Drugs and Photography DON'T mix

[F.Gordon]

First...let me say WOW! There are some damn good Photographers here at DU. Scanning the various posts.... very impressive.

These photos were taken at a Concert waaaaay back when. Remember kids, don't try this on your own. There is a lesson to be learned here. Drugs and Photos don't mix.

These were taken before the days of your fancy "automatic" adjustments and stuff. The first set I remembered to use my external light meter and adjust the doohickie and thingamabob when the group Black Oak Arkansas came on stage.....





Then the drugs kicked in and when The Edgar Winter Group came on stage, well.... you can see what happened....



Not to mention these photos are older than most DUers and I didn't (until recently) do a very good job of storing them.

[RagingInMiami]

1. those are cool shots

I was born in 1968, but I always felt as if I should have come of age in the 1960s rather than the 80s cause the music was so much better then.
Those pics remind me of the movie "Gimme Shelter", which is about the Rolling Stones concert at Altamont. It reminds of those scenes when the Jefferson Airplane and the Flying Burrito Brothers took the stage.

[F.Gordon]

2. Thanks. It WAS a different era for music

I have some others.... if I can find them. Iron Butterfly, Fuse, REO Speedwagon (when they were just a local bar band), and others.

I hope I can find the negatives some day so I can get better prints. I used a Nikon F? back then. A very good camera, but the store bought prints were terrible in those days.

[Blue_In_AK]

5. I was there at Altamont...

Boy, what a scene THAT was! We were way, way in the back (the music sounded like a cheap transistor radio from where we were), very, very toasted, and wondering what in the hell was going on up front that had the performers so upset. Only later did we hear about the death. It was crazy though, bikers everywhere. You gotta wonder what was going on in the Stones' mind to make them think that the Hell's Angels would be good crowd control.

[RagingInMiami]

6. They used an English motorcycle gang to control the crowd at a concert

they gave in Hyde Park, London. It worked there, so they naturally assumed it would work in the US.
At Altomont, they provided the Angels with free booze, which did not mix well with all the acid and weed the hippies were on.
The stones wanted it to be bigger and better than woodstock so they didn't want any type of actual law enforcement there that would ruin the concert.
Didn't it happen in December of 1969? It marked the end of the age of Aquarius.
Then came the jaded 70s and peace and love were a thing of the past.

[Blue_In_AK]

7. Yes, I believe it was December...

...at least I remember that it was 1969, altogether a pretty bad year for hippiedom, what with Haight Street, where I lived, being taken over by the speed freaks, Charles Manson and all that. I remember the first time I saw Manson on TV right after he was captured -- I was high on acid at the time (pretty much ALL the time back then) and he freaked me right out. I had nightmares about him for weeks. It definitely was the end of an era.

[RagingInMiami]

12. Yes, and the hell angels were also on speed that day

It was a recipe for disaster

[noamnety]

3. even if you don't find the negatives

you could tweak some high resolution scans in photoshop and get prints from that. I played around (very quickly) just to see what what was in that last one - ideally I'd take a bit longer and keep more contrast in the person on the left, but you get the idea:



and to see how this one looked a little less faded:

[F.Gordon]

8. I haven't mastered Photoshop

As you can tell, these were "raw" scans. Judging by the results of your quick fix, it looks like I should. I've primarily used Photoshop to "restore" old color art prints but have never really played much with it on actual photos.

Thanks!
:thumbsup:

[noamnety]

13. I'm going to pull them offline tonight

I just wanted to show it's worth playing around, in case you weren't a photoshop person. A real simple fix to make colors pop a bit more is to duplicate a layer, and set the new top layer to "soft light" instead of "normal" - you can play with opacity so it doesn't look too fake. I may have overshot on the second one there, I love saturated colors.

[Blue_In_AK]

4. Not older than me...

...and the hippie trippy one is just more atmospheric. :-)

[GOPFighter]

9. I do miss the music of the 60s and 70s though

The music was so vibrant and inventive. It was an exciting time to be alive. (However, they didn't have digital cameras back then so I'm not sure I'd like to go back in time...!)

[Blue_In_AK]

10. Me, too...

I had a great time back then, but sadly no pictures remain. I think at one time I had some old Polaroids of the Denver gang from 1968, but with my peripetetic lifestyle at the time, they all got lost ... along with my albums, all my high school and college yearbooks, and just about everything else I ever owned. Oh, well......

[F.Gordon]

14. Bummer

I have managed to save almost everything, except the camera and lens I had then. Had to sell it to pay for rent and food. Priorities changed quite often.....

[Blue_In_AK]

15. I hear ya...

...I think most of my stuff got lost when I moved to the commune in Southern Oregon and left my stuff with "friends" who promptly disposed of everything.

[intheflow]

11. I still think the Edgar Winter Band photo is pretty good.

If I'd taken it while on any kind of drug it would have been blurry, blurry, blurry. I just can't hold the camera still enough when buzzed.

BTW, I saw Johnny Winter in concert about 10 years ago. Drugs actually would have really improved the concert for me--although I think Johnny was feeling just fine on whatever he was on! LOL! Edgar always was the one with talent.

[roguevalley]

16. I'd love to see them now. Probably look like grandpas. :-D