This week, Tim and I set off to cover the Pike Central and South Spencer shows. It had been a busy and stressful week for both of us, so we were in the mood to unwind and catch some quality performances.

As always, we painstakingly selected the music we were going to listed to on our trip. We were in the mood for something a little more refined than what we typically listen to on the way to the show. Quickly it became apparent that what we needed is to listen to some opera to get us in the mood for a long day of photographing marching bands.

When we were in college, Tim and I loved to listen to Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, and José Carreras, known collectively as "The Three Tenors." We still love to listen to those guys, but we wanted to listen to something a little more modern yet still rooted in the classics.

What happens when you get three of the most power voices of the entertainment world, who all just happen to be 46 inches tall? That's right! You get the Three Ten-ers! Verne Troyer, Gary Coleman, and Emmanuel Lewis teamed up for a live concert at the Red Rocks Amphitheater near Denver in 1995. Despite their diminutive size, the Three Ten-ers belted out powerful pieces by Wagner and Puccini.

Due to some really slow traffic and roadwork between Evansville and Petersburg, we were late to the show. When we arrived at Pike Central, we quickly assembled our equipment and made our way to the stadium.

For some reason the weather on the contest day between District and Regionals is usually cold and/or rainy. This year was different. The weather was beautiful. Tim spent the breaks during the show gazing up at the clouds and trying to see if they looked like anything he could recognize. For a few seconds he thought he saw a horsey.

The thing we liked most about the Pike Central show is the friendliness of everyone we meet. It seemed like every face had a smile and fun is had by all. Even the public address announcer does his part to keep everyone's spirits high. In this photo, the PA announcer asked to see a show of hands of everyone who thought that the menu items at the concession stand was "good eatin'."

After the show we continued to listen to the Three Ten-ers, which put us in the mood for some French cuisine. We searched around but were unable to find any French restaurants in Petersburg, but fortunately we did manage to find a place that served one French item.

Since we were late to the Pike Central show, we wanted to make sure that we arrived well before the start of the South Spencer show. So after our French meal in Petersburg, we drove directly to Rockport. We got to the show really early, so we planned to sit back and relax...

...but the folks at South Spencer had other plans for us.

Since our friends at South Spencer took the time to remind us that we have a web site to run, we decided that we had better drive back to Evansville and update the web site. The traffic was surprisingly light so we made it back to town in record time. Then we quickly updated the site with time to spare.

We were a little hungry from all of the driving and updating, so we decided to drop by the West Side Nut Club Fall Festival. For those of you not familiar with the Fall Festival, it is six-day long canival/eating festival held on the West Side of Evansville. It is a huge party that draws tens of thousands of people every year. Several Evansville high school band booster clubs have food booths at the Fall Festival. Tim and I thought it would be a great way to support the bands we cover by stopping by the festival and grabbing a bite to eat.

We visited several band booster booths at the festival and were met with many smiles and questions like "What's Simply Instrumental?", "Shouldn't you be on a diet, Scott?", and "Have you updated the web site yet?"

We bought several tasty things to eat, but my favorite was a bowl of red velvet cupcake. Mmmmmmmmmmm! Thanks Evansville Central Band Boosters!

So we went back to the show and started taking photos.

One of the problems we face as the season gets later is that the sun sets earlier. While watching a contest at night is really cool, photographing one is very difficult. Most stadium lighting is adequate for viewing an event, but not bright enough for photography. To compensate for this problem, photographers can do several techniques like shoot really high speed film, use a flash, or do what I do - photograph small areas that are brightly lit and make the photo small to reduce the graininess.

We had a great time at the shows! We are REALLY looking forward to seeing regionals on October 18. Tune in next week for another installment of The Contest Journal!