A lot can happen in 18 years.  Heck, a twinkle in a man’s eye can transcend birth, childhood and become an independent adult in the same amount of time which has taken place between the time of writing these words and when the world was hit (like a ton of bricks) with 93 ’til Infinity.  While I, personally, was stuck in the middle of the country (Wisconsin to be exact) and missed out on the initial release of this record, the rest of the world was promptly stormed by four MC’s from Oakland, California collectively known as Souls Of Mischief.  Each coming with an individual spin on how to set listeners’ ears ablaze, Tajai, Opio, Phesto and A-Plus would bring more talented MC’s into the equation and grow into the West Coast’s first independently run hip-hop internet successes aka Hieroglyphics.  While they were early bloomers in the age of selling hip-hop music independently on the internet, Hieroglyphics have continued to release full-length albums on a steady schedule through the late 2000’s … with plenty of side projects being released all the while.

That having been said, being given the opportunity to spend an hour in the grace of some of hip-hop’s greatest living legends at an intimate venue like The Alley in Sparks, NV has been a completely mind-blowing experience.  Being my first Souls / Hiero show, the group was everything I was hoping for and more.  The flows were on-point, positive energy was in the air and while the crowd wasn’t as big as the legacy of the performers deserved, the fans were more than potent with their abundance of love and respect for the music, the artists and their fellow concertgoers, male and female alike.

Lately in my posts here on I Shoot Reno, there have been a lot of ‘firsts’ when it comes to social outings, photography and post-production.  The newest ‘first’ comes this week in the form of my first full-fledged B&W gallery.  Well, there’s technically one color photo in the gallery, and that’s of the cast on Tajai’s left foot/ankle/calf.  Don’t know what happened there, but it didn’t stop him from putting on one helluva good show!  As per camera specs, I shot in color using the RAW (.NEF) setting on my Nikon D7000, and with the Nikon 50mm f/1.8D lens attached, I felt quite comfortable shooting in the low light with an aperture of 1.8, shutter speed at 1/250th of a second and ISO cranked up to 3200.  Needless to say, the Lightrrom 3 session afterwards was pretty close to that which took place for Sage Francis’ performance the night before in promotion of awareness for World AIDS Day.  Any feedback that comes to mind on these shots is welcome and if you like what you see here, please click through to view the full gallery.  I’m sure that there’s a lot more for me to learn, but if there’s any questions you might have, please don’t be afraid to ask below … or hit me up on Facebook or Twitter if that’s easier.  Thanks for checking out my art!

VIEW THE FULL SOULS OF MISCHIEF GALLERY HERE

Camera(s) Used:

Nikon D7000

Lens(es) Used:

Nikon 50mm f/1.8D

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