More jam! Imbibe Open Jam style

When Thursdays roll around, I’m really ready for fun.  And the confluence of Bro Night, great food, great beer, and Tessa “Bobessa” Elise’s rockin’ regular Open Jam at Imbibe make it my go-to destination.  Yes, I shot an iteration of this event only a month ago, but dammit this is such a fun intersection, and spring demands fun.  In fact, there was a sufficient amount of fun had to disrupt the usual makebright turnaround time of next-day for photos/blog post.  I blame my poor judgement and Stephen Preece.

Above, this dude was playing out front of Imbibe around dinner time and later inside.

Click through for a completely unnecessary number of photos and vague comments…

Tessa makes it go.  Not just the music, but also the weekly artist.  Killer pace.  Respect!

Come for the beer, stay for the fun.

Artist Ann R. Weiler was live-painting throughout the evening.  Great to meet you, Ann.

Edith brought us beer and kept us out of trouble.  Thank you, Edith.

Ya gotta get there early unless you like standing.

This crew look like fun neighbours.

Yep, they were fun.  Going to take a stab at names L-R: Rob, Tiago(?), Drummer, Mr. Brant County, Madeline (sp?), not-Tom?  We got talking about photography.  I’ve got to start using the voice notation feature on my D3 to tag photos with names.

Tessa.

Tessa.

You work this hard to put on a weekly gig, you get three photos in a row.

Ann.

Cheryl’s ink.  She needed a seat, we need more friends: perfect.

Brock Hart at 12 o’clock.

Snacks!  At Rob’s table.  Brohemus and I had the special: flatbread and greens.  Tasty.

Ann’s gear.

Best hats of the night.

Edith.

Money for musicians goes in here.  I gotta get one of these for the photographers.

Ryan arrived with his drum kit.

Ben Malleck, left.  Love how Ben breaks out the rap.

Ryan Dugal.

All the way from Brant County.

Been working a bit on using people as framing elements within shots.

I call this: Green Shirt.

Ok, here’s everyone.

Spotted my pal, Stephen “Mr. Jazz Room” Preece.

This guy was installing what he explained was a sound hole cover to prevent feedback. The pickups do all the work jacked into an amp.

Brohemus’ ancient watch with the radium painted hands. Still glowing.

Cheryl said the flower was the one from her mom’s casket and the ivy represented her and her sisters still connected.  I love photographing people against this red wall.

Madeline is the boss of everything.

Then we threw Preece into the mix.

Which always causes happy chaos and loud talking.

Then Preece hailed over his two friends that he arrived with and Catherine (in blue) is introduced.

Tessa collecting cover.

Intentional in-camera warpage of Dave’s head.

Been thinking about negative space between subjects in a composition.  This shot is in that direction, but didn’t quite nail it.

Catherine, Stephen, Brohemus.

Meta-photography and framing.

Added Will to the mix beside Catherine.  There is not practical limit to how many people we can fit on this bench.

This may have been the big Born To Run sing-along.

It’s official: I regret shaving my beard.

Hey, the guy from out front earlier.

Meta.

I liked the complementary arm motions here.

There was a great juxtaposition (and I rarely use that term) of the Much Music Dance Party going down at THEMUSEUM and the Open Jam at Imbibe.

Meta.

Ryan was hitting it.

This guy had to kick me out of his friend’s seat, but we’re cool.  I was just passing through.

This guy’s guitar-fu was impressive.

This is how I wish the background looked: no potlights, emergency light, and motion detector. All removed in Lightroom for this one frame.

See: potlight, motion detector, emergency light.

These arms totally cracked me up.  Fantastic.

Felt like I had inadvertently short-changed the keyboard player through depth of field fuzziness, so two shots here.

Another stellar stout discovered.

Renowned photog Robert Capa is credited as saying: If your photographs aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough. That came up in last month’s 3rd Thursday photo review and I’ve been thinking a lot about it and pushing in with my compositions. I’m four feet from the subject here.

Photog Zach Arias has a great mantra: “head in a clean spot”, which means whenever possible ensure your subject doesn’t have a mic stand or something sticking out from behind their head.  Pretty good here.

I think there’s a reference to Model T Ford’s here: any colour as long as it’s black.

Cool shoes.

Photo: David G. White

Brohemus not only watches my gear, he occasionally pulls the trigger. And, yeah, I got new specs.

Jesse Parent played a great set.

I struggle a bit with the whole mic in front of the face thing.  Musicians, during instrumental intervals pull away from that mic to help your photogs.

Meanwhile, on the red planet…

Coming up next week… more.

Great voice on this guy.

Hey, thanks for asking if I post my photos.  Another happy makebright business card recipient.  I came home fresh out of cards, which is how it’s supposed to work.

Back on the streets of DTK.

DW