photography Archives - Romey's Ramblings

Photographing Undercover Bear

May 1, 2018April 14, 2020Romey

I need to confess something. I really hadn’t used my DSLR since Christmas before taking these pictures. This has been in large part of being busy, but also in part that my iPhone has been pretty good lately capturing snapshots of my family, combined with the fact that many activities have been out in the winter weather and didn’t want to risk the elements damaging my equipment – not the best solution, I know. My band also spent most of the winter hunkered down and recording, not playing many shows and thus not many opportunities to shoot bands.

Undercover Bear asked us to play their CD release show in late March, and I couldn’t resist the opportunity to play with the Whisk(e)y’s lighting. Undercover Bear did an awesome job in creating some really memorable moments in their shows, with their choice of instruments, solos, changing off singers and even a wardrobe/accessory change. They had a packed room and awesome crowd, which made for a fun shoot.

Photographing Qbala’s Farewell Show

March 10, 2017August 23, 2017Jeromey Balderrama

Last night I had the opportunity to photograph Qbala, one of Fort Collins’ best rappers, and someone I’ve known since middle school. On Thursday she played her “farewell” show, as she’s gearing up for a move to Portland. In my involvement in the Northern Colorado music scene, few people work as hard towards their craft as Qbala does. It was definitely an honor to shoot such a great show that was packed to the gills.

This was also my first time shooting at Hodi’s Half Note, where the lighting proved to be a challenge. I went home last night afraid that most of my shots didn’t turn out, but I was pleasantly surprised that I had an abundance to choose from. The other challenge with this show was navigating the packed audience. While I was able to move around quite a bit during the opening acts, I found myself firmly entrenched on the front of stage left. The left side of the stage enabled me to get close-up shots (as Qbala’s face wasn’t blocked by her mic) but prevented me from getting the full body shots due to all of the DJ equipment blocking my angle. Halfway through her set, I moved further back to get some crowd shots and finally managed to get to stage right. There I finally got my full-body perspective shots.

My only regret was not being able to capture close-up shots in the middle of the stage to capture some of the emotional interactions – but with as crowded as everything was, it just wasn’t an option. I’ve posted a few of my favorites below, but you can see the whole gallery on Flickr.

Congrats on an awesome show, Qbala! Wishing you all the best in your next adventure.

Photographing South To Cedars Release Party

December 30, 2016January 30, 2023Romey

Catching up from a busy month, I had the privilege of photographing South To Cedars on the release of their new album: Sunny State at High Hops Brewery in Windsor. High Hops has an awesome winter stage in the back of the brewery, draped with lights and a really cool ambiance.

I ended up capturing one of my favorite concert images so far, trying to encapsulate the joy of performing music.

Congrats again to South To Cedars on an awesome album release!

Blue Mesa at the Downtown Artery

June 23, 2016Romey

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to shoot Blue Mesa when they played with my band at the Downtown Artery. I was particularly excited for this opportunity as the Artery has a really cool stage layout and lighting displays. Blue Mesa’s energy made it a lot of fun to shoot, and I was particularly glad that I was able to sneak in through the back to get some drummer shots. Blue Mesa really put on an awesome show, especially considering that this was their first performance after some major lineup changes! They definitely rocked it and I’m looking forward to playing or shooting them again!

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Photography Fun: Maternity Photos

June 9, 2013August 23, 2017Jeromey Balderrama

As we’re on the final stretch towards the birth, we’ve been playing with our Nikon D7000 and figuring out how to get decent photos out of it. Opting to spend money for a newborn photo shoot, we decided to go it alone and take a few maternity photos of Bethany. Below are some of our favorite ones:

I’m having a lot of fun playing with the various settings, figuring out what makes a good photo, then figuring out how I can best enhance it in post-processing. While I’ll never be a photographer, I’ve been learning a lot over these last few weeks.