Exit Strategy One, who were really happy with the couple of shots I got at them last year at West Street Live decided they’d like a few more photographs in exchange for free entry and a couple of beers. Always up for a free gig, beer and an opportunity to practice with the camera I accepted!
This was also the first live photography outing for my new lens, a Canon EF 50mm – f/1.4 USM recommended by Simon from http://www.disturbing.org.uk/ as I’d been muttering about the low light problems I’d been having at previous gigs on Facebook.
The new lens worked out ok, being able to drop the f-stop to less than 4.0 was a massive benefit, meaning I could up the shutter speed and avoid a lot of the blurring and still get a decent amount of light. However, the small room in Corporation threw up its own complications. The stage is elevated really high, and not exactly being the tallest photographer made it awkward to get decent shots. The fixed focal length of the lens also provided another challenge in that room: with there being no barrier in front of the stage, I was either right in front of the band and therefore far too close, or moving backward to improve the shot would be directly behind other bodies who would be right in the shot.
I took over 800 shots, a scary number to sort through afterward, and managed to select the following that I was reasonable happy with.
