The Jackson Creek Band Live

Canon EOS 5D Mark III, f/2 @ 135 mm, 1/400, ISO 1600, No Flash

 

Jackson Creek @ the Northampton Bluegrass Festival 19th April 2014

Organised by my friend Chris Street, today was the first Northampton Bluegrass festival in aid of dementia and cancer charities.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Northampton-Bluegrass-Festival/178362145693766

I was fortunate in being the photographer for the event. I took lots of action shots and a few studio ones too.

This is a studio shot of the superb band, Jackson Creek. https://www.facebook.com/jacksoncreekband

Lighting was an octobox above camera left and gridded strip boxes either side of the band.

Canon EOS 5D Mark III, f/9 @ 50 mm, 1/125, ISO 125

 

Roger Waters Live @ Wembley

What a concert! So glad I went....

Tough to get decent photos as there was a huge dynamic range between the darkest and lightest areas - here I blew a few highlights, but was generally acceptable!

Susie-Blue singing @ Cafe Soul

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III, f/1.2 @ 50 mm, 1/40, ISO 1600, No Flash

Susie-Blue live at Cafe Soul

My colleague Bryan and I thoroughly enjoyed Susie-Blue's performance at Cafe Soul tonight in Londonderry. She has a great voice and I really enjoyed hearing her own tracks as well some cracking cover-versions. My favourite was Lisbeth: http://susie-blue.bandcamp.com/track/lisbeth

If you like Lisbeth, please like her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/susieblueofficial

Anyway, onto the shot. The venue was really dark, but luckily I had the 50mm f/1.2 handy. Combine this with ISO1600 on the 1DsIII and -1 EV you get a just about handholdable 1/40s! I could have used flash, but that would have killed the feel of the shot.

This was a fairly heavy crop - I loved Susie's expression here as she glanced out of the window.

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III, f/1.2 @ 50 mm, 1/40, ISO 1600, No Flash

Jack Broadbent on the slide guitar

Saw the very talented Jack Broadbent performing on the street in Islington tonight. He was doing some fantastic slide guitar using a hip flask as a slide.

 

I focussed on the eyes 85mm @ f/2 and then used a layer mask in Elements to desat the background.

 

You can hear Jack here: http://soundcloud.com/jack-broadbent

 

 

Mediaeval Baebes concert

A couple of snaps from tonight's concert - opening song and signing after the show. I'm impressed with the quality of the X100 especially given these were at ISO 1600!

FUJIFILM FinePix X100, f/2 @ 23 mm, 1/30, ISO 1600, No Flash

FUJIFILM FinePix X100, f/2 @ 23 mm, 1/75, ISO 1600, Flash

A band's eye view

I liked all the lights in this, but getting the exposure right was a challenge.

I bounced flash off the ceiling at -2 stops and tried different apertures until I was happy with the colour balance and overall brightness.

Kajafax article

Back in December 2008 I had the pleasure of photographing #Kajagoogoo at the Stables in Milton Keynes. Kajafax, the main fan-site for the band, asked if I'd answer a few questions and share some shots from the shoot.

The article is here: Kajafax article about the shoot

The full set of photos is here: http://www.philhackettphotography.com/kajagoogoo

And here is one from the evening:

Canon EOS 40D, f/1.2 @ 85 mm, 1/320, ISO 400, No Flash