous story about meeting and playing harp with Big Joe Williams in Chicago (who he was introduced to by friend Michael Bloomfield and who - according to Hammond - knew everybody that was anybody in Chicago Blues) before wailing into a very raucous Big Joe Williams number featuring heavy slide work with high pitched accents. Songs by Tampa Ray, Dion DiMucci (of Dion and the Belmonts fame, a huge blues fan believe it or not) and a "Buddy Guy" recording that was written by Robert Geddins and a Tom Waits song followed. Another Hammond original followed which had its story-line basis from when Hammond got his first paying gig by pumping gas for Hoyt Axton who let Hammond play his Martin guitar after noticing Hammond staring at it sitting case-less in the passenger seat! (You can't make this stuff up!).

Hammond finished the night with Son House's "Preachin' Blues" and left the stage to the audience standing and applauding for 5 minutes. An amazing performance by one of what may be the last great troubadours in American blues history.

Rampart High School Basketball - Those Unstoppable Rams. (Update: Well: They Got Stopped!!)

2010-01-28T00:45:00.004-07:00

Rampart High School Basketball
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

The Rampart High School Rams varsity basketball team here in Colorado Springs is now number 1 in the state of Colorado (I think - they've been trading places with Regis Jesuit High School in Aurora, outside of Denver).

I've shot several games the Rams have played at including the kick-ass game where they scored a whopping 105 against Liberty High School a couple weeks back. That was the highest scoring High School basketball game I've ever seen!

With a record of (as I write this, it may change tomorrow) 15 wins and zero losses, they are definitely the ones to beat.

If you can.

Here's a shot of Reuben Riggs-Russell, consistantly the high scorer for Rampart - going up against three guys from Fountain Fort-Carson trying to fight him back. Click on the photo to see a few more at my Flickr site, or go to www.HighSchoolSportPhotos.net to see (and purchase) the full set from this game and others.

UPDATE

So, like, they play Palmer High School thursday night and lost by like 26 points. I thought I was in an alternate universe or something! Palmer's fans chanting "Over-Rated!". (Of course, some Rams fans there started chanting back: "You're Not Rated!")

So where oh where will this saga end? Don't know, but I'll hopefully be there to shoot it either way!!!

Leann Rimes & me (& 2800 other friends)

2010-01-25T23:51:00.000-07:00

Here's the review that ran on the Gazette's Soundboard Page over this past weekend from the LeAnn Rimes concert:

PHOTOS AND REVIEW BY BUTCH LEITZ

LeAnn Rimes, Friday 1/22/2010, Arnold Hall, United States Air Force Academy

LeAnn Rimes In Concert

By the time she was 21, LeAnn Rimes had already recorded eight music albums, won Country Music Association and Grammy awards, had songs or whole albums listed in various top-10 music industry charts, and then proceeded to release a Greatest Hits album. Her styles over those years and since have been identified as influenced by Patsy Cline, Barbra Streisand, Wynonna Judd, and Reba McEntire, and she has crossed out of Country Music into Pop, released at least one rock album overseas, and crossed back into country. More than once.

LeAnn Rimes In Concert

So when Rimes appeared at Arnold Hall at the Air Force Academy Friday night, she came with the poise, polish and repertoire of entertainers twice her age. Sometimes looking the perfect representation of a mature female performer, other times looking like (and dancing around the stage like) a high school-age babysitter with a cute and infectious charm and smile, she delivered a nearly flawless and solid 90 minute performance to a near capacity crowd.

Criticized several months ago while on tour for being drowned-out by her band, on Friday night her voice was strong and pure and delivered exceptionally well over her accompaniment, even during raucous up-tempo numbers.

LeAnn Rimes In Concert

Opening with “Criminal” off her new yet to be released next album, she methodically moved through “Something’s Gotta Give” followed by “Family” and “Probably Wouldn’t Be This Way.” She talked to the audience a little bit, mentioning she was working on two albums soon to be released, one being produced by Vince Gill. One of the songs on the new album called “Gasoline and Matches” started off sounding more like a boogie-woogie number you’d hear from a blues performer on the Chitlin‘ Circuit, but it quickly evolved into a full-on Country motif followed closely by “Good Hearted Woman”. A stool was brought out for LeAnn to sit on during “What I Cannot Change” which utilizes some heavy steel guitar work in an attempt to mask this pop-ballad as a country music song (can you say “crossover”?). “God Takes Care of Your Kind” followed before breaking into “Can’t Fight The Moonlight,” a popular fan-favorite song featured in the movie “Coyote Ugly” (in which LeAnn sung the four or five numbers lip-synched by the star of the movie).

LeAnn Rimes In Concert

The band was (so far) perfectly tight, and the production quality of the performance up until this point so perfectly reproduced songs from LeAnn’s recordings, that I was getting lulled into a sense of complacency about the concert. But when she hit the chorus of “Moonlight” I realized it actually gave me the willies and made the hairs on my arms stand up!

Songs from old and new albums continued including “Commitment,” “I Need You,” “Nothin ‘Bout Love Makes Sense,” “How Do I Live (Without You).” It was around this point that I realized her song selection contained pointed and direct references to her recent marital problems and love-life that have been so much in the press the last six months.

The other thing that really interesting: although LeAnn Rimes is known for her “emotional expression,” a term describing a style of singing that in her case encompasses a vast range of high and low pitches, she definitely has a tonal sweet-spot in her voice. Her high-end is good, but her mid-range is absolutely perfect and most of her songs play to this strength.

LeAnn Rimes In Concert

The night was not without some rowdy cadet behavior encouraged by LeAnn herself, and at one point a cadet threw a T-Shirt on stage with a hand-written invitation to “Ring Dance,” the formal dress ball that two-degree Air Force Academy cadets (juniors) throw themselves on the day they receive their class rings. LeAnn seemed stunned at first at then shyly admitted she had never been to a prom before “and I just might have to take you up on that. I’ve got your number!” resulting in cataclysmic hoots and applause.

Only occasionally did LeAnn’s voice falter as she went through a Patty Griffin cover, “Let Him Fly.” She dedicated the up-tempo ballad “Strong” to the service men and women there in the audience, and then sang “Got You To Get Me,” and “Nothing Better To Do,” a fantastic number. LeAnn’s fun “youthful” side was coming out as she increasingly bounded and danced around stage during instrumental parts of these songs.

LeAnn pulled out a “Challenge Coin” and said somebody needed to bring her a drink if they didn’t have their coins with them — something that two cadets willingly obliged her with moments later, handing her two different drinks onstage within seconds of each other. Another new song “You Ruined Me” followed as the final number until LeAnn and her band were called back out for an encore.

LeAnn Rimes In Concert

LeAnn treated everyone with “Blue,” her first really big hit which invokes the spirit and vocal emotion of Patsy Cline, before finishing the evening for good with a big-finish version of Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison.” This was a great night of covers and original material that everyone I talked to afterward had been very happy to be part of.

Head Full Of Zombies : Photoshoot to Poster = 2 Days

2010-01-23T07:15:00.000-07:00

head full of zombies
head full of zombies

Here's the first product from a photoshoot with Head Full of Zombies we did last week. Shot on Wednesday night, Dave (in the center with glasses) did the layout thursday and had it printed friday and hanging in fine windows everywhere. (Everywhere that Dave could afford to pay to let him hang it!!! LOL)

This gig represents the zombies first gig of 2010 with new member and frontman Amy Sue Hardy (chewing on the frame here). (Don't get in -her- way!!!).

I took individual shots of all band members in a couple wardrobe changes each (Amy Sue got 3 wardrobe changes cause she's special) and some group shots. This old frame was leaning against the wall in the corner of the studio, so we incorporated it into several of the shots.

In this poster, I particularly like the positioning of the framed zombies with other classics like Mona Lisa and Dogs Playing Poker!! lol!

For something fun to do, Google "Amy Sue Hardy" for some interesting background.

Coco Montoya at the Crystola Roadhose

2009-12-14T23:00:00.003-07:00

Here'a review of Coco Montoya I did for the Gazette that appeared in their Soundboard section December 13th 2009:

REVIEW AND PHOTOS BY BUTCH LEITZ

Coco Montoya

It takes alot more than a bad PA system, a cold, and an amp acting up to mess with Coco Montoya, the fiery blues guitar player whose band played at the Crystola Bar and Grill Saturday night. But throw in one adoring fan who kept heckling Montoya about songs to play on top of all the other things going on, and it might have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. But I have a theory that adversity drives emotions that when channeled through the hands of a master blues player with a Fender strat can alter the time space continuum.

