For the handful of people who actually read this, yes I’m still alive; I’ve just had no inclination to write anything here.
Been doing gig photography recently, and thoroughly enjoying it, even if the lighting can be an absolute nightmare for the D80.
Master Fiddler
The upshot is that I’m meeting people, socialising, and honing my photography skills. Even better, I know precisely where I’ll be every Thursday night!
Having recently purchased a new LCD panel (HP 24″ S-IPS), I decided to calibrate it using my Spyder2Express. So, I installed the 2.3.1 software, and immediate fail - it’s not designed to work with a 64-bit installation of Vista; Vista is less tolerant of unsigned drivers. So, a bit of research, and I found I needed the 2.3.5 version of the software. Downloaded, installed, ran. What do you mean ’serial number’? Hunted around, dug through paperwork piles, CD casings, boxes - nada. Against all hope I filled in a form on Datavision’s site, explaining my dilemma and asking if I’d have to buy a new Spyder2 to get a new serial number (which I could do easily). To my surprise, I had a reply within 24 hours, with a new key no less. My display is now colour calibrated, and I’m trawling through 17,000 photos to verify the calibration.
Datavision++.
And now, the penultimate part of my tale - crackers, another dragging anchor and 20 foot seas.
Towards the end of last month, Matt Hernandez dropped me an e-mail enquiring whether I’d be interested in showing up at Cox’s Yard for an evening of flamenco/celtic fusion, featuring the Street Shepherd Band with Ana Garcia, and supported by Katie Dove-Dixon.
I knew I was on call, but said that I’d like to show up, so Matt kindly guest-listed me in. With my new phone on hand, I decided a few days ago that I could probably make it, so long as I checked my SMS every 15 minutes or so (and it turned out that 3G signal in Stratford is about non-existent).
Set off with plenty of time to spare, which turned out to be a good idea, as Google’s map was utterly wrong about where Cox’s Yard was. While pondering the map, I happened to look up, and what do I see but “Cox’s Yard” staring back at me from a building cat-a-corner from where I was. A quick circuit of the one-way system that is the entrance to Stratford, and I was parked across the river. Meandered across the bridge, over to the Yard, and hung around waiting for the gig to start.
A really nice part about this performance was that the Yard had limited the seating to roughly 90 people, despite having a capacity of 220+ for the main stage. Small tables had been laid out, with a few chairs and a candle per table. With the lights turned down, it made a very cosy, intimate atmosphere for listening to some fantastic music. Katie opened the night, with a new song (America), and then continued with a few of her works that I’d heard before at the GW Festival (including Tongues, Bus Stop and Other Places). My impression was that she’s still a bit nervous in front of a crowd (even a small one), but it didn’t detract from her performance at all.
After Katie finished, Matt introduced the Street Shepherd Band, who launched right into some wonderful music, including a piece that (paraphrased) ’should never be played outside of a gypsy wedding; seeing as I’ve been playing it for nearly 20 years, that probably explains a lot of things!’. One of the more unique pieces they played had hints of Miles Davis in it - certainly different, but in a good way. For the second set, Ana Garcia provided the dance for the flamenco, and I was blown away by the energy she brought to the performance. I am, unfortunately, no expert on flamenco, but I can certainly believe that she’s one of (if not the) top flamenco performers in England.
I now have a standing invitation from Matt to any of the events he’s organising, an invitation that I intend to take up as often as I can. The photo work was fairly hard without a flash (I enquired ahead of time whether flash or flashless was preferred), and some of the lighting played havoc with the D80’s sensor, but all in all it was an excellent session. Rolled home around 11 P.M., after pausing to get a long-exposure shot from the bridge out over the river; trying to capture the mist and the swans.
A Most Excellent evening.
Decided to go to the Great Western Festival (in aid of the regional air ambulance) last weekend. You’d think that having spent an entire weekend there, accumulating several hundred photos to process, I wouldn’t be going back so soon to take even more photos. Well, I’m not always that logical, and some of the bands playing were pretty darn good the weekend before, and I like good music.
