Hello from Derby, UK

[straupenieks]

I have been an amateur photographer for 5 or 6 years now. I did have some experience of using film and darkroom processing as a kid, but then had a huge break, till I got my first digital SLR. The one thing I have retained from those film days - my fondness towards old manual lenses. Nothing can beat the feel of real glass and metal. And a reasonably lower price tag

Anyway, check my flickr page - user:straupenieks

[Barr1e]

Re: Hello from Derby, UK

Hi and welcome.

You have joined a great community.

Looking forward to seeing some of your pix.

Regards. Barr1e

[Pol]

Re: Hello from Derby, UK

Hello again

You may be 'amateur' by by heck you have some outsatanding, very enviable pics in flickr. Your concert set is truly outstanding imho.

I'm taking the liberty of posting another live link to your photostream home page.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/straupenieks/with/3495407068/

It's well worth having a good look at all of straupenieks photos, everyone. Some fabulous exposures, fabulous shots all round.

Pol

[Pops]

Re: Hello from Derby, UK

Thanks for the direct link Pol.
Must say straupenieks the concert photographs are very good indeed.

[straupenieks]

Re: Hello from Derby, UK

Thanks for the kind words, guys. The concert photography was a by-product of my occupation at that time, I was working as a sound engineer in alternative club. I hate to waste opportunities, so I usually had my K10 with me all the time when I went into the audience to check the sound there. Often with a really beat up Jupiter-9 on it, since it was the fastest lens I had.

I learned one cool trick during that time. In clubs like that, you will usually have some pretty evil strobes set to illuminate the stage. And some mighty washes. The thing is - a good lighting engineer will use them in sync with the music. Illustrating culmination points in songs or highlighting some evil machine-gunning on kick drum. Once you get a feel of the music, you can pretty much start to predict when those light will be used. With the washes it is a bit tricky, as they usually are way too strong. But - the lamps they use take some time to reach the full brightness and to dim out, these are the moments you must hit the shutter. Takes a bit of practice...
With strobes its pretty easy - when they go off, just use drive mode. You should get at least 1 shot out of 3 shot series.

OR you can take the easy way out. Buy the lighting guy a beer and get him to sometimes keep an eye on you. If you raise a hand, he knows that n the next bar he should hit a bit of washes...

[Ian]

Re: Hello from Derby, UK

Thanks for the kind words, guys. The concert photography was a by-product of my occupation at that time, I was working as a sound engineer in alternative club. I hate to waste opportunities, so I usually had my K10 with me all the time when I went into the audience to check the sound there. Often with a really beat up Jupiter-9 on it, since it was the fastest lens I had.

I learned one cool trick during that time. In clubs like that, you will usually have some pretty evil strobes set to illuminate the stage. And some mighty washes. The thing is - a good lighting engineer will use them in sync with the music. Illustrating culmination points in songs or highlighting some evil machine-gunning on kick drum. Once you get a feel of the music, you can pretty much start to predict when those light will be used. With the washes it is a bit tricky, as they usually are way too strong. But - the lamps they use take some time to reach the full brightness and to dim out, these are the moments you must hit the shutter. Takes a bit of practice...
With strobes its pretty easy - when they go off, just use drive mode. You should get at least 1 shot out of 3 shot series.

OR you can take the easy way out. Buy the lighting guy a beer and get him to sometimes keep an eye on you. If you raise a hand, he knows that n the next bar he should hit a bit of washes...

Some nice tips there - I know several other members here are into concert photography and will hoepfully appreciate this insider tips

Ian