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OAWB - Behind the Lens Photographers Roundtable with Chris Maher
144 Plays1 year ago
Join us with our new Bonus Content. On A Water Break Behind the Lens. Join Chris Maher as he and his fellow photographers tell their stories and more about what it’s like to be Behind the Lens at Marching Arts Performances. This episode our Main Show Host Stephen introduces everyone to Chris and a few more panelists.
Guests:
Chris Maher - www.corpsreps.com
Russ Tanakaya - @russelltanakaya
Steve Barrett -
Rachel Kendrick - @rachelkendrickphotography
Listen to the main episode to keep up on everything going on in the marching arts with our hosts:
Jackie Brown - @spintronixguard
Stephen McCarrick - @stephenmccarick
Cindy Barry - @leandermomma
Nicole Younger - @o2bnpjs & @thecookoutcg
Trevor Bailey - @t_pain151
Trish O’Shea - @trishdish1002
Beth Beccone - @bether7189
Chris Rutt - @wildhornbrass1
Cynthia Bernard - @cynthiabern
Ashlee Amos - @famousamossss_
Theo Harrison - @harrisontheo07
Stephanie Click - @stephanieclick
Whitney Stone - @dancerwhit
Justin Surface - @J_dex07
Ashley Tran - @itsashleytran
Jack Goudreau - @goudreau_
Ricardo Robinson-Shinall - @ricardorrobinson
Callie Quire - @cnquire
Austin Hall - @Austin_hall10
Jose Montes - @joeymontes57
Music provided by leydamusic.com Follow him @josh.leyda
Avatars provided by @tch.makes.art
#marchingband #colorguard #dci #podcast #onawaterbreak
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to the Bonus Series
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey everyone it's Steve McCarrick and I'm here to start a new bonus program from us here on a water break. This bonus series will explore the lives and stories of some very important people in our activity as photographers. So join me and some super talented people as we go on a water break behind the lens. Please no flash photography alive.
00:00:37
Speaker
Welcome, everyone, to another episode of On a Water Break.
Meet Chris Marr: Photographer in the Marching Arts
00:00:41
Speaker
This is a new series that we'll get into on a water break behind the lens. So I'm here to introduce you all to some truly talented people behind the lens of the marching arts. Up first, we have someone who I am certainly familiar with because this guest on our show today has actually been around my whole entire marching career.
00:01:02
Speaker
kind of local to my area. We have Chris Marr. Chris, thank you for joining our show. Pleasure to be here.
00:01:11
Speaker
Yeah, so Chris actually has been taking photos of marching bands, winter guards, drum lines and drum corps in the mid-Atlantic area for quite some time. But I'm sure there's a lot more backstory as to how you've gotten involved in photography and the marching arts in general, Chris. Do you want to take us through your 32 count life story?
Chris Marr: From Drum Corps to Photography
00:01:31
Speaker
I'll give it a try. Let's give it a go. So I grew up in New York where I marched with the Horizons drum corps.
00:01:39
Speaker
I went to college in Pennsylvania, got married right out of college. My wife Donna and I have three adult children, all very musical. We do family music together, which is always fun. Some people think I'm a full-time photographer, but I'm actually not. I'm an actuary and a small business owner for my grown-up job. In 1995, I started the Drum Corps history website, coreps.com, and that got me interested in photography to provide content for the site.
00:02:05
Speaker
and from there I just have kept taking pictures. Wow, that is so interesting because you're so prolific at least in this like northeast marching band scene that I always would have figured that your first like your your main walk in life would be photography. That's incredible, you're a man of many different talents.
00:02:24
Speaker
So that's fantastic. Thank you for coming on the show. And I want to talk more in a little bit about sort of your background and other great parts of the photography journey along the way for you. But you also brought along some other guests, some other photographers involved with photography and the marching arts from around the country. Chris, could you introduce the other guest photographers that you brought on today and who they are and where they're from?
