Friday, June 27, 2008

Michael Allen Photography- Sara Groves Concert




























































Each summer I help sponsor the "Summer Concert Series" at Hope, along with Compassion International, and several other sponsors. This year Sara Groves appeared in concert along with Matthew West in Hopes new 5000 seat arena. This year Sara won best album of the year at the recent "GMA" Awards. I must admit, I'm one of Sara's biggest fans, and have met her before at Hope a few years back, and she is an amazing person. She is as kind and warm as her music. I've had the opportunity to photograph many recording artists over the years, and she is one of the most genuine people that you can meet. Sara and her husband, (who is equally as nice as Sara) along with their 3 children came to Memphis for the concert which was the christening concert for Hope's new facilities. Be sure to visit Sara's website at www.saragroves.com, and Matthew West's site at www.matthewwest.com to find out more about their incredible music! I hope you enjoy a few of the photos I shot from the concert. I used my Canon 5d with several lenses, the 24-105mm L lens, the 70-200mm 2.8 L lens, and the 15mm fisheye lens. Shooting concerts I always use available light, and run my ISO anywhere from 250 to 1600 depending on the lighting situation. I always shoot the aperture wide open with shutter speeds from 60 to 15. Hope's new "Christie HD" 25 ft projection screens throw an amazingly clear image into the room, as you can see on some of the photos, I was able to use the HD images as my backdrop.