Sweated my arse off in Darmstadt’s Golden Krone to take a few shots of these guys playing at the ‘Nonstock’ warm-up.  Click on the small ones below to enlarge, or check out the full set on my Flickr account over here.

My good friend Greg and his cohorts, known collectively as ‘Married to the Sea‘, rolled into Darmstadt late yesterday to play an acoustic set at a locally (in)famous and unusual venue known as the Gute Stube.  It offered an ideal opportunity to bust out the camera and test out some low-light shooting of which I’ve done very little with the D700.  In short, I was blown away – not just by the music, but by the fact that I was snapping away quite happily at ISO 3,200 and coming out with fantastic results.

Anyway, yeah – the gig!  The band were fantastic, winning the crowd over not just with their music but also with their infectious charm and humour in this very intimate venue.  Even if the songs weren’t necessarily your cup of tea you couldn’t help but smile and just enjoy being a part of the event, it was great fun and hopefully I’ve managed to capture some of that.

Below is a few of my favourite shots from the night, and the full set is over on my Flickr here.

I dusted off the D700 last night to take some shots of Rox’s friend’s band, Immergrün, at the Schlosskeller here in Darmstadt.  It’s a pretty cool little venue but awkward to take photos, as while it’s fairly intimate there’s huge columns in the way (well, it is a cellar…) that kind of limit your options.  Anyway, I got a few decent shots – nothing groundbreaking, but it felt good to be at a gig and shooting some pictures.  Checkit:

It’s always kind of hard to take photos of a band whose music you aren’t familiar with, as you don’t know when they’re going to build up and kick off, those being the moments that you want to capture.  Still, these guys were pretty tight and didn’t seem to mind me making a nuisance of myself at the front.

]]> http://dischord.org/blog/2010/02/27/immergrun/feed/ 4 http://dischord.org/blog/2010/01/29/bay-court-hotel-anglesey/ http://dischord.org/blog/2010/01/29/bay-court-hotel-anglesey/#comments Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:09:35 +0000 nick http://dischord.org/blog/?p=891

Went out for a drive today to blow the cobwebs from the S62 V8 as it’s stood unmoved for five weeks now, and we came across this place out in Benllech, Anglesey.  Couldn’t resist snapping off a couple of shots, indeed I wish I’d had a bit more time to explore.  I love derelict old places like this although I’m sure the neighbours have a different view on things.

Clicking the bottom two will embiggen, or alternatively head over to my Flickr feed!

So after some dicking about following the move from the old server (a decrepit IBM X330 complete with ATA/33 and other such nonsense) to the new one (a shiny Dell R200!) and reconfiguring my site I’ve also put my old gallery back online.  Anyone who uses Gallery2 will know that it can be a massive ballache to look after, to say the least.

So while I mainly update Flickr these days, there’s some amusing older stuff in there that I haven’t imported into my account.  For example, check out some really old riding photos, a random trip to the Strawbury Duck, and of course my first visit to San Diego.  All good times!

After a couple of months without a camera (the D200 was sold to this chap!) I finally took the plunge and whacked a Nikon D700 + MB-D10 on my recently-cleared credit card.  That’s what it’s for after all, right?!  Anyway, it arrived yesterday just in time for me to rush out (literally) and shoot Young Widows at The Fly in Camden.

I was hoping that it’d be a decent test of the much-lauded low-light capabilities of the FX sensor, but Young Widow’s lighting arrangement would have been a stretch to say the least.  They provided their own illumination by way of just four lamps at the back, with the rest of the stage lighting turned off.  I pulled out the SB-800 and rattled off a few keepers:

The gig itself was fucking superb, with YW playing a blinding albeit short set.  Likewise the D700 although I haven’t really scratched the surface of what it can do yet.  More soon!

Here’s some photos to brighten things up.  These are various girls I’ve shot in the past for either Seedless Clothing, Revolt Magazine, or Krown Magazine.  Enjoy!

I’m selling my mint two-year old Nikon D200 as well as the following:

• Nikon MB-D200 vertical grip;
• Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC HSM lens;
• Nikon 12-24mm f/4G ED IF Autofocus DX Nikkor Zoom Lens;
• Nikon DX AF Fisheye-Nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8G ED.

Make me an offer on any / all of the above.

Taking a cue from Wes, I recently picked up a Micro-Nikkor 55mm f/2.8 AIS lens off a friend of mine. It’s MF but produces some pretty amazing images and is super sharp assuming you nail the focus. Here’s a few ‘test’ shots I took of the Nike SB / Crazysmiles toys made to commemorate the introduction of BMX at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

While we’re on the subject (BMX, not cheap lenses…), here’s a few taken down at Seedless Clothing where me and Ry found a sick and almost totally original Mongoose Motomag lying around in Skeet’s office.

