Sad news last week, with alt-rockers Empire 35 calling it a day.  But, with Jeff going travelling in Malaysia, and James planning to move to Japan(!), I guess it seemed like a natural break point.

My (brief) involvement with them was one of life's nice little coincidences.  Earlier in the year, I wanted to do some photography at The Doghouse in Nottingham.  On clicking through the event pages, I happened across this lot.  Some cracking tracks on SoundCloud made it a very easy decision to go and see them, and they didn't disappoint.

Shooting at that gig also introduced me to Ed Medhurst, and The Invaders.  Daryl of The Invaders subsequently invited me to the Wadstock 2-ish event in August, where all three of these acts were also playing, along with a whole host of others.  And, keeping track of Ed's gigs resulted in me shooting at the Acoustic Gathering at The Maze in September.

Over the last couple of weekends, I was fortunate enough to shoot loads of acts, firstly at the Nottingham Acoustic Gathering at The Maze, and then at Macmillan Fest, held in and around Rescue Rooms in Nottingham.

Whilst I've worked alongside other photographers on a gig before, these were the first occasions when I've had reason to be critical of any of them.  Being inexperienced myself, and (still) making loads of mistakes, I'm somewhat reluctant to criticise other photographers.  And, I appreciate that different photographers have different styles, and everyone is trying to get decent shots, but...
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• If you are shooting with a lens so wide that you need to be standing right in front of the singer (i.e. inches away from their face!), you might want to reconsider your choice of lens.  Even if your style requires a 24mm lens, and even if you've cleared it with the artist, you're coming between them and the audience.  For me, as both a music fan, and a performer that shouldn't be happening.

• Flash photography at gigs is fucking irritating and distracting, whether it's from an iPhone or from a huge 600EX speedlite on top of a DSLR camera.  Again, if it is absolutely necessary (e.g. for a crowd shot) keep it to a minimum (as most did).  I saw several photographers at Macmillan Fest shooting continuously with flash through performances, justifying it because they didn't didn't have fast enough lenses.  If you don't have the right kit for the job, don't turn up, it's that simple.  There's no real excuse when both the Canon 50mm f1.4 and 85mm f1.8 lenses cost less than £250...

• If you're doing both of the above, you're probably really annoying absolutely everyone in the venue.  Stop, now.

• Finally, be selective in what you shoot, and what you publish.  Not 2,000-odd badly composed shots, taken indiscriminately on the off-chance that there might be one or two okay in-focus ones in there.

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Just for balance, here's a link to Carrie-Ann Pollard's coverage of Macmillan Fest for Already Heard (here).  She got great, consistent shots across all the stages, without flash, and without getting in anyone's way, least of all mine ;)

'Wadstock 2ish' was a private party/music festival organised by Daryl of The Invaders.  I had no real idea what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised when I arrived at the venue, just outside a Nottinghamshire village.  In addition to a decent sized camping area, there was a compact stage, sound desk, and hay bales for seating (not that I got to sit down much) - a real festival atmosphere on an intimate scale.

Although it had rained on Friday night, when a couple of bands played to an audience sheltering under a tarpaulin, the weather for Saturday and Sunday was great.  In fact, it was too good at times.  Clear skies and the low sun later on in the afternoon made shooting a couple of the bands quite tricky.

As it got dark on Saturday evening, a red spotlight on stage-right caused a few problems.  Apart from the usual red light issues (hence some black and white images), it was too close to the guitarists.  Light reflecting off shiny guitars caused some over-exposed images.

Story of the weekend came from Empire 35.  Their transport had broken down, so they came on the train from Derby.  Then, although they had a tent, someone had forgotten the tent poles.  Cue a creative use of a cymbal stand and a horse jump.  And, they didn't have enough sleeping bags...

I hadn't originally expected to hang around too long on Sunday, but I'm glad Daryl talking me into staying.  There was some great acoustic entertainment and a chilled-out atmosphere.  And, it finished off with Daryl swapping his bass to play some blues guitar.

