Contagious ... WIDE!

Friday night at the Cock 'n Bull at Botany with a wide angle lens and Contagious on stage.  The first shot in this post was taken at 12mm.  The only problem really was the aperture.  f4 just isn't really fast enough for the amount of available light.  I was keen to get more of the lights in the shot, and the wide angle lens would certainly let me do this, but as Terrence and Birgette move around on the stage my shutter speed wasn't fast enough to freeze the action.  Never mind ... you live and learn.

The second shot was also taken with the wide angle lens.  I think it gives some nice distortions sometimes.  One effect is to make the guitar increase in length.  Another less flattering effect can occur of you get a bit close to people and put them at the edge of the frame.  I'll try to avoid doing this :-)

Third shot in this post is again taken with the wide angle lens.  This lens lets me get quite close to the performers yet retain a lot of the background.  Sadly I need to boost the sensitivity which then introduces a bit of noise into the image.  This third shot shows Brett Robertson on keyboards.  Let me know what you think.  Does it add to the atmosphere perhaps?

Some of my favourite shots are of Carlos on the lead guitar.  He has a small spot light that illuminates him when he has a bit of a solo.  The contrast between him and the background I find particularly pleasing.  Again, sadly, there's a reasonable amount of noise as I need to boost the sensitivity up a few notches to ISO 3200 or even 6400.  You may recall a shot I took a few weeks ago of Carlos.  The previous shot was taken with the 50mm lens and a lower ISO so there's not as much noise.  This shot was taken with the wide angle lens and I think is a bit noisier.  Perhaps let me know which you prefer and why ;-)

The last shot in this post is of Birgette.  Sadly I haven't managed to get any shots of the drummer.  There's so much hardware in front of him that it's nigh on impossible to get him performing without a microphone appear to be protruding out of his ear or something else casting an unpleasant shadow across his face.  I'll keep trying, but so far, no joy :-(

Anyway, Birgette completes the shots for this post.  More images are on my Facebook page should you want to see more.

Contagious

Botany Town Centre on Friday night in the Cock 'n Bull and Contagious were performing on stage.  I was impressed!  These guys had a great little light show going, videos displayed on a few of screens behind them and they were also a very good band.  Judging by the number of people dancing and applauding I wasn't the only one enjoying the performance.

It was a 9.30pm start and after a busy week at work I was just too tired to stay very long.  The band, however, kept going until 2am; I, on the other hand, was fast asleep by then!

Anyway, the real reason I went to the Cock 'n Bull was to try and get some shots of Dylan Elise.  I've met Dylan previously on a few occasions and tried to get some photographs, but the drummer is invariably at the back of the band, obscured by microphone stands and other equipment and often in the shadow of the other more "mobile" musicians.  I was hoping this night was going to be different and had heard Contagious used a bit of a light show so things were sounding hopeful.

I managed a few shots, but still used a high ISO and the lens was pretty open at f1.8.  As usual, the nifty fifty was the lens of choice.  You'll notice the variety of colours in the images of Dylan, all thanks to the rather nice light show the band was running.

Speaking of the band, here's a few more shots of the guitarist and the lead singer from Contagious.  Let me know what you think and if you want any images just email me.