crazybobbles

More Murders (in Monochrome)

Friday, March 23rd, 2007

Today I was invited by the Kris (the bassist of Murder in Monochrome) to go to their gig and take photos. It was at the metro club again but this time they were headlining. I managed to meetup with Michelle before the gig and have a quick bite beforehand. I just randomly went to Wasabi and got myself a Chicken Yakisoba and a prawn/salmon sushi to eat outside. Michelle was a bit late but it was cool (i’m always late anyway haha so it balances out). I urged Michelle to have a quick bite and she ended up getting a fried rice and tofu yakisoba. It looked pretty nice and she ate most of it this time hehe.

We had a quick look around Virgin Megastore since the bands werent starting for a long time. Michelle made me listen to Pink Grease at the listening poles whilst she was texting people. After a bit of badgering around we eventually headed off to the venue. It was fun because I could walk into the venue with my DSLR camera It seems like Metro Club allows professional photography so its all good.

Anyhow, the support bands were boring, we were pretty bored all the way through haha. The second band went all Godspeed You! Black Emperor on us and did some insanely boring instrumental tracks. Two twats at the venue constantly screamed throughout the gig. Michelle was really annoyed at them (so was I but i ONLY just noticed haha) and was ready to smash a glass ash tray into their thin and soft cranium.

Anyhow, there were two other photographers lounging about during the gig. They both had Nikon cameras. One of them kept changing their lens right in front of me, he puts his camera right on the table where I was sitting so I can have a look at it whilst he puts his other lens on. It was pretty sad haha. Apparently they were band photographers and gave out their business cards to the bands to see if they’re interested in purchasing their shots. I’m still in the process and providing free photographs since I’m only getting into this so yeah.

Anyway, Murder in Monochrome comes in and again, its ready to shoot. READY SET SHOOT! Haha

Heres a few photos which I took:

The performance was much better than the previous ones, there were some new songs and things got a bit rockier since Tom used his guitar more now. Definitely enjoyed the gig and all. The photos were amazing too. I really enjoyed using my 50mm f1.8 lens. It was nice and fast, before using it I gave the kit lens a quick go since I wanted to take some wide shots but I had to sacrifice quite alot of stuff in order to take a decent shot, I had to use flash on some occasions, raise the iso to 800 and risk blurry shots with very slow shutter speeds (around the 1/10-1/30 region). As soon as I attached my 50mm lens and took some close up shots, things dramatically changed, the photos were really light and I was able to capture alot more then the previous lens. I got a bit nervous and used some crazy settings (like 1/100 shutter speed when i can easily manage 1/50 and 1/60). But yeah. Really happy and proud of my new lens, top notch.

After the gig I had a quick word with Kris but didnt get round to talking to the other band members, ah well. They were pleased with my shots this time since I’ve really put more composition and style with the photos this time. Hopefully this continues with the other gigs I goto. Including some Michelle have already invited me to goto and all.

GWARRRRGH!

Friday, March 16th, 2007

I actually had a really witty introduction to this band during the gig that I was going to use as my introduction to this blog entry. Turns out memory isn’t my strong characteristics. Anyway, add good old metal/rock and roll, blood, g strings, hitler, the pope, bono and a few monsters you see in those game workshop figurines. Blend them with the labtec blender you see in the will it blend ads, and what do you get? GWAR.

You might know GWARif you’ve seen Empire Records, where one of the characters, Mark, is watching GWAR perform on the television, later on he gets trapped inside with them. They are also known as the band that my brother listened to quite a lot back when he was still around (that and Manowar). Bloody crazy shock rock band.

Michelle managed to get guestlists for this show and invited me to come see them with her. I once again decided to bring my DSLR camera using my usual camera smuggling technique. We arrived at the venue and went to the box office to claim the guestlist tickets. Unfortunately, this didn’t go so well since the tour manager didn’t get Michelle’s name written down on the guestlist. There was quite a panic on determining whether we’re genuine guestlisters or not. One of the ladies managed to find the tour manager (who was actually part of the GWAR performance (think he was one/some of the monsters) ) to get a confirmation that we’re valid guestlisters. So yeah, we managed to get our guestlist in the end and go into the venue. It was pretty full already I must say. The seating area was quite packed so we couldn’t see the gig from a far distance, we ended up going near the front (on the side) to view the gig.

