Posts Tagged ‘Kentucky’

Thanks to everyone that stopped by and visited during our first BluegrassPhotography.Net open house this past weekend.

Betsy and I decided to have the show at our house just a week before hand. So to say our house was pretty crazy last week would be an understatement. But after lots of help from friends and family, we pulled it all together.

I do have to specifically thank Betsy for helping me turn our house into a gallery in a week and all the food, Tom and Caroline for keeping Betsy and I in check and my Mom for helping out with the Christmas decorating. The weekend wouldn’t have been the same without their help.

In case you weren’t able to make it, you can still order photos as Christmas gifts. Take a look at my galleries and feel free to drop me an email if you see something you’d like to order.

Again, thanks to all for your continued support and encouragement!

Chris

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Fall is the bluegrass time of year for me. I just got back from Poppy Mountain Bluegrass Festival, and shortly before that I was at Mandolin Farm Bluegrass Festival.

Since I’ve been around so many of my bluegrass fans recently I thought I’d post a link to a bunch of past galleries from festivals and shows I’ve shot. I have been asked if I have a place where you can go to see photos from “just bluegrass shows”. I’m not sure if that means they don’t care for my other photography, or they just love bluegrass, but I’m happy to oblige.

The link below is to a gallery of quite a few shows. I’ll be digging out from my archives and adding to it until everything I’ve ever shot is uploaded. Stop back often and check up on where I am in the process. I’ll be adding shows from 1998 up until just tonight’s show at the Richwood Opry.

Be sure to pass this along to any of your friends, family or festival owners.

Here’s my entire Bluegrass Music Collection. Enjoy!

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Mandolin Farm Bluegrass Festival is back! Despite missing last year due to personal reasons, and this year’s 100º Labor Day weekend weather, owner and promoter Willie Jarrells pulled off another great weekend of bluegrass entertainment.

Although Mandolin Farm is a fairly young festival, it has become one of the favorites of festival goers looking for great bluegrass music in a family friendly setting. From the moment you pull up to the main gate at Mandolin Farm you know you’re among family. After all, who, other than family, would actually help you set up your camper? Or for that matter set it up all the way for you, as you sit and watch? And the staff doesn’t disappear after they set you up. Help is always within a few minutes away at “The Farm”, from Willie’s dad helping out with electric to his uncle taking deposits for your site next year.

Beyond a first-class staff, you’ll also find top-notch bluegrass music at Mandolin Farm. Rhonda Vincent, IIIrd Tyme Out, Mountain Heart, Ralph Stanley, Marty Raybon and Dailey & Vincent are among the many great acts that have entertained crowds at Mandolin Farm. And in case you’ve not had enough bluegrass after the music stops on stage, you can always catch one of the many jams throughout the campsites. This year one of the favorites were the Weary Jammers. As host band, the Jammers entertained the crowd on stage for two shows on both Friday and Sunday as well as playing late into the night off stage.

If you’re looking for a great festival with the best of facilities, great music and a staff that make you feel like family, then you should put Mandolin Farm on your list of “must attend” events.

Check out the entire gallery here. Enjoy!

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I recently visited The Fort Thomas Military and Community Museum and decided it would be a great place to shoot some 360º panoramic photographs. The image above is a shot of the Military History Room. Click on the link below to be taken “into” the room through an interactive 360º tour of Fort Thomas’ rich military history. Be aware this is a large file, but worth the wait. Also, be sure to click on the “full screen” icon once the page loads to get the whole experience.

Click here for the 360º tour

I will be returning to the museum soon to shoot a couple of rooms from the recently opened Beverly Hills Supper Club display.

If you’re from Northern Kentucky or Southern Ohio and remember the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire, I’m sure you’ll enjoy the new exhibit prepared by students of Northern Kentucky University.

City of Fort Thomas Museum
940 Cochran
Fort Thomas, KY 41075-2314
(859) 815-8481 ‎

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Shots of Great American Ballpark during the Paul McCartney show.

Here’s the entire gallery. Enjoy!

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NASCAR fans in Kentucky have been waiting for NASCAR since the Kentucky Speedway opened. With the inaugural running of the Quaker State 400 their dreams finally came true.

I did not have a ticket to the race but thought I’d go down for the day and just hang out and shoot the pre-race festivities. If you’ve ever been to a NASCAR race, which I hadn’t, you’d know about the craziness before the races. Think NFL game tailgating times 100.

Typical of my bluegrass festival photos, I wanted to capture the event so that after you’ve seen the photos you feel like you were actually there. That’s very difficult to do, but I sure had a great time trying. I did end up going to the race, although these photos are not really about the race. They’re about the fans of NASCAR, and the pre-race party.

Thanks to all the great fans that let me capture their moment. Again, like the bluegrass festival crowd, the fans were friendly, down to earth and love anyone with a camera!

Here’s the entire gallery. Enjoy!

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Ok, so that’s a goofy reference to a Willie Nelson song. But since it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything to BluegrassPhotography.Net  I thought I’d start this post out goofy.

It’s been a while because the weather here in the Cinicinnati Tri-State area has been horrible. Although we know it could be worse. All we’ve had to deal with is rain every day. If we think that’s bad, we need to think about the people in the mid-west that have had everything taken away from them by Mother Nature’s furry.  As a matter of fact, this post is dedicated to them!

Back to the photograph….. For some unknown reason, I find myself shooting the “Big Mac” bridge quite often. I have no idea why. It’s not like I have a thing for McDonald’s. As a matter of fact, unless I’m desperate I won’t even eat there. I do however drive past, or over the “Big Mac” every morning so I guess it catches my attention. On this particular morning I approached the river and saw the fog, so I decided to head towards the riverfront in Bellevue and see if there was a good shot to be had. I ended up on Don Pablo’s deck at 7:30 in the morning to grab this image.

For those “photo geeks” out there, this image is comprised of 20 vertical shots stitched together to create a 13000 x 4000 pixel image at 72 dpi! For those non-photo geeks, it’s big enough to make a 200″ x 60″ photograph!

Again, as we complain about our weather…. it could be worse! Please keep the mid-west tornado victims in your prayers and if you find it in your heart to help financially you can do so here.

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I never win anything! Except… John Prine tickets in Ashland, Kentucky.

A FaceBook friend turned me on to a radio contest in Morehead, Kentucky to win tickets to the John Prine show in Ashland so I signed up thinking, “Here’s just another way of someone getting my contact information, to be used to fill my spam box for the next 10 years”. But no, I actually won. As I said, I never win anything like this so I was really excited. I mean, John Prine, and I won something.

So the debate started. Who should I take? My wife, who knows not one John Prine song? My son, who loves John Prine? My buddy Ken, who is such a fan he’s seen John Prine before most of us knew who John Prine was? Ken’s seen his share, Michael has had his share of free shows with dad, so once I made Betsy a “best of John Prine” CD and she thought it was “good”, the wife was the choice!

Unfortunately, since I was honest and asked about bringing in my camera, and turned down, you don’t get to see any shots of the actual show. But if you’ve been here before and read any of my posts, you know I shot images along the way. Since I’ve driven the AA highway dozens of times most of the shots are from right around and in Ashland. I really didn’t have a ton of shooting time but thought I’d share what I did end up shooting. Of course there’s a Mail Pouch Barn. But there’s also some shots of the Paramount Theater, the venue the show was at. The Paramount was an awesome theater that I would have loved to shoot interior shots of, but again, they wouldn’t allow me to take my “professional” camera in even though there were hundreds of people shooting during the show, with “amateur” cameras. There’s also a few shots of downtown Ashland as well.

Here’s the entire gallery. Enjoy!

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