In the week running up to last weekend, I did some frantic processing of the photos from the previous weekend, and shot them off to BonusPrint for a run of 8″x12″ glossys. This turned out to be problem number one that week - the credit card payment system screwed up, so I had to call them and get things fixed. What I didn’t realise (because it wasn’t made clear at the time) was that they had to put a hold on the print job indicating that the prints had to go to their office first… I also ran off some business cards using Vista Print, even though I knew they wouldn’t arrive in time for the weekend (they actually arrived yesterday). (more…)
Sunday afternoon saw me returning to the Great Western pub for the Americana / blues bands they were hosting. This time I carried my green chair with me, as the prospect of spending another 8 hours sitting on the wooden benches at the pub was not very enticing. Acts included the Dustbowl String Band (featuring (reportedly) the best flatfoot dancer in the UK), Under the Influence, Wes Finch and the Dirty Band, Cindy Archer / The Dolly Rockets, Kel Elliott (complete with brass section), The Tree Horns, The Bellows, Clayton Denwood and the Street Shepherd Group.
The afternoon rocked past, with 300 photos or so ending up on my SD cards - time just flew. Excellent music, decent hamburgers and plenty of water. Also ended up chatting to a staff writer from Americana UK who was there to cover the event, and swapped details (and cameras). Having played with a Canon 30D, I still don’t like it much - it’s an excellent camera, but I just can’t hold it properly, the grip is that fraction too shallow. The 17 - 35mm lens was nice and fast on the auto-focus though.
Musical highlights for me were Kel Elliott and her band (or was it the Kel Elliott Band?) - the brass section really completes the lineup; Libby Fielding, the dancer in Wes Finch and the Dirty Band - whirling dervish seemed to describe her at points, and I’m sure if you look in a dictionary, you’ll find her as the definition of energetic; and Jack Blackman, a young man (not yet 16) who had blues dripping from his fingers.
The evening wrapped up with a performance by the Street Shepherd Group - flamenco guitar, cajon drum, violin and a percussion instrument I can’t identify. The pace was slower and quieter than what had preceded for most of the day, but it was a nice way to cool off after a day of shooting, and just relax to some good music.
Picked up a ticket for the GW Fest as well, with the intent of coming back for more good music, and the chance at some more photography.
Having rolled home around 00:45 on Saturday (Oysterband ran long due to encores), I slept in a bit. Decided to wander over to the Festival around 11:30 A.M., and looked for lunch. Fortune smiled, and there was a Caribbean food stand offering curried mutton, saltfish fritters, jerk chicken and more. Enquired after the curried mutton, and was told that it would be about another 30 minutes before it was ready. At this point, the person who I assume was the main cook came around from the back for whatever reason, and heard me answering that 30 minutes was fine. What ensued was her jaw dropping because of a Bajan accent (in hiding) coming from white guy, and then a bit of conversation in broad Bajan. 30 minutes later, I had one of the best curries I’ve had in the past year or two (and I’ve had some pretty good curries) - it wasn’t curried goat, but it was still damn good.
My next decision was to head over to the Great Western pub in Warwick for the afternoon, as they were supposed to be hosting a decent number of bands from 13:30 or so. Well, who tell me do dat without directions? See, I knew that the pub was near the train station, and therefore, the train station must be near the train line, and I knew where that was. The only problem with that plan is I didn’t know where the station was, only where the line crossed a main road between Warwick and Leamington. So, a bit of going ‘Huh, where the heck is it then?’ ensued, with me finally finding someone to ask. Had I continued up the road for another 100 yards or so, I would have found the pub - life is funny like that.
I had intended to stay at the pub for the afternoon, and then cycle back over to the main Festival grounds in the early evening to catch the rest of the main stage performances, especially Kel Elliott. Somehow (probably laziness, and good music), I ended up staying at the pub for the entire afternoon and evening, listening to music by acts such as Davey Looth, Lydia and Celestina, Matt Hernandez (who happened to be the organiser, and a decent flamenco guitarist), Shanade, Kristy Gallacher and 1/2 of Jamsons Nook. I also shot somewhere around 260 photos of the performers - if my usual numbers hold true, 20 - 30 of them will be acceptable, and one or two will be excellent. 150 have made the first cut, but I usually iterate over the photos two or three times, chucking out the obviously bad ones first, then refining the selection until I’m happy.
I rolled back out of the pub around 21:15, and went back to the main Festival ground to find dinner - which turned out to be curried mutton again. What can I say, I like curried mutton. I pondered going in to the main tent, but opted to go home instead to catch up on my sleep, and re-charge the batteries for the D80.
