Bedford’s, Beale Street and More

Image: Beale Street, Memphis, Tennessee. Nikon D750, Nikkor 24-70 mm at 44 mm, f/2.8, 1/10 sec, ISO 100, on tripod.

We had a break from the heat and humidity of central Florida for the past 4 days and took a short trip to Memphis, Tennessee for a photo expo put on by Bedford Camera and Video.  The theme was Shoot Rock N’ Roll and was hosted in the recently-built Guest House at Graceland, a large 450 room resort hotel with a couple restaurants, ballrooms and theaters. It was a great setting for hosting various professional photographers including Patrick Murphy-Racey, Lindsey Adler, Lucas Gilman, Elia Locardi, and of course, Arthur Morris.

Image: Arthur Morris speaking at Bedford’s Shoot Rock N’ Roll Photo Expo, Memphis, Tennessee. iPhone 7 Plus, hand-held.

Topics covered all types of photography including landscape, wildlife, travel, adventure, wedding and stylized portraiture. It was very informative as well as inspiring.  After the first day of the expo, a few of us headed out to Beale Street in the evening to check out the scene. When we arrived, the sun was still setting and the streets were relatively quiet.

Image: Beale Street at sunset, Memphis, Tennessee. Nikon D750, Nikkor 24-70 mm at 36 mm, f/22, 1/60 sec, ISO 800, on tripod.

The town prepared for the evening with some cops out on the streets ready to keep the area calm for Friday night’s activity and fun.  They relaxed against their cars and chatted among themselves and with tourists until the sun went down.

Image: Cops on Beale Street at sunset, Memphis, Tennessee. Nikon D750, Nikkor 24-70 mm at 56 mm, f/16, 1/60 sec, ISO 3200, hand-held.

After a nice dinner and sunset, we enjoyed some night photography, trying to capture the neon lights and bustle of activity.  Beale Street was closed to vehicles, allowing us to walk down the middle of the street to take in the scene and listen to various styles of blues music coming from the bars and clubs.

Image: Beale Street, Memphis, Tennessee. Nikon D750, Nikkor 24-70 mm at 55 mm, f/2.8, 1/60 sec, ISO 1000, on tripod.

At times, I focused on some of the more unique neon signs that reflected colors onto the buildings and enhanced the ambiance.

Image: Beale Street, Memphis, Tennessee. Nikon D750, Nikkor 24-70 mm at 62 mm, f/2.8, 1/60 sec, ISO 1250, on tripod.

Bedfords also brought out a couple models to pose in the street and had a light shining on them to highlight their features.  I took a couple quick shots as one of them moved into various poses.  At one point, a drunk man came up and put his arm around this woman and she kindly went along with it before returning to her poses.

Image: Beale Street, Memphis, Tennessee. Nikon D750, Nikkor 24-70 mm at 58 mm, f/2.8, 1/60 sec, ISO 1000, hand-held.

My settings for these images varied greatly because the light changed greatly over the evening.  At times, I used a small aperture (f/16 or f/22) to have a greater depth of field while the sun was out so I could get subjects near and far in focus.  This aperture also allowed me to capture the sunburst.  When nighttime came, I went with a larger aperture (f/2.8) so that more light hit the camera sensor and allowed me to keep the ISO relatively low to minimize introducing noise into the image.  When I shot hand-held, I kept the shutter speed above 1/60 second since my images tend to lose sharpness when the speed is slower than that.  I also brought out the tripod for some of the images for slower shutter speeds and to take crisp, sharp images.

Image: Beale Street, Memphis, Tennessee. Nikon D750, Nikkor 24-70 mm at 32 mm, f/2.8, 1/60 sec, ISO 1250, on tripod.

I have one more week in Florida to prepare for my upcoming adventure to Iceland and Greenland starting August 11!  Stay tuned for another post or two wrapping up my England/Scotland adventure from July and then we switch to landscape photography with waterfalls, icebergs, Viking villages and more!