Look at the guy’s double metal sign “\mm/” how hardcore is that!

Loads of body fluids

GWAR is amazing, I advice you to check them out the next time they play. They are a bunch of crazy metal monsters rocking out in a small venue spraying all forms of body fluids (you name it, they sprayed it) at the crowd. Of course it was coloured water, but nonetheless, from where they escaped, it did make you feel a bit disgusted at it haha. The crowd really enjoyed the constant sprays of fake bodily fluids.

The music was over the top. They weren’t your typical metal band. They were far more tasteful. If you’re going to do metal, Do it right, wear crazy outfits, spray gallons of blood and of course, wear unflattering gstrings throughout the gig.

We did catch the tour manager (I think) who was constantly at the side of the stage getting changed into the next character to appear in the interludes. The show was filled with them. Between every one they would bring a celebrity of some sort to the stage and you get to hear alot about them. Each satirical interlude was dubbed with rather funny voices as well. There was a hybrid monster consisting of Bono and Hitler, a GWAR fan, the pope, some irish policeman (who gets raped with a stick), some crazy monster, some heroine addict, Osama Bin laden and a few other characters. They would do a 1 minute speech and soon after that, they are interupted by the singer going “WHAT A SECOND! WHY ARE YOU IN HELL!” All characters end up losing a limb or being totally annihilated on stage by the band. Some crazy melodrama one might say.

The show was simply amazing, never have I seen so much water being sprayed at the fans. The security guards werent too happy having to wear parker coats to hide from the water sprays, not to mention photographers being scared shitless that their cameras might get damaged from all the blood and …stuff.

I unfortunately got sprayed a few times and at one time, witness my iriver and camera to be splattered with blood. Thank god the lens didn’t get any. The security guards didnt really notice or care about my camera and all. Near the end I was kneeling on a stool taking photos, was pretty fun (was also taking photos by putting the camera on my head and snapping)

After the gig, everyone came out drenched silly. Some of the fans intentionally wore white jeans and t shirts JUST to really highlight how much they were soaked in blood. It was a bloody exciting gig (no pun intended). After the gig I went back home with blood all over my face, hands at the top of my top. Was quite funny seeing people’s reactions to someone filled with blood, but yeah haha.

Tate Modern… well almost

Thursday, March 15th, 2007

Today I was suppose to go Tate Modern, there were 2 previous attempts of going but were all cancelled out on the last minute (literally). The 3rd one no doubt followed the same pattern (again, cancelled at around 5pm odd). So I decided to invite Michelle to spend the night in London and piss about. Tate Modern was actually closed by the time I got there so there really wasn’t much point in being there. I did take a few really nice shots of the millennium bridge and other things.

Pan shot of London

Millenium Bridge

Really really love this shot. The blue in particular. Its so yummy. Alot of people have done this shot before but I really enjoy this one purely because of the blue sky. It was quite a fun day taking photos without a tripod. Things would have been a hell of alot easier if I was carrying one but sometimes you simply don’t plan these things and just forget to bring them. I had my elbows on the back of the bridge to take this shot. Took me a few goes to get it JUST right. Bit annoying when people walk by though.

Michelle arrived at around 6.30pm and we just had a nice night out around London. Michelle was very supportive in my photography and encouraged me to take alot of nice shots, especially this one.

The ubiquitous shot of Westminister’s Underground Logo next to good old big ben. Taken to show a weird sense of perspective etc. Quite alot of people had that photo on their flickr but it definitely seemed right to do another one haha. I kept doing alot of tourist accents when I was around big ben. We talked about spending a whole day following a tourist and taking photos with them hehe. It’s weird that we hardly take notice of places like this. In a way, the whole photography vibe has made me appreciate London more.

