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Orquestra Atipica de Edimburgo

Tuesday, February 23, 2010 Posted in Canon 40D, Canon 50mm f 1.4, Portrait, Sigma 28 f1.8

This particularly great looking bunch of musicians spent some time with me on Sunday doing some photos for publicity. I had a great day with them and enjoyed Edinburgh on a beautiful bright February day. I loved photographing them and loved their willingness top trust me as I dragged them onto the monument at Calton Hill in their light shirts in the FREEZING afternoon. Thanks guys, I hope you love the pictures as much as I do. This would have made a fantastic day for me anyway, but to hear them play was really special; these guys are totally amazing. They play traditional style tango, and the sound of them, their soulfulness, their tightness makes your heart ache. They are brilliant.

Orquestra Atipica de Edimburgo’s Facebook page.

These images were done with one flash and umbrella on a stand fixed and one handheld by my helper for the day, Gustavo. We were able to move that one quickly to balance the lighting without wasting time.

One problem taking advantage of a band for photographs is that they tend to wander off all the time; with a little platform and a 30 foot drop on 3 sides they tend to stick together. Mwwwwaaaahahaaaaaaaa

An Edinburgh band need to have Edinburgh behind them. I love that city so much.

Back now on terra firma. Those smiles are relief. I don’t care what the motivation was however, I’ll take advantage anyway:-) Note the tiny Princes Street behind them.

And now, double bassist extraordinaire, James…

How cool is James’s hair?

What poise, what a shirt!

One of my favourites, the lighting, background and pose are totally classic. This is in Gustavo’s wonderful cafe, looking out on Broughton street.

Every tango band needs someone in a red dress. None of the guys were up for it, so Petrea stepped up to the mark. No the background of Arthur’s Seat and the crags isn’t stuck on. She was way up high and keepin’ it real!

Here’s Petrea in the cafe later. I love the background and the catchlights in her eyes.

As a guitarist myself, the most humbling part of the day was hearing Mark making this astounding lightly built flamenco instrument sing and wail so perfectly.

Note the resemblance to the amazing David Gilmour Pink Floyd fans. The graffiti is a shame here. I wondered about cloning it out, I’m just not sure. It’s a love/hate thing..

And finally Roberto. Master of the bandoneon. If any instrument can be said to be hard-wired to the listeners soul, this is it. This man and his music will break your heart, and you’ll love it.

Check Roberto’s chiselled looks.

And then, in the cafe, Petrea sang and everyone turned to watch and listen, you have to, she’s that good. Don’t go to see this band if you don’t want to fall in love with Petrea’s singing.

Just a few angles on the guys now:

And finally, helper-for-the-afternoon Gustavo and Petrea showed their skills dancing tango while the band played. Beautiful and amazing.

Check them out.

Tags: calton hill, Edinburgh, Orquestra Atipica de Edimburgo, Petrea Cooney, tango

by Matthew

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John Grant

Sunday, February 14, 2010 Posted in Canon 40D, Canon 50mm f 1.4, Portrait

f2.8 1/250 (50×1.6) ISO 100

This terribly striking and handsome man is my colleague and friend John Grant. John is a musician and specialises in conducting. John as a conductor is something to see; he basically knows how to get the best out of people and everyone loves working with him. This picture was snatched in 15 minutes from a rehearsal for the Argyll Concert Band which John was organising. The setting was the Ardentinny outdoor centre in Argyll and the backdrop is a play-spiderweb in their grounds.

Photographically, the sunlight was very directional and strong. I wanted to get some drama from the backdrop so shot with the sun behind John and handheld my flash with no softeners as a much needed fill-in. I did a black and white conversion as the shapes are the strength of this picture and the greenery distracts the eye too much. I have a theory about greenery in pictures; it is easier to focus attention on a subject using a simple backdrop. When in woods, the eye seems to scan the scene. Apparently the eye is more sensitive to green. I also wonder whether we have evolved to be more vigilant about woods since they were sources of food and of danger in our hunter-gatherer past. Give me a factory wall every time, but in this case, woods were what I had!

