Photos

Thought perhaps I have enough time to sneak one upload today.

This is from Memphis in May, the Beale Street Music Festival, a three-day, 63 band fest in Tom Lee Park, right there on the banks of the muddy Mississippi River. This was day one, shortly after the gates opened. I was unsure of the security here, and the event website said that any camera with a removable lens would be forbidden, so I brought only my Oly 8080WZ, which, of course, the security contractors tried to say was a professional camera... At least there were real cops in the actual event to provide some modicum of protection - all those guys on the security contract company did was harass people at the gate (no you cannot bring in that half gone bottle of water) and watch the girls dance once everyone got inside. I find this to be pretty typical at these festivals - rarely do you find one of those contractors that actually does what he is paid to do.

These cops, though, are a different story. Apparently those guys on the mopeds drew the short straws, looks like the foot cops are teasing them a bit. I was glad to see they all had on their Kevlar vests - with all that looking for professional cameras and half-full water bottles, the security contractors probably missed a few handguns and maybe an incendiary device or three.

I think the Memphis PD should have invested in a couple of golf carts (or John Deer Gator 6-wheel drive vehicles) with tops and removable plastic sides for these guys - this weekend was going to prove these little bikes inadequate in rain and mud...

Again, shot with my now very old and very small Olympus 8080wz. I had to remember how to use it, and shooting in RAW with it is excruciatingly slow. Also, being limited to just ISO 400, it was tough on the low-light shots until I figured out to just use it manually... Then I still messed them up! The camera weighs about 8 ounces, maybe, so it was like shooting with a feather as compared to the Nikon D300 - really easy to move about a lot. I got a few decent shots, though.