Coco Montoya

The blues may not be your thing. But to the audience packing the sold-out roadhouse, this was the next best thing to nirvana, despite a few minor annoying setbacks. Opening with “Back in a Cadillac,” a classic up-tempo 12-bar blues number with staccato accents and power fills by Montoya featuring the first of several breaks with keyboard Brant Leeper handing the audience powerful leslie organ riffs, the band had to stop moments into the song when a microphone wasn’t coming through right. After a few awkward moments and an apology from Montoya, they took it from the top and made the audience forget all about the earlier false start.

“I Need Your Love In My Life” — a rocking number with southern party-blues feel to it featured solid lead guitar work from Montoya. A funky drum intro opened “Women Have A Way With The Blues,” waking the audience up to the fact that Randy Hayes on drums is somebody not to be messed with. Heavy-handed with smoldering blues riffs demonstrated Montoya’s background as an Albert Collins protégé. The notes were tight and succinct with little of the tonal clutter characteristic of less-worthy guitar players masking over their deficiencies.

Coco Montoya

A series of numbers followed mixing up tempos and blues approaches, some slow with Montoya playing slide, some featuring Montoya and Leeper mixing it up between organ fills and searing guitar riffs, and at one number with a syncopated “second line” backbeat to it straight from Bourbon Street that evolved into a party rock blues number that had the dance floor packed and everybody bouncing up and down. A nod to Montoya’s former boss John Mayall followed with “Have You Heard About My Baby” that many people may associate with Eric Clapton’s guitar work, but Montoya clearly owned this tribute leaving people asking “Eric who?” as Montoya mercilessly sawed away at his guitar.

Since every review and biography I’ve ever read makes a big stinking deal about how the left-handed Montoya plays his guitar upside down (literally: a right handed neck strung for a righty turned over on a lefty strat body so the bass strings are at the bottom instead of the top), I’m not going to dwell on it. I think watching a blond woman in the crowd of dancers slow dancing with a post kind of said it all!

A boogie-woogie organ solo from Leeper opened “Tumbleweed,” adding in turn some heavy drums from Hayes, thundering bass from Nate Brown, and Montoya grinding out some heavy swinging blues riffs over it all had everybody eating out their hands. At the next song break, while we had already had a few interruptions from one fan shouting out song titles, now everything stopped while Montoya had a back-and-forth with them about them being annoying. After a few protracted moments, Montoya responded the best way he could by just grinding ferociously through the next couple songs totally blowing away the weird vibe that arose during the pause.

After a set break, Montoya played an amusing song featuring little guitar riffs made to sound like what you’d hear through the walls in a cheap motel while a husband and wife argued. Everybody was still laughing while the band churned into a heavy version of “Just Like Me” and through a couple more numbers. The big finish was Albert Collins “Put The Shoe On The Other Foot” used as the basis for an extended jam featuring a jazzy bass solo by Nate Brown and a thundering drum solo by Randy Hayes adding some more searing blues work by Montoya to close out the night.

All-in-all, a great night for fans lucky enough to get a ticket on the Coco Montoya blues train.

erica in black and white, with coke

2009-11-23T09:54:00.003-07:00

erica in black and white, with coke
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

This is funny - this is one of my daughters posing with a coke in the studio one day a couple years ago. I didn't think much about it at the time - kind of a random shot among many as I was playing with some new studio strobes I had gotten. I don't remember the specifics, but I'm guessing this was shot with one strobe to my left against white seamless paper.

A couple months later I was doing some self training in a couple aspects of photoshop I wanted to spend more time on, and I used this photo as a test for one of the things I wanted to play more with: masking. Not a very exciting photo (I thought). But when I converted it to a low contrast black and white image, it looked better to me. I masked in the coke bottle colors, posted this image on flickr, and immediately got alot of comments about it including some constructive feedback about the areas with color I masked back into the photo. (I also had some fun at a friends expense who didn't realize the model was my daughter!)

I went back and edited it a little more, made some notes about the edits and reposted this at flickr - and got many more comments.

Right now, a couple years later, despite all the other images I have posted on flickr I think are much better, this remains one of my top two most viewed (and commented on and "favorited") images on flickr (the other being a photo of USA Olympic Boxer Deontay Wilder).

Go figure.

jimmy thackery, crystola roadhouse

2009-11-15T14:45:00.006-07:00

jimmy thackery, crystola roadhouse
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

Here's a review of Jimmy Thackery I did for the Gazette a week or so ago when he played the Crystola Roadhouse in Woodland Park:

Jimmy Thackery is slowly making his way through the crowded room in the Crystola Bar and Grill toward the stage in relative anonymity. He can easily be mistaken for somebody’s uncle: amiable, chatting with a few friends, in no hurry to get anywhere. As he gets up on stage and pulls out his beat up ‘64 strat and slips into a pair of sunglasses he adopts a serious game face that leads bassist Mark Bumgarner and drummer Russ Wilson through a set of songs including covers and material from across several of Jimmy’s albums.

jimmy thackery, crystola roadhouse
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

This is my first time seeing Thackery live, and it doesn’t disappoint me: the blend of tones and styles that have made Jimmy Thackery a legend in the blues community is all there. Known to be hard to classify musically, Thackery pulls in elements of bluesy surf rock using classic vibrato and reverb through numbers that feature him playing fast rock riffs complete with southern rock harmonics as accents. Not to ignore the blues purists, measures of primitive clean notes that somehow merge with slow meaningful weeping blues show that he’s internalized not just the notes but the passion of past great blues players.

His eclectic styles verge on the bizarre, but they all seem to work: westernized surf-rock, blues mixed with country, Muddy Waters to Chuck Berry to Jimi Hendrix, Thackery’s all over the board. Dragging shuffles, cowboy honky-tonk, boogie-woogie, Texas swing, upbeat 12-bar blues, it’s was all there and the crowd loved it!

Splitting about half the numbers between instrumentals and songs with vocals featuring Russ Wilson or Thackery himself, the band is totally comfortable working the crowd. Between songs the band good naturedly heckles back and forth with members of the audience, and right in the middle of one song featuring Wilson in a slow heartfelt vocal number, he stops to admonish a group of women who laughed over something at their table leading to a moment of pretend-pouting by Wilson which gets the crowd (totally laughing and encouraging him to get back to the song) totally engaged. In a later segue between numbers, Thackery played a long extend soulful blues solo that ended with some blistering riffs blowing the hair on people in the back of the room when he stopped and pulled a James Brown fainting shtick stumbling back into the drums as laughter and cat-calls mixed with heavy applause.

The snow outside, the warmth and cheer inside, and solid music made this night rowdy, raucous, and fun!

unintended consequences

2009-11-02T11:23:00.002-07:00

unintended consequences
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

I had a senior session last week & while editing the images I had a mistake happen in one of my photoshop editing actions I had created some time ago. The mistake made this alarmingly cool but stark black and white image (and it wasn't supposed to!) so I went back and tried to duplicate it.

I couldn't get the action to "break" the same way again. I used to have a saying back in my tech days: "software doesn't break". This is generally true, but the data given any piece of software may cause it to have unintended consequences.

As I went back and reedited this photo from scratch, I applied about half of the effect of the action that broke... doing it manually step by step again.

Sometimes working on a photo, you drift into the feeling of the image so much that the edits kind of force themselves into a certain direction. I got to a point with this photo where I just needed to stop. There was alot of direction I could have gone with this image, but just extrapolating from the whole vibe here, her expression, the glare, the reality of the harshness of light and perhaps other subtle things going on under the surface, I decided the image itself dictated it's edit to me, so I felt it showed "unintended consequences".

Dotsero

2009-10-26T18:22:00.002-06:00

Dotsero

While dorking around with some photoshop collage templates I had made I used some photos from the Dotsero show saturday night for experimenting with. Here was one example I came up with I kinda liked...

Stargazers Theater & Event Center

2009-10-26T17:45:00.000-06:00

Ok, I might be in love with Stargazers Theatre, it's a great venue. Perfect size for those mid-tier acts that need a "bigger than a bar, smaller than an arena" performace center. Pikes Peak Center is the next step up in size locally, I guess, but Stargazers is just about perfect for everything else.

Owners John and Cindy Hooten have been consistantly updating things a little at a time since taking it over in early 2009. The building's been around since the 60's, originally built as a Lowes Theatre, but in later years becoming a church, the "Colorado Opry", an all-night rave location and a church again (I think that's the order). It's considerably cleaned up.