Tags: conductor, John Grant

by Matthew

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The Parliament and Calton Hill.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010 Posted in Canon 17-85 IS, Canon 40D, Townscape

This one was from the slopes of Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh on the 31st December 2009. It was like an ice rink and frankly the path up Arthur’s Seat really needed crampons. (no really!). I set up my tripod and indulged in a 30 second exposure of our ever-so-odd parliament. The car light trails are fun.

f20 30s (56mm x 1.6) ISO 200

Tags: calton hill, light trails, scottish parliament

by Matthew

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Where earth meets sky

Sunday, January 10, 2010 Posted in Canon 17-85 IS, Canon 40D, Landscape, Thoughts and Reflections

My dad died on Friday night. On my way home from work, before it happened, I stopped to photograph this landscape. I know that every time I look at this image I’ll remember my dad and what happened on Friday. My dad was a good and kind man, who was flawed and challenged just like all of us. He put the best of his life into my brother and I. This picture will kind of stay with me now, that’s the power of photography; I hope I’ll be pleased about this image over the years.

Tags: Finlaystone, Renfrewshire

by Matthew

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Winter Road

Wednesday, January 6, 2010 Posted in Canon 70-300 IS, Landscape

Shortly before Christmas, as the current endless cold snap was taking a grip, I was treated to this beautiful light while travelling from Kilmacolm toward Bridge of Weir. Those are wind turbines in the distance. (f18 1/200 (80 x 1.6) ISO 200)

by Matthew

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Edinburgh torchlit procession

Monday, January 4, 2010 Posted in Canon 17-85 IS, Canon 40D, Canon 70-300 IS

These are a few images from Edinburgh’s torchlit procession on the 29th December. The exposure was a real challenge as the light levels were so low, and the contrast between the burning torches and peoples’ faces was so large. I don’t mind admitting that the hit rate for these pictures was pretty poor. I took most of them with my 70-300 zoom, and although it is a great lens, it isn’t really a large enough aperture lens to let in the kind of light that you need to do this and to stop motion effectively. I still enjoyed capturing the atmosphere however and in fact I wish I could take more pictures like this first one; it has bags of mood, and doesn’t need good exposure on the man’s face. The rimlighting provided by the torches says more than good detail could. (f5.6 1/80th (235 x 1.6 crop factor) ISO1600). Yay, I remembered this time that some of you like the data!

I don’t know these people, but looking down the mound and using this man’s arm as a frame for the lovely girl that he was photographing has caught a little love story in the midst of the celebrations. (f4.5 1/80th (70 x 1.6) ISO 1600)

If you know me you’ll know that I love gargoyles. Odd when I have no great fondness for churches. These I consider to be their cutest features! This one was on a fairground “haunted house” ride and I couldn’t resist it in the smoky torchlit atmosphere. The zoom was fully extended and the shutter speed was glacially slow. This illustrates well the effectiveness of Canon’s image stabilisation. No way I could handhold that length of zoom at that exposure without it. (f5.6 1/13th (300 x 1.6) ISO 1600)

While passing the fairground rides I watched these two thrillseekers being locked into one of the scariest rides I have seen. This cage is on two massive bungee cables and on release launches the poor inhabitants of the cage at frightening acceleration into the sky. They then bounce up and down and frankly all around while the tall buildings next to them dissapear below them. This image would have been good if I had had the presence of mind to move a little to avoid the safety brace handle getting in the way of the man on the right. I knew it wasn’t right but didn’t think the picture was worth the bother. Moral of the story, listen to those nagging doubts as you photograph; so much of it is instinct. (f5 1/50th (165 x 1.6) ISO 1600)

Perhaps one of them at this prelaunch moment is beginning to realise what he has let his poor stomach in for. My pants were in danger of soiling just through watching! (f5.6 1/25th (300 x 1.6) ISO 1600)