Introducing Russ Tanakaya and Steve Barrett
00:02:51
Speaker
Sure. So Russ Tanakaya has been a longtime friend of mine through Drum Corps World Photography. And when this idea was pitched to me, I thought, well, let's get Russ on board. And then the idea was Russ would invite somebody and I would invite somebody. So Russ is out in California.
00:03:12
Speaker
I invited Steve Barrett, who is up in Maine, who I've known for a long time through US Bank. So and then Russ, why don't you introduce Rachel, since I'm just meeting her for the first time. Sure. I met Rachel probably four or five years ago because I used to take pictures of her when she was in the color guard at Pacific Crest. And then unbeknownst to me, she was in school earning a photography degree. And that year when she finished her degree, she
00:03:39
Speaker
for the photography internship at Pacific Crest and she went on tour with the Corps for the whole summer. So I had already taken pictures of her and now she was taking pictures of the same Corps and through those couple years I've watched her.
00:03:55
Speaker
become an incredible professional photographer on social media, and she does an incredible job. That's awesome. Yeah, so you've kind of been handing the torch and building up the next generation of photographers for the marching arts. But why don't we take a moment here and we'll get through some 32 count life stories for all of our three guest hosts here.
Rachel's Journey: Color Guard to Photography
00:04:15
Speaker
That way we can learn a little bit more about what got you here. Russ, do you want to get us started? Sure. All right. You got eight and in from the Met.
00:04:24
Speaker
Hi everyone, my name is Russ Tanakaya. I'm a retired 44 year veteran of the hotel business. And in my present chapter of my life, I am a grandfather and an avid marching arts photographer and social media fan.
00:04:39
Speaker
I've completed photography assignments by the globally published internet magazine, Drum Corps World, DCI, and my current passion at Pacific Crest Drum and Bugle Corps, where I serve as the principal photographer and the media coordinator of a team of over 15 volunteers. I've also been elected to the board of directors for Pacific Crest and the winner Drumline pulse percussion.
00:05:00
Speaker
Whoa. Oh, I'm going to want to come back to that if you can tell anything from my backdrop behind me. I probably am pretty interested to hear about that. But let's keep and let's get through the rest of our 32 count life stories first.
Steve's Path to Photography through Family Involvement
00:05:17
Speaker
Rachel, you want to go next? Sure. All right. Here we go.
00:05:22
Speaker
So I grew up in SoCal, been here my whole life, and I found Color Garden High School as well as photography, fell in love with both of them. I went on to, as Russ said, join Pacific Crest in 2018 and 2020. I did an independent winter guard in 2019 as well, as well as vessel indoor percussion in 2022.
00:05:43
Speaker
graduated with my bachelor's in photography 2022 as well, then went on to intern with Pacific Crest as a photographer. And I've been coming back each year ever since and yeah.
00:05:55
Speaker
Nice. Yeah, it always seems interesting, too, because when you're doing drum corps photography, I bet it's kind of like having the drum corps experience, but you're also really in your own world getting to do what you love, too. Oh, yeah, it's it's great. Awesome. Well, Steve, let's wrap up with your 32 count life story before we start talking a bit more about doing photography in the marching arts.
00:06:22
Speaker
I'm Steve Barrett. I am a photographer. He's originally from the Watkins Glen, the art area. Yeah. I started with the marching arts about 20 years ago. I started shooting high school marching dance with my daughters. A couple of years later, I was started on the U S band circuit. I was also doing some indoor stuff. That's where I'm at. Press was what was the indoor competitions. Uh, I have a background in journalism. I have a master's degree communications and, uh,
00:06:49
Speaker
It's been a lot of fun doing this stuff for all these students that are involved in the Marching Arts. Yeah, that's super cool. Did I hear you right? Did you say that your first introduction to this was from your children and you just kind of being involved in their activities? Yeah, that's it. Basically, we wanted to find something to do. I needed to find something to do that would allow me to get back into my photography. Right. This was just a perfect opportunity to do so.
00:07:16
Speaker
Right. That makes sense. It's like a great coming together of like your passion, but your family life that kind of sent you off in this direction initially. That's awesome. Why don't we go around the table and an answer for the rest of you all of how'd you get into it initially or what brought your photography towards the marching arts?
