Clare Teal at Norden Farm Centre for the Arts

I recently photographed Clare Teal at Norden Farm Centre for the Arts in Maidenhead.
She had her band that consisted of Pianist, double bass player and drummer-together they were fantastic!

Clare is a fast moving lady on stage, lots of head movement etc so it was a little tricky to get all the images of her sharp, basically i had to catch her at the right moment, the image above is a prime example.
Most of the images i took were of her but i also took some of the band all together on the stage and some individual ones of the band members where possible.

I tried not to move round the theatre too much as i don't like to be a distraction to any audience members, so i only moved between songs during the applause and sat or stood still without taking any pictures when she was singing a few very quiet songs.

It was a fantastic polished performance by a group of musicians that obviously love what they do.

Martyrs and Kings:Live@Charborough

Martyrs and Kings-a band i have shot a few times before (see here) came down to Live@Charborough to record a live recording and video,
They are a great young band playing mature music, in this instance with acoustic guitars.
All the lads have great chemistry to them, as you can see from the behind the scenes images above, and really enjoys themselves when they are playing.
They finally nailed it on the fifth take and relaxed in the control room while Roger (bottom left at desk) worked his magic with the buttons....

The Herberts: Live@Charborough

Live@Charborough had the pleasure of The Herberts coming along to record a track and video recently, they are an eclectic bunch that plays eclectic music.
Towering front man is Will, along with Nisha on backup vocals and a great band behind them.
We went through a few takes to get the best sound and vision, with me taking some behind the scenes images between filming.
I'm scheduled to get some promo images produced for them soon as part of their deal.
You can read more about The Herberts here

Flash on location

As someone who likes to use flash on location shoots, i thought i would show how important it is when shooting on a sunny day.

Above is Odette, who you may have read about in a previous post here
We went to a local lake for a shoot on a very bright day so i used flash to balance the bright sunlight that was falling on the scene from behind Odette with a flash to light Odette back up to the background exposure.

Tho two images were taken milliseconds apart, the left image has no flash firing as it hadn't recycled from the previous shot so Odette is a perfect silhouette, the second image is perfectly lit as the flash had re-charged and was able to light the scene.

If i had no flashes, then i would have had to expose for Odette and the background would have nearly blown out to white as the difference in the foreground and background exposure was too great.

So that's why i always bring flash to location shoots, it guarantees good images whatever the natural lighting is doing that day.....

The Sha La La's:Live@Charborough

One of my favorite bands that i have photographed came down to Live@Charborough on a Sunday afternoon for a video and audio recording, they brought an original 1967 Hammond Organ with them for the authentic sound, along with two extra members on the brass section, it all added up to a fantastic sound.

They recorded 'Twentyfive', a real favorite of mine, it's a great tune, written by lead man Darron (left in top image)
The second image shows some behind the scenes shots as they performed for the video, and with Roger in the control room listening back to the track.

To hear more about the Sha La La's click here