An ongoing hamstring injury meant that I couldn't participate in this Summer's Krav Maga weekender, hosted by Krav Maga Nottingham.  So, the next best thing was to take the camera along and shoot some photos!  Whilst I had shot a training session back in May (blog post here), most of that had been outdoors rather than inside, so this was a bit different.

The venue has florescent strip lighting, skylights and a loading bay door (it's an adapted industrial unit) that was sometimes open, sometimes closed.  Combined with patchy cloud conditions outside, this meant that the light changed a lot.  And, some of the walls have murals on them, whilst one side is painted bright white.  Needless to say, the shots against the murals came out miles better.

The weekend consisted of a series of sessions, covering subjects such as multiple attackers, gun threats, and surviving active shooter scenarios.  It finished with a mock hostage survival exercise on Sunday evening, putting into practice the subjects covered over the weekend - a bit of stress to finish the weekend.

So, lots of opportunities for interesting photos, albeit in a fairly challenging environment.  Apart from the usual issues around balancing ISO, aperture and shutter speeds in low light conditions, the action was fairly chaotic with participants training in pairs or larger groups.  If nothing else, I had to make sure I kept aware enough of what was going on around me, so that no-one clattered into me (that was as close as I got to practising my Krav Maga skills...).

I prefer shooting people and bands rather than landscapes and nature.  But I do like being out in the countryside, and having the camera with me certainly made me look around more than I might have done.  The 50mm f1.4 prime lens worked well for shots along the path, although, of course, it's not really wide enough for landscapes.  Ultimately, I found it a little frustrating trying to find 'interesting' shots in probably one of the most visited areas of the Peak District, particularly once it started to fill up.

I spoke to The Doghouse a few weeks back, but Saturday was the first opportunity I'd found to get to a gig there.  This was another new venue for me, even though it's only five minutes drive away.  This was a free gig with three very different acts, and, along with the audience, gave this the feel of a group of friends getting together to play and listen to some music.

The lighting rig consists of the LED spotlights that I'm coming to expect at these small venues.  Used intelligently, they can work reasonably well from a photography point of view, and that was the case here.

After my previous experiences in low-light auto-focus hell, I'm now shooting with a Canon EOS 5D MkIII.  It's a significant step up cost-wise from the EOS 70D, but worth it for the improvement in image quality at higher ISO settings, and an auto-focus that operates in lower light conditions.

On Sunday, I was in Northampton for the Bank Holiday 'Frenzy vs Jacko' all-dayer at the King Billy pub (all the acts had to do a Michael Jackson cover).  I used to be a regular in this pub, but this was the first time I'd been back since moving away over 10 years ago.  It hasn't changed at all - same décor, same furniture and fittings, just a new sign above the entrance.  And..., the same music - Mötley Crüe playing as I walked in took me back a few years.

The 'stage' is a corner of the pub, lit by spotlights from several angles .  They were throwing really harsh coloured light into proceedings, so black and white was the only option for most of the images.  The shooting angles were limited as well, due to having an uncovered window to one side of the stage area (it was daytime), and a mirror.  So, about 'normal' for a pub gig then.

The first band I shot were The Exit Palace, an alternative rock band from Corby.  I checked with the guitarist beforehand that they were okay with me taking photos, and practically got my hand bitten off.  No issues there then.  Their only request was that I got some shots of the drummer, as it was his first gig with the band.

The Bophins were their usual energetic selves.  Tim O'Neill, the guitarist, went for his customary wander around the bar area.  Tim Walden, the bass player, proved to be a bit difficult to shoot thanks to the window and a speaker stack, and Silvie on drums was a bit too far away for the 50mm lens.  I also tried standing on a chair at the side of the stage to get some different angles, but wasn't particularly happy with the results.

At the weekend, I was at the gorgeous Clumber Park, north of Nottingham, for a Going Digital course on Flash Portrait Photography.  It was run by Louise Mills, and there was also a (very patient) non-professional model - I have no idea how she managed to keep smiling all day.

The main focus was on-camera (hot-shoe) flash, both indoors and outside, although Louise did cover some basic studio set-ups using off-camera speedlights later on.