Way back when….like, waaaay back when, I was given a camera by my grandmother. It was an old medium-format body with two lenses that she’d bought sometime in the early 1970’s when she was taking photography classes. This camera was basically a box with a lens on it, and an eyepiece on top that you looked down into to see the focusing screen. There were no batteries, no light meters, no auto focus, etc. I am a self-taught photographer, and that is what I learned with. I had a little ‘Luna-Pro’ light meter that I used to measure light with, and after a while I developed a feel for how to get a good exposure.

I settled in Athens, GA at the end of 1992, having driven across the country by myself to see what it would be like to live outside my native San Diego. Part of why I chose Athens was the music scene, because it was a college town and home to REM, which was one of my favorites bands at the time. I was able to bring my camera into the 40 Watt club a few times, and I just came across the negatives from one of those nights just last week (they were in a shoebox). I scanned a few just to share here for fun, because it was the night the 40 Watt hosted a long line up of bands for a charity show. Michael Stipe of REM sang a short set with local songwriter/singer Vic Chesnutt. Today is Michael Stipe’s birthday, so I though it would be a fun to share a few images. Here are a couple of frames, scanned from the negatives:

When it came to shooting in low light, I really didn’t know what I was doing back then. I had a Vivitar 283 flash on a bracket, ISO 400 film, and I just flashed the bejeesus out everything I shot. I cringe now, thinking of the flashes I put a few audienes through! Well, times have changed, and now I can shoot at crazy high film speeds with super expensive wide-aperture lenses and forego flash all together…so I haven’t popped a flash in a music venue for years.