Music Photography | Cardboard Cut-Outs 2

It’s currently 2:37am and I knew it would happen like this. Lately I haven’t really had the urge to write, I’ve tried believe me, with so much that I need to get done I had the desire to write but with no real urge to write. I tried a few times, but that just lead to a whole page of A4 being deleted and never seen again. So I kind of had a feeling that I would suddenly get the urge to write at a time where I should be considering sleep. Ah well, just glad to be able to write again.

In today’s post we have photographs from my younger brother’s gig that occurred a few weeks ago in all honesty, but it took me a while to get the film back. This isn’t the first time that I have photographed the Cardboard Cut-Outs, if you wish to see the photographs from the first gig of theirs that I photographed feel free to click here.

The photographs in this particular post were taken at R Bar in Gravesend, Kent and I thought that I would try and use the Olympus OM-10 and some black and white film like I did way back when I photographed Jason Olveira in Lewisham. There were a couple of problems though, firstly the highest rated black and white film that I could find was some ISO 400 Ilford HP5 film and my Olympus OM-10 decided to break.

My cameras don’t generally break so that was a major surprise, at first I thought it was the battery so I went a bought a new set and alas it was not the battery, the camera is just broken. So I used the Ilford HP5 in a different camera, my Canon EOS 3000 35mm film SLR. I haven’t really used this camera much before. I had got this camera from a charity shop in Bromley, if memory recalls, it also came in its box. So, we’ve solved the problem where I would be lacking a camera but alas we still had the issue with my film.

I really didn’t believe that ISO 400 would be enough, so I pushed the film. I rated the film in-camera at ISO 800 and wrote all over the canister in Sharpie so that whoever developed the film couldn’t be mistaken. The Canon EOS 3000 uses Canon EF lenses so I used the only two I had. The shots on this blog post were taken with wither a Canon EF 28mm f1.8 lens or a Canon EF 50mm f1.8 lens. You may notice that this blog post is a bit video heavy. The two videos at the top are from the Cardboard Cut-Outs gigs (the top being the first and the bottom being the second) and the video under the photographs is just a short one that I found on my computer that has nothing at all really to do with this blog post. There are eleven photographs and if you’ve been reading the post up to now you will realise that they are all in black and white.

There are a few more blog posts coming up, another gig post, a wedding and a few more. I have been busy recently, I’m going to go to sleep now, but, hopefully this ability to actually sit down and write will carry on into tomorrow and I’ll be able to delve into those short scripts I slightly abandoned. Hope you enjoy the photos.

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.

Music Photography | Adventure Starts Tomorrow.

Last week was a busy one. With a combination of me trying to keep myself busy photographic wise, getting a job as an unpaid intern and also meeting up with friends. I have had days with two or three things happening, keeping my rushing all over the place.

Saturday was no different. In the morning I kicked myself out of bed and got up to Kings Cross, after being there for a few hours I spent some time travelling around London by bus because of how much I like long bus journeys. I then went to Bromley to attend a birthday BBQ of my friend Steve, for all of twenty minutes, because then I had to get to a pub called the Dirty South in Lewisham. I was used to this pub because I have photographed quite a few bands there in the past.

And on Saturday I was photographing a new band called Adventure Starts Tomorrow. The band consists of Stephen Russell on vocals, Ian Murrock on bass and backing vocals, Lewis Parrish-Hills on guitar and Kaya Moulla on drums. This was their first gig and in my opinion it went really well. I was happy with the shots that I achieved during their performance and there are a few group shots that are being planned for the near future. I know this band because my good friend Andrew Murrock’s older brother is the bass player for the band and he and I get along pretty well.

With my band photography I tend to use the camera in full manual. By this I mean I control the exposure, ISO and even the focusing. I do this because when I started band photography I found that because of the lighting used at gigs the camera with either over-expose the image or not be able to focus on a band member due to the low light and the movement of the band member.

Because I knew I would be writing this blog post I checked what my camera would do in full automatic [less the flash] to give an example of camera functionality when using automatic rather than manual. My camera at ISO 3200 wanted to make an exposure of almost a second at f2.8 and it focused on a microphone stand because that was the only solitary object in the area reflecting enough light. But I [using manual] was able to get a photograph with an exposure of a 60^th of a second at f2.8. Allowing me to get photographs that weren’t just people flying across the stage in a blur. Another reason I do this is because most of the time I loathe using flash. Unless I’m at a wedding or event where it is required, but in other situations I can’t stand it. It makes an image look fake in my opinion, especially with gig photos, but obviously there are times where it can look good, you just have to use your own personal judgement. Another good thing about using your camera manually, you get a feel for your camera and find that you are able to use it a lot faster. Being able to get acquainted with your camera by shooting gigs in manual helps a lot when you are photographing a wedding and need to think on your feet.

Speaking of weddings the shots from the wedding I did last week will probably be going up next week and this Saturday I have another wedding to do. As you can see I’m keeping myself very busy.

I especially like the Dirty South pub because I was also able to get some shots for an ongoing project that I have had going on for a few years. But I will cover that in another post at another time. Oh, another tip for gig photography is that you want a lens with a low aperture. Preferably one with an f stop of f2.8 or lower. To be honest I see f2.8 as the highest you should have. This is because the lower the number the more light can get in and the faster your shots will be, which, if you tend to photograph without flash like me, is great.

At the end of this post I have included eleven photographs from the gig at the Dirty South on Saturday. All these photographs were taken with a Canon EOS 50D in full manual, using the Sigma 18-50 f2.8 lens. This lens is good for all purpose photography because of the standard zoom range and the fact that it is f2.8 throughout the zoom range. Under the photographs I have placed links to the bands websites so that if you want to have a listen you can.

Myspace
http://www.myspace.com/adventurestartstomorrow

Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/pages/Adventure-Starts-Tomorrow/145704142115602?v=info