Stargazers can be set up for dining in the main auditorium just in front of the stage, cocktails, dancing, or just for additional seating. When set for just seating I think they max out at 500 seats. I've been there 3 times in the last month for a blues act (Tommy Castro), a rock/blues act (Jake Loggins) and one jazz act (Dotsero), and I could see incremental improvements every time I've been in there.

Stargazers can be booked for business and civic events, too.

For more info, and to see their upcoming schedule of event see their web site here: http://www.stargazerstheater.com/.

Review: Dotsero at Stargazers Theatre, Saturday 10/24/2009

2009-10-25T11:10:00.004-06:00

stephen watts

Saturday night at Stargazers featured Dotsero, a contemporary smooth jazz band that has established a strong following in Colorado as the house band at Jazz@Jacks in Denver. They've released several CDs, the first of which, "Off the Beaten Path" (Nova Records/March 1990) got some national attention. They've played with or opened for Spyro Gyra, Dave Grusin, Lee Ritenour, David Sanborn, Wynton Marsalis, David Benoit, the Yellowjackets, and many more. Having played the JVC Winter Park Jazz Fest, Jazz Trax Catalina Island Jazz Fest, The Cancun Jazz Festival and many other jazz festivals, and having had their CD Jubilee spend 10 weeks on Billboards Contemporary Jazz chart, these guys have been around.

Core band members Stephen Watts and David Watts who play sax and guitar respectively were joined on stage by Tom Capek on keyboards, Marvin Craft on bass, and Jeff Woods on drums.

stephen watts

A pleasant piece called "Just Because" opened the night with Stephen playing a curved soprano sax before switching to a space-alien sounding midi wind controller... kind of an electronic sax you can drive through a computer or synthesizer or sampler to generate practically any sound you can think of (or mixtures of sounds in this case). I'm not a connoisseur of these things and the sounds it produced struck me as rather odd in this case.

The band moved into "Jeepers Creepers", a nice number featuring keyboardist Capek providing perfect light hip licks with the band building into a heavy syncopation with proud keyboard strokes offset by heavy drum and bass accompaniment. A few songs later the band played "Late At Night", with a slow dreamy intro that alternated between strong dynamics and classic cool jazz which I refer to as "late night with your honey" jazz - characterized by a good punchy rhythm with a nice solid groove like a soft summer breeze in an open convertible.

The only negative thing I think I heard was that the sax kept trending towards being a little sharp at this point and it took a few songs before I felt like it was consistently back on point.

marvin craft

Several songs followed, one featuring the incredible bass talent of Marvin Craft, one featuring the jazzy guitar lines of David Watts, then into one with Stephen Watts blowing his curved soprano again while sitting on the front of the stage. As he gets up to close out this number, he blew into the opening riffs of Santana's "Oye Como Va" which jumped into hyper-drive during a cut-time slash and burn funked out interlude with a nice drum jam by Jeff Woods.

david watts

The band took the first of 2 breaks during their three sets coming back to play "Two of a Kind" and the up-tempo Rippingtons crowd pleaser "Morocco". "Jumping Through Hoops" - which starts off a nice slow jazzy introspective piece turns up the back beat without you even noticing and it just grooves off into the sunset with some fine syncopation, the insistent sax hitting notes dead on. "Always There" was destined to carry us to the second intermission but not until featuring tight syncopation between mirrored guitar/sax riffs, a heavy bass and drum section, a self-indulgent sax solo leading into audience participation "Hey Jude". The band and the audience needed a break to catch our breath here!

Nice continued funked-out and soulful jazz numbers followed until one of the Dotsero fans yelled "LODO MOJO!" which the band was happy to oblige with. "Lighthouse in the Rockies", a hip version of "Spooky" and then a funky jam "ditty" closed-out the night to the applause and cheers of the audience.

All in all a nice mellow trip down a contemporary jazz highway brought to Stargazers by Dotsero.

Review: Jake Loggins Band : Stargazers, 10/23/2009

2009-10-25T10:55:00.010-06:00

jake loggins

Everybody who really knows music in southern Colorado kept telling me "you gotta see this kid." His name has been popping up on my radar for months, one reason being that he fronts a local jam night in Colorado Springs at Southside Johnny's. I had held off checking him out for a number of reasons, and when I heard a month or so ago that Stargazers had him booked for Friday October 23rd, I knew that was the time and the right place. I - like you - have been let down before by local music aficionados over-hyping one band or another to me only to go see them in less than perfect circumstances with a less than perfect crowd leaving me with a ho-hum feeling towards the band. So given the underground skinny on Jake Loggins, I really wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt of seeing him do his thing in a performance venue, not just possibly hacking around in a bar for his regulars.

One of the guys who knew I hadn't seen Jake Loggins before sidled up to me at some point half an hour into the show just looked at me with raised eyebrows. Just then there was a song break and I told him my review for the Gazette would probably consist of two words: "Holy" was the first one. Something else I can't get printed was the second one.

Jake Loggins is his own man. He's 25 and has the chops of alot of guys I've seen twice his age. He plays blues laden rock. I'm hesitant to call him a straight blues player, and to say he plays rock and roll is totally wrong. But if you're old enough to remember bands like Montrose or Robin Trower or Pat Travers, you may get an initial impression. Bands from the late 60's/early 70's that were drawing from blues material and making it "heavy" like Cream. And inevitably names like Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page come to mind. But I mentioned that he also has some groove to him like maybe a Dave Mason, you might start to get other ideas. If I added "oh, yeah, you can tell he's studied Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan" you might cry "foul". Who's over-hyping now?

I wanna be clear: he has his own tone and style. I think he's a bluesman at heart with party-rock mojo. And in some quieter moments you can tell he's gotten education in alot of techniques. And that's where his father comes in.

lobo loggins

Jake Loggin's father's name is David "Lobo" Loggins. Most people just call him "Lobo". Lobo's a guitar slinger who has played from Texas to Colorado to Nashville for a long time and has a following everywhere he's played. Although he's got credits on recordings and has a co-produced CD "Vices and Verses" (Lobo Loggins & Sheryl Mayfield, March/2003) (with its own great reviews if muted success) and had a top-40 song "Ain't No Cows In Texas" with video play on TNN and CMT, he apparently didn't play music politics as well as he plays guitar. So Jake always had access to guitars and his father’s grasp of classic Texas-branded guitar grinding to country rockabilly styles.

Which brings us back to Stargazers. In simple terms, I can sum this up by saying Jake's show in a performance venue is not to be missed. This is a national act masquerading as a regional power band at the moment, their gate pricing is cheap, the performance level is amazing. Last parenthetical observation I'll make here: this is the most democratic audience I have ever seen at a show recently: cholos and truckers, stock brokers and bikers, high heels and cowboy boots, hippies, kids, moms, and grandmas. And babes. Oh. My. God. There was incredible, uh, "ambience" at friday night’s show.

justin loggins

Opening the night was some stand-up routines by comedian Tim McKenna who started off a little tentatively but gained momentum and had several funny bits like "...I've got a sex-ed book for kids coming out in the spring. It's a pop-up book." This led into Justin Loggins, Jakes older brother also doing a comedy routine. Since this was the first time Jake, Lobo and Justin had all been on the bill the same night, Justin did a pretty amusing routine while showing and commenting on old family photos being displayed up on Stargazer's insanely huge screen behind the stage. Alot of family was in attendance, but many more were long-time followers of Lobo and Jake and everybody got some belly laughs out of Justin's self-deprecating and family gigging descriptions of mullet hair styles, large sun glasses, and fashion sense over the years. The biggest laugh came at Lobo's expense: shown in full mullet next to the Grand Canyon, Justin riffed "here's my family heritage - this says it all - how Joe Dirt!"

In keeping with the feel of a Loggins family reunion, congratulations to Justin and his baby-momma: Justin proposed marriage to her at the end of his set, and it was a genuinely nice moment to share.

Jake came onstage and before getting into his real set he started with a simple singing of "happy birthday" to Tim McKenna, Justin and Lobo Loggins who all share birthdays within a few days of each other, and he included another family member that just had twins that day.

So just as I was worried that this was going to devolve into a family love fest, the Jake Loggins Band dove into a no-holds barred set of high-energy blues/funk fusion with tight syncopations coupled with great stage presence, Jake leaning over and pouring energy into his Fender strat & pulling back with grimaces over burning solos, standing out in front of the mics at stage center just wailing away.

