Concert Photo Of The Day

Welcome to The Concert Photo Of The Day for 11/03/11.

Well, hello out there. It's been a trying couple of days in the wilds of New Jersey that included a freak snowstorm and four days of no power, no heat and ten hour days cleaning up storm debris...which I am pleased to announce, I am almost half way done. Being that I had no access to my photo files during that time, the Concert Photo Of The Day was suspended until I got electricity back. That happened around 5 PM yesterday and I've finally thawed out, was able to make my own coffee and crank up the old computer. I missed writing this each morning...

The last photo I posted, last Saturday, was one of a concert that I photographed last Friday night with Ace Frehley. When I was travelling to the show in Atlantic City, Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) came on the radio. Not the studio version but the version from Live/1975-85. It was a great song to get me pumped up for a night of work and I was bopping in my seat. After a bit, it came to the band introductions and I heard those words that so many of us came to hear and love over the years, "Do I need to say his name?"

It was one of those bittersweet moments in life. There was a realization that no longer would Bruce Springsteen be egging on the crowd to say that name...Clarence. While the E Street Band will continue and there will, no doubt, be saxophone on E Street, Clarence Clemons, the larger-than-life persona can never be replaced...nor should anyone even try.

All of a sudden, in my mind, I found myself screaming, "Yes. You have to say his name!" I think we all have to, loud and proud and often from now on. We all lost something very special when Clarence Clemons died and, to be honest, I never shouted Clarence's name back to Bruce when he did his egging on...never felt the need to do anything but applaud when appropriate. It's just not my style.

But, Bruce, I make you this promise...if you tell us all that we need to say his name, I will scream it at the top of my lungs. I will celebrate your brother's passing for a long time. Since I have purposely been shying away from posting photos of Clarence, I guess I just needed to find the right moment to move on before I broke them out again. And since today I honor Clarence, I think the above photo fits right into the scheme of things...looks like a bit of honoring was going down that night.

I'm guessing that I just needed to say his name today. It won't be the last time, either.

Today's photo was taken with a Canon 40D camera body that had a Canon EF 200 mm f/2.0 IS L lens attached. The camera settings were ISO 1600, f/2.0 and a shutter speed of 1/400 of a second.