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Posts Tagged ‘stages’

They Called it Photodynamism

Posted in Bands, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , , , on January 24, 2011| 4 Comments »

Grand Pocket Orchestra playing in WhelansThere are a lot of precedents for this kind of long exposure photography. I have already talked about Hiroshi Sugimoto and his stunning long exposures of the insides of movie theaters. I was familiar with Sugimoto’s work before starting this project and the initial idea was simply to do for music venues what Sugimoto had done for movie theaters. Sugimoto would open his shutter at the start of the film and close it at the end. I open the shutter at the start of the song and close it at the end. (more…)

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Ones To Watch

Posted in Bands, Photography, tagged , , , , , , on January 20, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Great Lakes Mystery playing in Whelans

I spent two nights in Whelans last week taking photographs at their Ones To Watch 2011 festival. I took shots of a whole bunch of acts including Hunter-Gatherer, Thread Pulls, Cloud Castle Lake, Grand Pocket Orchestra and Miracle Bell. These will no doubt pop up on this blog soon enough but for now, the one above is of Great Lakes Mystery. This is a solo project by Gareth Averill, who has drummed with a whole bunch of bands. The blur in the middle is apparently actor Brendan Gleeson’s son (another one), who also plays guitar in the excellent Hired Hands. Here’s a track from Great Lakes Mystery.

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The Frames in Vicar Street

Posted in Bands, Photography, tagged , , , , on January 5, 2011| 2 Comments »

This is The Frames playing in Vicar Street just before Christmas. This was the second last gig of 2010 for me and it gave me one of the best shots yet. Vicar Street can be a bit hit and miss for these photographs depending on the lighting that’s being used but thankfully it was pretty restrained on the night of the Frames gig. I took some exposures at f22 and f16 this time in order to make sure I got the crowd as well as the band and it worked out very nicely. Exposure time is about 5 minutes. (more…)

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Digital Socket Awards

Posted in Bands, Photography, tagged , , , , , , on December 31, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I just found out that I have been nominated in the category of Best Music Photography in the new Digital Socket Awards. These awards have been set up by a bunch of Irish music bloggers and the idea is that the public provide the nominations for the various categories and then a panel of bloggers act as judges (bludges?) to decide the winners.  Shortlists will be decided on in January sometime and there’s an awards ceremony in February where the winners will be announced. I think it’s a pretty good idea and I hope it will help to highlight all the interesting stuff that is going on in the music scene in Ireland that might otherwise get overlooked. I’m chuffed to get nominated. (more…)

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You Sir, Have The Eye …

Posted in Bands, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , on December 23, 2010| 4 Comments »

Commenting on this post recently, my buddy Dubh David Black said “You sir, have the eye!”. It’s always nice to get compliments like this but it got me thinking about what this actually means. The more I thought about it, the more I realised that it said something interesting about this series of photographs, though maybe not in the way Dubh intended. (more…)

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This Is The One

Posted in Bands, Photography, tagged , , , , on December 1, 2010| Leave a Comment »

This is the fantastic Dinah Brand playing in Whelans a few weeks ago. Dinah Brand is a vehicle for the song-writing talents of Dylan Philips and I have to admit a bias here, as Dylan is a good friend of mine. I think we are all inclined to appreciate the things that our friends do, and sometimes it can cloud the judgment a bit, but I don’t think that’s the case here, as there really is something unique and original about these songs. They tell compelling and unusual stories, and do this with the kind of carefully crafted words you might expect from a band that takes its name from a character in a Dashiell Hammett novel. They are full of ambiguity and loose ends, and shift in meaning as you listen to them. They also manage to be quite moving, without resorting in any way to the kind of ridiculous emotional grandstanding that is the common currency of many a critically-lauded Irish songwriter. And it’s all wrapped up in great melodies, brilliant arrangements and superb musicianship. (more…)

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Not Into The Sun!

Posted in Bands, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , on November 24, 2010| Leave a Comment »

What’s number one on every one of those cheesy “How To Take Better Photographs” lists? Yes, it’s don’t take pictures into the sun. In fact, avoid the sun altogether. Go out in early morning or late afternoon and spend the bit in between eating, drinking or sleeping. The Spanish have it right. The reason for this is that light shining directly into the lens of a camera will cause lens flare. You would think this sort of thing isn’t an issue when taking photographs in indoor places at night but weirdly enough it is. (more…)

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Never Been To A Support Band

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on November 17, 2010| 3 Comments »

This is The Flaws opening up for The Walkmen at Tripod in Dublin a few nights ago. The very first picture I took in this series was also done in Tripod, way back in March of this year. I remember scrambling around in the dark on the balcony, frantically trying to assemble the 4×5 camera I had just bought, and thinking that this long exposure gig photography idea was never going to work. It’s taken me until now to get back into Tripod as it’s a rare night when the balcony is not in use. (more…)

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Daniel Johnston (Revisited)

Posted in Bands, Photography, tagged , , , , , on November 14, 2010| 1 Comment »

This is a picture of Daniel Johnston playing in Vicar Street earlier this year. I have already posted a shot from this gig on the blog but was never entirely happy with it. The stage was too bright and crowd was too dark – a common problem. I went back to look again at the negatives from that night when a friend of mine asked me to make him a print. I wanted to see if I could do something better with them so, with the help of David Monahan, I started experimenting with scanning them in and digitally combining the negatives to get the perfect shot. (more…)

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This Is A Photograph Of A Band Called Adebisi Shank

Posted in Bands, Photography, tagged , , , , , , on October 30, 2010| 1 Comment »

This Is A Photograph Of A Band Called Adebisi Shank

There’s been a debate going on recently, spawned by this article, about whether right now is some sort of golden age for Irish music, particularly with respect to the independent side of things. I’m not all that convinced by this. There has always been a pretty vibrant DIY scene – the difference is that in the last few years more and more bands have decided that putting out your own music is a viable way of doing things, and more and more media outlets have realised that this is something worth supporting. However, more music being produced and more people writing about it, does not mean all of it, or even any of it, is any good. I still hear a lot of generic sounding stuff that seems to be aping whatever is fashionable with the music publications and blogs at the moment. The real test will be whether there are bands and artists original and talented enough to create music that we will still be listening to in five years time, and that we won’t have simply forgotten about. (more…)

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