Aqstik Soul at Szimpla

Malcolm Lakatani, 180mm, f2.8, 1/25sec, ISO 3200, hand held.

Off to the Szimpla Gastro Bar last night to see Aqstik Soul.  I'd never been to Szimpla before and was really impressed with the place.  It has a lovely atmosphere with half a dozen separate areas to either sit and chat, eat, watch TV or listen to musicians.  It was great.

Anyway, I took my 70-200mm lens as I thought this'd be a good place to see how well it performed shooting in low light, and, perhaps more importantly, whether or not could I hold it steady!

Not the lightest of lenses, the 70-200mm weighs in close on 1.5kg, but I must admit that it was a pleasure to use.  Focus was lovely and snappy, and I don't think I did too badly holding the camera still at 1/25sec.  Oh, the body is a D300 with a cropped sensor, so the effective focal length was 270mm.  The colours are lovely and rich and I was quite pleased with the result.  I think I'll have a lot of fun with this lens!

The other member of Aqstik Soul is the very talented Semi Leo on bass guitar.  I'd decided 1/25 sec. was a little slow, so switched lenses to my 85mm for the next shot.  I was now able to get a more respectable shutter speed of 1/100sec, but the 85mm has no VR.  Nevertheless, the shot isn't too bad and the bokeh is rather tasty don't you think?  makes Semi pop out of the shot.

The rest of the time I used my trusty 50mm f1.8.  The zoom was just too unwieldy in the bar area and the 85mm was just too long for what I was trying to shoot.

So there you have it.  A great night out at a wonderful venue not far from the airport.  Very friendly staff and a warm and welcoming atmosphere.  I reckon I'll be back!

Semi Leo, 85mm, f1.4, 1/100sec, ISO 3200

Such friendly staff at Szimpla, and rather nice cocktails too!!

The end ... or is it the beginning?

Wednesday this week was my last day working for my employer of the past 20 years!  A number of people have said it marked the end of an era.  Sure, some things will not be the same, but in many ways that's a good thing.  I think it's time for me to do something different with my time now, and hopefully this will mark the beginning of a new and exciting chapter of my life.  It may also mark the start of a new and exciting chapter for my previous employer ... I certainly hope so.

For many years, photography has been an interest, a passion and to some degree an obsession!  From early years I was always fascinated with the camera.  I can recall being bedazzled by the light sensors around the front lens element on my Dad's half frame Konica.  Here's an image of a similar camera to the one that started my enthusiasm so many years ago!  After this camera there was the Asahi Pentax Spotmatic F, a brief spell with a Cosina CSR (the camera died an unpleasant death in Jordan in 1979) and then a very long and happy time with my Pentax MX.  I still have this camera and love it.  Gorgeous piece of equipment and beautifully made.

Now I'm using Nikon gear.  I tried the Pentax dSLR offerings, but they didn't feel right.  I tried Canon and that just didn't feel as comfortable in my hands as the Nikon.  All the buttons, knobs and dials just seemed to be where I wanted them with the Nikon.  In fact I have the same fondness for my Nikon as I had for my MX when that was my main camera.  Is it better or worse than Canon or Pentax?  I don't know and, to be honest, don't care.  I like it and am happy with it, just like other folks prefer other brands.

So here I am.  No job and time on my hands to do something I'd really like to do.  I get the chance to take photographs instead of snapshots.  I get the chance to wait and observe instead of being frustrated I have to be somewhere else and end up missing the shot.  I'll get the chance to spend time with people and listen to what they have to say ... have a laugh and deepen our friendships, but most of all, I'm really looking forward to having some fun with my family and friends.

Some of my friends lent me the new Nikon 85mm f1.8G lens to play with ... but only briefly.  I took the opportunity to shoot some of my musician friends at a bar in Auckland last night.  Often the light levels are quite low in the bars and I wanted to see how this new lens would perform wide open (to let in as much light as possible).  Take a squiz at the shots below and perhaps let me know what you think.

Mr Semi Leo on bass guitar.  85mm f1.8 and wide open.  1/100sec and ISO 2500

Semi again, lovely bokeh (blur) in the background.  I really like how the lights appear as circles.

One of my favourite shots from the evening.  Quite nice warm, "cosy" light.

Even wide open the lens isn't too bad; the bokeh lovely and smooth.

Wide open ... but with a bit of flash camera right.

Guinness is good for you ... hadn't you heard?

Aqstik Soul with the Nikkor 85mm f1.8G ...

Semi Leo

A chance to see Aqstik Soul at Newmarket's Cock 'n Bull was not to be missed.  Especially as I had a lovely new 85mm f1.8G lens from Nikon to try out.

I'd used the 85mm f1.4G some time ago and was quite delighted with it.  Very fast to focus and really quite sharp even when wide open.  Often, when shooting the bands and musicians in the bars, the light levels are somewhat subdued.  As such, an ability to get sharp images at wide apertures is something for which I was really looking.  The 85mm f1.4G didn't disappoint here and I can recall thinking this particular lens was a dream optic!  The reason for the dream was the price.  Rather an expensive piece of glass, so when the f1.8G became available at 1/3 the price I was seriously keen to try it out.  Perhaps I'd get similar quality shots without having to spend quite so much.

