Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Doyle & Haley Dykes at Guitar Works - Evanston IL




Last night, Doyle Dykes & his daughter Haley Dykes performed at a Taylor Guitars clinic held at Guitar Works in Evanston, IL.

These are two of my favorite performers and ever since meeting them a couple of years ago, I am fortunate to call them my friends. They are absolutely the most "down to earth" people you could ever hope to meet even though they have international fame.

After driving for hours to get to Illinois from their last gig in Canada, they set up their own gear and performed for over 2 solid hours. Afterwards, they spent time signing autographs and then packed up their gear and headed over to WGN Radio located in downtown Chicago. There they spent another two hours on the radio with friends Steve King & Johnnie Putman. I'll bet they were back on the road headed to their next gig right after that!

Being musicians in demand is HARD WORK! Don't let anyone fool you into thinking this is easy. The schedule these two keep is tough.

If you have never had the opportunity to see Doyle and Haley perform, you are missing out. Check out their websites for updates on their schedules and go and see them if you get the chance! I promise you will have a great time. Until then, pick up a few of their CD's and enjoy!
By the way, I think it's cute when Haley calls Doyle, "Daddy." :)
Note: To see a video slideshow of Doyle & Haley that I photographed, Click Here and use the member name: RussLowe (no space between my name.)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

That was some of the best music and playing I've ever heard anywhere.
Good to see you there.
Great pics, too.

Reed

russlowe said...

Good to see you again too Reed!

Doyle and Haley are great. I'm glad you were able to go to the workshop in Evanston.

Thanks too for visitng my blog. Keep checking in when you can!

Russ

Anonymous said...

What lens did you shoot with at the guitar store - great pics. Andy

russlowe said...

Andy:

I used my Fuji S3 Pro camera at ISO 1600 and the Nikon 17-55mm f2.8 DX lens.

I brought my 70-200mm f2.8 lens as well, but I sat in the front row this time. In the past, I'd photograph Doyle from a distance and so the 70-200mm lens was a necessity. Not this time! I was probably only 5 feet away from him this time.

Be sure to check out his slideshow that I shot earlier this year. There's a link on the main post. It's got 2 of Doyle's slower songs on there (he usually plays ultra-fast licks!) but these two songs match better to the mood of the slideshow.

Russ

russlowe said...

I should mention that Doyle was heavily "back-lit" at this event. Having some fill flash would have made the shots much better, but I don't like flashing the performer while they are playing... especially from only 5 feet away!

So to get his face to be in a somewhat decent exposure range, the images had to be increased in exposure through the use of the computer. But making his face a perfect exposure would have overexposed the background... so a compromise was reached and the result is what you see posted here.