We also went to Buckingham Palace to take photos of the place, there wasn’t really many people around so it was all good.

We ended around Picadilly Circus and had some food at a place called “Miso”. Though we initially were going to go to some Italian restaurant, and Wagamama, and Yo Sushi, but passed them all up haha. I had duck and noodles whilst Michelle had a nice big bowl of Ramen Noodles. She couldn’t finish it off bless hehe. Also tried teaching her a bit of chopstick action but that didnt turn out too well. I guess it is a bit tedious, some waitress had to hand her a fork hehe.

We then had a quick visit in funland, hoping to play with the mechanical bull, but it wasn’t active that night so boo. So yeah, pretty much did the typical stuff ie. Play DDR, a few games of air hockey and this…

Was a very pleasant evening. I felt slightly better from being stood up 3 times in a row for one event but yeah.

Nine Inch Nails and Ladytron

Saturday, March 10th, 2007

Today was quite an impromptu day, I was contacted by Inn about a spare ticket to see Nine Inch Nails at Brixton Academy. She initially wanted Max to go but he wasn’t free so I was second in line (nice to know eh?). Her condition (well it wasn’t really a condition but I had to do it so I won’t feel too bad about accepting a £30 ticket) was for me to buy her some millies cookies. The hard bit was the fact that there wasn’t many Millies in London (that’s a lie, but most of them require a crazy diversion in terms of getting to Brixton Academy).

So yeah, after successfully smuggling a DSLR into Tilly and Wall I thought I’d give the whole smuggling a camera another shot (the place where I smuggle it is genious and I don’t think even I’d think of it if i was a security guard). I got the feeling I would be caught during the gig taking photos of the band and all so I decided not to take photos in the front row since theres security guards there ready to swipe it away from you. So i decided to bring my 55-200mm lens (well it’s Kazzies but still)  to the gig and take photos from afar. I wasn’t really keen on using the 55-200mm lens to take photos since the quality never compares to small focal ranged shots (or prime lenses etc). So yeah, I brought that as well as my 50mm prime lens (in case situation changes or something).

After a bit of preparation I was ready to head off to buy Inn her cookies and meet her in Brixton.

The tube was a bit chaotic today, it turns out the distrct line between Earls Court and Whitechaple was down so I had to take the Picadilly Line to Green Park and then change to get to Victoria and ultimately Brixton. I was standing around Earls Court for a bit because noone informed me about the lack of district line service, I eventually figured it out with the help of a delayed announcement etc.

Arriving at Victoria I got Inn her cookies, I picked 8 random ones and quickly went back to Victoria line to get to Brixton, this is where Inn phones me up for some shouting haha. “Where are you!?”? YOU’re LATE!”. I accept it with pride, but I blamed it on the cookie buying haha. So yeah, I told her I wont be long since its just a few stops from Victoria and all. As soon as I got out of Brixton I galloped straight to the Academy, Inn kept saying that she was at the “other” door, and it was the right hand side door thingy.

Now here’s where some orientation classes kick in. When you say the RIGHT doors, you instantly look at the venue, turn your head right (well eyes) and bam, thats the right doors, right? Wrong, Inn did it in a weird way haha. It was the right doors for her when she’s INSIDE. So there I was wondering around on the wrong side, looking at a hectic queue and shuddering at the fact of queueing up, even though the queue was going quite rapidly.

Inn finally tells me to go outside and opposite the road where she’ll spot me when I kinda figured it all out that her right was my left. So yeah, I finally meet up with Inn and she was slightly pissed haha. She had her ticket and all and passed it onto me, not sure why she gets to use the other doors to enter (it lacked a painful queue and all) but I managed to pretend I was with her so I got in using the doors she went too so WOOO! for not queueing up with the mofo’s haha.

Inn introduced me to her friend and we got right into the venue to pick a nice spot for photography and gigging. I chose the barriers on the right (left if you’re on the stage looking at the crowd, if that makes sense ) since the left one was a bit naff and the center looked pretty full already. The idea of a barrier meant that you were safe from hardcore moshing and sweaty people. Not to mention you only get a mild pushing from behind rather then a 360 degrees push fest.