00:07:34
Speaker
Russ, do you want to get
Russ Tanakaya's Motivation Behind Photography
00:07:35
Speaker
us started? Sure. You know, I've been in photography most of my adult life, but I stopped when both my kids started performing in their high school music programs because I found myself
00:07:49
Speaker
not watching the show as much as I was taking photos of the show. And I've regretted that ever since because now I don't have any memories of those shows that they performed in. But it really is the compelling reason that I shoot Marching Arts now is me and my team of volunteers at Pacific Crest, for example,
00:08:11
Speaker
are responsible for recording all of those memories. And so all of those parents, families, friends, performers, they don't have to find the art anymore because we have a great big database of these already and they can log on and get them for...
00:08:26
Speaker
for free basically so yeah it's it's kind of been full circle for me that's interesting it's like the best case scenario with social media that we all would hope for it to be it's like just keeping track of all this stuff that would have been falling to the wayside you know prior to the advent of all all these technologies where you can share the photos and keep good records of all the different you know experiences throughout the summer that's awesome that's actually just such a really kind of like wholesome reason to be involved initially
00:08:55
Speaker
Chris, I think you mentioned it while you were doing your 32 count life story, but that's a super quick crash course version. What sort of like brought you initially towards Drum Corps photography?
Expanding Photography Involvement through US Bands
00:09:07
Speaker
Well, I've been around the Drum Corps activity pretty much my whole life. From the time I was little, we would go to firemen parades. And that's how I found out about Drum Corps specifically and joined the Corps when I was 11 years old.
00:09:21
Speaker
And so it's been a part of my life. After being a participant and then a volunteer for a long time, I was a Drum Corps parent. And my son started marching in 2002 and did eight years of Drum Corps.
00:09:39
Speaker
And that's when I started getting more interested in the photography. I was never a photographer before that. I was never a film photographer. People assume, given my age, that I probably was, but I never was. My wife was always the family of the photographer. So I got interested in photography when it was digital. It started to make sense to me. I'm a computer person. Digital photography makes a lot of sense.
00:10:03
Speaker
And so what happened was I I was doing the drum Corps photography for core reps And then I realized I was accumulating a lot of gear I was like well I've got this gear and I'm just using it for the summer and so I went to US bands and said well You know can I come take pictures that you're marching band and they were like sure that would be great and that kind of started a whole big thing with with them where they've got this now this media makers program where I
00:10:27
Speaker
mostly parent volunteers and people like Steve who just want to do this. Go take pictures and then from that it expanded out to just my other connections in the area to get into the other circuits. So it was kind of an evolution and it just keeps growing. What was that program with US fans that you just mentioned? Because I think that one's new to me.
00:10:50
Speaker
Yeah, it's called the Media Makers. And it's we've been doing it for since well, I started with them in 2009. And I think the next year we started doing Media Makers. So any parent to or just interested person who has a camera and would like to take pictures can get a pass to be on the sidelines and take pictures of all of the groups and provide pictures to the U.S. bands for social media purposes. Huh.
Media Makers Program for US Bands
00:11:17
Speaker
Wow. Okay. Yeah. I never, I was unaware of that. Maybe more people would be interested in doing that if they at least heard about it here. Is that, what do they have to do in order to get involved? Is there like a page on US bands website or?
00:11:34
Speaker
There's a page on the website it today and it's it's little hidden at times But for the most part if you have the experience with it There is a site on the website for volunteers who are always looking for volunteers to do a variety of activities for you as fans The photographer beside is just one aspect of what they are looking for So I've been this is my 13th year coming up will be by 13th year would be where spams and it's it's just been you know
00:12:02
Speaker
The word a lot of these just getting the word around to people to come on out if you've got a good camera if you're willing to go out and take Spend the time to go do it. I mean there's a lot of fun in it and it's very rewarding not only for for me I love doing the pay for the students and the and the Organizations will really like the fact that we're on the sideline looking out here
00:12:23
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it must be really rewarding for each of you. I know, speaking just for me personally, because Chris has taken a lot of pictures of ensembles that I've been a part of. We all are very thankful for you, Chris, because many of my profile pictures over the last 10 years of my life, it may have come from you.
