Thinking Professionally

(Subtitle: "So You Think You Have the Chops to Sell Your Skills Professionally? Ha!")

I took some family photos recently with my D200. Set up the tripod, compose the shot, check the settings and "Wham!" I wanted to gauge my quality so I sent the shots to a professional-grade lab, not Sam's Photo Lab as I have been wont to do in the past. I feel like it turned out OK, but there wasn't anything magical about the images, so I was a tad disappointed.

While at the lab, I picked up a newsletter for a local professional photographers guild. There were a couple of columns in it I wanted to read. One, written by the president of the guild, was brutal. In it he recalled a phone call from a prospective photographer who asked his opinion of his work. He let him have it, with both barrels, criticizing his images in the most thorough and brutal (sorry to repeat, but the word is appropos) fashion.

Wanting to embark on a semi-pro career as a photographer, wanting to make myself available for work that should come along, I am thoroughly self-conscious that it will not be up to par, even for a bargain photographer. I'm hoping that this fear of failure pushes me to improve to the point that it is up to par.

A suggestion this guild president makes is that pro photog wannabes align themselves with a group of professionals who can offer quality guidance and meaningful critiques of their work. Sounds like a good idea, but I don't know if I'm up for such a beating. We'll see.

Rush at Smirnoff

Rush is a group I've loved since 1977 when I purchased my first Rush album, A Farewell to Kings. I saw them  first in concert back on January 19, 1988 during the Hold Your Fire tour. Loved it. I saw them again on the Presto tour on March 1, 1990. Loved it then, too. (Thanks to www.cygnus-x1.net for the archived tour dates database, otherwise I wouldn't have remembered).

Promoting the release of Snakes and Arrows, their latest studio album, they are touring this year. Steve (a co-worker) and I went to see them in Dallas at Smirnoff Music Center on August 11. I figured it might be the last time I'd get to see them, so I went for it. Smirnoff is a horrible venue in the summer. The temperature under the pavillion is not much better than on the lawn: hot.

Rush took the stage a little before their scheduled curtain of 8pm with no opening act. Over the years, they've taken advantage of video more and more. Their shows have opened with a video short in recent years, this year being no exception. Our seats gave us an impeded view of the stage, the side of stage right blocking almost 1.5 of the three video screens on the stage. It looked funny, but I don't really know because I missed almost half of it.

First song was "Limelight" from Moving Pictures. As the show progressed, they played a few from the archives: B-sides from albums gone by, most appreciated by the most dedicated of Rush fans. Through the course of the evening, they played 9 of the 13 tracks from Snakes and Arrows, IMHO, not one of their better albums. I, of course, paid close attention to the guitars Geddy Lee (bassist) was playing. He played his Fender Jazz Bass (the black and white one) most of the night with three exceptions. On "Freewill", he played the newer red Jazz bass. My understanding is that they/he drop-tunes for songs such as this one to make the vocals easier to manage.  On "Malignant Narcissism", he brought out the newest addition: a Fender Jaco Pastorius Tribute Fretless Jazz Bass. However, the apex of the evening was when he brought the Rickenbacker 4001 out of the mothballs for "A Passage to Bangkok", one of the encore numbers. Now to you non-bass playing members, all of this means absolutely nothing. However, I enjoy noticing these things.

Another thing of interest was the crowd's demographic. I would hazard that the crowd was mostly 40-something white males. Of course, there were a few younger folks, a few older, and a number of females, but the majority was fellows like myself. It's comforting to know that Rush is mostly supported by guys like me.

The band is getting older. Geddy Lee is 54; Alex Lifeson (guitarist) will be 54 on August 27; Neal Peart (drummer) will be 55 on September 12. This doesn't bother me. I rather enjoy the prospect of 50-somethings showing the young ones how the proverbial cow ate the cabbage. As far as musicianship goes, they are at the top of their game. Some small exceptions exist, of course. Geddy can't hit the high notes like he used to do. That's OK. The screeching was just a tad annoying.

It was a great show and I was glad to be there, even given the imperfect venue. Rock on, dudes!