Thursday 20 October 2011

06

It's been a while.

Last Friday I ventured into Kilburn armed with my camera, the address of a music venue and a vague idea of a band who were playing there. It turns out that they, Hero and Leander, were really cool - ear plugs were not required. The venue was nice (albeit not exactly accessible... I'd like to mention here how accomodating everyone was, both the band and the staff at The Good Ship) and Kilburn was not nearly as violent as its name might suggest (unfortunately, anytime I refer to it, I accidentally exaggerate the pronunciation and so it becomes Kill-Burn).

It was my first time taking photos of musicians and as suiting as the lighting was for such an event, it was difficult from a photographic point of view. You end up with a catch-22 of wanting a low ISO and fast shutter speed in order to crisply catch the action, yet needing a high ISO and relatively low shutter speed so as to actually allow light into the camera. As a result, the images I captured were more grainy than I'd hoped, not to mention the noticeable blur. Oh, and while I'm being critical, I think I need an eye test. Seriously, my focus is way out most of the time... even using auto-focus! But I digress. The next time I am in a low-light/event situation, I'm going to try using my 50mm 1.8 lens. This would mean trading zoom for a wider aperture, but it's a worth-while one, I think. Plus it would be so much lighter/discreet.

Anyway, a few of the photos:





 When I arrived home, I downloaded their EP from itunes (no idea why I even use itunes when the only apples I have reside in the fruit bowl).

Here, go see:


 In other news, I cannot stop saying awesome. The strange thing is, I lived with an American for many years and did not utter it once... now though, now I am unstoppable. A British alternative is urgently required. 

Super? Jolly good? Bloody marvellous?

Or, maybe not British, even. 

Bravo! Magnifique!

I don't know, suggestions please.

6 comments:

  1. I've always been partial to 'brilliant', in a nice British accent. It lends itself to a variety of nuances, depending on the exact shade of meaning you're going for. :)

    Very nice pics! I definitely know what you mean about wrestling with the lighting and camera settings. Could you have used flash, or was that frowned upon? I'm not sure if you're a Canon or Nikon shooter, but did you see the new dSLR Canon just announced? It's in their top-of-the-line 1D series, so it will cost like US$7k, but it has a native ISO range of 100-51200. Can you imagine? On my 50D I can use up to ISO 1250 or so before the noise starts getting beyond what I like. Even if 51200 is ugly, imagine if you had a usable ISO 12800 or even 25600.. I want!

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  2. Haha - flash was frowned upon only by me :) I just don't like it, and am not even sure how to use it as a result. Maybe I will play around and see. I like the effect of those external flashes (the ones that you can bounce!) in some situations, but talk about add extra baggage to the camera bag. And expense :/ Speaking of which, 7k! And that's in $ too. Wow. Time to start playing the lottery...

    If it has a usable ISO of 12800, I cannot imagine where they could go next in terms of upgrading! The would definitely be brilliant, awesomely so. I very recently upgraded to the 60D and am still trying to get my head around it but am getting there. These band shots, my ISO was 3200. Used a little bit of noise reduction but the noise at 3200 is better than my 450D at 1600!

    By the way, what do you use to read blogs?

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  3. Oh yes, it's been leaps and bouns. I started with a 350D and hated using even ISO 800. With the 50D 1600 isn't bad for screen and small prints, but I still avoid it if I can. :) Have you done much/any video with the 60D? I'm hoping to upgrade to the 5D Mk III when it comes out--full frame and video would just be awesome! I hope the crazy-high ISO of the 1D X makes it into the 5D3!

    External flash is definitely a worthwhile investment. I have a 430EX II and love it. Bouncing the light makes a huge difference, and a cheap set of radio triggers makes using it off-camera pretty simple too.

    I've found Google Reader works fine as a simple blog reader, so that's where I spend a good deal of my online time these days. :) It doesn't preserve the prettiness of the source blogs, but for taking in the content it works.

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  5. Saw this and thought of you! http://www.photoanswers.co.uk/News/Search-Results/Product-News/Canon-EOS-1D-X-Previewed-at-Canon-Pro-Solutions-2011/

    Still cannot imagine that ISO heh. I see the estimated UK price tag is £5300.

    I'm excited to see how you find your upgrade when it happens :)

    I think external flash will be on my wishlist after a macro lens. The one you mention is what I've read about and it looks good. Does it add much weight/size to the camera? I've not seen one offline as yet.

    You know, I've not even looked at video yet. To be honest, I'd rather have paid less for the body and not had the video feature but I'm sure I'll have some fun with it when I get around to it :)

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  6. I should probably apologize, the overuse of awesome may be partially due to me. I used that word so excessively it should be banned!!

    And, the debate on grain in pictures is long standing. I think it really enhances some of them, especially the first two on hear, it almost created vignetting around the main objects, in this case, your singers. And, of course now I will have to check them out, being the music junkie I am...and you have never led me astray!!!

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