Categories: Photography, Music, lionsmane.co.uk, 3D Modelling, Computing
Now Showing: Photography 
22 February 2010
Cymbals Eat Guitars
Cymbals Eat Guitars @ Start the Bus, Bristol (18/02/2010)
Just a quick little post to stick up a photo or two of the undeniably entertaining Cymbals Eat Guitars.
Was a really fun little gig. Pretty brutal on the ears, but with all the smile inducing antics on display I didn’t particularly care. At £2.50 for the night, it’s the only ticket I’ve got recently that can compete with The Antlers on the price to enjoyment ratio front, but it didn’t quite reach the giddy highs of that night for me. Still… fun fun band.
Photography wise the lighting was abysmal, and my position in the crowd was hardly ideal, but as you may notice, I had a new camera and lens combination to deal with whatever was thrown at me. I’ve spent a stupid quantity of money and moved over to a Canon kit; the lack of future potential in Pentax was freaking me out a little. I’m sure I’ll do some sort of camera comparison in an upcoming post. The lens was a borrowed Sigma 30mm f1.4, which I’m currently adoring in a similar way to my previously unbeatable Pentax-M 50mm f1.7: Newsflash – auto focus and metering can actually be useful!
Posted by matt at 23:47
04 February 2010
Ragfest 2010
Ragfest 2010 was the first instance of a hopefully long running student music festival taking place in the University of Bristol student union. I got in to take some photographs courtesy of the wonderful Photosoc.
I spent the evening switching between the two stages and seperately between my film and digitial cameras. Overall I’m reasonably pleased with the results and will undoubtedly slip a couple of shots into the online portfolio I am currently creating.
It really has highlighted however the limitations of my setup. With the low light in one of the rooms, my cameras manual focus (without the wonderful full frame viewfinders of old) and poor high ISO performance gave me little chance of the shots I was really searching for.
Even the shoot and hope technique of hitting the shutter button an overly large number of times wasn’t easy as my camera can really only take a couple of shots before the buffer runs out of space and I have to wait age for it to empty.
You can see an example of what I achieved in low light with the breakdancing shot above which I was vaugly pleased with – but it took a million and one terrible shots to get a shot like that. The black & white was also a necessity in order to mask as much of the noise as possible.
I guess it’s time for a new camera!
Posted by matt at 17:41
25 January 2010
Lens Pornography
I’m a fan of well organised databases of information; having a Flickr standard account was never an option for me, as having a pro account was the only way I could have an infinite number of sets of photos. In my sad geeky nature, I have created an individual set for each item of photography equipment I use. But what to use as the thumbnail shot for such a set? Well a photo of the actual item itself seemed the most logical option to me, so I set about taking photos of all of my equipment.
Now without putting in too much effort I wanted to give these photos are more professional edge; just shoving the photo under a lamp on my desk was hardly going to give the photos any merit in their own right. As such I came up with shooting them as seen in the picture above. Here are some steps to follow:
- Find an area (such as a window sill) that gets lots of good light and has a vertical and horizontal surface so that you can fill the frame with just these two surfaces.
- Sellotape up a few pieces of plain white paper to the background surfaces.
- Shoot some photos with some form of close focusing lens when the light is good.
- Overexpose and set a high contrast to make the lens look great whilst blowing out any detail in the paper.
- Feel satisfied with the result:
Posted by matt at 20:50
21 December 2009
Shooting film in Graz.
Happily coinciding with a trip to visit a friend living in Austria for a year, I received a Pentax MX I bought off ebay. My first rolls of film therefore we’re all shot in and around the city of Graz, covered in snow.
The trip overall was great; really got a feel for Graz as well as getting to spend time with a well missed friend…
It’s striking how instantly you can see these were shot on flim. That grain is most definitely film grain, and those colours definitely did not come from my DSLR’s sensor. All the shots seen here were taken on very cheap Fujicolor C200 film, and then processed at Asda, for “Asda price”, i.e. very little. I’m not completely sure how much to put down to Asda processing, how much to put down to the Fujicolor film, and how much to put down to the MX, but these definitely feel like I have a long way to go before I’ll really grasp where I’m going with film. I suppose it’s all a learning experience, and I’ll see how different components work with time.
Shooting 35mm has also brought to life my previously underused Simga Super Wide II. It’s 24mm focal length comes out as a pretty boring slightly wider than normal on my dslr, but on the MX it actually is “Super Wide”. It’s definitely not as sharp wide open as my Pentax lenses, but still, it’s become highly useful when the conditions allow it.
Right too busy to waffle on, Christmas is approaching, you’d think I’d have slowed down by now!
Posted by matt at 23:20
09 December 2009
Grammatics
Grammatics @ The Louisiana, Bristol (02/12/2009)
Other than a pretty average gig at The Louisiana I’m not particularly sure what this post is about. You see I attended this gig not for the music, but to wield my camera, not something I’ve particularly done before. Still a quick opinion of the music on offer must be heard, so here it is: The first support act was simply dull, the second verged on actively terrible, and so nothing to write about there. Grammatics themselves were as equally new to me as the support acts, yet I still got that feeling that I was watching that headline band that everyone’s incredibly excited to see (to the rest of the crowds credit). Watching the reactions of their avid fans surrounding me they obviously weren’t disappointing, yet I didn’t really get it, nor did I imagine that I ever could. Frankly I think it’s the vocals that put me off the most; a plain voice polished to a completely emotionless perfection. That’s not to say he doesn’t put enough gusto into the performance, just that I can never see any feeling in it.