First serious observation: this band is tight. Drummer Desmond "Motown" Washington's animated and very heavy handed style of play was showy without showboating: I loved watching him beat down his equipment while bassist Noel McFarland matched "Motown" in perfect synch, adding punch and a solid foundation for Jake to stand on. One thing about power-trios: if you look back historically at many bands that had killer sound and huge success, you'll see that fewer musicians almost always means everybody's pulling their load. There’s no place to slack. And these 3 were on overdrive friday night. But here's the fun part. They have a keyboardist, Lawrence "LC" Clark. Now I didn't get a chance to talk to LC, but he's back there providing perfect support, with style. While the band was totally in overdrive, LC's back there at one point laying down perfect jazz-influenced fills that as I'm writing this sound out of place to say, but I swear I heard it and it was very cool. He had his share of organ effects in a couple breaks he took, but he was just over there on the side not making a fuss and adding this totally cool enriching vibe to the whole band as they're totally shredding my ears off.

This is a loud band. But after 4 songs or so, Jake invited his father Lobo Loggins onstage along with special guest Don Rollins. Don's name you may recognize. He's based in Nashville and has many songwriting credits to his name, one of the most notable being "It's Five O’clock Somewhere" you've seen and heard Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffet play. Don won a Grammy for that one.

Jake, Lobo, Don

The expanded band went into a smokin' version of "Little Wing" ala Hendrix or Vaughan but with a decided Loggins stamp on it. Jake's totally boogying "Soul On Fire" followed along with a slow very bluesy version of Stevie Ray Vaughan's "Leave My Girl Alone", in which Don could stretch out on with his saxophone. The band picked up the pace with several more numbers that just burned, Lobo just absolutely leaning into his guitar work like there was no tomorrow. Maybe a little Father - Son bonding over six-strings, both trading scorching guitar work and vocals in different songs, both looking totally proud of what the other was doing depending on who was driving at any given moment.

Like a fully loaded freight train cranking up the tracks from Austin Texas, the band ended the set with a classic Texas grinding shuffle version of "The Blues is Alright".

don, lobo, jake

After a brief break Don, Lobo, and Jake all entertained the audience of nearly 300 with acoustic guitar work in a format that's become popular recently at reunion concerts which this kind of was for a little while. Three stools, three guitars, three excellent musicians, three songs, each musician taking a song for a vocal lead starting with the original version of Don's "Five O’clock Somewhere". This was followed by a heartfelt rendition of a song Jake wrote, "It Takes My Blues Away" followed by a country-fried song written by Lobo and Don, "You've Got The Rest of My Life". A final acoustic number by Don and fellow writer Jim Brown followed about people that come up and brag in bars about song material (and other things) that were lifted from them and made into hits called "That'd Be Me".

The full band came back on for several more numbers with various solo breaks by different members expressing everything from Dave Mason-type soulful bluesy guitar work with mellow tones to some rowdy soul/funk material leading into "Patience", another Jake Loggins crowd pleaser that went from slow to fiery to self-indulgent leads into just solid purring portions that underscored what a great rhythm section Jake had in Desmond, Noel and LC. The final number with Don and Lobo was the Stevie Wonder song "Superstition" which Stevie Ray Vaughan remade into a funkier strung-out version. The band pulled no punches, making it totally funky and outrageous. Musicians love playing "Superstition" because of the middle part of the song - you can jam, repeat themes, have a lot of fun with solos, but JLB took the opportunity to seamlessly bring in a funky version of Jeff Beck's "Going Down" right in that middle part before bringing it back to a big-finish close-out of "Superstition".

It's now 11:25pm and Don and Lobo leave the stage and Jake announces they're gonna stick around and jam for a while "if that's alright!" After a funky heavy rock laden blues number Jake rips out the classic intro to Jimi's "Voodoo Child" which - after a few solo breaks by everybody including Jake playing his guitar up over behind his head without even making it look like he's doing anything special turns into the big finish of the night at around 11:45 with the exhausted and deafened crowd on their feet ready to go for another couple hours.

Sports Photography - issues and tips

2009-10-23T23:28:00.000-06:00

I really enjoyed giving a presentation to the Colorado Springs Creative Photography Meetup Group (http://www.meetup.com/creative-photography/) on sports photography.

I've been shooting sports part time and after my photography day-job for about 3 years. This hardly makes me an expert among many sports photographers I know that have shot sports for a decade or more. That being said, I've shot hundreds of games and well over 100,000 photos in that amount of time. (Thank God for my 15% shot selection rule of thumb, huh??!?)(In other words, only 15% of what I shoot makes the light of day (and odds are thats 10% too many!).

I've shot everything from extreme mountain biking, freestyle skiing, ice hockey, & water skiing to all the basics: football, basketball, volleyball, lacrosse, baseball, and soccer. With alot of other sports in between (like rugby, swimming, golf, gymnastics, wrestling, cheerleading, and more).

I've shot on spec, sold sports images, had sports images published, and have had my images used in posters and marketing for national teams, and have shot high-school, NCAA, minor-league, and national team level sports.

My presentation was on "issues and tips" with shooting sports, starting with overall tips, then hitting specifics about camera and lens specs, issues with certain types of sports, and ending with my list of killer "jedi" sports photography tips.

It took about 2 hours which was about 30 minutes longer than I thought it would take, but some of the kinder participants (and, well, everybody attending of the 30-40 people there were kind) said the length was perfect.

I showed a little short video of some of my favorite sports photos set to some heavy rock music... pumping through my external speakers and subwoofer I set up: it was funnn!

Anyway, it was a good time and I appreciate their letting me come in and share some ideas.

Review: Kenny G. Yes, Kenny G. Pikes Peak Center, Sunday, 10/4/2009

2009-10-05T10:45:00.011-06:00

"6:00PM DOORS - 7:00PM SHOW" is what it said on the ticket.

As I approached the Pikes Peak center on Cascade Avenue in downtown Colorado Springs Sunday evening, I thought I was plenty early to find parking on the street and get in and get a drink since it was only 5 after 6:00. But I started to get confused. I started seeing more and more people still 2 blocks away walking in the direction of Pikes Peak Center. Traffic was slowing down. The closer I got, the more bewildering it was: Kenny G was playing tonight, and it was a mob scene!

I admit I didn't know what to expect. Kenny G is practically a house-hold name and like many successful commercial and pop artists is the butt of his share of jokes. But like him or not, his music helped solidify and define the "smooth jazz" genre. He has sold millions of albums and has millions of fans worldwide, but this was Colorado Springs: was there something else going on I didn't know about? Some folksy music festival, maybe, outside Pikes Peak Center earlier? No, it's simply this: He's. Packing. Them. In.

Let’s assume for a minute the name doesn't ring a bell. You've probably heard his high soaring soprano saxophone on smooth-jazz radio stations, during Christmas specials on TV, and (perhaps) in an elevator or two. And his first Christmas album "Miracles: The Holiday Album" (Arista/January 1994) with just over 7 million sales in 15 years is the second all-time greatest selling Christmas album after "Elvis' Christmas Album" (RCA Victor/October 1957) with 9 million sales in 50 years.

But it was very clear that Kenny G has a very faithful following in Colorado Springs where he and his band performed at the Pikes Peak Center to a very full house. My guesstimate is around 1700 people were in attendance, most high-toned and well-heeled. This was a good looking crowd largely made up of people in the 30-60 year old range, many couples but as many single men as single women were in attendance. Speaking with a few people in the lobby illustrated just how faithful this crowd was: nearly everybody I talked to claimed to have all his albums (and I count 20 altogether when you include the 3 Christmas albums and 4 "Best Of" type albums), claimed to have bought their tickets the minute they went on sale, and appeared very excited to get to see him live.

The general excitement level rose as Kenny came through the crowd about 20 minutes before the show to a merchandise sales area to sign autographs on the CDs and other items for sale, his trademark long curly hair staying remarkably well-behaved as he laughed and joked with people coming through the line.

And here's where another thing that becomes abundantly clear: Kenny G is actually a pretty genuine guy! He's accessible to his fans, good natured, and as became clear later on during the show when he was bragging about being up to 135 pounds - he doesn't take himself too seriously. He plays golf, has a pilots, license... but I digress.

In general, however, his music It's well arranged, and feels lush and embracing, romantic and rhythmic, invoking soaring birds and rippling streams. With musician-friends that have been with him for years, Kenny G experienced live is an emotionally satisfying experience. Some would argue it's like sneaking into the kitchen for a late night snack of chocolate cake: it may be "wrong" but it feels so "right"!