Here’s a few random photos from in / around Los Angeles.

More updates soon, promise xox.

Here’s some photos taken for Revolt (http://revoltsd.com) Magazine from the X-Games XIV Closing Party on 3rd of August, 2008.  My first time shooting a ‘red carpet’ event, it was pretty difficult getting any subjects attention thanks to the FMX demonstration in the street directly behind us…

Update: See Fletch’s write up over here!

On the face of it, 1600 miles of driving in three days across various parts of Europe (France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Italy) might seem a bit crazy. But when you do it in some of Bayeriche’s finest (an E39 M5, a Z3 M Coupe, a Z4 and a 745i) and cover some of Europe’s best roads you start to understand the appeal. The roads and views we encountered have to be seen to be believed, and thanks to the miracle of technology that is the Internet you can right here. They’re up on Facebook as well but that does a pretty good job of mangling colour profiles and compression so they look a bit cack. I’ll whack them up onto Flickr too at some point just for good measure.

I didn’t take as many shots as I like as I spent approx. 99% of my waking time over the weekend behind the wheel but there’s a few good ones in there. Fletch took a shit load as well with both his camera and mine, and he’ll no doubt write something more descriptive fairly shortly. All in all it was an amazing weekend, great roads and good people to be on a road trip with. Highlights for me had to be Faz’s physics-defying driving in the 745i, Fletch’s ability to control the weather by singing various songs, Matt’s psychotic overtaking manouvres, and the views from along / around Great St. Bernard’s pass.

So when’s the next trip? :-)

I’ll keep this short – ATP was fucking ace. Butlin’s was a real surprise (in a good way) and the lineup was unreal. I’m up for going to the next one but I’ll be amazed if the bands playing are half as decent…

Highlights were definitely seeing Shellac play twice (three days if you count me seeing them on Thursday in London), Trans Am’s set which was extraodinary thanks to Phil Manley’s skills in the absence of any working keyboards, and the drinking binge that kicked Friday night off and then destroyed most of Saturday for some.

We also experienced by far and away the worst kebabs ever, got poisoned by Burger King (what do you expect at 2am in the morning), and Boothy made friends with some ducks. Speaking of the Booth, he also managed to fulfill his lifelong ambition of making out with a rock star.

Can’t wait for the next one.

The new Santa Rosa equipped Apple laptops can’t come quick enough for me really (click for big):

I’m hoping that it’s a one-off, but as that’s the first time I’ve seen that happen in the 18 months I’ve owned the laptop it’s probably a sign of impending doom. Time to take advantage of my Applecare warranty….

Pelican (and These Arms Are Snakes) last night were pretty good, although I missed the first half of TAAS’ set – thanks to walking miles in the wrong direction – but as I’ve seen them before I wasn’t too bothered. Pelican sounded awesome live, they played a good set which I enjoyed whilst throwing pints of Grolsch down my neck.

What wasn’t much fun was finding out that Bank was in fact shut just as we cruised through it on the tube. In my inebriated state I missed the next stop and so had to trek halfway across London via two other stations whilst busting for a piss. Fletch will probably say that’s my own fault though for living out in t’sticks…

10:08 <fletch> Acton!!!
10:08 <fletch> get that!
10:09 <fletch> Zone 78
10:09 <fletch> takes a week to get there by mule

After missing them tour almost as many times as I saw Bluetip play, I finally managed to see Retisonic at the Barfly in Camden Town. They put on a good show and I managed to fire off a few photos from the front, but as it was pretty packed in there (the Barfly is fairly small) and I was bunched up against the right speaker, this meant two things: my left ear was ringing really fucking bad by the time their set finished, and I didn’t do too well on the photo front in terms of quantity. I did manage to catch this moment though.

Cursive headlined not long after that and I moved out of position in order to drink a few warm glasses of Grolsch somewhere near the back. They aren’t really the same band as they were when I saw them a few years back in Manchester (circa Domestica) so I wasn’t all that excited about hearing them play but I’m actually glad I did. They sounded good, put on a good show and played one or two tracks I like so I was happy. The beer helped as well though, I’m sure.

The tube journey back out of Camden was pretty much as interesting as the gig itself, with a championship greyhound gracing the presence of one tube station (or so the owner claimed – Scanman would have had to have been there to verify) and then some film school kid ‘entertaining’ the cabin of a tube I was on with a selection of slides he’d drawn for some project. If there’s one thing London isn’t, it’s dull….

I’ve seen people sticker up some larger lens hoods before (like on the AF-S VR 70-200 2.8 or the AF-S 28-70 2.8 Nikkors), but nothing quite like this:

Pretty cool stuff. Shame they had their kit stolen though :(

While I think about what to do in terms of sorting a portfolio site for my photography – which might take a while considering I’ve still no broadband where I’m living – I’ve started uploading my newer photographs to Flickr. Additionally I’ve amended the bottom bar to display the latest pictures from my Flickr feed, so you’ll see the last 9 pictures down there which currently include some photos of These Arms Are Snakes and Trencher.