I went to use the toilets, got myself some water (was really thirsty) and showed Inn where I smuggled my camera and lens. She was impressed. I also showed her how good the shots would be by zooming in with the 55-200mm lens. It was enough to get a good glimpse of someone’s crotch on stage. So yeah.

Anyhow, Ladytron were up, the singer had funny hair. I really wanted to see Ladytron and only found out in the gig that they were playing, was quite exciting. They had a screen to project during the gig and all with random footages of..stuff *shrugs*. Right, now for some photo taking.

The gig only started so they were using shitty red lights, I didnt really like the 55-200mm lens, things were really soft in the 200mm region. But some photos were alright I guess.

Here’s the best bit! During the gig, a security guard comes by and speaks to me. We know where this is going now don’t we? Now, how did he know i had a dslr camera? Well, when you’re using a 55-200mm lens and using the 200mm region to take photos, the camera is about half a foot long. So yeah, things are a bit TOO obvious! haha.

He asked me to show him my camera, I showed him the LCD side of it trying my best to hide the lens but he knew what I was doing and asked me to turn it over to see the lens, so I shamefully turn it around to reveal the huge lens haha. He told me how I’m not allowed to bring professional cameras into the gig and all and I had to come with him to hand it over to someone to look after for the gig. I would obviously get it back, Inn thought I was getting kicked out haha but I guess you can’t really kick someone out who’s paid for their gig and “didnt know about taking professional cameras” and all haha. But yeah, I was done, busted, caught red handed, pwnd etc haha.

Deary me, the process wasn’t too painful, I didnt feel too guilty about smuggling the camera (in fact it’s made me want to do it again since they’d just confiscate the camera and put it in a safe place for you to redeem later). So yeah, he was pretty polite and all and the process did go smoothly, I met some random old lady who was the keeper of digital cameras and all things deemed dangerous for gigs haha. I got a raffle ticket, wrote my name and mobile number and was escorted back to the gig. Wasn’t a shabby experience I must say hehe.

I managed to catch a few songs I wanted to hear at Ladytron (Seventeen in particular) and enjoy the rest of the gig. It was nice to know I didnt need to take photos and just watch the gig. But this is probably talks from someone who had their photo taking abilities stripped away and is only saying it to comfort themselves haha.

After Ladytron finished we were left to talk about my misfortune haha. Twas shameful going back to inn but meh. She told me I was simply too greedy bringing the 55-200mm lens as well as taking too many photos when support were playing and all. I should be more reserved in future I guess.

There was only one support (which was good) so Nine Inch Nails were up next. The wait was pretty long as they did alot of sound checks and lighting checks, it did look quite elaborate (but not as elaborate as Rammstein haha). There was alot of smoke involved, things got a bit heated up and all. During the wait, alot of people stood in front of Inn blocking her view, I had to tap them on the shoulders and ask them to move because Inn couldnt see hehe (I kept emphasising the fact that Inn was very short haha).

They finally started, they started with “Pinion”. The build up was pretty long I must say but nonetheless the band appeared haha. Trent looked funny with short hair, it was really weird. The guitarist was crazy, he kept going around the stage and flinging his guitar around like a monkey haha. The whole gig was spent camera less (was jealous that Inn got all the camera action haha).

Some songs required some hardcore head banging (March of the Pigs in particular). Inn looked pretty funny at the gig with her hair swinging all over the place, I’m glad she tied her hair back otherwise it would be all over the place. We were standing right behind a bunch of crazy moshers which added to the fun and all. There was this one guy and his girlfriend. He was pretty bad tempered throughout the gig and there was one point where we thought a fight would have started, alot of glaring was involved when he attacked someone who barged into him during the moshing. His girlfriend was constantly telling him to leave it, it was quite a funny scene I must say haha.