00:12:43
Speaker
You've kind of been documenting my whole career in the marching arts, but it's not just you. It's all of you, the photographers, for all of the different regions and shows that you take part in. Rachel, I think we didn't get to get back to you, and your story would be a bit different from everyone else, since it sounds like you came in directly from a performer.
00:13:05
Speaker
role and try to go straight from that into the photography role. What would you say is different about summer from being a performer to being on the photography staff?
00:13:19
Speaker
That is a very good question. I think Russell would agree with me. For Color Guard, at least, having that background, it's a lot easier to judge when certain shots will hit their peak with the flags and rifles and stuff like that. Russ had me follow the Color Guard quite a bit, which I had a blast doing and always do. I don't know if anything else would be totally different because
00:13:48
Speaker
These guys are all seasoned, obviously, and so they've gotten timing down and some have backgrounds like Chris does being in the marching arts as well. I think for me, I just mostly have a drive for like, I wanted so many shots of myself when I was a performer. Especially when you're in high school, I think it's a little harder depending on where you live to find a lot of action shots.
00:14:17
Speaker
For my high school, we were kind of a small band, so we would be kind of looking at any websites we can find for even just one shot of ourselves. So I just love giving back in that way of making sure I get as many people as possible so that people can have an action shot of their season.
00:14:36
Speaker
Yeah, I never really considered that it must just feel really good to take all the pictures for everyone because you know how happy everyone is to have their picture taken while they're performing. Oh yeah, that's definitely a big drive behind why I'm doing what I'm doing. Sounds like it is a big drive for each and every one of you on the call.
00:14:53
Speaker
So that's awesome. I've never really got that perspective of what's in it for the photographer. It's that you guys like making us feel good.
Managing Massive Photo Collections
00:15:02
Speaker
And you have fun, I'm sure, actually getting to just take part in your craft and take excellent photographs of something that you're passionate about.
00:15:10
Speaker
All right, well, I've got actually some questions I wanna know about some of your best and potentially some of maybe your worst or craziest photographs you've ever taken here in a couple of minutes. But for now, we are gonna send you all out onto the band room to get your uniforms on and get lined up. That way we can get these band pictures taken. So we will be right back with more on a water break behind the lens.
00:15:43
Speaker
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Speaker
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00:16:57
Speaker
all right welcome back to the rehearsal here i've been really curious because you guys have been taking there's so many pictures out there that i'm sure each and every one of you have taken honestly first off quick question maybe we can go around the room how many gigabytes or terabytes of photographs would you say you've taken over your years of drum corps photography
00:17:19
Speaker
I just got a Synology NAS. It's 96 terabytes of storage. With the RAID 2, there's 65 terabytes of usable storage. I'm in the process of moving everything over to it. When it's all said and done, about 40 terabytes will be in use. Oh my goodness. So that's what I've got. On my platform, I've got over 1.7 million photos in
00:17:45
Speaker
Over 17,000 galleries. A gallery would be one group's performance. So over 17,000 performances that I've photographed. Wow. That is incredible, Chris. Those are some staggering numbers.
00:18:02
Speaker
And my numbers are not as high as Chris. Chris has easily goes up because he's not only shooting us bands, but he's shooting from car to shorting indoor season. I sort of limited my seasons more or less to the, the marching arts scene of fall because I do an awful lot of local stuff, you know, within my case, whether that we, and they're all under up here in may. Uh, but I've got plenty about 14, 15, 20 years worth of photographs that I have taken over the years.
00:18:26
Speaker
from various competitions and various activities, not only in just the marching arts, but in the other performing arts for music as well. Yeah, just years and years of media stored up here. It's a gold mine. What about you, Russ? Well, I don't have the library that Mr. Marr has either.
