For all intents and purposes, except for the pattern of the tie and the quality of the shot, those two images could be from the same night, though obviously they’re not. The top shot was taken with my Nikon Coolpix L3 on October 21, 2008, when Holy Ghost was the local open for Jersey band Steel Train at Greene Street in Greensboro. It was the first time I saw them, and I was instantly and completely smitten. I’ve seen them and shot them in three states, in a dozen different venues over the last two and a half years, on three different cameras and five different lenses. There are more than 600 shots of them in my Flickr photostream; a conservative estimate would be that I have, over two and a half years, taken more than 5000 photos of them in all.

They’d outgrown the 506 and they filled the Cradle last night, though I don’t think they sold it out. They sounded great. “My Heart Is Yours” still and always turns my own heart over because the first time I heard it, it was the chorus, a cappella, in the Trekky House living room, under Christmas lights, just Stephen and Matt, on the first go-round recording their still unreleased second full-length. Two and a half years ago, I knew I was looking at a band on the way up, and they were, and they have been, and they are. I am proud, and I am sad, and I am happy.

I shot well last night, almost entirely in black and white, mostly from the side of the stage; I will always love these boys almost best, but I have two and a half years of history that almost no one else has, and I am done. Going forward is for someone else; but if you want the stories from back then, I’m your girl.

Full set is here.