An update, and it’s about time. So in the past couple of months I’ve moved down to London, started a new contract, and joined the gym. Pretty drastic stuff eh. I’ve had a fair bit more luck than my poor ol’ cuz whose having a hell of a time finding somewhere to live. Managed to find somewhere that’s a ten minute walk to work and just a few stops out on the Central Line to central London – score. Rent isn’t too bad either, although it’s still not cheap compared to living life back up Norf.

Not been up to all that much else really apart from seeing Enablers (more on that in a second), working and settling in. Not checked out anywhere to ride yet – Playstation Bay Sixty6 skatepark is more or less down the road (though that could mean a journey of at least an hour here) so I should make an effort – this is probably the longest I’ve been off my bike that’s not attributable to injury actually :(

So I did manage to see Enablers again at an awesome bar in Camden Town called Barfly. I walked into this place and they had Dirty Deeds on the screen, which is one of the greatest BMX videos of all time from back in the mid-nineties. That was followed by an old Wilkerson Airlines video, ‘Life on the Edge’. Unreal. So I watched both of those and then headed upstairs to see TODD and of course Enablers. I snapped off a few photos [ two, three, four, five, six ] although not too many because there were about four other people there at the front, all vying for decent pictures. I managed to take a few keepers so I stood back after that and just enjoyed the show. Enablers are easily one of my favourite bands.

Photography ‘portfolio’ site coming soon, I promise.

I’m selling my Nikon D70 plus the ‘kit’ lens. Reason for sale is that I bought a D200 a while ago and I could do with the extra money to go towards a Nikkor 28-70 f2.8 ;)

What I’m selling:

• Nikon D70 Camera Body
• Nikkor AF-S DX 18-70mm f3.5-4.5 Lens
• Hoya UV Filter
• Hoya Circular Polarising Filter
• Two EN-EL3 Batteries, with charger
• 512MB CF Card
• Case
• Thom Hogan’s excellent guide to using the D70
• My help if you need it ;)

I’ve had this camera for around 18 months and I’ve taken some amazing photos with it. Here’s a picture of the camera itself with lens attached, and here’s a photo of my D200 taken with the D70 just today (22/09/2006). The latter is at 100% and with no post-processing applied whatsoever.

It includes manuals for everything, and although I have all the boxes they’re in storage so they’ll be to follow sometime in the near future. I’m looking for about £400. Drop me a mail if you’re interested.

I don’t know how many of you have read the Red Dwarf books, but basically at the end of the second book when Lister, Rimmer, the Cat and Kryten realise that they’re in BTL and they want to leave, they’re shown an exit which they step through into what they assume will be reality.

Lister wakes up in bed feeling great, has a shower, and then goes to make some breakfast. As he’s making toast, he drops the a buttered slice on the floor and it lands buttered side up. Now it’s obvious that in the real world, if you drop a slice of toast on the floor it’s going to land with the butter facing down and get full of shit. It’s then that Lister realises they’re still in BTL and is finally allowed to leave.*

It’s the same sense of distorted, too-good-to-be-true reality I’m feeling right now. As if the Slint reunion wasn’t enough, apparently Hoover are playing together again and indeed touring. Dates:

NOVEMBER
Mon 29th England, Southampton Lennon’s Bar
Tues 30th England, Exeter Cavern Club

DECEMBER
Wed 1st England, Manchester Star and Garter
Thurs 2nd England, Newcastle Art Centre
Fri 3rd Scotland, Glasgow Nice and Sleazy
Sat 4th N. Ireland, Belfast TBA
Sun 5th Ireland, Limmerick TBA
Mon 6th Ireland, Dublin TBA
Tues 7th England, Bristol The Croft
Wed 8th England, London Camden Underworld
Thurs 9th England, Norwich Ferryboat Inn
Fri 10th England, Nottingham The Maze
Sat 11th England, Leeds Brudenell Social Club

What the fuck is going on??

Ian Mackaye’s new ‘band’, The Evens, are also touring:

NOVEMBER
Mon 1st England, London St Cyprian’s
Tues 2nd England, Exeter Tempex Gallery
Wed 3rd Wales, Newport Burleigh Hall
Thurs 4th England, Leeds Brudenell Social Club
Sat 6th England, Newcastle/Gateshead St. Joesphs Emmaus Centre
Sun 7th England, Nottingham Nottingham Boat Club
Mon 8th England, Cambridge Cambridge City FC Social Club

* Boothy will no doubt correct me on this Red Dwarf shit. I don’t have the books handy right now.