Diving Into Concert Photography: My Meeting with Jim Carchidi

This weekend starts as any other before it; Friday after work I'm back in Orlando having a drink and smoking cigars with my old boss Joe Adams from Adam Jones Productions. The time is 8:00pm EST sitting with me are my best friend Dillon and Joe's date Alex. Dillon has recently been taken under the wing of Ben Sawinski an artist and upcoming curator as well as a good friend of mine. Dillon, Joe, Alex, and I are sitting down around this table at Corona Cigar Bar smoking and having a drink (non-alcoholic for me) all conversing about what we are doing in our lives. Dillon spoke about how he happy he is working as a personal assistant for Benjamin. For the first time in a while I never heard such a passive voice of content tone in such a long while. I was happy for him as I was happy for Ben who needed someone to do some of his workload. I was happy for Ben who had found a very cool girl to have a relationship with named Kayla who is an artist as well. In the midst of our conversing a waitress who is pretty regular for me accidentally spills water on my arm and my mobile. She was quite embarrassed and I was a bit shocked from what occurred. I explained to her it is not a big deal that the water just spilled on my left arm and only on my phone and nothing else. My phone is still working, so thank G*d for that. However, the waitress explains to me she has been having an off week and not just having an off day due to a family member passing away the other week. I gave her my sympathies, but it felt like she was trying to make me look like a jerk in front of my friends.

At 9:23pm EST Dillon and I decided to make tracks to an event that was taking place at Taste Orlando featuring a photographer, belly dancing, and a burlesque show. How could I resist a temptation to see the works of a professional photographer and attractive women dancing, so off we went into the night. Arriving at Taste was a short drive and I noticed I was running on one bar of gas in my Toyota Yaris (The Yaris gets 29/36 MPG, and is now affordable at your nearest dealership). The first person I see is the artist Cake, but he was engaged in a conversation, so I let him be and not bother him. But there I see Ben, Kayla, Tracy, and John Snapp. I shook hands, hugged everyone, and then sat down with them to converse about our weeks. Funny story about Tracy Brown is I chaperoned her children during the The Muppet Art Show where they became fans of my little novella The Departing Tale of Christopher Lamont and the Hereafter. I told my friends to give me a moment I was going to go inside and check out the set up with Dillon.

Entering Taste was a gentleman managing the podium taking entrance fees and donations for The American Cancer Society. I gave the man $10; $5 for the entrance and $5 for a donation. Entering through Taste and making our way down to the event section to see walls and walls of photographs of musicians during concerts. The sight of these photos were breathtaking! All these photographs were taken by a gentleman named Jim Carchidi. In the back of the room I see someone looking like King Diamond, but I recognize the woman as Anna who sold me the painting that Cake did of Morrigan from Darkstalkers (Vampire Chronicle in Japan). Anna gave me a hug whilst wrapping me in her cape. I asked her who took these fantastic photos and she pointed at a man wearing a snazzy ensemble. Anna introduced me to Jim Carchidi who took almost a decades worth of photographs of bands and musicians performing live. I told Jim Carchidi that I was very much blown away of how he captured each moment of these performers. Jim was humbled by my compliments and here is the part that got me; all he wanted to do is hear about me. I explained my back story to him of how I'm a simulation designer at an e-learning company, and I'm a writer as well. He then asked me about my book, and I explained it to him.

Later on in the night the performances began first starting with the belly dancers who moved their bodies to a very relaxing melody. I was in tranced by how they moved and coordinated themselves to the background music. After they finished my friends and I recessed outside to smoke cigarettes and joke around. During the conversation I brought up how I been looking for someone to edit my book for a price so I can then self publish the novella already on some online stores. Enter John Snapp who offered his services and would do it in one day. I gave him a number, shook hands, and verbally agreed he would edit The Departing Tale of Christopher Lamont and the Hereafter. A man came out by the name of Matt (the husband of Anna who I also met earlier in the week when I picked up my Cake painting), informed us Grotesque Burlesque was about to perform, and we proceeded inside to watch the ladies perform. The women performed to such great tracks of music and baring their skin for the audience to see. Of course this was all tastefully done. I talked to the technical coordinator between the performances how I enjoyed the two acts, but I had not money to tip them. Katia was her name and she informed me I can also purchase them drinks which I was more than happy to oblige to. As her and I talked waiting for the drinks to come up we watched the next performance of two young ladies doing a silk performance. Once again I blown away. The night was fantastic filled with humor, friends, beautiful photographs, and pretty women. I could not ask for such a great night on Friday.