The Widowbirds opened for Ash Grunwald at The Metro earlier this month. I really enjoyed their set: a great stripped-back feel and sweeeet sounds

Settings

ISO 2000-2500, f/2.8, 1/80-1/100 s

Excuses

As you can see from the settings, this was high ISO work. But you know what? I didn’t CARE. The light had a great quality (for the central performers at least), with some simple front-lighting (YES! FRONT-LIGHT!) and colourful washes behind. Simples.

More photos

Check out the full set of photos from the night here.

The Preachers warmed up the crowd for Black Cab at the Oxford Art Factory last week, and I feel like they deserve a blog post of their own given how much I loved their bluesy, folky, stomping sounds.

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Settings

ISO 1000-2000, f/2.8, 1/100-1/125 s

Excuses

The stage was mostly lit with the Christmassy combination of primary red and green, which, other than seriously freaking out my camera’s white balance setting, is not the most flattering colour pairing in today’s world. But hey, this is rock and roll. You’ll see that things actually got so bad at one point that I pulled out the ol’ black and white card! Ohhh yes, Jamie takes the easy way out!! How about that??!! Meh.

More photos

Check out the full set of photos from the night here.

So here is a picture of a kitten in birthday paper:

You’re welcome.

Black Cab drew quite a crowd to the Oxford Art Factory last Friday, in which were some very dedicated fans. Shooting conditions weren’t great, but the atmosphere was buzzin’

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Settings

ISO 800-2000, f/2.8, 1/80-1/125

Excuses

I had certain expectations for the lighting, given what I’d seen on previous nights. But unfortunately expectations often lead to disappointments. In this particular instance, the blue nature of Black Cab’s music was matched by blue colour washes throughout most of the set.

More photos

Check out the full set including support acts The Preachers and The Prayer Circle here.

This mini festival has to have one of the best names, and I was lucky enough to be asked by Blunt Magazine to shoot the action. The Annandale Hotel has a cunning setup, whereby each of their two stages faces the other at opposite ends of the room; when one band has finished playing, all the punters have to do is spin around 180 and the next band is go! One of these stages was lit with the usual vividly-coloured LED mumbo jumbo and the other with very dim house lighting which required a flash. The event was headlined by Melbournites Mid Youth Crisis, so most of my shots were of them. Anyway enough waffle, here are some of my favourites.

Settings

Every setting under the sun! But something like ISO 1600, f/2.8 and ~1/125 for the available light stuff.

Excuses

The un-lit stage was, without question, speedlite domain. I had no trouble with my 580EX II mounted on the hot shoe with the catch card up. The other stage called for the usual treatment of high ISO and clipping colour channels In any case it was good enough to get the shots!

More photos

Check out the full set here.

Ash Grunwald put on a pretty relaxed show at The Metro on Friday. I was loving the drummer-at-one-side-of-the-stage-and-junk-percussionist-at-the-other setup. And the dirty heavy bluesy sounds weren’t too bad either

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Settings

ISO 500-1600, f/2.8, ~1/125 s

Excuses

This was one of those odd occasions where the support acts actually had better lighting than the headliner. The main event was mostly lit from above and behind, with the only front-light being centre-stage where ‘Ash’ spent little of his time. Having said that, the average light level was high, the colours were groovy and it could have been much worse!

More photos

Check out the full set including support acts Jordie Lane and The Widowbirds here.

The Snowdroppers were on before the Hell City Glamours at the Oxford Art Factory last week. I became an instant fan of their foot-stomping awesomeness. Here are the photos…

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Settings

ISO 800-1600, f/2.8, ~1/100 s

Excuses

The set was pretty much lit with primary red and blue LED washes, which isn’t great for image quality but produced pleasing enough results

More photos

Check out the full set of photos from the night here.

The Oxford Art Factory (OAF) is one of central Sydney’s most important live music venues (although I’m sure that can be said of many places). Great acts, great sound and a great atmosphere, even if getting the shots means being in the mosh pit.

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Settings

ISO 800-2000, f/2.8, ~1/100 s

Excuses

Lighting for this one was certainly colourful, mainly LED washes. Can’t complain really, although it was a challenge for the 50D; just had to run these photo through hefty noise reduction.

More photos

Check out the full set including support acts The Snowdroppers and The Rumjacks here.

Well, it looks like I’m back in the saddle shooting gigs again!  Thanks to a couple of great Aussie online music communities (namely FasterLouder and MusicFeeds) there’s a steady stream of gigs to cover, mostly in cramped and badly lit bars.  Where better to hone one’s skills?

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Settings

ISO 1250, f/2.8, ~1/100 s

Excuses

DIM RED LIGHTS! AAAH!

More photos

Check out the full set including support acts Step-Panther and The Upskirts here.