KVMR Celtic Festival part II- Musicians

 One of the best things about photographing a Celtic Festival is the music. No matter what I'm shooting, all day long, I'm taking photos with an amazing soundtrack going on around me. The KVMR Celtic Festival has musicians from around the globe performing on several stages, non-stop, throughout the day.
 I'm pretty lucky. As the "official event photographer" I get unfettered access to backstage and behind the scenes. Because of this I'm able to shoot from all angles and use every lens in the bag. I even get up on roof tops to get an over-all scene.
  As with anything else I'm trying to keep my backgrounds uncluttered and to catch defining moments during a performance. Because musicians tend to move around non stop it's essential to boost up the ISO and keep a really fast shutter speed so I can freeze the action. I try to stay at least at 1/500th of a second. I do experiment with slower speeds to catch movement etc. but in general I'm trying to get sharp images. I shoot a lot and experiment with compositions. Usually I use the stage lighting/ ambient light as is but will sometimes throw a flash in when the lighting is pretty poor. This can be a pain for the musicians and some flat out don't allow it! So I keep it limited.
 I have to thank Ed Rotberg for the use of his fish-eye lens! You'll notice several of these taken with that.