Ramshackle Rehearsal @ Zen Studios

Showdown @ The Annandale, 11th June 2011

I went to the inaugral Showdown at the Annandale Hotel on the weeked. There were 11 bands in total, from 3pm till midnight. I wasn't there all day (thankfully, I'd probably still have sore shoulders if I was) and only shot two of the bands.

The familiar faces of Marlow and a first appearance of my uncle's band,  Melody Black.

Yes my forty-something uncle is in a metal band.

-m

Tie a white ribbon

I went to newtown cemetery on Wednesday with my friend B.

I have a bit of a thing about cemeteries, I think they're really pretty. I got some nice shots so here they are.

I like reading how people die on their headstones. It's really interesting!

For reasons unknown to me, someone had tied white ribbons on one of the trees.

-m xx

Straight 'A's

Yes.

Three more assignments, three more 'A's.

I am officially a nerd.

These assignments were a lot less specific as well so I didn't even need to pick up my camera. I just rifled through my files and found something to fit the criteria. The upcoming ones may not be so easy.

My course is now half way finished! Hoorah!

-m

Easy A

I submitted my first assignment for my correspondence course the other day.

For the first time in I can't remember how long I got an A! Yes an A! How funny. I don't think I've gotten an A since year 11... If that. They sort of stopped giving us letter grades when we started the HSC.

Anyway, the task was to take a fast shutter shot of a water droplet, with a shallow depth of field and I fit the brief well enough to get an A. So here it is, for your enjoyment.

The water drop itself isn't quite in focus but it was pretty difficult considering I was using my fixed lens.

I'm actually half way through my course now. I read two more lessons today and submitted the next three assignments so I've just got four assignments left! Mucho Excitamundo! The assignments should be getting a bit more involved soon. The three I just submitted were fairly general so I just went through my archives and found suitable photos.

Soon I'll actually have a qualification. It's pretty exciting stuff.

-m xx

Marlow & Others @ The Sando, April 2 2011

OK, so a few things to talk about today in addition to a veritable orgy of visual amazement (modesty is a strong point of mine). Firstly, I have a new signature/watermark for my photos. The old "mb" in the corner was way too easy to crop out, which is something my friends have been known to do, and really it could have meant anything so I've bitten the bullet and plastered them with the full name. It's actually great to see, particularly when people set one of my shots as their fb profile pic and there it is!

 My name! I used grey because I think it's the perfect neutral- it shows up on light and dark backgrounds, as well as being a subtle shade, so as not to distract too much from the shot. It gives the appearance of being somewhat transparent when it's really opaque.

Minus House

Secondly, we had a substitute for the last class of the short course I was doing- Camera Skills at Sydney Community College. Long story short, I showed some of my gig shots and he suggested that I change my white balance to tungsten (incandescent for us Nikon users) instead of leaving it on auto.

Basically, the camera will do a great job compensating for the light source on auto, unless it doesn't know what the source is. In the case of stage lighting, where the colours are constantly changing and you never really see the light as it is, the camera doesn't know how to compensate. By changing the white balance to tungsten, which is what stage lights are, the tone can be greatly affected.

Saturday night was my first chance to try it and I really noticed the difference. I'm sure those who have seen my work will see that it's somehow better but may not be able to pinpoint exactly where the improvement is. Mostly, it's in the skin tones. There's less tonal distortion there. Anyway I'm really happy with the result and the lights at this gig were AH-mazing so the shots turned out really well, IMO.

Ashes


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Marlow



 Marlow are a great band to shoot, because they're extremely visual in their set. I always get shots that I love from their gigs.

Fixation

The Crowd. Ft. Ramshackle

I went back to the Sando on Wednesday night for Ramshackle's set in the Inner West Band Comp semi final. For reasons I don't understand, the light guy appeared to be having a night off, so the lights were completely unchanghing through their set. I got a few decent shots but as a whole I felt dissapointed. I can't shoot well if I'm not inspired, that's just the way it is. I'll upload the ones I'm happy with next week.

You'll also notice I introduced a second page to the blog. Because this is the closest I have to my own website right now, people need to be able to contact me and know a few things about my charges. I plan to start advertising in Drummedia soon so hopefully I'll get some paying gigs from that.

Fingers crossed.