In doing some background research on Kenny G (the "G" stands for Gorelick, his real last name), many detractors don't consider his music sophisticated, but simply commercial. But last night, what I saw was an amalgam of styles and cultural influences with solos taken by each of the supporting musicians that showed the chops these guys have and put to rest any qualms I might have had going in about Kenny G being "pedestrian".

The opening started with the band doing a nice rendition of "Going Home" with Kenny G joining in from the back of the auditorium walking down the aisles, standing on the side of the stage level tower box seats, then showing off his note-sustaining breathing technique by holding one note for several minutes while he made his final way to the stage detouring across rows through the crowd while pointing and waving with a free hand. Moving through "Silhouette" with a tight polish from playing hundreds of gigs together, the band dove into the very popular song "Havana" during which percussionist Ron Johnson broke into an extended solo percussion jam that was a master class of Latin percussive techniques.

Completely surrounded by a dizzying array of chimes, multiple conga drums, timbales, cymbals, cowbells, blocks, whistles, gongs, and devices that generated sounds of bugs and birds, this was an explosive segment that was stunning and full of excitement and flair. As the band came back in, Ron got up to the front of the stage and led a "call and response" percussion jam with the audience clapping back rhythms generated by Ron on undoubtedly the best tambourine work I've ever seen. Not to be confused with the merely "tapping in time" style of tambourines you may think of from your elementary school days, this was a physical gyrating syncopated acrobatic attack that got everyone totally engaged and enthusiastic earning him a big round of applause. Who knew a tambourine could be a weapon of mass destruction?

Moving through other material like "G-Bot" and "Forever In Love" got the crowd back into easy-going jazziness and romance people like about Kenny G. Taking a break from playing for a minute, Kenny riffed with the crowd a little commenting on everything from hand warmers in his pockets, golfing (he has a plus- handicap) to his hair ("maybe I should cut it? but my career would go down the toilet like Michael Bolton’s!") (And who said he doesn't have a sense of humor?!?). They played a final collection of material before the set break and intermission with extracts from his last CD "Rhythm and Romance" with a slightly up-tempo version of the title track, then "Tango", "Besame Mucho" - with a beautiful interlude by keyboardist and long-time friend Robert Damper - and "Sax-O-Loco", voted best smooth-jazz song of 2008.

After a couple songs into their second set, they announced the winner of one of the "Kenny G" line of saxophones they gave away from a drawing of audience members who had earlier purchased CDs and merchandise. While waiting for the couple seated high in the balcony to get down to the stage for the presentation, the band played "White Christmas" from the Miracles Christmas album. With the winning couple Dee and Saul Macias onstage, Kenny serenaded them using the same soprano sax they had won before presenting it to the grateful couple. Speaking with the couple afterwards Saul confided he was "still shaking" he was so excited and Dee - it was clear - who had been moved to tears onstage was still glowing.

Louis Armstrong's classic "What A Wonderful World" came next with video work juxtaposing Kenny on stage blended with Louis Armstrong on screen in a nice rendition of what has become a favorite of Kenny G fans everywhere. It has to be said that this piece has garnered Kenny G the most derision from the serious jazz musician community, but I thought it was tasteful and respectful.

Not to let everybody get too mushy, the band slammed into a punchy raucous version of Average White Band's "Pick Up The Pieces" with an outrageous lightshow bathing the audience in blazing lights timed with the music.

Bassist Vail Johnson got a chance to stretch out his chops on a collage of material starting with the Beatles "Come Together" from Vail's own album (Sony/ATV, January 2009) of the same name. Now, when I say "stretch out", I mean Vail played the bass in an exhibition of punchy funky syncopated slap bass seeming to simultaneously play his own rhythm, lead, and percussion lines on his instrument in triplets, chords, strums, plucks, 32nd note runs, through what must have been a veritable "black page" of sheet music that was nothing short of amazing. With the band joining back in minus Mr. G into a punchy bass driven version of Bill Withers "Ain't No Sunshine" the crowd was stimulated into near hysteria!

Kenny G reappeared up in the balcony winding his way through the audience with various band breaks while Kenny made his way down a level into the main auditorium for more personal one-on-one serenading of audience members, leading into the big finale onstage with a standing ovation. Coming back onstage for "Cadenza" and one of his first major commercial hits "Songbird", Kenny and band closed out the night leaving everyone on their feet from this totally satisfying and entertaining show.

I just realized I didn't mention other hot solos by guitarist John Raymond and drummer Daniel Bejarano. The amazing talent these guys have individually and collectively help drive the band with a greater depth and breadth than many touring bands today, and make the live version of Kenny G even more enjoyable than recorded versions. Kudos also to lighting director Bruce (Higgy) Higinbotham and video director George Yancy who's tasteful direction made this a "big show" while seamlessly underscoring the overall production and popular music sensation that is Kenny G.

Making Meaning

2009-09-29T08:56:00.001-06:00

During Sarah Petty's Joy of Marketing Telesummit yesterday, Kevin Kubota made the comment that we need to approach photography with more of a focus on (paraphrasing) "...making meaning, not making money." The money supports our business and growth, but a focus on doing things for the money may be overly detrimental and be a disincentive for friends and community to want to use our services.

I had been thinking alot recently about one aspect of my business which I have used to be out in the community to, yes, get some visibility, but it goes farther than that, and I'm refering to high school sports photography. I do this mostly "on spec" meaning I go and shoot games I think will be fun to watch with alot of action, and perhaps I get to sell prints of photos from the games I shoot. I don't charge much money for my sports prints, but it covers gas and is fun to do when I'm caught up on other business. Perhaps I get some visibility from it for my seniors or portrait business, but I'm not sure I can quantify that with any hard numbers.

Now, I don't shoot with this in mind, but given the numbers of games and schools I shoot at any given season that it happens about 4 or 5 times a season where I'll get an email or a call from a parent who will say something like one who called a couple weeks ago: "thanks so much for getting those photos of our son... he was seriously injured in the next game he played. he'll be ok in about 4-6 months after the cast comes off and physical therapy, but he's out for the season - and your photos are the only things we have to show what a great season he was having."

When it's a high school senior and their high school career is effectively over, I feel sorry for the kid, but glad that I was able to be there and get photos for the family which were probably much better than a parent would get from the sidelines or stands. If I learn that a kid was injured (either during a game or in a following game) I simply give a web link to any photos I have to the family (or athletic director at the school to forward to the family). Sometimes I hear about it later after the family has bought photos. Maybe not too smart from a business standpoint, but it just seems like it's the right thing to do, and I'm more than happy to do it.

But it's still a bitter sweet situation. For example, there was one girl I always looked for whenever I was at a game her soccer team was at because she was a great player, very fast, agile, and almost always had a smile on her face, she loved playing so much. She was animated and agressive in her play, so I always got some killer photos from games when she played. During the last chance I got to see her play, she sustained a fairly serious injury which took her out for the remainder of season and I was able to get photos to the family who were beyond appreciative. I was happy I had some awesome shots of her, but sorry for her situation and personally sorry I probably wouldn't ever see her play again.

I was saddened to just learn of the passing over the weekend of one local high school soccer competitor who was "one of those players" my camera swung to repeatedly when he was playing. An awesome athlete, I had photographed him in a game just a few days before.

While he had made "meaning" to the teams he played with, it gave me pause to appreciate the profession of photography where it may be just a moment in time that we make an image of, but that moment can be shared and valued forever regardless of later circumstances.

Whether it's from a sports photograph of an outstanding play, a journalism or other editorial photograph, a portrait, or a candid from an event like a wedding, a graduation, or a funeral, like the philosopher Cesare Pavese said, "We do not remember days, we remember moments." Video may give context, but a good photograph has the ability to transcend time like nothing else except perhaps, prayer and meditation.

The profession of photography needs to always maintain it's focus on "making meaning" and being relevent, otherwise, there's no point.

Kris Kentera : Pine Creek High School

2009-09-27T22:53:00.001-06:00

Kris Kentera : Pine Creek High School : Colorado Springs
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

I had the opportunity to shoot at a big high school football game yesterday: undefeated Pine Creek High School vs. undefeated Fountain Fort-Carson High School. It was pretty much a blow-out: Pine Creek won it 35-0. You'd expect a tight score from two undefeated teams, but PCHS's defense helped force several turn-overs, and Quarterback Kris Kentera (shown here, wearing #9) had a great arm and swift legs. I don't think FFC HS had a chance.

