Music Photography | Cardboard Cutouts

Any band that I have photographed in the past knows that I love to do gig shots in monochrome. This is mainly because, through experience, I have found that venues tend to want to create an atmosphere and this usually is achieved through the use of awkward-to-photograph-with lighting. If it isn’t constantly changing colour it’s a colour that the white balance doesn’t know how to cope with. If you have found yourself in this situation then you will also know that manually adjusting the white balance hardly ever works. There are obviously ways around this, an external flash gun for example. But I really hate using flash guns if I can help it.

Another thing to add is that when it comes to gig photos I like to do it all manual, like I used to do with my film cameras. Part of it is guess work, but a big part is being able to step back and look at where you want to photograph and knowing what your exposure should be. One of my hidden talents is that I’m pretty good at guessing exposures at ISO 400 [even going again the advice of a light meter at times]. So when you’re on ISO 1600 it’s just a case of maths.

I had been thinking the other day that it had been some time since I had taken any gig photos and a little while later my younger brother told me about a gig that he and his friend Dave were doing on Friday the 13^th of May.

I had first started doing gig photography by contacting bands that enjoyed the sound of if they wanted any photos taken at an upcoming gig. This was usually done through Myspace, back when I had one. And then there were my friends that were musicians and I would attend their gigs and take photos accordingly, always loving the challenge of manual photography in such a hectic lighting set-up. This isn’t the first set of gig photos that I am placing on this blog. Click the photo links below to be taken through to my other music related posts on this blog.

Although the shots of Jason were taken with an Olympus OM-10 film SLR, the photos taken at the Adventure Starts Tomorrow gig and in today’s post and all were taken on the Canon EOS 50D using a combination of lenses. This camera was used at the request of my younger brother. This was mainly because he wanted to learn more about RAW photography with the shots.

The gig itself went really well, even though it was on Friday the 13^th. The boys went through some brilliant covers, clips of which can be found in the video embedded above. I suggest giving it a view, also at the very end of it my younger brother and I do a recital of the PokeRap. Which I’m sure has swayed all of you. Hope you enjoy the video and the photos and I hope you have enjoyed reading this post.

One more thing, one of the hardest things to do in gig photography in my opinion is taking photos of the drummer, they are usually in the back with little to no lighting and they generally move around the most.

General Photography | Street Photography On the South Bank, London

Before I get a tweet or comment on this post stating that I am focusing way too much on the topic of Street Photography I would like to point out that these photographs were taken on the 12^th of April using my Rolleiflex TLR and the photographs taken in the post previous to this were taken on the 21^st of April on the Polaroid 600SE. So I’m not lingering on a subject, I just had to wait a fortnight for the 120 E6 film to be processed.

If you hadn’t of guessed, that photo above is now how links are shared on the blog. I’m calling them Badges, click on it and it will take you where I want you to go. I think it looks better than just a text hyperlink. Now, if you had been paying attention you will have read that for this post I am using my Rolleiflex Twin Lens Reflex camera. My camera from the 1930’s that takes 120 film. And yes it’s the same camera that I had used in the Pisa post.

As you may or may not know [depending on how often you read my blog] I am always looking to improve on where I feel that I am lacking. Hence the sudden arrival of all the videos to accompany the posts, anyhow, one thing that I’ve never really been that great at was street photography. Anyone who knows me will know that I have no problem with striking up a conversation with someone I have never met before [a habit I am sure will get me into trouble one day] but before taking someone’s photograph I feel the need to get to know them first.

For example, there is a blog post on here with photographs of my friend Azita, and as always, the link to that post is below. Now, I had met Azita for the very first time that day. This had happened because she had been referred to me by my friend Steve, who I have also taken photos of that are on this blog and yes there will be a link. And even though that was the first time we had met we still had a coffee [well, hot chocolate] at Starbucks first to chat for a bit and get to know each other which I feel improved the photographs.

Now, what about WEDDINGS you ask? Obviously I don’t know every person in the wedding party yet I am able to go along to the church or registry office and take their photographs. That is a very good point but when they go to a wedding they expect their photograph to be taken, to be remembered as part of that particular couple’s special day. But when you take that person away from the wedding scenario and put them in the everyday I doubt that they are prepared at all times to have their photograph taken and not feel strange about it.

The video at the top of the post shows a short clip of the busker who is the subject of a few of the shots below. This video came about for two reasons. The first was the couple that you will see thoroughly enjoying the lady’s singing and the second reason is because upon noticing the couple and how happy they looked I was midway through changing a roll of film. So making a video seemed the quickest option available to me. And may I add, I think that it works well as a video, much better than it would have done as a still image.

The shots below were taken on Fujifilm Provia that expired in 2005 and although I am usually quite lucky with the results I achieve from expired film this was not one of those times. But I decided against editing the colour and tone of the shots. I generally dislike editing to begin with. And although the video is of the busker there are other shots of people on the South Bank enjoying the day. Hopefully you will enjoy the shots. There are six images in total, all of them taken on the South Bank in London.

I gave her a business card.
I wonder if she will get in contact.