To be honest, it's a lovely lens.  A really lovely lens.  The bokeh (out of focus blur) is lovely and smooth, and the highlights are nice and round.  There's a fair bit of chromatic aberration, but perhaps that's to be expected when shooting wide open at f1.8.  The big problem I had was with focus.  Compared to the f1.4G this lens seemed more hesitant and more prone to hunting in low light when trying to focus.  I even reverted to manual focus on a number of occasions as I was becoming frustrated with the lens's inability to snap onto my subjects.  Perhaps I was expecting too much?  Perhaps I had unreasonable expectations after using the f1.4G?  Not really sure, but I finished the evening with mixed emotions.  I loved the bokeh, I loved the price and I was quite impressed with the overall image quality.  I was a little disappointed with the focus speed and chromatic aberrations.  Take a look here at one of my Google Plus albums for a few more shots taken with the 85mm f1.8G.  Perhaps let me know what you think?

Malcolm Lakatani

Semi Leo

Semi Leo

A bit of music ... for Christmas

Rosa.

Carols, a few other songs and a reminder of what Christmas is all about.  We had a great time.  Quite a few folks came along to help the music team sing the carols and then we had a few songs by some of my music friends.

I think everyone had a good time.  A chance to meet old friends and make new ones.  Best of all, a chance to relax and have some fun. It really was a good night.

The light wasn't the best so ISOs were quite high and there were some interesting shadows.  Most shots have been converted to monochrome to hide issues with noise.

First shot is of Rosa, out talented drummer.  next we have the band that played at the end of the concert.  I liked the somewhat 'retro' look to the shot.  the remaining shots are of  the individual band members.  Each is hugely talented!

Anyway, have a look and let me know what you think.  Perhaps next year you might like to come along as well :-)

L to R: Ross Devereux, Malcolm Lakatani, Demetrius Savai'inaea, Grace Ikenasio, Semi Leo.

Demetrius Savai'inaea

Grace Ikenasio

Malcolm Lakatani

Ross Devereux

Semi Leo

Music in Otara

The Niu FM crew at Otara ... keeping everything on track and to time.

It was good ... really good.  Here's a few links to shots of the bands on Facebook ... take a squiz and let me know what you think ...  Devolo, VXN, Rosita Vai and Malcolm Lakatani.  So there I was, in the centre of Otara for a free, open air music concert and the weather was good too!  I had a great time and managed to get a few shots of the performers.  It seems ages since I've been shooting the bands and must admit to having a heap of fun with the folks on stage today. 

Devolo on stage in Otara.

VXN

Rosita Vai

Lead guitarist with Rosita Vai.

Dylan Elise playing drums with Malcolm Lakatani.

Malcolm's band with, from left to right, Ross Devereux (sax), Dylan Elise (drums), Malcolm Lakatani (lead guita and vocals), Semi Leo (bass guitar) and Karl Benton (keyboards).  Great musicians and a great perfromance.

Mista Lakatani.

Don't forget to take a squiz at the shots on Facebook (links are at the start of this post) and let me know what you think.  Also, next week, same time and same place (10.30am in Otara's Shopping Centre) there's another performance ... different bands, but it promises to be as good as what went down today.  If you're free you should come down!

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.

Osbourne Street Bar ... Again

Wow!  What a display of musical talent at the Osbourne Street Bar.  Starting at 4.30pm and playing for close on three hours Allegro and friends put on a show not to be missed.

The format works well.  There's the Allegro band that is supplemented for various numbers by musician friends from the audience.  Some of these people were outstanding.  One minute sitting down having a beer, the next, performing with style on the stage.  Great fun for those playing and judging by the dancers just as much fun for those in the audience.

Light levels were a tad low so the back beat boys on the bass guitar and drums (Semi Leo and Patrick Tanielu) are very difficult to photograph.  Besides some quite dim lights over the stage there were just two spots (green and orange) focussed centre stage.  This wasn't bad for the lead singer, but, sadly, most other folk were in shadow.

Mista Lakatani was there playing lead guitar in the spotlights, so he was reasonably easy to locate!  There was a lovely combination later on in the evening when a jazz guitarist (Lee?) borrowed Malcolm's guitar and Malcolm played Semi's bass.  This was sweet.  They played REALLY well together and this is something I'd like to hear again; not noise but lovely melodies and riffs from two talented musicians.  Very, very nice.  George Benson eat your heart out!

I'll close this post now and head off into the garden.  Heaps of chores to do out there whilst the weather is good.  Whilst I'm gone though you can take a squiz at some of the other performers.  As always, please leave a comment or email me if you like the images, have suggestions on how to improve them or would like copies.  More images are available on Facebook.