Both teams were in the top-10 statistical leaders of all Colorado football teams, and both are in the Metro League in the Colorado Springs area.

Photos from the game are posted at my High School Sport Photos site, www.HighSchoolSportPhotos.net.

Review: tommy castro band, stargazers, colorado springs, 9/23/2009

2009-09-27T17:03:00.004-06:00

tommy castro
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

I've started periodically doing some reviews for our local paper, The Gazette. Thought I'd post the reviews here as well. Here's the unedited version of the review I wrote for The Gazette in Colorado Springs of the Tommy Castro Band's performance on Wednesday 9/23/2009:

It's around 10:30 at night and Tommy Castro and his band have just finished the second of two blistering sets of knock-down hard-drivin' superheated blues and R&B. Men are palpitating and women are having uncontrollable physiological reactions all over the place. And everybody's either grinning, sweating from dancing out of their seats from up in the rafters down to stage center, giving high-fives, or gasping for breath.

Then Tommy Castro does something I've seen very few other bands do and do well: he invokes the immortal spirit of the Godfather of Soul, the previously hardest workin' man in show business, soul brother number one, of course I'm talkin' about Mr. James Brown. I'm not sure I'm hearing my ears right. Is this cat going into the classic opening rap that JB went into prior to slamming into one of the all-time great funk shakers of all time "Get Up (I Feel Like Being) A Sex Machine"? Yeah, and more: Not only starting out faithful to the original - enough so that closing your eyes you can almost hear a near perfect channeling the slightly gravelly voice of James Brown - but with an extended jam allowing all the band members to solo and stretch out.

Sax player Keith Crossan, who - with his own year-old solo CD out called "Beatnik Jungle" - has the style and chops and pedigree you only get from putting in almost 40 years - 20 of those with Tommy Castro - playing and sitting in with everybody from John Lee Hooker to Huey Lewis and dozens of top names in between.

Horn player Tom Poole, who, like Crossan, has a varied background playing and recording with BB King, Etta James, and Boz Scaggs among many others can blow with the best of them (and has). Poole and Crossan together make brilliant counterpoints and accentuations to the Tommy Castro band. Tommy had told me earlier during a chance to talk after the sound check that early in his career, touring with a 4 piece band with Keith Crossan was the best he could do, but now with Tommy Poole and a keyboard player - currently Tony Stead - Tommy says "this is the band I always wanted".

Tony Stead - who, (folks, I can't make this stuff up) has been the keyboardist for Sly and The Family Stone and has played and recorded with a veritable whos-who of r&b, blues, and soul acts like Johnny Adams, Ike Turner, Little Anthony, The Pointer Sisters, and on and on and on. I wish I had hours to talk to each of these guys. Amazing talent.

Drummer Ronnie Smith whose career diversity with acts like Gospel Hummingbirds, Jon Hammond Group, Ron Thompson & the Resistors is reflected in his style of play which brings not only solid funk rhythms and grooves to the band, but also island and world influences in his dynamics and fills.

Scot Sutherland - whose bass playing ranks with the some of the best I've ever heard - has soul and a big R&B punch to drive the band with Ronnie Smith. He also makes for one of the more animated and enjoyable solos given that during chorus and refrain sections of many of the songs, he's helping drive the boat with a near stoic understated stage presence and foundation work that - like a Chevy 454 engine - you always feel underneath you purring along, but it explodes in personality and style right when you put the pedal down.

But it's Tommy Castro who prowls onstage with the mischievous confidence of someone totally in control of their instrument and ready to have some fun that draws us all into the act. His kind of performance is a little bit like someone who's letting you in on a secret that you can appreciate but can't fully grasp the ramifications of until later: he and his '66 strat and Fender Super Twin turned up to 10 aren't backing down until you're lifted up out of your seats.

Tommy Castro goes way back, has a bazillion awards and accolades - like being winner of the 2008 Blues Music Award for Entertainer Of The Year, was the house band on NBC’s Comedy Showcase for 3 years in the early 90’s, has played with virtually everybody who's anybody from Albert King to Carlos Santana, and has alot of smarmy reviews flowing with the milk and honey of sweet adverbs and adjectives written over the years pleading with you to understand how great he is.

But I say this: this guy can kick ass. Period.

If you're already a fan, you know this. If you're unfamiliar with his work but like blues music in general, start by looking up some outtakes on YouTube. Some of them are pretty badly done with cell phone video cameras with really bad sound quality. But some of them - do a search in YouTube for "Tommy Castro Nasty Habits" (try here) which rips off a clip from his "Live at the Fillmore" DVD - will show you this guy really is "all that". Then, buy a copy of his new CD.

His latest CD (out of an incredible building catalog of releases from several labels) is "Hard Believer" (Alligator/August 2009) already beat out sales of recent releases by Delbert McClinton, Robert Cray and Robben Ford - and also debuted at #2 on the Billboard Blues Chart! To say the CD is loaded with solid material is an understatement, but to see him perform about half the tracks at the show last night at Stargazers Theater and Event Center - you know, that round-topped place where the Colorado Springs townies first saw Star Wars a million years ago (more about Stargazers in a minute) - was nothing short of phenomenal. This band can play!

Tommy had told me one of favorite songs to play (and also on the new CD) is Bob Dylan's "Gotta Serve Somebody" because it just "feels so good" playing it. And if you know the original, you know its got a mild kind of funky soulful beat to it. But when Castro plays it he adds his own ferocity to the driving mean funk that the band kicks out, and in the case last night, he came off stage and walked all through the audience playin' it with a grit and determination that made believers out of everybody.

Also off the new CD, the fast paced "Make It Back To Memphis" (which he claims was motivated from a "true" story about hauling back to Memphis after the Blues Music Awards in Tunica Mississippi last year in a friends Cadillac, out on the open road, running out of gas) is also one of his current favorites to play.

Besides breathing new life into Bob Dylan and James Brown covers, we also heard ballsy renditions of material from Muddy Waters and Wilson Picket mixed in with other new and classic Tommy Castro band crowd pleasers like "Nasty Habits".

Warming up the Stargazers stage last night were BJ Estares and Randy Hawke from the Colorado Springs based band Route 61 performing somewhat unplugged acoustic funked out blues run-downs that got everybody in a great mood.

If you haven't been to the venue that is the structure of the original United Artist Theater off Pikes Peak Avenue that took turns being "the Old Colorado Opry", churches, and the site of all-night raves before being brought back into control and cleaned up by new owners John and Cindy Hooton, you're in for a treat. Yes, they do mild- mannered business events there too by day, but by night - and especially with their increasing niche of showcasing some of the best touring and regional blues talent - they've become one of the best go-to venues I've seen locally in a while. (And have a cole-slaw salad they offer as a side dish to sandwiches that could be it’s own food group, it’s that good). (And yes, I admit I’ve been suspicious of places that try to be a regional music venue that serve food and alcohol also, but here: it totally works.)

I talked with a long-time Tommy Castro fan from Beulah, Colorado who had made the trek to Stargazers to see the band and he said there's nothing like this venue anywhere, especially in the southern half of the state - and they wouldn't have missed the show for anything.

I also talked with Tommy Castro fans who were vacationing in Colorado Springs from Kansas. They're new fans of Castro and missed him when the band toured through Topeka recently and just knew they had to come to the gig to enjoy the show.

I asked Tommy backstage if he knew he was drawing people from not only Boulder (where they had just played a few night ago) and Denver but also from Kansas! His eyebrows went up and he was, like, "realllly?" and I'm, like, yeahhh, man, you don't even know. I told him the best fan story I heard last night prior to the show: a woman had flown to Colorado from San Jose, California to meet her husband who was working long-term in Denver for the Tommy Castro show in Colorado Springs! It was their 4th wedding anniversary and they wanted to spend it "with" Tommy Castro!

So if you missed this performance, keep your ears open for the band's next pass through town: they've been here four times now thanks to local promoters Amy and George Whitesell of "A Music Company, Inc" and Castro's following - as evident from the 300 plus people attending last night (from all over the country) is just growing and growing. Gear up, go online, buy the latest CD from the Tommy Castro Band, and get in the groove.

More photos from the Tommy Castro Band's gig reviewed above can be found at my Flickr photo gallery here.

