The Christchurch Festival...

And now for something completely different. It's not often that I turn my lens in the direction of fellow musicians - just why that is, I'm not too sure - but today I visited the music area at the Christchurch Festival, Dorset, to photograph the Riverside Blues Band in action.

I had not given too much thought to the occasion, thinking that it would be a straightforward shoot in front of an open-air stage. I couldn't have been more wrong: it was inside a marquee. Now, this is a sensible move on behalf of the organisers, due to the vagaries of the British summer and outdoor events, but it wasn't helping me. From the outside it looked awful dark in there, and although I was equipped with several fast aperture lenses I had strong doubts about my success rate, frame wise. To aggravate matters, the stage end of the tent was covered in dark material, so as to give the stage lighting some effect during the daylight hours. I was going to need to use a higher ISO setting than I would like to - given the age of my camera - but I went into the dimness and took a number of test shots of the preceding band.

I needn't have worried. Yes, I was shooting almost wide open, but getting acceptable exposure readings. I began to feel a tad more confident from this point on. The band took the stage at 4pm for their 50 minute set and I started shooting from the off, checking and modifying camera settings depending on the lighting as I went. The band played a cracking set, and was joined onstage midway through their set by Callum; slated by Stan as the future of the local blues scene in the area (I hope that tattoo washes-off!).

He is only ten years old and is already gigging on a regular basis, and shows much promise. Although playing a supporting role today, he has no qualms about taking a lead vocal during his set at the local blues jams, organised so well by Stan and Helen (husband and wife team). Certainly a name to look out for in the future.

No doubt the fact that I had fast glass saved the day (I don't have a speedlight), and it did give me the opportunity to wheel-out my underused 85mm Nikkor - ideal under low light situations - but I was pushing the capabilities of the camera sensor. As I have mentioned elsewhere on this blog, it is an ancient model in digital terms (five years old), and newer models will leave it standing in that department, but once I get into the swing of things I find that I can drop those settings and reduce the digital noise levels to something manageable. Even so, I don't think the images used here would take any more enlargement comfortably.







Top: Stan - Guitar and vocals
Second row: (left) Syd - Drums (right) Helen - Bass guitar
Paul - Harmonica

Bottom right: Callum



Photos:

Top - 85mm f/1.4 Nikkor. 1/500 second at f/2. - 0.67 EV compensation. ISO 800

Second row - 85mm f/1.4 Nikkor. (left) 1/100 second at f/4. - 0.33 EV compensation. ISO 2000 (right) 1/320 second at f/2. - 0.33 EV compensation. ISO 800

Bottom - 24-70mm f/2.8G AF-S Nikkor. 1/200 second at f/4. - 0.33 EV compensation. ISO 2000


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