A while ago I spent an evening photographing musician Tameca Jones at the Continental Club Gallery in Austin for the Statesman.
I was supposed to meet her for a portrait before her set, but when I arrived she wasn’t there. I wasn’t too worried, she was just running late, so I walked around to find a good backdrop for a portrait.
The Continental Club Gallery has a main space on the second floor of the building and a sort of loft space above that with a pool table and some lounge seating. The main area was crowded that night, but the loft space was completely empty. The red walls and black leather seating seemed like a perfect place to photograph a jazz musician. Plus, it was a simple backdrop and I knew I’d only have a few minutes with Tameca when she arrived.
I did a test shot or two to make sure my settings were right, then waited. Finally, about 5 minutes before she was supposed to sing, she walked through the door. To my surprise, she wasn’t frazzled, but rather calm and willing to pose for a portrait. Not only that, but the outfit she wore was perfect for the shot I had in mind.
I used three similar poses in the space, which was a bit more crowded than when I arrived, and that’s all we really had time for. This is my favorite of the three.
Then it was time for her to perform. If you’ve ever been to the Continental Club Gallery, you know that it’s pretty dark in there. …Actually it’s really dark in there. So dark that I had no choice but to use flash.
I tried to use directional flash (putting my SB910 in my left hand and pointing it where I needed light), but that was throwing shadows all over the place, and I was getting pretty jostled on the dance floor. So I put my flash on camera and pointed it straight up, so I could bounce light off the ceiling.
It wasn’t exactly the atmosphere I was hoping to capture for a jazz/soul singer (the stark white walls might have had something to do with that), but the photos were coming out clear, in focus, and correctly exposed, so I went with it.
I stayed for the first two songs and then got out of the way of the people enjoying the music. Here are a few favorites from the performance.
It turns out there’s way more to Tameca than being a fantastically talented musician. She’s a single mother and her friends call her “Superwoman.”
Reporter Michael Corcoran wrote a great story about her, click here to read it.