And now to the kind of ride I could just about manage as long as it doesn’t go to fast. On this particular evening it was way too cold to contemplate sitting in an open gondola. Just a simple fairground shot, but the composition pleases me. I had switched here to my 17-85 lens. It has a really annoyingly slow aperture, but again the image stabilisation is effective. (f4.5 1/15th (24 x 1.6) ISO 1600)

And finally, one of my favourite public monuments or pieces of public art. The Scott monument is a magnificent tribute to a damned good author and populariser of Scottish romanticism. I always think it looks like the rocketships on the covers of 1950’s sci fi novels. In close and wide to abstract the shape, a quick monochrome conversion to accentuate the shape and form and bob’s your uncle! If you want to see how good the canon IS is, note the 1/4 second shutter here, handheld! (f4.5 1/4 sec (17 x 1.6) ISO 1600)

Tags: fairground rides, gargoyle, photographer, photography, scott monument edinburgh, torchlit procession

by Matthew

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West Loch Tarbert

Wednesday, December 16, 2009 Posted in Canon 17-85 IS, Canon 40D, Landscape

While driving home from Carradale on the Kintyre peninsula last Monday I came upon this scene just as the last light was fading. The spot is the ferry slipway at Kennacraig for the Islay ferry. Strictly speaking the sunset was gone and so I set up my tripod to catch the final moments and indulged in this 10 second exposure. The long exposure has made the loch glassy and ethereal. I pushed the saturation a little to accentuate the tiny afterglow. I am more into portraiture than landscape, but I sympathised with the landscape bloggers who endlessly beg Canon to put a direct mirror-lock-up button on their SLR’s. As it is, I have mine in my “my favourites” menu so it is only 2-clicks away, but how annoying that irritating “direct print” button is when it could be used for mirror-lock instead. Canon should ask the 13 people worldwide who use direct-print on an SLR if they could live without it?

f18 ISO 100

Tags: argyll, Kennacraig

by Matthew

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Claudia

Friday, December 4, 2009 Posted in Canon 40D, Portrait, Sigma 28 f1.8

Taken after a coffee in Glasgow’s Prices Square. Two things made this a challenge. The back-lighting of the centre’s Christmas lights required fill flash which of course was colder in colour temperature than the yellow cast tungsten background. The second problem was the impossibility of framing Claudia without distracting bright spots or areas behind her head. It was an opportunist shoot, with only 3 exposures before we parted. I therefore used monochrome to work round the colour variation between foreground and background. I also cloned and shaded some of the extreme lights in the background. The result isn’t perfect, but does feel like it captures some of the shy intensity of Claudia. For the record, Claudia doesn’t enjoy being photographed; I am therefore all the more grateful for her relenting for the sake of this portraitist’s art. I hope she likes it.

by Matthew

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Linda

Monday, November 16, 2009 Posted in 100 Portraits Revisited, Canon 40D, Sigma 28 f1.8

OK I cheated. I couldn’t choose my 2nd favourite picture of Linda. I have chosen my 2 joint 2nd favourites. (What a cop-out). Looking through these was a load of fun and brought vividly back to mind how great a time Linda and I had doing these pictures. For those who are interested the arch is one of the bridges over the Kelvin in Glasgow’s botanic gardens.

Guess what, both taken with the Sigma 28 f 1.8. What a lens…

by Matthew

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Fountains Abbey

Thursday, November 12, 2009 Posted in Canon 17-85 IS, Canon 40D, Canon 70-300 IS, Sigma 28 f1.8

No-one could ever accuse me of being a landscape or architectural photographer, so you might be surprised that I am posting some pictures of an Abbey. Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire is a 15th century ruin preserved by the national trust. It is a photography playground because of the shapes and forms everywhere you look. It is however really difficult to capture in any single overview image so I have gone for a mixture of details to give you a flavour of what’s on offer. Black and white just seems to me to be irresistible for a 15th century ruin. I absolutely recommend a visit, its a good walk as well as an interesting sight.

Fountains Abbey website