I had the privilege of being asked by my brother Chris to come shoot the Pender Harbour Blues Festival this last weekend.  He is the recently appointed President of the PH Blues Society and put together an awesome lineup for this year’s event.

I came over on the ferry Friday afternoon, checked in to the Sunshine Coast Resort (very nice place, btw) and then headed to the Backeddy Pub to meet up with Chris and the first act.  Bradley & McGillivray were performing, backed up by Chris and Pat Haavisto as the rythym section and accompanied by special guest Murray Porter.  Chris introduced me to everyone which was great and made me relax a bit.  This was the first night, first session of shooting for me, so I brought two bodies and two lenses to be sure I could be flexible.  The D300 had my spanky new 50mm f/1.8 (the bargain of the century, imho) and the D70 had my trusty 18-200 VR for the wide shots.

[flickr]photo:2569419017[/flickr] 

Lighting was, well, horrible.  The beginning of the set was partially lit by daylight but of course that meant wacky white balance… then later it was dark outside and almost as dark inside ;).  It was a challenging situation but I managed to get some decent shots by the end of it.  Very thankful now for the D300 and ISO 3200 …

[flickr]photo:2569419363[/flickr]

After the first set I headed over the Garden Bay Pub to shoot the other act that evening, Neil Harnett.  He was joined by a “house band” Mark Vance put together that consisted of Peter van Deursen on keyboards, Lisa Simons on bass and Don Powrie on drums.  Right away I knew this was going to be good, both because the band was great and because the lighting was sooo much better:

[flickr]photo:2563564751[/flickr]

While I was at the Garden Bay Pub I met Carole Rubin, a local writer and reporter for the Coast Reporter paper.  She was very friendly (all weekend, actually) and gave me a lot of info on the area, the people and the festival.  It was great hanging out with her.  She also liked my photos and asked for whatever I could give her for her article, which I had no problem doing.  During the set break, Neil came to Carole’s table and had a quick interview and then was introduced to me (I mean I had just taken 150 shots of him, least I could do ;)).  We sat down with Carole and had a good conversation – interesting guy.

I stuck around for the last set, taking more pics, and headed back (late) to my room.  Couple hours of going through photos and it’s my usual 3am bedtime.

Saturday was a busy schedule, with 3 events.  The first was a session by Murray Porter at Bud-A-Bing’s Burger Shack (I kid you not).  This was a trailer parked across from the Marketplace IGA in Madeira Park, at the front of a nice park area.  Chris asked that I pick up Murray (and his partner Elaine) from the same hotel I was staying at, so we all headed down about noon.

I had done a bonehead thing the night before in my half-awake state – I had meant to charge the D300 battery but had mistakenly put the D70 battery in the charger (which was still fully charged of course).  So the D300 stayed home and I brought the D70s and 18-200 VR.  Turned out to be better than OK as it was a sunny day (surprisingly) and I got a bunch of decent shots.

[flickr]photo:2563559109[/flickr]

After the Burger Shack show I had a short break then headed to the Pender Harbour School of Music for the Workshop.  Murray Porter, Bradley & McGillivray, Chris, Pat Haavisto and Barry O’Hara all joined in, providing great playing as well as good discussion on making music, writing songs, the blues and more.  James Rogers showed up as a surprise a bit later, looking for a place to buy guitar strings but he ended up stepping in for a few songs which was good for the rest of us.  Not a huge turnout but very enjoyable nonetheless.

[flickr]photo:2569415073[/flickr]

There was time for a break between the Workshop and that night’s show at the Garden Bay Pub, so I took it.  Murray and Elaine asked for a ride to the Pub so I dropped by their hotel room first and had a glass of wine and relaxed for a bit before heading out.  The act for the night was James Rogers, who had played at the Workshop earlier.

[flickr]photo:2563558885[/flickr]

Great show, really entertaining.  The house band from the night before joined him and they were a great backup.  Peter is an amazing keyboard player, and Lisa and Don provide great bass and drums respectively.  For the last set, James invited Murray on stage as well as Ruth & Sheldon (Bradley & McGillivray) to sing a couple of songs. That really got the place going.

[flickr]photo:2570243296[/flickr]

Sunday, thankfully, was only one event – at least one I could make.  Back to the Garden Bay Pub for the 3rd time in as many days, for the Jam Session.  Another very entertaining show with quite a few new faces, mostly locals, stepping up to perform.  One woman really rocked the place – Dalannah Gail Bowen:

[flickr]photo:2569418265[/flickr]

She’s well known in the community and used to play the Garden Bay Pub a lot 10 years or so ago.  Actually a Jazz singer but you’d never know it from how she belted out a couple of great Blues/R&B tunes.

Headed back a bit early to the ferry, bringing Murray & Elaine (which was fine by me).  Good company and I wanted to get back earlier as Carole wanted images by Sunday night.  I ended up missing the 6:20 but got on to the overload ferry about 30 min. later, thankfully.

All in all an amazing experience.  Lots of great music, great people, great memories.  Can’t wait until next year ;).