Blog

With the advent of the new school year, I’m starting my sixth year of trekking down to the UW-Madison campus to capture images of music students while they translate a composer’s silent score into beautifully rendered music.

My primary subjects are the students, of course, but there are times when I wander around and focus on the instruments sans musicians.  Here are some of the results.  Click on any image to enlarge.

Most of the instruments were photographed exactly as they were left by the musicians.  I may have moved a jacket or a backpack out of the way to clean up a background but I did not “pose” the instruments.  For example, I did not move the bells around in the Carillon.  They’ve been hanging in the tower since 1936.  I did, however, photograph a few of the instruments while they were being played.

I know.  I know.  I just can’t seem to resist those shiny brass instruments!  My apologies to players of strings, woodwinds, and percussion.  I’ll try to do better this year.  In my defense, however, I rarely photograph the symphony and those students seem reluctant to leave their instruments lying around.  I often photograph the wind ensemble or jazz groups where the shinier instruments reside.  To compensate, here’s a photo of me with my string instrument.