Review: The Insomniacs at McCabes Tavern, Friday 9/8/2009

2009-09-19T10:00:00.004-06:00

I've started periodically doing some reviews for our local paper, The Gazette. Thought I'd post the reviews here as well. This is the edited copy that ran at the Gazette website:

If you threw Fats Domino, Albert King and Junior Wells into a bag and seasoned it with everything in the cabinet like The Diamond’s version of the 50’s classic ”The Stroll” fame and Jerry Lee Lewis you might come up with something like The Insomniacs.

The Insomniacs – a nationally recognized up-and-coming blues band touring the country in support of their newest CD “At Least I’m Not With You” (April/2009, Delta Groove Productions) – brought their tight blues melange to Colorado Springs Friday night at McCabe’s Tavern on Tejon Street.

While there was a pretty low turn-out for what should have been a packed house, that didn’t stop the quartet of Vyasa Dodson on guitar, Dean Mueller on bass, Alex Shakeri on keys and Dave Melyan on drums from layin’ it down.

Opening with “Lonesome” off the new CD was a great way to loosen up both the band and the audience. This 12 bar blues shuffle with a great tempo got head and feet moving everywhere and gave the band a chance to open up and settle in.

Churning into “20/20” – a slower punchier blues number that would be totally at home in the Austin blues circuit with Shakeri’s groove slingin’ leslie organ underpinnings supporting Dodsons Albert King style riffing over top.

More songs of the new CD followed including “Description Blues”, “Maybe Sometime Later” and near the end of the first of their two sets, the title track from the new CD “At Least I’m Not With You”. “At Least I’m Not With You” is a great song when you hear the clips from the CD online at the Delta Groove web site, but it’s a totally awesome number live.

The band mixed it up with songs from their first CD “Left Coast Blues” (August/2007, Delta Groove Productions) and threw in some covers and a ballsy version of Fats Domino’s “I’m Walkin’” - which is one of those crowd pleasers that people love when they hear it, but The Insomniacs spin totally brought it forward a few decades.

The big surprise to me was Alex Shakeri on Keyboards and Harmonica. While Dodson is the songwriting powerhouse of the group based on everything you read (and certainly has his share of sweet riffs), Shakeri stole the show more than once with powerful blues harps riffs, pounding honky-tonk piano, and sweeping swinging organ accompaniment that left little doubt about his chops.

The Memphis based Blues Music Association gave The Insomniacs a nomination for Best New Artist Debut last year, and with songs showing up on Billboard and Living Blues Radio charts, this is an up and coming blues band with a lot of rubber left on the tires.

For more information on The Insomniacs, see here.

Fun Senior Shoot Downtown Colorado Springs

2009-09-16T22:00:00.002-06:00

brianna
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

Had a chance to shoot Brianna here downtown Colorado Springs on Wednesday 9/16/2009. She was great to work with. We had already done a studio shoot a few days earlier so she kind of knew some of the directions I was going to give her, and I found her slipping into the look I wanted several times without any prompting from me: wow! I loved it! It made shooting so much more enjoyable (and while it's never -not- fun, sometimes it's more fun than other times). (This was one of the mo' fun ones!).

Weather stayed pretty good for this shoot, it was partly cloudy/partly sunny when we started (and this in the afternoon after we had had something like a hurricane the previous couple days finally slowing down that morning).

It did start clouding up, and I had my daughter Erica with me assisting, so I told her to keep an eye on the sky and at the first drops of rain we had to bundle up the lighting equipment we were setting up at a couple places we were shooting. I didn't use lights everywhere we shot outside, but when I did (like this one here in this blog entry) I used a medium softbox with a grid on an Alien Bees B800 light I carry - which was connected to a portable battery pack.

We got in some great shots, spent about 2 hours shooting at - I want to say 3 locations around downtown, the last in front of the old City Hall on Nevada. We had been shooting there about 20 minutes when big fat drops of rain started to come down, so while Erica was packing up stuff I shot Brianna for a few final frames without any artificial lighting (and we got some nice final photos to review out of that set also).

All told: an awesome shoot with an awesome girl!

: perserverance :

2009-09-11T11:14:00.001-06:00

: perserverance :
Originally uploaded by butch leitz

checking out this interface from Flickr, lets see how this works!

I took this photo a couple weeks ago during a photo session with a high school senior who had run back to the car to grab a different shirt. While waiting I noticed this woman climbing... couldn't resist preserving the moment and captioning it "perserverance"...

Dog Days of August Special Event

2009-08-21T17:06:00.002-06:00

Sign up for any senior standard senior session by 9/1/2009 and get a free 5x7 and 16 wallets added onto your order on the house! (and oh, yeah: you get a free burrito from Chipotle, too!)

Senior Portrait Sessions in Full Swing

2009-08-20T14:57:00.005-06:00

Here are the senior mailings we have going out right now showing the front of the first one, the front of the second one, and the front of the third one (yet to mail). Also is the back from the first card. I pretty much kept the same text from the back of card 1 but changed the layout for the back of cards 2 and 3.

All these cards feature photos from seniors I've shot from several different high schools including air academy, liberty, sand creek, falcon, doherty, cheyenne, and sierra. I have shot kids from other high schools also including Rampart and Coronado, but I ran out of room with my layout to include everybody!

I enjoy shooting weddings, models, families... heck, I enjoy photography, period. But some of my favorite subjects to shoot are high school seniors. Sure, we get the cocky ones, the ones that know everything, and they're fun to shoot because of their confidence.

But we also get kids that the shy brainy type or the jocks that just may not feel that comfortable in front of a camera. I love working with these types of kids because they sometimes just don't know that they -can- look good in a photo: they've had too many bad experiences with lousy photos shot by family or friends, photos that never should have been seen, even!

But it's all good - we ask that seniors come in with a parent to have an initial meet and greet meeting from which we schedule the session when we're going to shoot photos.This gets us over the hump of meeting for the first time when we're ready to take photos, and we talk about wardrobe, props, locations, and some of the print products we have.

Then when it's time to go out and shoot, we can just rock and roll. So far this year I've shot on railroad tracks, in the rocks (on the rocks) (around the rocks) (we have alot of rocks in Colorado!), in the woods, in the grass, by brick walls, downtown, on the bluffs and mesas, and it seems a dozen places in between.

Most yearbook deadlines are coming up in the next 3 or 4 weeks, some schools earlier, some schools much later, and we'll take a few simple head shots to pick from for the yearbooks and get them to the schools in plenty of time, but it's the rest of the photos that let us get fun stuff in for use as family gifts, wallets to give to friends, and images to hang onto and enjoy when you're older that may have more meaning.

So I love this time of year when I'm shooting some weddings and families and executive headshot photos, but aloooot of seniors.

Wind, Rain, Sleet, Night: It's Not A Challenge, It's Ambience!

2009-08-19T12:12:00.011-06:00

That slogan from the post office that they no longer use about something like neither wind, snow, rain, sleet or gloom of night... whatever... is something that still applies (to me anyway!) I went downtown with Krystal monday night to shoot some photos for her modeling portfolio. We had already postponed this once due to rain (a heavy consistant rain, only cool to shoot in if you're looking for that runny-makeup drenched-hair kind of thing (which was NOT the intent of this shoot)).

We had done some shots on one side of the street and I suggested we move over to the other side (dodging cars and catcalls as we went) and we started to shoot there. Something out of the corner of my mind nagged at me for a second or two before it came into focus: those clanking clinking sounds I was hearing was hail starting to come down! We were under a few trees and didn't get hit (right away) which gave me time to yell at Krystal "jeez, what is that?" "Hail or something!" "quick, run for cover!" & we pulled under a store front that had a generous overhang.

One of these shots (here on the left with her hand up on her head) was taken just at the edge of this overhang with available light while it was raining (in fact in other shots I have taken around this same time you can see streaks of rain falling behind her... but they're a little distracting). You'll see some hot spots as far as lighting on her right, but some cool side and backlighting. The side and backlighting was actually by design. In the limited room we had to move, I couldn't use the flash because it would have been too overwhelming... so I kept moving her right and left and I kept rising and squatting until the angles were all right with all the different street lighting around. The light on the right was from some blinking little christmas light LEDs in the window that would fire off at random times... so in this image they came out a little hotter than I would have liked, but still an interesting lighting situation overall. Note to photographers, this was at iso 4000 with a slow shutter, hand held, but check out the exif on the white balance: I dialed it down manually to 2650K to neutralize all the amber and tungsten tones from all the street and store front lights! Thats why the light from those LEDs looks so... so... white!

