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Cannonball Ride, Napalm Death, Hatebreed

27/2/2014

Cannonball Ride cordially requested my presence at their first gig in 2014, where they would be opening for Napalm Death and Hatebreed - I couldn't really say no, now could I? A short trip to Linz ensued where I had arranged to do promo with Napalm Death before the show so my time was certainly well spent!

A quick aside regarding ND: I believe the last time I saw them live was in 1992 together with Obituary, performing at the Rockhaus in Vienna. I do remember enjoying it extremely from the front row. I got even closer this time!

So. Posthof Linz turns out to be quite a cool venue - probably because it houses all kinds of performances and it therefore has to be kept in good nick for the non-metal performers... anyway, the smaller hall has a gallery running around it and I thought that would lend itself to some shots. Two Speedlites aimed up from the ground level (gallery was at about 5 metres height) and one Speedlite behind the band as hair/rim light.

On to the show itself. I am cursing myself at this point for not having looked for and spoken to the lighting technician. There was ZERO frontlighting for Cannonball Ride and Napalm Death. Cannonball Ride was basically smoke and backlighting, Napalm Death skipped the smoke. Hmph. Anyway, in the vein of making something of nothing, I did a lot of processing on the pictures to get to something I could use:

During Hatebreed suddenly the lights came on, so I got some more standard stuff during their set:

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Seiler Live @ Red Box Mödling

20/2/2014

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Christopher Seiler is quickly gaining in popularity in the Austrian comedy scene. He has recently been very present on YouTube with his Horvath character and also has produced a couple of episodes in a series called Schichtwechsel. Shooting stand-up was something new for me, especially since movement is extremely restricted in order to allow the seated audience to enjoy the show. Even the clicking of the camera can be disruptive so I had to make sure I was not shooting the whole time. I ended up using the EOS M from my seat in the front row as well as from either side of the stage and the 5DIII with a 70-200 from the back of the venue and the lighting balcony.

EOS M, ISO 800, 22mm, f/2.8, 1/100s, as shot in the camera (jpg) - no processing.

The show was brilliant - even more so than I had expected and I found myself having difficulty concentrating on photography at times... some of the pictures had to be thrown out due to motion blur caused by me laughing...

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International X-Over Night @ ((szene))

18/2/2014

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Running order: Rumpelstilz, No Silence For Sale, Time For Pride, Coffeeshock Company, Defrage

An interesting lineup for this Boo-Kings event and my friends from Time For Pride made this an evening not to be missed. Saw some cool new stuff, especially from Time For Pride who have re-invented themselves and are going in a heavier direction (just the way I like it)!

Coffeeshock Company is another act that really needs to be seen - multiple languages and styles combined on stage to a great show that delivers fun all the way!

One of the more difficult shows to shoot at ((szene)) - apparently there was someone new on lighting... I cranked ISO up all the way but still had difficulty getting well lit shots since the frontlights were extremely dim. Will have to bring a bribe with me next time...

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Iced Earth @ ((szene)) Vienna

7/2/2014

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Now I may have said this before, but Iced Earth is one of my favourite bands of all time. They were in Vienna playing at Stadthalle opening for Volbeat back in November (blog post here), released their new Album "Plagues of Babylon" just a few weeks ago and are now back on a Worldwide tour presenting it. As always, this is a date I simply cannot miss, so I got together with them for some pre-show hanging out, an interview which I did for GuitarMania and of course photos of the entire show. They were recording video for two songs prior to soundcheck and there was a video team present throughout the sold-out show, so things were a little hectic and cramped but still it was a great one! Shame the stage at ((szene)) is simply too small for this wonderful band though!

I did have time to do an interview with Jon Schaffer for GuitarMania before the show - you can find it here.

It's great when I have time to "hang" with everyone before and after the show because I am able to get some behind the scenes pictures. I tend to use the EOS M for this kind of stuff as it is small and unobtrusive, which helps people to forget that there is a photographer around. Also it allows me to move a lot more freely than lugging the big camera with me. I like the 35mm equivalent and the 16:9 ratio and tend to go to black and white in order to get a more documentary feel for the pictures.

Try to find the most heavy metal hairbrushing picture ever in there!

Iced Earth laid it down as they always do: a well-thought out and perfectly rehearsed setlist which combined some classics with the new stuff and allowed fans to sing along all the way. The crowd having been warmed up by Elm Street and Warbringer was ready when Iced Earth hit the stage and went straight into Plagues of Babylon, the title track of their newest album. It was quickly followed by Democide and Dark Saga before going into a brilliant rendition of V during which I could barely concentrate on taking pictures (but did get this one:)

The rest of the show is a blur - it passed by too quickly and every song was just genius. It was quite loud for ((szene)) but the sound was clear and good. Stu Block singing If I Could See You is really unbelievable - his voice is so versatile and perfectly suited to hit a ballad between the heavier songs. He also brings across an incredible amount of emotion - this is not just some guy rattling off the words but rather someone who clearly has personal ties to these songs.

Cthulhu saw the first load of smoke blasts go up (the rest came at the end) and A Question of Heaven closed up the main set. The encore was a strong three songs: Dystopia, Watching Over Me (wow!) and of course the classic ending to every one of their gigs: Iced Earth. The capacity crowd loved every minute of it and so did I!

Below are a couple of shots, a few more here in the archive - I took a lot more but they are with the band now for future release.

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Yammer Profile Pics

5/2/2014

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Yammer is a Private Social Network for enterprises and was acquired in 2012 by Microsoft. As such, with integration running and a strong sales motion to get customers using Yammer, the marketing team in Austria set up "Yammertime" (see what they did there?) and as part of it asked me to take some fun profile pics of anyone who showed up.

I wanted to mess about with the lighting in order to get a blue effect going as the Yammer logo is on a blue background, so I set up my camera to white balance for a red gel I held in front of the lens as a test shot. I then gelled two flashes (key and fill) red and gelled a third (back / hair light) blue.

I used the Sigma 15mm 2.8 fisheye for most pictures and had the Canon 50mm 1.4 on for some more standard angles. All shots were pretty much taken at f/3.5, 1/200s and ISO 400. They were taken in RAW and looked great on the camera screen when rendered, however Lightroom was not able to process them the way I had shot them - I didn't realize that Lightroom's interpretation of Canon RAW is not perfect and thus I had to mess about a lot with the settings until I got something that I wanted to keep.

Anyway, had some fun taking them and luckily it seems everyone is happy with their new profile pics! Here are a couple of them:

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Cannonball Ride, Napalm Death, Hatebreed

Seiler Live @ Red Box Mödling

International X-Over Night @ ((szene))

Iced Earth @ ((szene)) Vienna

Yammer Profile Pics

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