Take Note ... take 3

Neil Stewart on drums, Take Note, Lynfield Cock 'n Bull

Friday night at the Lynfield Cock 'n Bull with Take Note was a blast.  I wasn't really sure what to expect as I'd never been to the Lynfield Cock 'n Bull, but it was great.  I'll be back :-)

Jason (Smith) fired up the smoke machine, enthusiastic dancers hit the dance floor and the band as a whole seemed much more relaxed than last week, and ready to party.  They played the same songs as last time, but I thought there was something different with the delivery.  Perhaps it was the girls on the dance floor, perhaps they were less concerned with yours truely snapping away with a camera.  I'm not sure, but they were really good.

Lighting, as last time, was wonderful for me.  I was able to use a wide angle lens with a minimum aperture of f4, get ISOs down to 1600 and use shutter speeds over 1/100sec.

Jason Smith, lead guitar and vocals, Take Note, Lynfield Cock 'n Bull

This wasn't the case for all shots though.  The first shot in this post has Neil Stewart in the midst of the smoke machine output.  The drummer is invariably at the back of the set, and this is no exception with Take Note.  As such my wide angle lens wasn't really long enough to capture Neil.  The shot of Neil was taken with a 50mm lens, f2.2, 1/80sec and ISO 2500.

I don't find it easy taking shots of drummers and have been trying a slower shutter speed in an attempt to get some motion in the sticks.  In a number of the songs Neil's head stays reasonably still, but his hands and sticks fair fly.  Using shutter speed down to about 1/50sec lets me get some blur in the sticks.  Problem is, if there's too much blur the the stick becomes so faint that you don't really see it.  As I said.  I find it hard.  Anyway, let me know what you think of the first shot.

The second shot has Jason Smith in some of the smoke.  The smoke gives a lovely atmosphere and I need to play with its effects more to fully appreciate what you can do.  I must admit to being amused that at one time no smoke machines were necessary as the pub's patrons acted as smoke machines ... probably generating significantly more smoke that Jason's machine could ever hope to manufacture.

Jason Wilson on Bass Guitar, Take Note, Lynfield Cock 'n Bull

Shot three has Jason Wilson on bass guitar.  Last week Jason seemed to be holed up in a corner and out of the way, but this evening we got to see rather more of him.  This third shot has been desaturated as the coloured lights didn't really flatter the scene at all.  Sadly you don't see the lovely grain in the body of his guitar.  This shot from last week may give you a better idea.

The last shot shows Sue Dyson at the microphone fulfilling her role as vocalist for the group.  There's a few more shots of Sue here that have been converted to black and white.  Perhaps let me know what you think of the monochrome images as compared to the colour image in this post.

So there you have it.  A shot of each of the band members taken at Lynfield's Cock 'n Bull.  They're a great band and well worth going to see, and dance to!

Sue Dyson, vocalist for Take Note at Lynfield Cock 'n Bull