00:18:45
Speaker
nor the technology that he has but I back up to a four terabyte hard disk every season and so I probably got 50 terabytes worth of photos over the years. I also have a personal portrait and wedding photography site in business that I run
00:19:05
Speaker
So i have a hard copies of all that kind of thing to actually is a big part of my marching activity photography because almost exclusively all my clients are marching performers. That makes a lot of sense that's interesting yeah and i use it to find scholarships.
00:19:24
Speaker
at my beloved Pacific Crest Drum and Bugle power. I don't make any money from it. They make donations to PC and I shoot their wedding. That's awesome. That's so nice. That's an incredibly good thing to do for the Drum Corps and for the students that are getting married, former students. That's awesome Russ. Rachel, I know that obviously some of these veterans in the call with you have had years upon years of additional time to accumulate data.
00:19:52
Speaker
Maybe, how many photographs or what size photographs would you say you just took in last summer? Last summer, I was there as much as I could, mostly weekend performances and some weekend practices as well. But I will say when I did the full summer tour, definitely went through more than a terabyte for the whole entire season.
00:20:18
Speaker
Definitely have the least compared to these seasoned professionals here, but I hope to get to those numbers one day. One day you'll be saying those are rookie numbers and you'll have padded with the most fine modern technology and the highest bit rate imaginable.
00:20:37
Speaker
Well, that's incredible. Just the sheer volume of pictures that you've all taken over the years is impressive. It might make it pretty difficult to pick out which ones are the best or potentially the worst ones over the years, but there could be some standout memories of photos you've taken that were just chef's kiss, fantastic drum corps photos. Is there anything that maybe comes to any of your heads as the best picture that you've
Favorite Captured Moments in Photography
00:21:04
Speaker
taken?
00:21:04
Speaker
I go through every year all my photos and narrow it down to a top 100 and then narrow it down to a favorite photo. I've done this process for the last 13 years, 12 years. The photo that I had last year, I can tell you about that one.
00:21:24
Speaker
I went to the WGI regional in Bethlehem, and I was not the official photographer. I just went over to have some fun, and I decided to just shoot with one camera, with one prime lens, 135 millimeter prime lens, and shoot in black and white. So that's what I was going to do. I shot the whole show that way.
00:21:46
Speaker
And I have a shot of a performer. And the other thing is I put my Sony A1, which can do 30 frames per second, I put it in single shot mode. So I was not going to burst at all, even by accident.
00:22:02
Speaker
And so I have a shot of a performer perfectly upside down doing a flip. And it just was my favorite photo last year. So that was last year's favorite photo. Most years my favorite photo is a marching arts photo, but it's open to all of my photography.
00:22:21
Speaker
In 2021, there really wasn't a whole lot of marching arts that was happening. But I did make a trip to the Utah National Parks and the Grand Canyon that year. And I've got a shot of Mesa Arch and Canyonlands with the sun kind of just hitting it so you get a sun star kind of a classic shot. And I was real proud of that shot. So I do occasionally do things outside the genre.
00:22:47
Speaker
No, I do like that a lot. I recently went out to Las Vegas because my sister lives out there, so I was able to take a lot of really nice pictures in Red Rocks Canyon. Granted, I don't have like a 135 milliliter lens, and my pictures are probably not as nice as yours, but I appreciate getting out there in nature every now and again, too, and just getting some of the beauty that you can find out there.
00:23:12
Speaker
What about Russ? Is there something that stands out to you as a best photo maybe that you've taken? You know, in preparation for this talk today, I was kind of going through my brain on my favorite shot. And I think the one that I'm most proud of probably was like five years ago, you know?
