Case Air Wireless System on Tour with Under the Streetlamp

Full-time professional trumpet player Josh Rzepka of the nationally touring group, Under the Streetlamp, triggers his Canon camera remotely using the Case Air Wireless Tethering System and his Samsung Galaxy phone to take action shots of the band during performances for social media. Josh says it’s a little bit of double duty to play trumpet and to get good shots, but he pulls it off.

How Josh Uses the Case Air

Josh says he takes a lot of live action shots of the band while they are playing from the stage. “I have my Canon 70D set up ahead of time somewhere in the theatre on a tripod, either with a wide-angle lens 18-35, 50mm, or my 70-200 and I plan a set of shots for each night,” explains Josh, “I’ll put the tripod in the back of the hall next to the soundboard, usually with the 70-200, sometimes a wide angle or on the side of the stage or up on one of the balconies, it really depends on the theatre. My tripod has worked well and has a good height range.”

Shooting Images from His Music Stand

While the Canon 70D has Wi-Fi built in, Josh says it is not nearly as powerful or consistent as the Case Air. “The range is particularly limited from the camera once you are in a big concert hall that’s filled with electronic equipment and potentially a thousand cell phones. The Canon built-in Wi-Fi also had a significant lag. Once I upgraded to the Case Air Wireless Tethering System it was night and day in allowing me to pick focus points and control the camera more effectively. The range is way better than the built-in Wi-Fi, and the Case Air Remote app rocks,” says Josh. Amazingly, Josh is the full-time trumpet player in the group and he’s playing double duty during shows – rocking the trumpet and capturing shots. Josh explains, “While I’m on stage I have my Samsung Galaxy smartphone open on my music stand giving me a live view of what the camera is seeing through the Case Remote app. The audience has no clue I’m shooting photos. I’m generally triggering the photos manually, usually with the continuous shutter function, to get bursts of shots (lots of dancing and choreography, so it improves the odds I get the shot). On a rare occasion, I’ll set it up as a time-lapse function for hands-off continuous shooting.”

Capturing Video and Posting Images

One of the drawbacks of using his DSLR for video was the limited amounts of video that could be shot, around 30 minutes by Josh’s estimations for his 70D. “I couldn’t turn it on before the set and leave it run – I needed a camera operator. The Case Air gets around that, as I can turn the video on and off just for the spots and songs that I want.” Not only is Josh capturing images from the stage, he’s often posting them as well. “Sometimes I’ll take a shot using the Case Air and post a photo directly to Twitter right from the stage, usually I’ll edit them in Lightroom first. As a performer, it’s very important to be able to have new images and videos to post online, and the Case Air allows me to do that a lot easier without having a separate person there shooting or controlling the camera.”   Under the Streetlamp is currently on tour, follow them online at www.UnderTheStreetlamp.com and on Facebook.