Covert Concert Photography (70s and 80s) Part I

 Several months ago I began scanning photographs from my college days and beyond. These images were all on 35mm slide film. Most of these were kept in polypropylene pages that each hold 20 transparencies. Some were still in little yellow boxes from Kodak processing. Those pages were then put into 3” wide 3 ring binders. There are two binders. One with “personal” images and another with photographs I took at various concert venues. I started the scanning project with the personal pictures and then suddenly gravitated over to concert photos. There were quite a few flashbacks going on, there were points of curiosity and head scratching… wait a minute, what, when and where was this again?

While I have a light table and probably a dozen loupes, I didn’t bother breaking those out and my druthers were to scan at high resolution (4800 dpi) and see pictures in all their glory (and defects) rather than squinting over them with a loupe. Another motivation in doing all this was my running up against time with both hardware and software obsolescence almost hounding me. Until about a year ago I had a functional mid-2011 iMac that was still copacetic with my 2003 Canon 9950F flatbed scanner. It’s still a fine scanner with film guides for 35mm negatives, 35mm mounted slides, 120 roll film strip and up to 4x5 inch negatives or transparencies. It’s just no longer supported with my more current 2022 Mac. In my opinion it was the best scanner Canon ever made but as time goes by and demand for stuff like this wanes, support goes bye-bye. I went from supporting the scanner with the 2011 iMac to hooking it up to a 2004 PowerMac G5 and then after the G5 suddenly bit the big one and stopped responding I began using a 2003 PowerMac G4, (Digital Audio). Yep, plugging away with two pieces of 20 year old computer hardware. Do you know how slow a 20 year old computer is? Also, on the G4 resides Photoshop CS from October, 2003 and fortunately that has a piece of plugin software called ScanGear CS. After all other software options failed, ScanGear worked… for awhile anyway. It too suddenly and rather mysteriously started having issues. I’ll save that for another time. Maybe.

Anyway, after a bunch of scanning and a number of sometimes odd, permutated flashbacks that had me pondering WTF was going on in x_month of x_year, I asked myself, okay, what do you do with this stuff now? Some images were shared with people I knew at the time and perhaps went to some of these concerts with. There was some sharing of faded memories between us. Some were also shared with Docken. Then I thought, what about Blogger? What the heck is this platform good for if not sharing some of these images and then having other relic concert goers find them and think, hey, I was there too. Then there are all of those old-timers who somehow feel obligated to steal your pictures without attribution because… it’s the Internet. Mine, mine, mine! My contribution to their discourtesies. There are exceptions but they are few and far between.

A quick note on the covert part of my title here. Generally speaking, one couldn’t just walk into a concert venue carrying a 35mm camera. Nowadays you’ve got hordes of people holding up their phones because them being wherever is what’s really important. The road to narcissism starts with a smartphone. Back in the day I would often take a 135mm lens and strategically place that in the crotch of my 501 jeans, while the camera body would be placed with equal care right underneath the button down fly. These were not places one might be patted down upon entry. This was not a comfortable walk. A quick visit to the men’s room and I was all set. SoCal concerts were supervised more rigidly than NorCal venues. In fact, many Bay Area facilities were perfectly fine with you bringing in a camera. The camera was probably a Pentax MX (I started with a Pentax K1000). The lens was a Pentax 135mm prime, I don’t recall how fast the lens was but it was a good lens. Film was Kodak Ektachrome 400. The following year I graduated to a Pentax LX.

This first post is from May 26, 1979. The venue is the Long Beach Arena. The artist is Yes. The concert was “in the round” meaning the stage was rotating. We also went the following evening to see Yes at the San Diego Sports Arena. There are some lingering questions as to how we got to San Diego and how we got home (approximately 150 miles). I have my theories. I was probably out of film in San Diego and either didn’t have the finances to pick some up or it wasn’t logistically feasible. San Diego also could have been real tight on security and it wasn’t worth the hassle. I’m certain too that our last minute decision to head south made for seating arrangements that were less than ideal for picture taking.

Yes…
Jon Anderson / vocals
Rick Wakeman / keyboards
Chris Squire / bass
Steve Howe / guitars
Alan White / drums

In no particular order, except the last shot was chosen to appear last.

The opening song for this concert was Siberian Khatru. According to vocalist Jon Anderson "Khatru means 'as you wish' in the Yemeni dialect of Arabic." The album Close to the Edge was released in 1972. All of these years and I just learned what khatru means.

Today's walk report: I should probably hydrate

 Out somewhat reluctantly at sunrise. I wasn't expecting to walk very far but Stan arrived around dawn, at least that's when I was notified by Lucy. So cats were fed early. They both got some freshly baked chicken breast too (no added salt.) Lucy goes nuts for chicken. Stan too had no qualms and picked through his Friskies for chicken first. 