00:23:31
Speaker
marching arts photographers we don't control the landscape totally you know if you're going to take pictures of red rocks like you were talking about you know you can move your feet to get the right angle and the perfect composition and the cactus framing the shot and stuff like that where in the marching arts people are whizzing by you they're moving very quickly there are judges walking in front of you video guys walking in
00:23:55
Speaker
front of you and so this particular shot was a couple years ago Pacific Crest Everglow show with large triangles that were glowing in the dark and it was framing with the left side and a color guard person jumped
00:24:13
Speaker
and the perfect ballet arch and her skirt was perfectly billowing to one side and somehow I snapped that picture at exactly the right time and probably has been well it's the one that's on the wall in my dining room because I loved it so much but so many things have to come together at exactly the right time to get to get the perfect shot but
00:24:38
Speaker
Every season, I know Chris has got his top 10. I've never done that, but that's a really great way to do that too, Chris. It's hard. Man, Nick is brutal. When you make him, you should share him with us. We would love to see him, and maybe we'd help share him around a little bit too. But yeah, no, it's funny to think about, normally, I just think about the rep where everything is coming together in this exactly precise way just for that moment.
00:25:05
Speaker
It's an additional layer on top of all of that to see the photographer be in the right place at the right time and take the right shot of the right person, too. How often would you say that you know the show that you're trying to take pictures of beforehand? I'm sure with with many competitions you don't. But unlike the chances where you do have a big show, do you make an effort, any of you guys, to like know what the big moments are that you want to take pictures of?
00:25:33
Speaker
one of the things that i get when i'm up i'm looking i'm shooting in massachusetts for most of my stuff with usb and you get to know a lot of the programs and a lot of the bands because all these fans compete in the same competitions every week and so even there's some bands readjust their programs every week to uh for their show that eventually builds up to the national championships and stuff uh you get to know what
00:25:59
Speaker
basically where they're going to be and you can start planning a lot of these these photographs based on what the choreography and the drill on the field is going to be. So that's very helpful in the beginning to get started early to see where these shows are going to go and then you can plan ahead of time as to where they're going to deal with this moment at this time but you have an idea of where they're coming from and anything.
00:26:25
Speaker
Yeah, so there is some thought to it then, especially for your local circuit that you probably are at more often than not. I'm sure you need that to get those best photos or at least it's going to help you for sure. What about the opposite end of the spectrum? Do any of you have stories of a time where you're like, oh goodness, what?
Missed Photo Opportunities
00:26:46
Speaker
Maybe you took a photo at a moment of disaster where some chaos erupted out on the field. Is there anything that stands out in your head as the opposite end of the spectrum? I have an example of the worst photo.
00:27:02
Speaker
For Pacific Crest last year, we played a show called Goddess and we had an iconic moment about two thirds of the way through the show called Jenna's Hurricane. Jenna was our color guard captain and the whole color guard was just swirling in the middle of the field and she was on top of a young man's shoulders and they were just dancing all around and everybody was moving and
00:27:25
Speaker
we would commonly take bursts of several hundred images of the hurricane to get that perfect moment in time. And if I look through my Indianapolis shots and I can see that progressing to this one spot that was going to be the shot, it was going to be the cover of every magazine shot. Everything was coming together. And at the exact moment where it happened, two judges entered the frame, one from each side.
00:27:55
Speaker
And so the shot has two judges standing and like, you know, what was I doing? I was taking pictures of the backs of people's heads that day. That to me was kind of the iconic moment because I had waited all season. It was Indianapolis. It was a world championship. The banner was in the background. World championship. Here it came. The hurricane planned two judges. No. Yeah, that's that's exactly what this question was asking for, I think Russ.
00:28:24
Speaker
You had a whole month of buildup and preparation and knowing exactly what you wanted to do. Was that... The judges are still on the sidelines even for that, I guess, right? So we can't even get them out the way any further than they already are? Yeah, you just never know. They just kind of pop. You know, they're doing their thing so they're walking in front of you and sometimes you don't even see them on your periphery if you're zoned in waiting and that's what happened that day.
00:28:49
Speaker
Damn, that's that's tough. Well, I hope you had good pictures of that moment from other competitions earlier in the year. I'm sure I'm sure since it sounds like there's four terabytes of photos that there must be a good one buried away somewhere. But it's a shame that you couldn't get that one that night. That's that's a very strong contender for the worst photo story. Is there anything anything you caught that was just funny? You looked back after and you were like,
00:29:17
Speaker
Okay. Or maybe something you don't notice right away. What do you guys, do you have any experiences with that or something strange maybe?