The hail turned to rain & wind and it seemed ugly for a few minutes, but then lightened up, eventually slowing to a drizzle, then it stopped. So we ran back out into the street to get a few more shots using the reflecting lights off the wet pavement as part of the shot.

I think we got some killer shots, although as you can see I was partial to the shots we got after the pavement had been wettened down (wettend? is that a word? looks funny!).

The only shot before the rain that I think we may use now is one where I was trying an experiment and leaving the shutter opened for like 25 seconds, then popping Krystal with a flash right before the shutter closed (yes, I used the stop-watch function on my watch!) Anybody know why I did this?!? It gave me an awesome background shot but apparently I wasn't pitching just enough light on Krystal - I think the flash unit was timing out because I had to hit the test fire button on the remote a couple times in a row to get the flash to shoot (thus also throwing off my timing).

But this is an effect I'm going to try and try again until it's perfect... check out the light trails of moving vehicles! Thats what I was after! This late at night on a weeknight I think the traffic was lighter, so a busy night or at a better location is going to be an awesome approach to a very unique photo.

Photo Mojo

2009-08-19T08:33:00.018-06:00

A couple posts ago I mentioned being exhausted from a trip into New York for some serious shooting. These examples I took from that trip illustrate how just a little thought in "posing" and composition can give you absolute monster looking photos... things you'd typically see in magazines that, on the one hand you might say are too "over the top" (but secretly be thinking: wowwwww!)

I know there are alot of different styles of photography out there and just as many people who have their own ideas of what makes a photo good. I know what -I- like, and thats all I can go with. I can shoot traditional formal photos (and have done so) but feel that some of the more personal images say more about the spirit of the moment than traditionals do.

I like a photo to look unposed, but many times some guidance (if not actual "posing") has to happen to get people to interact personally. (In fact I'm always dumbfounded at weddings where during the reception the groom is way way over there, and the bride is way way over on the other side!) It's hard if there are alot of people standing around watching, so especially for bride and groom interaction shots, it's best to get them off by themselves without the wedding party around.

I have to say though, that the portrait photographer side of me really likes some of these (very) posed shots of the bride alone. You can get this awesome emotional feel if the pose is done right coupled a little "letting go" by the bride. I think these are very personal photos, very dramatic, not things you normally see (which to me makes them even cooler).

It's funny, but absolute strangers aren't nearly as threatening or interfering as are our own friends... we're more aware of friends and self-conscious about what they may be thinking than we are (or care) about stangers. Kind of a human psychology factor we have to take into account. (This photo - like the others ones here taken in NYC - had hundreds of people walking by watching.)

The other interesting observation I'll make as I think about the photos here from this wedding is that it's not "location" that makes a photo, although there are elements of a location we can use to enhance the feel or emotion of the image; but the emotion of the bride and groom themselves set the stage for how the photos will come out.

As a photographer, I like interacting with people and getting them to feel totally at ease with each other and themselves rather than having them be conscious of "hey: we're getting out picture taken!" which totally messes up the flow! But this interaction has to be non-invasive from the standpoint of the bride and groom... after all, this is all about them!

Getting some dramatic poses from the bride is just cool... I mean, really: she's got on this awesome dress, has spent, like, all morning working on hair and makeup... why not take advantage of it and treat her like a fashion model? She will love it! (But she's got to relax enough to be into it which open up all kinds of photo ideas).

So - a little tweaking in the posing by the photographer (I think) is useful to get those "rock-star" photos that will be so cool to look at 20 years from now, but it can't be forced: and that's the beauty of it: we all get to let our little light shine through.

Just, sometimes, we need a little help doing it.
And that's what a wedding is all about after all, isn't it?

(for a couple anecdotes and additional photos, read "i love new york" earlier (farther down) in my blog).

Shove Chapel at Colorado College

2009-08-16T22:16:00.006-06:00

I have to admit that after having shot several weddings in the past couple weeks that were all either outdoors, in someone's home, or in a new modern church, is was just awesome to shoot a wedding today in the wonderful chapel at Colorado College, Shove Chapel. According to it's web site it's built in a Norman Romanesque style, modeled after the famous Winchester Cathedral, a stone from which was used as the cornerstone of Shove Chapel.

From a photography standpoint, there were plenty of plusses, and only a few minuses. On the minus side: it's a very dark interior from the back up to the transept and alter. And, there are many columns supporting the infrastructure which you have to work around. Both of these minuses are far outweighed by the positive aspects of shooting there (and easily worked around).

I have to admit I'm a total sucker for "heavy" church when it comes to the structure of a church building. One of my favorite things to do when traveling (especially in Europe) (and I have hundreds of photos to prove this) is to visit cathedrals and basilicas, getting as many photos as I can from different angles, of different features. I think I shot in 6 different churches my last visit to Paris alone. I love the sense of awe you can get out of stained glass, flying butresses, dark corners that rise up into sunlit rafters, whatever: I'm a fan.

So Shove Chapel at Colorado College in Colorado Springs is a very nice (and an ok size for an American church, seating just under 1000). With two lofts at each end of the transept, there's some vantage points to shoot down from. There's also a loft in the back of the church over the entrance... requiring a zoom to shoot from (which I used here in this photo).

But they've added some stage lighting from the two side lofts which help illuminate the stage or alter area, itself containing a beautiful pipe organ in the back of it, and with a grand piano.

Shove has nice side aisles under cascading arches, a smaller side chapel dedicated to the Shove family with an interesting plaque giving a brief history of the family from the early 1600's, and many features to shoot with on the outside.

This wedding in particular had 4 bridesmaids in red gowns, groomsen in supporting colors under black tuxedos, the bride in a beautiful white gown, everything was perfect for the location.

They left in a '68 mustang convertible... you don't get much more classy/hip than that!

Making Tracks During Senior Portraits (literally and figuratively)!

2009-08-08T14:59:00.009-06:00

Ok, ok, this was fun... I was shooting a senior session yesterday on the tracks right by my studio in Rockrimmon in Colorado Springs. As I'm shooting at one point, something's nagging at me but it just doesn't register. I glance over my shoulder and see this monster train bearing down on us (although it was a safe enough distance away moms and dads!) that we both were like: YIKES! and laughing hysterically (with nervous laughter, I think) : we got a nice safe distance off on the side well before train got to our spot, and I whipped up the camera to try to get a shot of the engineer laughing at us (I saluted, he waved, and then he gave us a couple quick toots on the horn)!

Outside of the craziness, one of the cool things I did then was to position myself a little farther back shooting up towards Erica with the train rushing by in the background. I slowed the shutter down and pantomimed some poses to her (cause it was wicked loud, especially with the amplified echo of the train coming out of that overpass), so we got these incredible shots of her hitting cool looks with the train a nice blur behind her as it rumbled along. This was so awesome I can't tell you. Not sure why I hadn't done that before.

Some days it pays to be crazy.(most days.) (well, ok, within limits! I may be ugly but I'm not -that- stupid). We moved down into the overpass area you see in the shot here
on the left and got some killer shots against the painted rough cement wall down there. Another train came along: but this time we were both "dialed in", heard it and moved long before we even saw it coming around a bend.

I'm not kidding: it was a great shoot with awesome pics & a great story! Besides the two trains, there was a nice perfect breeze blowing out Erica's hair a little & with the light & dark areas you can use for shooting there, what more could you ask for?!?

(Dont tell: I'm totally stoked for shooting there again!)
:-)

i love new york (but man am i TIRED!!!) :-)

2009-08-06T16:03:00.008-06:00

Just back from New York today where I was in a workshop with Doug Gordon and Kevin Kubota and other photographers. Shooting in New York City was way cool. Here's a nice shot I made of a bride and groom with the Empire State Building as a backdrop. Got alot of nice special photos from this foray into the city during the workshop.

We had one fun incident where we were shooting in Times Square - the bride was laying down on the pavement and about 500 onlookers gathered around and the cops came... we shot for another couple minutes and moved to the other end of times square... here she is twirling (much to the amusement of the crowd!)

I'm tired because because I slept 2 hours one night and 4 hours the next night... then flew home today and had all these great ideas for short tutorials on photography, so I didn't sleep on the plane. But it's catching up with me.

small intimate wedding

2009-07-20T10:23:00.003-06:00

Saturday I shot a small intimate wedding at a friends house. Basically all in an open-plan living room / dining room / kitchen combination. Not alot of room to manuever, so I got locked into a couple spots by the other guests. Even so, I got some nice photos, including this one of the beautiful cake.