Thank you to Ellen B. Senisi, the photographer for the NYSRA Charlotte Award nominated book, Steel Drumming at the Apollo (Marx & Senisi, 2007), for answering questions from Ms. Fridholm’s intermediate grade students.
How do you get a good idea AND what inspired you to write this book?
I always keep my eyes open for new book ideas but ideas are funny things. Sometimes one is right in front of you and you don’t even realize it. That was the case with this book, at first. My son, Steven, was one of the band members of the Hamilton Hill Steel Drum Band. The band was about halfway through their journey to Super Top Dog Night at the Apollo Theater before I said to myself – “Wait a minute! We are in the middle of a real story here – this would be a great idea for a book!” I then asked Trish if she would like to write the story and I began taking photographs for it.
Did you become good friends with the musicians?
I already knew the boys because they were good friends with my son. I got to know them a lot better while doing the book. I still see them around and hear them play music sometimes. The Hamilton Hill Steel Drum Band is not together anymore but the musicians still get together to work on different music projects.
Who do you know best?
No question about that one: Steven Senisi. He is currently writing music for me to go with a new multimedia project I am creating.
Did you like making the book?
I loved working on this book. It was great to take photographs while listening to good music.
Is it hard taking pictures of people doing things?
Yes it is but it’s a challenge I love. Photographing people is very different from working as an illustrator drawing people. Illustrators plan ahead of time what their illustrations will look like but photographers can’t do that. Since you can’t predict exactly what people will do, you never know exactly what your photographs look like till you look at them on your camera monitor or computer screen.
What kind of camera do you use?
I use a Nikon D-3. It’s a great camera! It works well in dim environments, which was critical for this project because I was not allowed to use flash in the Apollo Theater.
Is it hard to take pictures of the band members while they dance?
I don’t find it hard to take photographs of people dancing. In a way, it’s easy because the person dancing stays pretty much in one spot. Also, when someone is dancing their motions are so graceful and fluid that it seems almost every shot you get is beautiful. In fact, I am now working on a book about ballet and it’s lots of fun.
Why do you take pictures instead of drawing?
When I was young, I wanted very much to draw well but I just wasn’t that good at it. It was a total surprise to me when I got a camera and realized I was good at taking pictures. I’ve decided that this is much more fun for me than drawing anyway.
How do you take such good pictures?
I practice. I try to be as observant as possible. I look at photographs by good photographers – that so important to do if you want to get good at photography! I have had to learn a lot of technical details about light, vision, camera mechanics, and imaging software, such as Photoshop and Lightroom.
How do they take a picture and take a computer and put it all together?
Okay, here’s the process:
– I take a photograph with my camera.
– I hook the camera up to my computer with a cord and transfer it to my computer.
– I save the image as a file on my computer.
– I use software (such as Photoshop and Lightroom) to make it look its best.
– I put the image file (and all the other image files for the book) onto a DVD and give it to the book publisher.
– The book company gives the DVD to the book designer who plans exactly how each page of the book (with the photographs and the words) will look. The designer uses software (either Quark or InDesign) to create one big computer file. That file has all the words and photographs in it, set up just as they will look on the page.
– The book publisher gives that one big computer file from the designer to the printing company which is actually going to manufacture the books.
– The printing company opens that big file on their computer. They use that file to make new files (called PDF’s) that will work best with their machines.
– They send the PDF’s from their computer to a machine that makes big printing plates. The plates are in 4 colors (magenta, cyan-blue, yellow, and black) that, when combined in different ways, can make every possible color.
– These 4 plates are attached to a huge printing press.
– Paper is fed into the press and each plate takes a turn printing on each paper.
– After all the pages have been printed on, they are cut to the right size, sewn or glued together, and then the book’s cover is put on.
– Most printers are in Asia so then the books are shipped by boat to the USA to the publisher’s warehouse.
– Trucks or trains bring the books from the warehouse to bookstores and libraries, which is where you get them.
Can you play any music?
Yes, I can play the piano, violin, and viola. I really like singing and listening to music. I also like making slide shows of images set to music.
What do you do for a living?
My full-time job is being a writer and photographer.
What is your favorite band?
My favorite band is Sonus Maximus. That’s the band Steven is in now. So is my other son, Will, who is also a musician. He is a great guitarist. He plays on a few tracks on the CD for the steel drumming book. You can hear Sonus Maximus online at their MySpace site and also on YouTube.
Who named the band?
The boys in the group decided on the name Hamilton Hill Steel Drum Band together. Hamilton Hill is a neighborhood in Schenectady, New York. All of the boys lived in Schenectady at that time and went to Schenectady High School. They played music together at the Hamilton Hill Arts Center. The Arts Center owns the steel drums you hear being played on the CD with the book.
Who made the songs AND Why is the music so different?
The first song on the CD was written by professional composers Paul Berry and Mark Taylor. All the rest of the songs were written by the musicians in the group. Each person got the chance to create one song for the CD. Some of the musicians worked together on their songs. For example, Ahmel’s rap (Flow) was set to a musical composition by Steven. The reason the songs are so different is because each musician has very different musical ideas. Look at page 56 of the book (the very last page) for the music credits and you will see who did what for each song.
Did they like making the songs?
The kids loved making the songs. Playing music and writing songs is what they like to do more than anything else.
Where do they sing and play their music?
The musicians of the Hamilton Hill Steel Drum Band no longer play together under that name. They play solo, with each other in groups of two or three, or with other musicians. They are all working hard to get to the next level of excellence as musicians. Most of them have MySpace pages or YouTube videos so look them up online to see what they are doing these days.
Ellen Senisi
October 2009
The Hamilton Hill Steel Drum Band played a show together to celebrate the publication of the book in January 2008. Here they are (with Ahmel and Aaron in the foreground) performing one called Jump.
Thank you to Mrs. Wilcox’s fifth graders for sending these questions to N.D. Wilson, the author of the NYSRA Charlotte Award nominated book for intermediate grade readiers, Leepike Ridge. Mr. Wilson graciously and wittily responded to their request for information.
We asked readers in 5th and 7th grade to share questions with us about the NYSRA Charlotte Award nominated book Middle School Is Worse Than Meatloaf (Holm & Castaldi, 2007). The illustrator Elicia Castaldi shared these answers with us about the process of creating this unique and critically acclaimed book.