Along the way I looked at a long straight stretch in front of me, knowing just how much farther I'd need to go, beyond the walk I had planned, to make it at least a 2 mile walk as opposed to the 1.63 miles I left the house intending to accomplish. Once I hit the mile mark a thought crossed my mind... You didn't guzzle any water before you left, you should probably hydrate. I decided I'd splurge, it was .16 miles (284 yards, 260 meters) to a vending machine, I'll go grab a Gatorade. Gatorade, $2.50. However, there was a change to the vending machine protocols that I wasn't anticipating...

Call me old fashioned, call me paranoid but I wasn't gonna give a vending machine my debit card. Apple Pay, I've considered setting that up but haven't gotten there yet. Anyway, no Gatorade for me. 

I decided on a quick lap around the botanical garden. 

I looked around for flying friends but didn't see them and the concept, you should probably hydrate resurfaced. I went old school, probably took in about 1/2 liter and headed home.

The total walk was 2.60 miles (4.18 km). I felt good about it and that's all that really matters.

Along the way... 

Today's walk report: Are you okay? Where's your home?

 Out the door at 65º, relative humidity 85%. A humidex factor of 73º. I didn't find it particularly refreshing. I met this guy 1.12 miles in on what became a 1.63 mile walk. Not a big deal but it was actually more than I thought I would do. I had a lot of yard work planned before it got to 80º, which turned out to be 56% RH, a humidex factor of 90º, AKA, Noticeable discomfort. I looked at the cat and the cat looked at me. This property is where I spent a good portion of my life from slightly less than five years old until I was 12. This is where I attended elementary school. It's sort of like a big cage. Anyway, I started talking to the cat. I asked him if he had a home and if he was okay. I think he told me yes. He looked healthy. Then he wanted to walk with me. I decided I should pick up my pace and ignore him. I didn't want him to stray any farther from home. I'm assuming he lived in the gated community just west of where we were and I was headed east. People, if you have a cat, please keep your cat indoors.

Today's walk report: Stan

 The truth is, I didn't really go for a walk this morning. I decided to worry about Stan's absence instead. However, after checking the backyard for him about a dozen times between shortly after dawn (05:30:47) and sometime around 7:30 AM, I put some shoes on and walked about 1/2 way around the block looking and calling for him. I know his typical entrance/exit route from this property so I cupped my hands around my mouth, pointed it across the street behind my house and called his name three times. Then stood around like an idiot in case anyone wanted to see who was yelling STAN! toward their house and then I headed back home. Stan showed up in the backyard a little less than a hour later. I prepared his breakfast and while he ate most of a can of Friskies and a decent amount of dry food, he certainly didn't eat like he hadn't eaten for three days. He paid attention to my quietly talking to him as I put his food out, blinking his eyes peacefully, but he didn't seem too interested in my conversation as he was exiting. A quick bath and a little scratching and he was on his way out of the yard. Sometimes he stays for hours, other times it's eat and run. 

 

Today's walk report: Sunrise Quickie

 I HAD to walk this morning and I was determined to get out early. The plan was to be on the road for the drive to my destination by dawn. Today dawn was at 05:30:02, precisely calculated from my front door. However, at 05:30:02 I was just getting out of the shower. I'm guessing I was out the door and in the car at 5:54. So, what was the rush? One, I wanted to get back early because today would be three days since I've seen our feral cat friend Stan. Ever since I took over the reins of taking care of Stan from Docken's loving and diligent attention in late 2019, Stan has never been absent for breakfast for more than four days. With the current heatwave were experiencing I've become more concerned as to his whereabouts. Two, it's too hot for me to be out walking late morning and I have learned to factor in temperature plus the relative humidity percentage. "Feels like" 80º and I don't feel like dancin'. I tend to prefer 55º over 75º. That's me. You do you.

Sunrise was 05:57:53. I was out of the car by 6:02. In retrospect I should have driven to the top of the hill for sunrise shots. However, parking down below encouraged me to get up the dreaded stairs quickly before the sun got too high. Here are some pictures.

I decided to head back down the stairs and trek on over to the garden, do my usual "loop" on the lower campus and then head for home. Total walk time was only 33 minutes. In the garden I only paused briefly to say hello to male Calypte anna hummingbird, Dusty.

Back to the car, I tried to encourage this common raven to take some dry cat food from me. While it seemed interested in what I was doing I didn't wait to see if it came down from the lamppost to munch.

Back home and immediately checking out the backyard for Stan I noticed a first Tithonia rotundifolia flower had bloomed. Tithonia rotundifolia, AKA, Mexican sunflowers, are my backyard (front yard too this year) go to butterfly magnets into about the 2nd week of September.

Please send positive Stan vibes. Thanks for stopping by.

This song came on right as I was descending the stairs, I thought it was a perfect sunrise song.