Every once in a while you just see a photo that speaks to you. Such was the case for me this morning, when I happened across this saxophone photo by fabien.benoit on Flickr.
enregistrement saxophone son
Photography by fabien.benoit Source: Flickr
mise en valeur micro
According to Google translate, the photo’s title means: saxophone sound recording. That makes sense. While the text below translates to: development of micro.
I am forever trying to think of ways to take artsy shots of horns. It isn’t as easy as it looks. Saxophones, while very artistic-looking in their own right, can be hard to photograph in a way that makes them look good.
Some saxophones, just like some people, are not very photogenic, while others look extremely pretty in photographs. Then there’s the issue of how to pose them. Just what do you do with still life, to make it interesting, fresh, and something different than the other 15 bazillion photos we’ve already seen of the same subject matter?
I think that’s why fabien.benoit’s photo spoke to me this morning. Not only is the shot crystal clear—check out the full size image to see what I mean—but the way the sax is positioned in the frame, together with the mic, makes this photo different than the photos of saxophones we usually see.
If I were to try to shoot something like this, what I’d likely do, is use a vintage saxophone, and a vintage mic of roughly the same era. I’d maybe try to hunt down a Shure 55 (an old one, not the ones the make today), and pair it together with my my Zeph.
Hi Helen,
Machine translations will miss the idiom. The caption underneath means “putting the microphone to good use.”
Peace,
paul
PS
The best mic for your Zephyr, IMHO, would be a Sennheiser MD 421 Mk II. For a more jazzy sound, an EV RE 20 is usually my first choice for both tenor and bari.
p
Thanks for the better translation Paul.
BTW, I wouldn’t record with the Shure 55. I’d only photograph my Zeph with it because of its iconic quality & because it would be roughly the same age as my 1950 King tenor.
Hi Helen,
Let’s play with this.
The SM 55 SW is iconic as an on-stage singer’s mic.
For the most part, the standard on-stage horn mic was the SM 57.
Yet the 800 pound gorilla in the room for both rockers and jazzers was the RCA 77 DX, broadcast, in-studio, and occasionally on-stage.
A tasteful composition involving a King Zephyr Special Tenor and an RCA 77 DX would be quite exquisite.
But a realistic photo of that horn with a Sennheiser MD 421 II would be devastating.
Peace,
paul
I once showed up to play at Mama Juana’s with a Sennheiser MD-421U Mark II. I handed it to the sound guy and he glanced at it, said “this is crap, I’m not gonna use it” and handed it back, and clipped on an SM-58! I just don’t think he could be bothered to reset the level for a microphone he wasn’t familiar with, but that certainly did not give me a good impression.
On another occasion, he had set out the usual three horn mics but the usual trombone player had a medical emergency and we went on without him. I took the trombone mic and placed it in a position to play flute into it, so that I wouldn’t have to move one mic every time I switched instruments. Also, with just two horns, we would be doing a lot more jamming and less of our written arrangements, which left me free to switch as I saw fit. After the first set the same sound guy made a big show of coming out and removing the extra mic and stand.
I later found out our bass player had dragged an amplifier across the dance floor and left a large scratch, which explains why he was pissed off, but what did it accomplish for him to come take the microphone away?