Basilica Block Party

The Basilica Block Party starts tonight in downtown Minneapolis.  Father Michael O’Connell  started this annual tradition 14 years ago to revitalize this downtown church  (Father John Bauer became the new rector this year).  It’s pretty surreal to grab a “pop” or two and listen to 12 bands rock a crowd of 25,000 in front of a church.  The picture above is something I snapped last year while waiting to capture one of the church members propose to his girlfriend.

Last year (being the 2nd year I’ve shot the Block Party) I figured I needed to step it up a little… so I pretty much insisted on getting rooftop access to shot the crowd from a new angle.  I was told that it was pretty tough to get up there, but I had no idea!  First, we climbed up to the choir area in back of the church where there is a service ladder (the type with a cage around it – not the sort of obstacle that’s easy to deal with when you have a photo backpack on).  At the top of that ladder, the lights were out.  After finding someone to turn on those lights, we had to crawl through a hole cut in the cement wall at the rear of the church.  There was a little rug to pad your knees, and I had to take off my backpack to fit through.  On the other side was this space that I’ll just call “the attic”.  It’s the part between the ceiling you see from inside the church (looks like its plaster and chicken wire that makes that beautiful ceiling) and the real roof of the basilica.  There are wooden planks which you need to walk on, because you’d likely just fall through the other parts straight down 80 feet or so.  (note to any lawyers reading this, I was super careful, I promise).  There’s a wire you hang on to just to be safe.  We walked straight back to the next wall with a hole cut in it.  This one had no rug for comfort and there was no light on the other side, which was a bit painful on the knees (which started to bleed).  I tried to convince my guide that we could use my flash to light the ground in there to see where the walking planks were (and I’m pretty sure that would have been fine), but he was having none of it.

At this point, it must have been 90-95 degrees outside, but up in the “attic” it had to be over 100 and I was sweating like a stuck pig!!  So we crossed over this arched area you see, went through another hole into an actual stairwell (funny how there’s this nice stairwell after all of that) which leads to the bell tower.  When we opened the “trap door” that leads up, there were pigeons flying all over the place frantically.  Once they left, we climbed up into this first area which was covered with pigeon #$%#.  I mean really covered, like 12 inch high stalagmites.  It was unbelievable.  Then you climb through another “trap door” to the actual platform where the bells you see pictured above are.  There’s no railing of course, so I just dropped my knees in the crevice between the platform and the edge to take a picture… no luck!  After all that, I couldn’t get an angle on the stage, so I just shot the picture of the bells you see at the top of this post.  So on the way down I decided I really needed to wash up and get some water…  There are guided tours of the Basilica going on during the Block Party, and it just so happened that a good friend of mine, his wife, and her sister were on a tour and had been inside the building for a while.  Clay looked at me and asked, “Is it raining outside?!?” (even my glasses were covered in sweat) and Meg looked at my elbow and said “your bleeding!” and I said “yeah, and I’m covered in dirt and pigeon $#%*!” and introduced myself to her sister.  Nothing like making a first impression!…  How does one end up covered in blood, sweat, guano, and dirt trying to take pictures of a church?!?  But hey, I got this picture of the bells…

Be sure to say hi if you see a tall guy with a committee shirt and a camera…

Technique:  All fourof these images are HDR.  The bells and the crowd were handheld which a fast shutter and continuous shotting, the last one (with the terrible lens flare on the Basilica) was shot with a tripod.  I was impressed with how good the bells looked handheld (quite sharp actually) and how well the crowds turned out, even with everyone moving.  Just goes to show it pays to experiment and see what happens sometimes.