At the FloBar ...

The Flobar in Newmarket, Auckland.  It used tio be know as the Osborne Street Bar ... probably because it's on Osborne Street.  Anyway, I went along to see STKS ... you may remember him from the Grassroots Mixer a wee while ago?  Quite a few people got up on stage to play a few numbers.  Great talent, great music and a great atmosphere.  I've just come back and downloaded some shots off the camera.  Light levels were low (as was the case when Flobar was the Osborne Street Bar), but I may have a few reasonable shots.  I'll let you be the judge.  I need to have another look at the images, but couldn't resist posting a few of the performers for you.  Perhaps I'll see you at the Flobar one day?  If you know the names of the performers I haven't identified, please leave a comment.  You could perhaps let me know what you think of the shots too.  There's a few more images here on Facebook.

STKS

C'rla Flavell

C'rla Flavell

Dylan Elise

Dylan Elise

Allegro in monochrome at Osborne Street

Another pleasant Sunday afternoon at Osborne Street in Newmarket.  Allegro were playing again to their usual high standard and I managed to get a few more shots for the album :-)

For this post I thought I'd just post monochrome images.  There's a few people recently who have commented on monochrome images saying how they often prefer them over colour.  The images in this post were all taken as colour images and then converted to monochrome with Nik Software's Silver Efex Pro ... a Lightroom plug-in.  Check out Nik software's website as you can run their software for free for a 30 day period as you evaluate it.

The shots have a slight vignette added which I think adds a bit of atmosphere.  Let me know what you think.

For the shots taken at the Cock 'n Bull on Friday I used a wide angle lens, but tonight at Osborne Street I reverted to my trusty nifty fifty.  This lens is a gem.  I think it's Nikon's cheapest lens and must be one of their sharpest.  At f1.8 it's quite quick and ideal for the low light levels at Osborne Street.

There's more photos on my Facebook page should you want to see more as well as some colour images.

Leza Corban at Orborne Street Bar

Wow!  What an evening!  Leza Corban and the Union Band at Osborne Street.  The light was much better than last week, but still required a reasonably high ISO to keep the shutter speed up around the 1/100 second.  Great performances by the musicians ... Osborne Street's fast becoming the place to be on a Sunday afternoon!

I'd shot Leza the previous week in a different part of Osborne Street and both the colour of the light and its intensity led to some rather disappointing images.  This time, even though the ISO was at and above 2500 the colours were much more pleasing.  Red is a real killer, but the lighter yellow/orange and green/blue combination used this time seemed much better to me!  Perhaps let me know what you think.

Most of the shots were taken with my trusty 50mm f1.8 lens, but I tried a few with an 18-200mm zoom.  This, at f5.6 at the long end of its range is really too slow and I'm boosting the exposure in Lightroom after shooting at ISO 6400.  I really need a sponsor so I can get the 70-200 f2.8 ... then we'll get some nice shots ;-)

I'll close this post with a few shots of the other band members (and a guest interloper).  Don't forget to leave a comment to let me know what you think of the shots, if you want any images and also if you know the names of the various performers.