Opening acts include two of Reno’s finest hip-hop groups, Knowledge Lives Forever and Locus, so get there early and come support your local Reno talent!
Sage Francis prominently poised with microphone in hand and cape tied tight...
Indie Hip-Hop legend Sage Francis is not only philanthropic with his wealth of verbal knowledge, but also quite so when it comes to offering performance for a cause. Which cause you ask? World AIDS Day. The recent benefit show held at Knitting Factory Concert House saw this slam poet dj turned emcee give the city of Reno an extra-large helping of politically quotable and thought-inspiring verses, choruses and freestyles to chew on throughout this chilly post-Thanksgiving winters eve. Brimming with creativity, live painting could be seen taking place all around the edges of the venue, along with sexual-awareness themed games and offerings throughout. One thing which did throw us for a loop was that even though ‘safe-sex’ was being promoted, the free condom gift packs which were being distributed ended up all containing ‘magnum’ sized prophylactics … now don’t get me wrong, free condoms are better than no condoms, but MAGNUM sized condoms, really? Most of which, from what I could spy, ended up either being stuffed in the upstairs booth cushions or got inflated and tied off at the end in the creation of makeshift patriot-looking balloon missiles. Bomb’s away!!!
As far as my Nikon D7000and Nikon 50mm f/1.8Dlens were concerned, Sage did move around a little fast during his caped crusade around the stage, but it wasn’t anything this fast and lightweight setup couldn’t handle. Being the first concert I’ve shot in .NEF (RAW) format (I know, most photo geeks probably just dropped their jaws), the Lightrrom 3 session which followed was a big self-taught (and internet assisted) lesson in post-production and photo editing. The amounts of color, clarity and contrast were just a few of the sliders which made up the process, and although there were plenty of bright lights to choose from, Sage’s onstage demeanor seemed to demand a handful of black and white depictions instead. For these, the ‘develop’ process in Lightroom 3 went something like this: Enable Profile Corrections (Lens Corrections) >> Black & White >> Clarity >> Sharpening >> Fill Light >> Blacks >> Tone Curve. I’m sure that there’s a lot more in store for me to learn in this software, and anyone reading this has a favorite to share, please do so below … or hit me up on Facebook or Twitter if that’s easier.
If you like what you see here, I’m pretty confident that you’ll enjoy the full gallery … so go ahead, click away and see why I Shoot Reno!
Sage Francis unleashing a poetic fury upon the crowd...Sage Francis taking a quick breather after fully exhausting both himself and the crowd...A packed house for Sage Francis' World AIDS Day benefit show at The Knit...Sage showing the crowd a taste of why the ladies call him 'Sage Frenchkiss'...An offering from the crowd which ended up going head-to-head with gravity...
Camera(s) Used:
Nikon D7000
Lens(es) Used:
Nikon 50mm f/1.8D
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Super-Happy Funtastic Bonus Pics!!!
And the crowd goes wild for Sage Francis...A still shot displaying on one of the many monitors adorning the walls at The Knit...
