Showcasing the local and regional artists performing at Friday Night Concerts
Our Friday Night Concerts website share images celebrating the artists, both local, and from across our region that perform on our downtown stage.
The concerts are a long running music series held in Chico’s Plaza Park on Friday evenings. Organized and sponsored by our downtown business association (not affiliated), the concerts are held during the warm weather months of May to September.
Images captured by photographer, Curtis Pope, are shared on this site to both celebrate live music and reflect his passion for it, and the community it fosters.
Capturing Artists Performing duing the Friday Night Concert Music Series
View the gallery archive for images from last year and past years at Friday Night Concerts. Look back and enjoy those moments captured in Chico’s Plaza Park.
Curt’s Approach to Capturing Images in Plaza Park.
Photographing at local venues often provides closer access to the stage and the artists. The Plaza Park stage offers that by design as the performance stage sits low and is very inviting to help connect artists with their fans and others in attendance.
The open setting provides nearly unlimited angles and perspectives to capture the musicians and the crowd. If you’ve seen me in action, I move about the park chasing light and shadow, finding my background and then zooming (with my feet, as I shoot Prime lenses) for my shot.
The easy access to the stage allows more image framing opportunities, and I can often move my position a bit to remove blocks and distractions as I work to capture the energy between artists. That stated, I love capturing images in the park setting as a wide-angle shot, such as the top of the page, can really capture the feel and energy in the park when there is many in attendance.
Showcasing Music Magic Through the Lens
Live music events, shows, festivals can live on within our memories and certainly with the audio/video recording of live events. Long a fan of live music, I made a choice to give back to my local community by dedicating myself to a photo project to capture elements of the local music scene. The approach goals and focus of my project is to capture elements of the greater Chico area music scene (dance, drum, DJ, artist/band) to archive those images. The project has a focus on women and people of color, as they are under-represented.
My Approach, Stepping Closer
Overall, I do work to step closer with all my image projects, when possible. I think it offers a different perspective. With my car-truck photo project, I seek elements of those restored vehicles. I do this as so many of us step back and capture the whole vehicle, which is wonderful. And so I hope to capture a different perspective and move my image toward art.
Gear Talk
Migrating from inadequate gear for the assignment, after I dove into the Canon ecosystem in 2009. I now capture live performance images with a Canon 5D IV 30.4-megapiex camera, allowing me to capture very high-quality RAW format images that I edit in Adobe’s Lightroom image editor. I love the camera’s capabilities including backscreen focus/shutter. Paired with my Canon 50 mm f/1.2 lens it allows me an incredible range to capture an image. I set up the camera in manual and allow the camera to focus. Also in the bag is an Irix 150 mm f2.8 lens and a 14mm Rokinon f2.8 lens, as well.