The Art of Choosing Photos: Unintended Expressions
00:29:25
Speaker
But the only thing I could think of when I did one here in Maryland a few years ago, one of the high schools was a very good color guard oriented marching band. And oftentimes I would pair up a young male, young female student who are good in dance and choreography.
00:29:45
Speaker
In this particular year, the young lady just did not like working with the guy she was working with. And you can tell by the photographs, the eye expressions, the facial expressions, why are you doing this? It was like, I'm doing this with you only because I act too. And that's sort of an embarrassing type situation we can catch that on.
00:30:08
Speaker
in the camera and I never used a photograph but it was, you know, I ran into that sequence two or three times during the competitive year where they just really did not get along with each other but they didn't have anybody else that could physically handle the requirements. So that can be hard. How often does it pop up where like you'll take a picture and you'll look back after and it's like, yeah, that's
00:30:32
Speaker
That's not going to be shared. We're going to leave that one be. I spend a whole bunch of time on editing photographs. I think all of us do. We can make sure that there's a quality control in there. And it's important because when you're publicizing these photographs and get them out, especially for the US band site, they go all over the place. They're all over the world. You've got to make sure you're trying to get the best image possible that reflects not only on the school, the students, but also the organization as well.
00:31:02
Speaker
Yeah, right. There is a lot of responsibility on your shoulder there because these images kind of represent the ensemble to the world. One of the things, you never really know how a performer will see that photo of themself. A lot of times you think it's a fine photo and the performer's like, take that down. I look terrible there.
00:31:24
Speaker
So you have situations like that. You also have situations where I always run into the protruding tongue. So somebody sticking their tongue out and you just don't know. Like a lot of times it's unintentional. I delete those folks. But sometimes it's intentional and it's part of the performance.
00:31:40
Speaker
and trying to figure out whether that's the case or not. It's often pretty hard. But when you get the exact same shot of the same performer the next time you see the group with their tongue out just exactly the same, then you know that was intentional. That was part of their performance.
00:31:59
Speaker
It's like they do that all the time there. It's funny you say that. It's a quick sidebar on that. You've probably taken pictures of me in early high school where I used to have a terrible drumming face. I used to have one eyebrow way up to the sky and my tongue halfway outside my mouth. The funny thing is, if you saw me at multiple competitions, you would have seen me do it every time because there was no stopping me at that time.
00:32:26
Speaker
I don't think it was as deliberate, but I think you're totally right. There's like some stuff you would see where you might question, was that like a slip up or is that the performer, you know, and this is what they want to bring for their audience. And then that kind of becomes at your discretion. You're kind of hinting there towards like things that you might not expect about photography, like how someone could reach out in a photo that you might've thought was good. Maybe they just didn't like how they looked in it and they might want you to take it down.
00:32:54
Speaker
Sir, other stuff that you've encountered throughout the photography journey, that's not what you would have expected? I'll jump in on that one. We had, I was fortunate enough to be able to shoot the Marine Corps Invitational at the U.S. Dance Competition about eight years ago.
Challenges of Photographing in Difficult Weather
00:33:11
Speaker
You know you try to watch the weather reports and everything to make sure that everything is going wild You you know what what to prepare for when you go to an event like this and the weather report was initially going to be just a light ray clear up the skies a little bit and What ended up happening as we started the show at nine o'clock in the morning at Malay Court Stadium at anapolis and it started raining and raining and
00:33:35
Speaker
It rained and it rained all day and all night for about 11 hours of street rainfall. Made it very uncomfortable for me to position people out on the field because the artificial surface of the stadium was like a sponge. It was very uncomfortable. You didn't expect it was going to rain that much with the elements on that in that competition.
00:33:58
Speaker
Yeah. And that must make it pretty difficult. Is there any type of like weather, you know, ways you can adapt your equipment around weather circumstances or if it's a bad weather day, but it's drum course still happening. Are you guys just out of luck?
