No Celtfest This Year

This was to have been Celtfest weekend. It would have been terribly hot, but we'd have been there with bells on, regardless, just as we have attended most Celtfests since 2006. There would also have been family time as Sue's sister, Heather, would have made the trip from Toronto. She and Sue and, therefore, I are typically forced to move our lawn chairs many times a day, chasing the scant shade in an almost futile effort to escape the blistering sun..

I have revisited some photos from those bygone years and will post some of them again today. I say again because I have quite probably posted many if not all of them already because I seem to have blogged about the event every year.

Somewhat happily, as I went all of the way back to 2014 in my archives, I have found that the more recent photos are better than the older ones. At least they please me more.

One thing that I have discovered over the years is that (in my opinion) stage lighting makes nighttime photos much better than daytime photos, although I must say that the stage wasn't as well lit last year as in the few prior years. As it happens, I have been tending to not bother as much with daytime photos. Of course, I can't always resist, for you can still sometimes catch the subject at interesting moments.

There weren't night performances at all back in the early days, for the concert was limited to Sunday afternoon. But it grew, first to expand to Saturday evening, then all day Saturday, and finally even to Friday night.

Enough palaver, here are a few photos from the past 2 years.

I will begin with a photo of Ashley MacIsaac who was absolutely magnificent last year as the headliner on Saturday evening. It was very tough to get photos because the grounds were much more packed than any other time in all of the years. In most other years, I have usually been able to wander about and search for a good vantage point, but during Ashley's performance I was confined to shooting from my seat with my telephoto lens. However, it worked not too badly despite my confinement. At the very least, I was pleased to capture the trademark unravelling hairs from his bow.

I'll present the rest without comment to save you all a little bit of boredom. The first is from 2016, the next two from 2017, followed by two photos from 2018. The final three were taken last year, 2019, when I seemed to be in the mood for mono images.

Not my favourite image, but I wanted to include one with more of the stage.