Gig Photography

In the absence of those semi-precious monochrome scans from the Thorpe Meadows Sculpture Trail, which I'm confident I'll manage to extract at some point, I’ll press on with the latest photographic (almost) success story.

The previous test roll in the Baldessa was partly to determine which of the two cameras I'd be taking to Derby for this year’s Psychic Dancehall Festival. As it was, I was highly sceptical that the FED would perform well in the low light conditions of an indoor venue so it was almost a foregone conclusion it would be the Baldessa.

I took the precaution of loading a slightly faster film for this adventure, a Kodak Ultramax 400 which nevertheless struggled to reach much above ‘tripod’ shutter speeds on the day. Something of a problem given that I wasn't carrying a tripod, just one of several problems on the day…

Quite how a legendary photographer like Mick Rock managed to capture so many truly iconic images at rock and pop concerts, and with all the complexities of fancy light shows and the tireless 'moving about' of its stars, all on a clunky old 1950’s Rangefinder camera! Well it's beyond me...

Perhaps he had a more modern camera back then. A fancy SLR with a fast zoom lens and even faster motor-wind. I imagine he didn't in fact need to struggle with a slow 50mm lens and limited range of shutter speeds. He also, I imagine, benefitted from unfettered access to the pit, the wings, and just about everywhere else he wanted to go in pursuit of high quality saleable images. Yes, that's probably it...

Haiku Salut - An excellent and very popular set from local Derbyshire heroes

Immersion

So a cracking day of top Electronic and Experimental Music in the heart of Derby, I certainly would again. Just not quite the successful photographic experience I'd been hoping for. I was fully expecting to shoot at least a roll of film on the day, but it ended up being a bit too much of a struggle, and I hadn't travelled to Derby for a struggle.

A well attended indoor gig can be a difficult enough place for photography at the best of times and with the best equipment, but add in glacially slow shutter speeds and limited places available to steady the camera, an inflexible fixed focal length, and perhaps most crucially, the fact you can't just hold the camera up above your head and frame the shot from an image on the screen, and you're really going to struggle.

And if I'm honest, perhaps the genre didn't help much. Head-nodding music for (mostly) middle-aged chaps like myself doesn't necessarily make for a photogenic event, so on this occasion my time was better spent enjoying the music rather than concerning myself with capturing images that were never going to interest the picture editor of Mojo magazine. It was just as well I chose the Baldessa though, I doubt I'd have captured anything with the FED. As it was the rest of the film wasn't wasted, more of which later... 

Ivan The Tolerable in their impressive three-piece band mode that I failed to capture

Hexial - One of the better visual experiences, but still basically a fella twiddling knobs, albeit to great effect