There was some annoying girl in front of us with her boyfriend who managed to barge in to their spot which was blocking inn’s view. The girl was really annoying, she talked throughout the gig and constantly had her elbows resting on the bar which meant I couldnt hold onto the bar myself haha. At one point she wanted to sit on the bar, Inn wasn’t too pleased on that and if she did do it, Inn would have done something (girl fight? dunno).

Anyway, the gig and music itself was amazing. The atmosphere was lovely. I liked the obvious songs they played (ie Closer and Into the Void). And in particular pre Into the Void where he played La Mer and threw the keyboard to one side right at the end after some crazy keyboard bashing.

I was sad that they didnt play Sin or We’re In This Together . But they did finish with Head Like a Hole which was awesome. Inn was probably super crazy at that time (she did get up on the bar a few times to go nuts haha).

After the gig I managed to get my DSLR camera back, nip to Sainsburys for something to drink (was REAL thirsty, got myself a whole carton of Tropicana Original,  yum yum) and went back home. Inn and her friend left at Pimlico (where their hotel was) and I went back home safetly using the same route.

During the journey a few chavy girls and guys were on my carridge. They were really rude as they barged into the carridge regardless of letting the passengers off the train. Some guy who was exiting the carridge was pissed off and told them off but was soon ridiculed. They were right c**ts. I blissfully ignored them with my shure earphones and played Castlevania. I was listening to the NIN gig all over again, though it blocked out most of the sounds, at some points I could hear them talk about my DS playing. One girl kept going “is he playing Mario?” yes dear, Mario is the only game you know. Have a f**king gold star (and a c**t punch) haha. (Sorry about the language but I really hate chavs, theres the well behaved chavs (which are rare) and the ones that are OOZING with attention seeking boosts to 255 points, constantly trying to impress their ladyfriends so they’d stand a chance to get into their knickers (which they will since they were wearing your typical tracksuit bottoms haha, piss easy to take off for a quickie eh? :p).

Anyway, all I kept on hearing was “is he playing Mario?”. Sounds like they were asking for trouble. One of the boys thought it would be impressive to put his arms around me to impress the girls, when I saw that happening I grinned and gave him a proper elbow. God that was good. He stopped being an arse and left the next stop. The girls kept checking me out but I just ignored them and played my good old Castlevania. I left at my stop and went back home, nice and tired.

I had a bath at 3 in the morning and slept at 6 haha. Far too much buzz for that gig I must say. Quick lesson; never bring a 55-200mm into a gig expecting you won’t get caught and buy some decent earphones, its lovely to drown out the crap from the outside.

New Canon 50mm f1.8 mkII lens

Thursday, March 8th, 2007

Today my new Canon 50mm f1.8 mkII lens arrived. Was lucky I woke up at 9 odd otherwise I would have definitely missed it and had to go through the whole hassle and bassle of waiting for it to be redelivered, not playing loud music so I can hear the door, and just not being able to go out just for the damn package.

Anyway, here it is

The motor is pretty loud as most reviewers stated, but the speed and sharpness of the lens is amazing. You can instantly notice the shutter speeds being extremely fast when you’re using arpeture mode and all.

Here’s the first photo I took with it

There is a possibility that I’ll be going to a wedding in Halifax with inn and alice (jallas from the messageboard) to do photography and all. Have to see if its feasible and that travel isn’t too extortionate, otherwise it sounds like an a ok and all. Would be quite fun to do some paid photography once in a while (even though alice is the only one who’s getting paid, but you know what I mean.. I think)

Phonebooths in Kingston

Saturday, March 3rd, 2007

One landscape I like most in Kingston is the “Out of Order” phonebooths. This was a line of phonebooths positioned so it looked like it had been pushed in a domino effect type thing. The photos should explain it all.

I tried taking photos of these things 2 times beforehand. This time I managed to get them how I wanted them to be (lots of light and all). Anyway, I used a bit of photoshopping and managed to desaturate the background colours and leave the red phonebooths in tact. It looks pretty nice, and is something fresh (no more band photography for a long long time haha).