00:34:11
Speaker
With me, I went out there and shot anyway, I covered up my cameras as much as I could. There is protective gear for the cameras, a protected gear for the course of photographers.
Protecting Equipment and the Value of Rain Photos
00:34:21
Speaker
But after being, you know, inundated with rain all day long, you need to also have to change your clothes every now and then. But yeah, the photographers, for the most part, if they see the rains coming, that will always carry their protective gear for their equipment.
00:34:39
Speaker
Yeah. Cause sometimes those shots are like extra cool too. Like thinking back to remembering in high school, if you took a picture of me in the rainy show late season and I was like looking good, I'd have felt pretty, pretty cool in that moment. So we appreciate it. Great shots with the best shots. They really are. They just bring something out. It's a.
00:34:56
Speaker
It's got an intense energy to it. Well, Chris, that was a great episode, and as we wrap up here, I'm happy to say that I will be passing this mic off to you moving forward. So next time we have everyone on, the multi-talented Chris Marr will be the host to talk with even more other photographers and just get even further down into it. I certainly lacked, I think, some of the
00:35:20
Speaker
The nitty-gritty questions, but I'm sure we have fans that would be really really interested in hearing some of like the more detailed information about the camera work about photo editing or just stories that you guys have to share in general about photography, so
00:35:36
Speaker
I appreciate all of you guys. Thank you to each of you amazing photographers for coming on the show. You're obviously responsible for capturing all these special moments that we have in our activity and certainly give back to the activity in a lot of ways more than I certainly understood before coming into this call. So I'm very thankful for the work that you've all done. Thank you to Chris.
Finding Chris Marr's Photography Work
00:35:58
Speaker
Where could they find you, Chris?
00:36:00
Speaker
Um, well, they can physically find me at the maps, semi-finals and maps finals, the next two weekends, main championships after that. And Wildwood, uh, you know, at the end of, at the beginning of may, um, and online, uh, my, my photo website is photos.core reps.com. Excellent. The 1.7 million photos are there. I'm going to go scan through all 1.7 million to find my personal favorite photo. Uh,
00:36:27
Speaker
I'll be selfish. There's probably only about a thousand pictures of me over the years that Chris has taken. Russ, where could our listeners find you and your content?
00:36:39
Speaker
Well, I can be found at any Pacific Crest performance throughout the season, albeit almost all of them this year. And I shoot another 15 shows for Drum Corps World. My photography website is russelltonicaia.smugmo.com if you want to see my work. Excellent. Thank you very much for coming on the show.
Where to Find Steve's Photography
00:37:00
Speaker
Steve, where could our listeners check you out?
00:37:03
Speaker
I most of my photography is dying through US bands and the US bands has a very nice library of photos of which my content is on that side of the US bands Facebook page and go through that they will be able to find all photographs to find from the last 12 years of competitions.
00:37:21
Speaker
I'm located in Scarborough, Maine, which is outside of Portland. And I do a lot of photography up here. So with the with high schools here, so other my content, I have my Facebook page, we should see very on the Facebook. Excellent. Thank you very much. And last but not least, Rachel, where could our listeners find you and the lovely pictures that you take?
Rachel's Online Photography Plans
00:37:42
Speaker
They can find me on Instagram at Rachel Kendrick Photography, hopefully a website coming soon this year. But I will also be at Pacific Press, but not for that many, mostly just the California shows.
00:37:58
Speaker
Awesome. Well, again, one last time. Thank you all for taking all the pictures that you've taken. I look forward to listening to some more episodes coming out soon with more photographers and just digging deeper into all the amazing things that you all do. So for all the listeners, please go subscribe, write us a review, share the podcast with a friend, and follow us on social media at On A
Conclusion and Call to Action
00:38:20
Speaker
Water Break. And we will see you at the next performance on A Water Break Behind The Lens.
00:38:29
Speaker
The On A Water Break podcast was produced by Jeremy Williams and Christine Reems. The intro and outro music was produced by Josh Lida. To learn more, visit lidamusic.com. And until next time, thanks for tuning in.