Photography wise I’m okay with the results. As always I’m disappointed I can never get shots that look good at large size on Flickr (as opposed to the medium sizes I’m displaying here), but I have to accept that with no autofocus, fast moving objects, low light conditions, and a camera that noises up terribly quickly from about ISO 400, that just ain’t going to happen.
Another quick tip for other photographers in how to not be thoroughly annoying (maybe I’m annoying, I don’t know I suppose): If you happen to be lucky enough to get right up the front and practically in the front man’s face, do not autofocus with a massively bright autofocus light; it looked utterly ridiculous that every time the photographer to my left took a shot the front man’s face lit up a really sickening shade of green. It was undoubtedly completely unnecessary (the lighting was actually pretty reasonable) and coupled with the said photographers more expensive kit, I was finding it easy to be grated by her.
More Photos: Grammatics @ The Louisiana – 02/12/2009 on Flickr
Posted by matt at 02:24
13 November 2009
Creating Light
Just a quick post to mention the Nikon SB-28 speedlight I borrowed for the weekend. Using the excuse of my Dad needing a new passport photo I rented the equipment from the Photographic Society and had a bit of a play.
I think I pretty much got a lot of the core settings nailed and took a couple of portraits I quite like as part of the process (one of which is of me)...
Posted by matt at 01:45
03 November 2009
Looking at myself
Nine weeks into my 52 weeks project I’ve pretty arbitrarily decided that now would be a good time to see how its gone so far.
On Sunday I uploaded the 9th picture (seen above), which is quickly becoming one of my favourites from the set so far. I really enjoyed the process of leaving the house with my camera and deciding I wasn’t coming back until I’d found an interesting place to take the shot.
The fact is the overwhelming trend in this project is that the more I plan or develop an idea for a photo the better the result. On Sunday I left the house in plenty of time looking to find something architectural for me to sit under (in fact the place I found was almost exactly as I’d envisioned) and so the result was just how I wanted. In contrast however for week 6 I just used a shot I had essentially accidentally taken that week; it’s probably the least interesting photo of the entire set:
So just to finish the post here is my other favourite taken in week 3:
Posted by matt at 12:52
22 October 2009
All I ever wanted to do was play chess with you.
iLiKETRAiNS @ The Cooler, Bristol (20/10/2009)
iLiKETRAiNS are a band I’ve never been a huge fan of, I’ve always appreciated them so to speak, but never when someones asked me “So what bands do you like?” have I even vaguely considered the possibility of saying iLiKETRAiNS. Frankly I’d be even less likely to type to someone that I like them; the level of concentration I have to put in to type such a ridiculously formatted name is far too high. Anyway, when push comes to shove, this hasn’t really changed, but yet again, I really appreciated and enjoyed their music, especially the sound they produced live.
As a disclaimer; I don’t consider myself a music critic, nor am I any longer interested in trying to be one. I spent a large chunk of my middle teenager years constructing completely under worked opinions, with little to no insight, about the music I love. Sure I’m still going to write about gigs I go to, post a few photographs, and even say what things worked for me and what didn’t, but don’t expect anything actually insightful.
So with that in mind, all I’m going to say about the support acts is that I will have probably forgotten about them very soon; pretty dull. iLiKETRAiNS themselves were excellent of course. Really nice full on sound, which to be honest I was quite surprised at, being as it was at the cooler. I think it might just be that I’d always assumed the sound was bad at the cooler, I’m not really sure why. As far as I’m concerned however, they were at their best when a bit quieter however and the unusual vocals and simple guitar was laid bare. Even better throughout the song Spencer Perceval, which was my highlight of the set.
With reference to the title of this post, they unfortunately did not play the song which contains that wonderful line ( A Rook House For Bobby ). Still whilst I was waiting for it throughout the set I never missed it too much. Conclusion: the ticket was money well spent and I enjoyed it hugely.
Moving on, I took quite a few photos at the beginning of the iLiKETRAiNS set. I followed the normal rule of take some photos in the first or second song, and maybe shoot another song half way through, but mostly keep your camera out of the way; you’re there to enjoy the music! Unfortunately there was another photographer there that didn’t really follow this mentality. He shot the entire set, from beginning to end with flash. It was supremely annoying in all honesty, more than enough to strengthen my wariness even further of being a nuisance at gigs with my camera. Part of me understands why he was doing it. iLiKETRAiNS are one of those bands that have that image that means they believe in hugely under lighting themselves (at least from a photographers perspective) and so in the photos I took I was in a constant battle against underexposure, poor focus and bad motion blur. Still, this is the challenge of gig photography, flash to me is under most circumstances in pretty bad taste. Anyway I felt like having a word with the guy, but the opportunity passed and so I’m sure he’ll shoot many more gigs like that, but to me, he’s just not getting the point.
