Baby Howl in colour

Above is Baby Howl, playing a fantastic set at Jagz club with a great lightshow.I had a bit of a hard time photographing them due to the ever changing lights, so I just set a usable exposure and let the lights do what they wanted.I supplied a set of very colourful images to the group that they can use for promotion

The Blackfeathers... Live@Charborough

Above are Sian and Ray, who are The Blackfeathers.
They recently came to Charborough Studios to record an audio track and a live video.
I was on hand to help out with filming and to take some behind the scenes shots, including the one above after all the recordings were finished.
They are a fantastic duo, performing some great original songs with haunting guitar work and smooth harmonies.
To hear more about them, click here

The Selector at Sub89

I can remember The Selector the first time round, fronted by the amazing Pauline Black, who is ageing very gracefully because she was bouncing round the stage like a teenager.
All the favourites were played as I photographed them from the pit, I stayed there for most of the gig, prompting Pauline to ask me 'if I was ok down there?'

Thankfully I had my earplugs in, although my ears were still ringing a bit when I came out!
Above is a few images from the night......

Tom Farrelly and the Third Lung, Live@Charborough

You may remember Tom from a previous post, this time he came along to Charborough studios with Sam and Rob under the title of 'Tom Farrelly and the Third Lung'.

They are a energetic full on band, Tom belted out a brilliant vocal as we filmed and recorded them.

I was filming Tom in the foreground with Bass player Rob in the background, alternatively focusing from one to another.
In between filming I managed to get some performance and behind the scenes images, some of which you see above.
Just a quick note, 'Live@Charborough' is coming soon, a chance to get recorded, video'ed and have promo images taken by a great team of creatives

Mr Ian Stone

I had the pleasure of photographing Mr Ian Stone recently at the Comedy Cellar Bar at South Hill Park in Bracknell.
He is one of those Comedians that has been performing for a long time (since 1991) and is an absolute master on stage, there was a couple of times when I was laughing too much to take pictures!

No flash needed on this job as there was sufficient stage lighting, although a high iso had to be used.
I output the images in mono, basically there is no colour interest there, just the performer, so I think it focuses (sorry!) the attention on the subject more

A pleasure to take pictures!

Lex at Revolution

You may remember Lex from a previous post

We got together recently to produce some images for his forthcoming EP, Revolution Bar in Reading kindly let us come along for a couple of hours to use the interior as a location.

One of the walls in the bar had some handwritten adverts for vodka flavours  and I thought Lex would look good in front of it but with the text blurred so he popped out from the background.

I have put up a colour version of an image with a bit of retouching work done to it and a mono image just to show the difference, I find myself getting drawn to black and white more and more for this type of work but I have to be mindful the client would also want colour versions.

Lighting was very simple, one flash on a stand through a small softbox on camera right which gave some nice shadows to the side of Lex's face.

We utilised most areas of the bar for a variety of shots that Lex can use for his EP artwork and online use.

Alero at The Bedford

Well,what can I say about Alero.
I photographed her and the band at The Bedford, a huge music venue in Balham.
The venue has many vantage places for photography, front and side of the stage and a circular gallery on the first floor that gives a great view.

I used a 70-200mm lens to get in tight and a wide angle for general stage shots, the image above is taken from the gallery with a long lens and captures Alero's character  perfectly.
To find out more about her, go to http://www.aleromusic.com

Martyrs and Kings at Swipe Studios

I went along to Swipe Studios in Slough to take some behind the scenes shots of Martyrs and Kings during a video shoot with my associates Robert and John.
We started off by blacking out all the windows and setting up some lights to light the stage the way we wanted it.
The band ran thru the song a few times so Robert and John got a variety of shots while I took some pictures (above)

After the video shoot we went outside the studio for a few minutes of shooting stills.
I put up a single flash and asked the band to stand by an old container that had some graffiti on it which we utilised.
In 5 minutes we did a variety of shots, some of which you see below....

Odette, Live at Charborough

You will probably remember Odette from a previous post
She recently came to Charborough Studios to do a live recording of her fantastic song 'Drive'
I took some behind the scenes images of the evening while we went through a few run throughs of the song.
See below.......

 

Lex Moody

I recently photographed Lex at Jagz music venue when he was invited back there for the 'Best Music of 2013' evening.

He asked me to come along to another gig he was playing to get some performance images that he could use for advertising and promotion purposes.

The gig was in a large sports hall with very low lighting, luckily I had bought my back up lighting kit with me just in case, I put up two flashes, one either side of the stage pointing into the middle of the stage to light Lex as he was singing.

After the gig we did a few shots in the sports centre reception where they had a large glass block wall, Alex stood near the wall while I lit him with an umbrella from one side and rim lighted him from the other side with another flash and a bluish gel which lit up the glass blocks really nicely, I love making a very mundane location look great with just a couple of flashes and the right composition.

For more info about Lex, click here

Mark Wynter

Introducing Mr Mark Wynter, a veteran of Stage, Film and TV and Singer.
Mark recently contacted me whilst on Tour with the  'Dreamboats and Petticoats' musical for some up to date headshots.

We met up at Charborough Studios for a couple of hours of shooting, with some changes of clothes we managed to get a collection of headshots that can be used in various ways.

Technically it was very simple, light grey background with one key light above Mark's eyeline and to the right, with one more flash back camera left to put some light onto the rear side of Mark's head.
I added a reflector under the chin to bounce some light back up to fill in the shadows.

After a couple of hours Mark headed back for his evening performance at Windsor Theatre
To learn more about Mark, click here or contact argyle.associates@me.com

Odette

Above is Odette, a Singer/Songwriter, we met up recently after she recorded a track with Mark Handley at Charborough Studios.

Our first stop for a location shoot was the stylish Bel and the Dragon restaurant in Reading where i utilised the morning light coming through the stained glass windows for the first few shots, then i switched to flash as we shot in darker parts of the restaurant.

The top image is of Odette sitting on one of the bench seats with her guitar in the background, the lighting was one flash through a white umbrella with a large silver reflector below to bounce up some of the flash to lighten shadows.

The bottom image is a set up shot in the very glamorous location that is the entrance of the ladies bogs at Jagz Music venue in Ascot, as you can see in the image, just one flash on a boom arm was used to create a nice soft graduated light onto Odette while she posed on the chair with her guitar by her side.

We had previously shot upstairs at Jagz by the piano using three flashes but i like to keep it simple with one light most of the time.

At the end of the shoot i tried to do some flash and moving torch shots but unfortunately they didin't turn out as i would have hoped, it needed a much more ambient light controlled location to work successfully, but at the end of the day we got some great images that Odette can use for a variety of ways and she was very pleased with the results.

To see and hear more of Odette, click here