Poetry Unplugged at House of Blues Cleveland

I was supposed to go to this event two weeks ago, but I showed up too late to find good parking. I ended up going home, disappointed that there wasn’t a parking meter available or a parking lot that wasn’t charging an arm and a leg to park there.

This time, I got downtown at 4 in the afternoon and limped about the city (someone wasn’t wearing good walking shoes) until it was time for the event to start.

I had a great time; it was good to see some old faces, listen to poetry, and eat good food. Seriously. Their lemon garlic chicken tenders were perfectly seasoned, and the ranch dipping sauce was amazing, too.

On my XT-5 was the Viltrox 75mm f/1.2 AF lens. I decided to buy it after renting it from Lensrentals a few weeks ago. The swirly bokeh is amazing, and it feels like a good focal length for events. If it was a 90mm, that would probably be best, but I can easily solve the focal length issue by sitting closer to my subject. And that’s what I did this time–I sat in the second row. And because I sat so close, I was able to get these nice, tight portraits of the performers.

When editing the photos, I used the Portra 400NC +1 Normal Noritsu color profile. I had considered using Provia as my color profile, but I felt that Provia was too…boring. 400NC + the red and purple lighting in the background really make these images pop. I love how there’s red and blue in these images. And everyone’s skin is glowing.

I really enjoy creating these performer portraits. It’s something I’ve been doing for a while now, and I think the Viltrox 75mm will help me up my game a bit.