The O'Brien Family

Sunday evening I chanced to hear this group performing as part of the Night Market on Ship Point. This is the O'Brien Family, a very accomplished group that were a pleasure to listen to. Below is a video of one of their performances a few years ago to give you some idea of their sound.

Night Market Music - Dave Harris

When I left Karly Summers and walked down Ship Point Pier through the night market I was happy to find our fine local one man band, Dave Harris, at the other end of the pier. Dave was in excellent form and I always enjoy his music. Once again, I initially was photographing using a wide angle lens (24mm) in the above photo and then I switched to the portrait lens (85mm) for the photo below. And, once again, as in the pair of Karly Summers photos (yesterday's post) I prefer the portrait photo below. It's a difficult choice that ultimately comes down to whether you want context or not.

Night Market Music - Karly Summers

Friday night I went down to the Inner Harbour to check out the Night Market. As I neared the end of Ship Point Pier I heard a voice that reminded me of Carole King - that kind of warm friendly sound. The singer in this case was Karly Summers, a Victoria singer/songwriter. As I had planned to shoot the Night Market I was using a 35mm wide angle lens when I took the photo above. Then I decided that I would experiment with an 85mm portrait lens and took the photo below, which I much prefer. You understand now why I find photography such an interesting hobby - I get to think about all that left-brain technical stuff while my right brain is enjoying the sight of a lovely young woman making beautiful music. To give you a taste of that music I have embedded one of her videos below. It's not one of my videos, it's from her YouTube channel where there are more videos.

Awestruck

Nothing speaks so strongly about the power of live performance and the value of performers who bring their music to the streets as the kind of rapt attention they get from small children. I suspect a lot of kids think music is a noise that just comes out of speakers so when they see and hear a live performance it opens up a whole new world. In the background of the photo is Karly Summers, a local singer/songwriter who was singing on Friday at Victoria's Night Market on Ship Point Pier. We'll have a little closer look at Karly and her music next week.

Chinatown Night Market

Victoria's Chinatown is always one of the most busy and colorful parts of the city and this year they have added another feature, the Chinatown Night Market. Fisgard Street is blocked off and booths selling arts and crafts and things Chinese and promoting organizations and activities line the street. There's also food - see the fried dumplings being prepared on the left - and music and free entertainment, as well as the usual rich colors and smells of Chinatown.

Night Market

One end of the Inner Harbor Causeway extends out onto Ship Point Pier. On summer evenings at the Night Market many artisans and crafts people display their creations: some splendid jewelry, exotic masks, unique T-shirts, exquisite glass work and much more. While you browse you can listen to the rhythms of the performers pictured above. The band is called Weak Patrol and the people in the picture are, from the left, Brad Kennedy, Caleb Kennedy and Jen Book. Click here to visit Weak Patrol's MySpace page and listen to some of their music. Feel the energy.