WFK Benefit gig Jan 2012

WFK Benefit gig Jan 2012, a set on Flickr.

I haven't done one of these for a while. My friends from the band 'Waiting for Katherine' asked me to cover a local charity gig for them. They were playing to raise money for the Winstons Wish charity which supports bereaved children and their families. The lighing was pretty tricky at the venue which was a local school, but a great time was had by all!
http://www.waitingforkatherine.com/
Winstons Wish

Le Monnier Promo shoot

Le Monnier Promo shoot, a set on Flickr.

Ok this is my first commisioned photoshoot, and I was extremely nervous. A local band, Le Monnier, had asked me to shoot som promo shots for them. This came about after seeing some photos of them performing live at my local music venue, The Horn, in St. Albans. Why nervous, well this is the first time I had to be responsible for images soley for other people. I didn't know the band personally, and I didn't know what their expectations were. Another reason for my nervousness was my woeful efforts at practising with my family, as you can see on my flickr photostream.

I asked my stepson, James, to come along and assist. This was a smart move as he was keen, and was an extremely capable helper! We met up with the band in a pub in Welwyn Garden City, and short of a location we asked the landlord if we could borrow the function room to do the shoot. This is a music venue called The Green Room. The band is a rock power trio. Alex is the singer and bass player, Matt is guitarist, and Josh then man on drum. So we got started. There were few oportunities for plain backgrounds in the room, as it is decorated with garish cuban comic style depictions of music paraphenalia. However the was a corner with plain black walls, which is where we started. A quick funble with gear to get around a wireless trigger problem, and we started shooting the first group shots. This were ok, but the background was distracting, with a grill, and mismatched colours. A slight turn around, and we got some face on head shots of the band. Next we moved over to a fire escape, which gave some scope for the band to stretch out a bit and get more relaxed. The next group shots we tried some mixed stitting and standing poses, but these were not too sucessful.

To round off I took some individual shots of each of the band.

Overall I am happy with my first go, but there are some mistakes I would want to correct next time. The biggest one is look for shadows. Some of the shots have glaring shadows where I used just the one strobe. A reflector would have filled in the dark areas just enough. Secondly I think I should have been clearer about what poses I wanted the band to try, even to the extent of demonstrating. Thirdly, do more practice beforehand.

On the whole I really enjoyed the experience. The band were wonderful, and put up with my bumbling lack of experience with good grace, and with my bad jokes even more. Would I do more shoots like this? Yes like a shot! I am quite please with the results, despite being accused of being overly self critical. I hope the band like the images I took, and I would like to say again a massive thank you to them for the photoshoot, and of course to James for being my very able assistant for the afternoon!

A beginner shoots a gig part 2 - after

Ok post gig round up.

Mistakes I made. Setting the ISO too low. I was shooting at iso1600 to begin with. Consequently my shutter speed was at around 1/40 or slower. Lots of blur for the first band, which is a shame as they were very good. I managed to salvage some of the slight movement ones by mono’ing them. Hides a multitude of sins, bish, bash, bosh. Job done.
Next mistake. Not checking the state of my lens. After about an hour, lots of lens smear. Anecdotally I think this was affecting the speed of my auto focus. Might be a load of nonsense, but when I cleaned the lens (for once having a cleaning cloth with me. More by luck than judgement) the autofocus seemed to me to be a lot more responsive.
Next Mistake: Not being ballsy enough. First couple of bands I was being nice and polite, swapping places with other photographers, so they could get my vantage point, trying not to get in the way of the fans (being over six foot tall, this is not always easy). Second band on had lots of fans up close and personal, and I was worried about a) upsetting them, and b) damaging my lens. By the third band all this went out the window, and I was weaving amongst the moshers, avoiding getting crushed by failing crowdsurfers, and knealing in a manner of spilt alcohol, getting those attractive up nostril shots.
Last notable mistake: not getting to talk to the bands. This is difficult on these shows where there are lots of bands on in short succession. You could be having a great chat with the musicians only to realise the next band are nearly through their set. I always try and track down the bands in the following days, and most tend to be on facebook. If I can I share a set from flickr. This is cool for me it’s quite gratifying when people give you good feedback, and the bands are often pleased to get photos from the gig to use on their pages, websites etc.

What has been nice at these gigs is some others taking photographers chatting asking advice (are they crazy, I don’t know anything, hahaha), comparing equipment etc. Photographers can be a lonesome species, even in the staid confines of local clubs, they tend to sit in uncomfortable church hall chairs, staring unblinking at a succession of images of steam trains and cut flowers, never actually talking about photography (oh no drifting into a rant, yikes, forgive me).

Well before this post meanders to far from it’s source, lets divert it quickly to it’s destination. I really enjoy gig photography. You get to hear lots of new music, some good, some great, some not so polished. I have a picture going into a local paper (apparently, although I don’t have any evidence of this), another photographer/promoter has given me a website credit on the band they promote, and another of the band has asked if I would like to help them do some promo shots.

If you love music, have a go, see what you can do. Above all else don’t get despondent if you get a lot of blurred photos. I delete far more than I can use.

Go and have fun with it!!