Posted by matt at 22:24
20 October 2009
Westonbirt Arboretum
A Photosoc trip on Sunday took me to Westonbirt Arboretum, which apparently is “one of the most spectacular tree gardens in the world” (The Forestry Commission). I can definitely confirm that it had some of the most stunning trees I’ve seen, and was undoubtedly beautiful at this time of year.
In the afternoon I got to take part in a lighting workshop run by Charlie Clift. Charlie was an awesome teacher, in fact I’m finding the Photosoc committee in general to be really really helpful. Joining Photosoc was definitely a great idea even if just for all the stuff I’m learning.
Both Charlie and Olga (pictured) stressed the point of interacting with your model and trying to help your model relax. At the moment I’m far too busy worrying about camera settings to get onto that! I suppose that’s why you’ve really got to get the technical stuff nailed for this kind of thing; you’ve got a million and one other things to get right, so the technical stuff has to be second nature.
Some basic lighting equipment (a speedlight, shoot through umbrella, transmitter/reciever, stand) has shot up my to buy list. Still, not quite as a far as a monitor, which I purchased last night; a 22” E-IPS panel from Dell. I’m very excited about it. I think an HD movie and some photo editing will be a must when it arrives.
Posted by matt at 19:20
12 October 2009
Scary Strangers
I’ve been looking at 100 Stangers (and the related flickr group) for a while now. At the weekend the fact that it was truly autumn really struck me and the pleasant weather prompted me into a trip to the park. Whilst I was there I decided I’d try and get started on a 100 strangers project of my own. The prospect of walking up to some random person and asking if you can take their photo is frankly downright impossible sounding at first. But I walked around a while, took some photos of the lovely colours of autumn building up some confidence. I eventually struck on a friendly looking student who told me his name was Dan. Unfortunately, in the heat of the moment, whatever photography skills I may have were completely absent; I got the focusing and composition all wrong.
Growing in confidence with approaching people however I walked over to a guy who was doing some incredible circus style stuff with a long stick which he refered to as a fire stick (presumably because when performing with it you actually set the two ends on fire). Anyway, the photos again didn’t work out particularly well. This time I was thrown off by some annoying (read chav) girl shouting “Paedo” at me simply because I was a man near a park with a camera. Anyway I should try not to let these things get to me, but it did strike me that in a 100 strangers project being male is definitely a distinct disadvantage. I am a little bit worried about people perceiving me as creepy or even worse threatening, and so far thats put me off approaching any females to ask to take their portrait.
Anyway now that I’ve given it a try (I’m putting those first two down as approaching practice) I’m even more determined to give the whole project a proper go, so hopefully expect my first stranger soon!
Posted by matt at 22:37
12 October 2009
A Need for Light
Last Thursday was my first trip out with the Univeristy of Bristol Photographic Society. The introductory event was based around getting into groups and making fools of yourself, running around Bristol trying to get some obscure photos to show off to the other groups on returning. It was good fun and I even got a couple of alright photos myself.
Looking back at the majority of my photos from evening however, I’m seeing one repeating pattern, infact one that I’ve been seeing for a while now: Just like cameras find auto-focusing hard when it’s dark, I find manual focusing hard when it’s dark. It just becomes impossible to get that pin sharp focusing that you can get when in better lighting conditions. This combined with the high ISO noise I’m getting means I’m just not coming out all that happy with my evening shots. I’m hoping an extra half stop of light and some auto-focusing in the form of a Pentax FA 50mm f/1.4 will help. Still the results aren’t always completely useless, the shot below looks quite nice, especially at lower sizes.
Posted by matt at 01:48
07 September 2009
Sigma Super Wide II
A couple of days ago I received my latest lens purchase; a cheap and old manual Sigma Super Wide II. I have completely fallen in love with buying slightly older statesmen of the lens world. Yes in some situations I miss the auto focus, or occasionally I might even wish for my camera to do some correct metering for me, but generally, the image quality to price ratio has me hooked. My head also turns at the wonderful build quality of slightly older lenses; they may be generally heavier, but the wonderful smooth focusing rings are a joy.
Back to my new purchase: This sigma lens is a prime 24mm, with a maximum aperture of f2.8. So yes this is hardly super wide by todays standards, considering the crop factor of my Pentax DSLR, this lens comes out only a bit wider than a normal-ish length. It’s fast enough to capture most things though, and is sharp enough from wide open, and sharpens up even more a couple of stops down. One thing I didn’t actually count on when purchasing this lens was how great it would be for macro. It can focus right in to about 10cm by my estimate. At this distance though it does seem to have some noticeable distortion, as seen in the next shot.
My friend J’s forehead doesn’t normally have that warped kind of look I can assure you. I can’t say this bothers me hugely, as it only affects the real close ups, and often the effect goes unnoticed (or may even be desirable).
I can’t say I have many other lenses to compare it to yet, but colours wise it does seem slightly colder than my Pentax-M 50mm f1.7 (which is still my main lens love), but nothing that isn’t absorbed by post processing. Here are a couple more shots from my walk home from Bristol Temple Meads train station yesterday early evening.
Posted by matt at 14:00