The Holiday Concert

This year I got to be one of the many parents going to their child's holiday concert. It is an exciting time, as this was our very first one and the thought of watching 3-year-olds try and sing Christmas song while all being all on stage together just sounded irresistible. I expected many escapades and for it to not go smoothly.

The conditions in the hall were very challenging. I got there early to check out the lighting and figure out the best spot to photograph. I tested out my flash by bouncing it off the ceiling, but that presented a few challenges as the ceiling was too high and I knew there would be other parents using their flash at the same time. After metering the scene a few different ways I just decided to bump up my ISO to 1600 and go with the grainy natural light shots. Even then I had to use a really shallow depth of field and shoot in raw so I could compensate for the low light when I went to edit my photos.

The kids entered the hall class by class. Since Erik is in room 2 his was the second class to enter. All the kids were adorable as they milled around the stage a little clueless about where to go and where to sit. Erik definitely needed some extra help.

Erik instantly found daddy in the crowd as he was standing up holding Elliot and daddy isn't hard to find in a crowd since he is so tall. I am not sure if he saw me the entire time I was there.

Each classroom had a special song to sing and all kids sang most of the songs. On the list were "Feliz Navidad" "Ring Bells" "Wish You a Merry Christmas" and "Happy Birthday." It all came together to me when I heard the "Ring Bells" song which was Erik's classes song. Erik has been signing this all week, but I had never heard the song before and thought he was making it up. Just goes to show you that even your 3-year-old can teach you something new.

So as a photographer my instinct is to move around and try to capture this moment from different places, but this is challenging. There are parents EVERYWHERE and I don't want my photography to get in the way of them viewing the show. Also there are parents everywhere so they are often getting in my shots. Maybe after a few years when I have a few of these shows under my belt I can adjust my shooting techniques.

This picture was interesting because someone's flash went off while I was taking a picture and the effect I thought was rather different since it was almost acting like an off camera flash.

Here are just a few of my cutie pie when he saw his mommy was close and taking pictures of him. Even though I was there he only had eyes for daddy.

My cutie pie being helped off the stage, he had to be ushered out of the room. Then a picture of his brother dancing on stage because as one brother does, so does another.

Since today was a special day and Erik's very first concert apperence and daddy had a few extra moments, we asked him where he wanted to go to lunch. Without hesitation he said Steve's, so that's where we headed.

Erik was very excited and definitely on some high, or maybe he is just wild because he was up late last night and up early this morning. He explained to daddy the rules about picking out his own table, as this has been our routine when we go. Erik picks the table and sits while mommy orders food.

Since it was a special treat to have daddy with us at Steve's, both boys insisted on sitting by him and eating lunch with him. Carl is such a good daddy and it didn't cross his mind to say no.

I figured it out, why Erik LOVES Steve's. I forgot they started giving him gummy hamburgers. He knows he is going to get this 90% of the time, so my guess is that he wants the candy so he chooses this place. Smart kid!

So ends the day of our first concert. The actual concert pictures look terrible because there are very few small windows in the hall where the show was hosted. In comparison, the pictures in Steve's look amazing because it is all windows so beautiful light is bouncing from all different directions. Also the walls are white and tables golden adding to the gorgeous set up.