music photography

A friend of mine, Paul Kramer, runs a industry music magazine called the Hitsheet - www.hitsheet.co.uk. He has done for some years now, and he is so passionate and enthusiastic about his work. He sees several bands play every night in London, and runs himself pretty ragged.

We met at a Tom Baxter show a few years ago and have bonded over music ever since. Once a month, Paul hosts a gig night at a private members club in West London, where he showcases acts that he believes will be successful. He's usually right! Last night was one of those evenings. Despite only having four acts booked to play, he managed to squeeze nine on, including his young beat-boxing son, Daniel. Among the acts was the hotly tipped Nell Bryden, who was interviewed on BBC Breakfast on Tuesday morning, and has just returned from playing to the troops in Iraq. Her music is an intriguing mix of bluegrass and Americana. Blew me away.

I do have a long running battle with Paul about the lighting at the Cobden. Not his fault at all, actually, but the place has the worst lighting for photography of anywhere in London, in my opinion. The photographers among you will sympathise with me on this. There are two red spotlights way back that shine onto the stage and the only other lighting is one very hot blue light and one white light, both of which are aimed squarely at the top of the artist's head. Makes it nigh on impossible to expose the faces. I can't bear using flash at a gig as it washes out the subject and casts terrible shadows. So I battle on regardless ;) If you're interested, the settings for the shots below (Laura Critchley) are ss 1/400th, ap f2.8 and iso 1250. Oh, to have a D3 sometimes ...