The Commodores really brought it for what to them must have been an extremely small show.
RESERVE THE BEST EVENT PHOTOGRAPHY FOR YOUR NEW YEAR'S PARTY THIS YEAR!
I never imagined I would ever hear "Brick House" performed live on New Year's Eve, or any other eve for that matter, but I was lucky enough not only to see The Commodores in concert on New Year's Eve, but to be paid to photograph them as well. I was really, really impressed by the energy that Walter "Clyde" Orange, William "Wak" King and James Dean "J.D." Nicholas brought. I mean they really brought it and rocked and funked up the whole Treasure Island Yacht Club.
I got to shake hands with James Dean "J.D." Nicholas at the end of The Commodore's performance.
The stage was small so there was no space for me to shoot from there, and there was no barrier between the stage and the crowd either. So I had to basically carve my own space in the front of the crowd to shoot from. Besides the usual lighting challenges there was a video team with a huge light coming off their video camera making my job all that much harder as this huge video light really made hot spots in my still images.
William "Wak" King blowing on his trumpet at the Treasure Island Yacht & Tennis Club New Year's 2009 celebration.
The aforementioned crowd was totally into what The Commodores were jamming out. It is a testament to The Commodores' broad appeal that a crowd of older skewing yacht club members could feel the music the way they did.
Walter "Clyde" Orange pointing at someone in the Yacht & Tennis Club crowd no doubt to their great delight.
People were constantly reaching up to try and high five and shake hands with Clyde and Wak and J.D. while they were performing. I could not imagine being that hands on with the crowd, but The Commodores were very accommodating shaking hands and pointing to people in the audience, even continuing to play on when one woman forced her way on stage and started shaking her booty!
A fan getting the hands on treatment from The Commodores
If The Commodores ever asked me to go out on tour with them as their photographer, I certainly would not say no!
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