I'll be official photographer for Church at Avalon in NYC! (Limelight)

[Janie]

This might be a bit heavy goth scene for some of you, but if anyone wants to pop by, i'll be there tomorrow night and every Friday thereafter! Yeah! ;-)
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu...c-f0ed0facfff2

[megan]

Congrats! I heard about this night. I might end up there some night. It's hard, I work on Saturday.... but any alternative to Frat Rave (Bat Cave, 'mibad) is a good thing.

[Janie]

It was very cool last night - you should check it out! The only problem i'm encountering in most of these clubs is that it is so dark, I can't focus the camera - automatically or manually! It's kind of hard to focus when you can't see someone's face! lol Trying to figure out ways around this. hmmmm

[megan]

Yeah, I was sick as a dog... fever, shakes, cough.... I stayed home and watched "Braveheart" on tv for about the 100th time. (I know what happens in the end, why do I always ry?!" I WILL check it out. As for the lighting issue... Yeah, that takes time. I used to photograph at the Limelight in the early 90's, and it's a pain - the flashing lights do some wild things to the light meter. You'll find your stride, though! I just use the Holga w/flash with black and white film these days (and hope for the best!) (Last month's Contempt pass used 4 of my images, actually.) See you at the next one, maybe!

[Janie]

Well, heres a few of the shots I took - I just shot in raw and did my best to focus manuallly. http://bizfx.com/church0310/ Actually, do you know who Voltaire is? He was there - I seem to see him a lot lately, he's a real crack up!

[megan]

Yeah, we chatted once, and I saw him at CB's once. He's pretty funny.

[Asylum Steve]

The only problem i'm encountering in most of these clubs is that it is so dark, I can't focus the camera - automatically or manually!

Janie, you might be able to not only pre-focus, but create a focus zone using the depth of field of your camera lens. IOW, say you're shooting with a wide angle lens and you know a certain f/stop will give you a DOF of 5-10 feet (just making up numbers, you'd have to go by the DOF scale on your lens). You manually set the focus on the distance that gives you that DOF, and you know you're good to go for any subjects in that zone.

Now if you're on auto flash, and your aperture changes depending on the amount of flash thrown off, I don't suppose that would work.

It all depends on how your camera and flash are set when you shoot...