Winner Announced: The 12th Photographers Lounge Salon Challenge: MUSIC

Livnius

Top Veteran
Location
Melbourne. Australia
Name
Joe
G'day friends...and welcome to the 12th Photographers Lounge Salon Challenge....and the theme is....MUSIC.

Music has been and still is a huge part of my life, and I'm sure many here could say the same thing. For those of you that love it, it has been your constant and you could probably relate a particular song or an even a whole album to some key moments in your life. We use it to come together, to fall in love, to make babies.....we also use it to escape, forget, to block out the sounds of the train ride home...or to just be alone.

You passion for music can take many forms and it has more than likely transformed in many ways over the years, I want to see you use your passion for photography to tell us a bit about your passion for music ....it can be anything, a photo of a piano, a photo of a cool set of headphones or sound system you have, a photo of people dancing, singing....anything goes.

So whether you live and express your passion for music by dancing with complete strangers on packed danced floors until 4 am, or by collecting old records, or playing with the latest sound tech or even making your own music...lets see it.

While it is impossible to capture sound in a still....we can (or at least try to) capture images which in some way, speak of the way we feel and appreciate music. We may not listen to the same tunes, but we understand each other because 'that' feeling you get when you become absolutely immersed in a song...is the same feeling I get too.

PS. Anybody who is game enough to submit a REALLY old photo of themselves from their college days with long hair, bell bottoms, a six-pack and purple shades holding a guitar with a cigarette loosely hanging off their bottom lip will get bonus points.


This Salon will run until late night Friday the 19th in your part of the world.

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Rules are simple................

1. Either take a picture that matches the nominated theme or select one from your portfolio. You must be the photographer that created the picture in order to enter it.

2. Only one entry per salon, please. If you want to withdraw an entry and replace it with another, that is OK, but you must make it clear in the post containing your replacement picture that this is what you've done. You can add or change the title and add to the edit line to let everyone know.

3. The decision of the curator at the end of the challenge is final - don't give him/her a hard time about it: this is just a friendly photo challenge, after all!

5. The person who submitted the chosen picture will assume the responsibility of curator for the next Salon Challenge and as soon as possible post a message in a new thread in the PL Photo Challenges forum, with details of the new theme. Don't forget - that opening message must include a copy of these instructions, which also double as the rules.

6. The curator can't enter his or her own salon.

7. Please, don´t be shy...Participate and have fun!

8. Each salon should be open for about two weeks.
 
What sort of six pack are you speaking of - beer or abs. I have one REALLY old photo of my skinny ass with my Jesus hair and beard in a pair of cutoffs, flat belly and all. And a couple of photos of me playing electric guitar with the band at my wedding but I was a bit older and more civilized by then - there were no cameras around for the epic jam sessions of my mis-spent youth... Incriminating evidence and all that...

I'd like to do this challenge justice, but I can't think of anything more creative than a few shots of performing musicians...

-Ray
 
A great challenge subject, Joe - and, yes, one which is truly all-encompassing in so many ways and areas, and aspects of life, large and small.

The best I can do on short notice is this photo, taken several weeks ago, when I had to drive over the mountains to the distant (for me) Oregon town of Klamath Falls, to take a relative to the train station. The train arrived, I said good-bye to him, he got on and at the same time a small handful of arriving passengers were disembarking. It was an unseasonably and bitterly cold morning so I retreated into the station itself, an old building, to warm my hands. Moments later one of the newly arriving passengers, a classical violinist, took his instrument out and began to play. It was rather amaizing - his tones and notes filled up the space in a way I can only call mesmerizing. It almost felt wrong to watch him while he was playing but I couldn't help it: he seemed both focused in and transported by what he was playing. And I had the Ricoh GR in my (large-ish) pocket, so ....

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Train Station Violinist #2 (Klamath Falls, Oregon)
by MiguelATF, on ipernity
 
Small's Jazz Club in NYC

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I've been holding out, hoping I could come up with something other than a musician playing, something that evoked the music rather than necessarily showing it happening. But in the end, I couldn't. And of my shots of musicians, there's something about drummers that I'm always drawn to, maybe because playing the drums is such an enormously physical act - these guys are musicians but they're also incredibly coordinated athletes who'd also better have a lot of stamina! I don't know if it's true, but I have a theory that drummers (the non-Spinal Tap guys who don't spontaneously combust!) probably suffer among the lowest rates of alzheimer's because of they way you have to rewire your brains to keep all those different parts of your body playing different parts all simultaneously. I tried it a lot as a kid - and I was pretty damn good (if I say so myself) playing hand drums where just two hands were involved and playing basically the same coordinated thing, but holding down completely different stuff with each foot while playing different combinations of drums and cymbals with each hand was sooo far beyond me... And it's a tough job, because in addition to having to hold down the rhythm, they have to listen better than almost anyone else to sense when someone needs a little rhythmic kick in the ass to move the music forward and they have to lead the transitions... This guy isn't the hottest player I've ever seen - he plays a pretty simple kit - but he works in an improvisational context as well as anyone, because he really listens and really feels it. He also plays keys, so maybe that helps him be a more sympathetic drummer.

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NYC day 9-307-Edit
by Ray, on Flickr

-Ray
 
Some background: This is my friend playing her flute. I was never a fan of classical music but since 1994 I have attended her performances with the University orchestra and wind ensemble. Of course, I did eventually come to appreciate the music and listen on my own.

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Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
 
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