Just for a bit of fun I formatted everything in 16:9 with added Cinemascope bars (measured and spaced correctly, thank you very much!) and went for a cinematic processing style. Let me know what you think!
Eight days of family holiday within short driving distance of home was ideal for lots of hikes and visits to some stunning places. Even though we had the car I decided against any of the larger cameras and took only my EOS M with me. Together with a Gorillapod it really did everything I needed and most importantly did not give my family the feeling that they are secondary to photography... Just for a bit of fun I formatted everything in 16:9 with added Cinemascope bars (measured and spaced correctly, thank you very much!) and went for a cinematic processing style. Let me know what you think!
2 Comments
Ignite produced some really awesome music but hasn't really been actively writing for a long time. Seeing them live is an experience for itself and I was glad that I had the chance to meet them for a couple of promo shots before the gig. Unfortunately Zoli (vocals) wasn't really feeling up to it and so we made do with the wall of the parking lot opposite the venue: The show started off with the most excellent Morphine Pilgrims who I had not heard before. I went on stage before their set to sort out pictures and glanced at their setlist - it seemed really long (14 songs or so) and I asked them how long they would play for. When they replied that it would be about 30 minutes I already knew this was going to be cool - and they didn't disappoint! Excellent and fast hard punk... right up my alley! Download their music here - it's free! Bloodshed Remains and Tigerblood brought more hardcore music to the mix and certainly warmed up the crowd before Ignite hit the stage. Ignite were just brilliant. Zoli really engaged with the crowd a lot during each song and they played some of my favourites such as Bleeding and Veteran, so there was definitely nothing to complain about except it ending! Loved every minute of it! I have read countless lists, guides, dos and don'ts and how tos of concert photography and I have to tell you, I'm getting a little sick of them. So I decided to write a short guide on how to write one of the aforementioned guides. Hope it helps.
Basic principle: when you are writing your guide, continue to ask yourself "why or why not?" for every point you make. If the only reasons you can come up with are "that's not the way I learned how to do it" or "that's not good form", you need to expand your horizons rather than trying to limit others'. 1. Don't make your guide into a rant about what is wrong with the scene and then try to hide it by stating "this is not the professional way". An example for this: the amount of photographers complaining about young people with entry level cameras shooting for free is just incredible. So there are loads of people who shoot for free, me included sometimes. Deal with it. 2. When talking about equipment, be open minded. I have read the "don't bring a point and shoot camera into the pit" line so many times but I don't understand - why not? If I have credentials to shoot the show, I can shoot with whatever equipment I damn well please. I have some friends who shoot better pictures with their non-professional non-DSLR equipment than many photographers can hope to achieve. 3. Pit etiquette: simple. Smile, be friendly and think about what you are doing. A little consideration goes a long way. However, please don't list all the "bad" things you don't like other people doing. Sometimes, flash is OK! Raising your camera over your head is OK if it doesn't get in someone else's shot! Climbing the rigging is OK if the band and security are cool with it! The list goes on. 4. Remember that the end result is what counts. You can only decide whether a shot is good or not for yourself. You may not like it, but that slightly out of focus shot with a strange crop and 5 standard Lightroom processing filters could be a hit on Facebook. Being bitter about that isn't going to get you anywhere. Here's a picture I took at a gig just because I can't have a blog post without one. Faces aren't really visible, there isn't a particular focus point, it's heavily processed and there isn't stage context that makes it immediately recognizable. But I like it. So there. Virginia Ernst is flying high at the moment - on #2 of the OE3 charts for the second week running, performing all over the place and having had multiple television interviews recently. I went to see her sing at Sand In The City in the heart of Vienna and was happy to bring her together with my friends from Archetype Apparel so that she could become part of the Family Of Sirs... I am really looking forward to seeing more of Virginia - she has an incredible amount of energy and drive, more talent than a person should have, and an infectious smile! Stay tuned for more from her including new promo shots for her upcoming video! In terms of lighting I was really cursing because they use those red and blue LED batteries of hexagonal lights. I detest those lights. However, they seem to be inexpensive and last long, so I can understand that venue owners invest in them. I guess catering to the live photographer is not their business... apparently the paying audience takes priority!
