Shooting my first music gigs with the Leica M10 and Sony A7
This year I got the opportunity to shoot my first music gig at my local live music venue, The Gallery. I have taken the odd candid shot of street musicians before but having the chance to photograph a whole gig was something was something that I had wanted to try out for a while.
This year I got the opportunity to shoot my first music gig at my local live music venue, The Gallery. I have taken the odd candid shot of street musicians before but having the chance to photograph a whole gig was something was something that I had wanted to try out for a while.
The act were a cockney singalong band called “Harmonica Lewinsky”. They performed a range of classic cockney knees-up tunes and Chas & Dave covers.
I used the Leica M10 with 28mm & 50mm lenses as well as the Sony A7 with an 85mm. Having the ability to freely move around the venue let me bring out all the strengths of these focal lengths and provided a nice mix of perspectives. Being a small venue however, I was always conscious of being in people’s way, so I tried to stay discrete and take as many pictures as I could from the front row seat that I had been given.
One thing I would have done differently after reviewing the images, is ask the lead singer to lose the portable fan attached to his microphone for a couple of songs. It bothered me at the time, and I know the full body shots of him would have looked a lot nicer without the fan covering his lovely guitar.
A couple of months later I brought my camera to a gig by the band “Missing the Ferry”. It was another great night at The Gallery, with the packed house signing along to Irish folk tunes. I tried to capture the jovial spirit in my informal photos, which the band were very appreciative of and ended up sharing on their social media.
I enjoyed trying my hand at music gig photography and need to find some more small venues to give it another go.
Capturing the people of the Diamond Jubilee with inspiration from HCB
The Queen celebrated her monumental Diamond Jubilee this Summer after 70 years on the throne. I am not a huge royralist but I am a big fan of watching the country come together once every few years to celebrate something positive, so decided to grab my Sony A7 and trusty 55mm Zeiss Sonnar F1.8 ZA lens and head out on the first morning of the festivities to see what I could find.
The Queen celebrated her monumental Diamond Jubilee this Summer after 70 years on the throne. I am not a huge royralist but I am a big fan of watching the country come together once every few years to celebrate something positive, so decided to grab my Sony A7 and trusty 55mm Zeiss Sonnar F1.8 ZA lens and head out on the first morning of the festivities to see what I could find.
Like every other street photographer on the planet, I am often inspired to go out and shoot by looking at the work of the godfather of street photography, Henri Cartier-Bresson. While on the train that morning though, it was one of his images that I had in mind most for what I would look for that day.
When sent to London in 1937 to document the coronation of King George VI, Henri decided to turn around and record the people watching this even rather than the procession and parade itself driving past behind him. What that gave us was this striking image of a crowd of working class Londoners of the time lining up to get a glimpse of The Royals and one bloke sleeping through it all.
85 years later, I left the house hoping to capture something similair.
”Trooping of the Colour” was the main event of this Thursday bank holiday. I got up early and followed the crowds to The Mall to find a good spot near the Palace. Many people had been camping overnight to secure their place at the front but I wasn’t concerned about a good view of the parade anyway.
There were already lots of TV reporters and crew when I arrived, interviewing different people there about their thoughts on the day. I think the abundance of TV cameras, press photographers and smart phones put everyone at ease and allowed me to get close to people.
I later looked further into Cartier-Bresson’s photographs from this day as well as his coverage from the 1977 Silver Jubilee and was surprised to find so many similarities of the images that I captured all those years later.
I guess for as many things that chance, there as just as many that stay the same.