Holiday with the family at the beach in Venice as well as a business trip to Washington DC made for a few photo opportunities with my beloved little EOS M. Of course I also had to ensure I would continue the great tradition of taking an Archetype Apparel picture wherever I travel... The trip back to the Lido after a heavy rain shower allowed for a few quick pics from the boat: The Washington Monument was the backdrop I wanted for my Archetype picture, so a place at the Lincoln Memorial was found for this shot: We went up the Washington Monument later on and I took a pic out of each side, facing the Lincoln Memorial, the White House, the Capitol and the Jefferson Memorial in turn. We were kicked out a little early from the top since a thunderstorm was approaching and the Washington Monument regularly gets hit by lightning...
Plagues of Pandora has an endorsement deal with Archetype Apparel so pictures which could also double as the band promo were needed. They really wanted an urban setting and some wide angles so we met up for a quick shoot among some of Vienna's newest buildings. The sun had just disappeared behind one of the apartment blocks but it still was quite bright so I had to go full power on my Speedlites. I added orange gels to the backlights and initially wanted to hide them behind the band members but the look of having them visible came out quite nice so we were happy to use it. With this first picture I used HDR which I normally don't for this kind of stuff, but hey - worth a try! My favourite from the session is from a different angle and processed by adding structure only to the sky and putting a light fog filter on it. All in all a fun and fast shoot and everyone is quite happy with the results!
First of all I need to admit that Gini's music is not exactly my usual fare and I do need a dose of Mastodon to make me feel like my testosterone levels are not dropping too far. However, she does have an absolutely amazing voice and friends of ours saw she would be performing live so I offered to shoot the gig. It was totally great. I am so impressed with how good her voice sounds live and I can really see why her new single is being played on numerous radio stations and the video is being shown all over the place! Check it out here. Anyway, just LED lighting in red, magenta and blue at the Cafe Carina, so I had to mess about with the levels a lot and convert to black and white to get something useful, but in the end I got some nice shots: I had met Markus at a wheelchair rugby training session and he expressed interest in having me take some pictures of him on the tennis court - a little while later we sorted out this session in the early evening of a very sunny day - not the easiest conditions to shoot in but luckily one of the courts had a bit of shade. I had wanted to shoot a dramatic sports portrait as well as some more friendly ones, so I needed to overpower the ambient light with flash. The thing I was most worried about at the beginning was dealing with the shadows the wheelchair would probably throw when I shot flash at it. In the end that actually turned out to be easy compared to ensuring the tennis racket would be in the right place so as not to throw strange patterns! A completely different look came about by just changing the angle and tweaking the settings a little: Of course we also wanted some more friendly shots and a couple of action shots, so I moved around a little and also changed the editing in order not to have them look so harsh and sharp: Definitely fun for me and something I would love to repeat! Not sure I am interested in action sports photography but sports portraits look like they could be something to expand into as they are similar to music promo pictures!
I was asked to shoot Coronary's EP releaseshow and so a dose of death metal was on the cards! My old pals Catastrofear were to open what was a night amongst friends and family with Adamon further warming up the crowd before Coronary came on. Incredible what this three-piece can do with just one guitar and no bass! OK, OK - I know what you're thinking. Flamenco? Not exactly what Sherv gets up to most of the time... well - there's a first time for everything! La Guita Flamenco - www.flamenco-wien.at - had a performance set up with a Spanish troupe at the Theater am Spittelberg in Vienna and I was asked to take care of capturing it photographically. There were two people making video of the whole thing as well but both had set up straight in front of the very small stage and so were limited in their angles. Luckily I was able to move around. It took me a little while to get into it and understand when to expect exciting movements but once I got the hang of it I think I got some good shots: What I learned about Flamenco: boy are these dancers fit! And they can make the room shake with the vibrations of their stamping feet! Even though it's not exactly my kind of music I must say I was really impressed.
|
My Photoblog
Just a place to log my photographic activities and share some thoughts. Archives
November 2015
Categories
All
|