Airbourne At Théâtre Corona

And so, one week later, we finally reach then end of a rather active Saturday that I spent with my camera last weekend.  For those of you who have not been keeping track, the day began with a rainy trip to a park in Longueuil to watch The Lost Fingers play a free show.  We also grabbed a few photographs of the Ideealist Dance troupe who were on hand and helping to keep the wet crowd entertained.  Later that night, it was off to the Théâtre Corona where British Columbia rockers The Wild opened the night to get the crowd ready for the headliners, Airbourne.  They were in town two years ago at the same venue and I was able to get some photographs of them at that time, so I was happy to be able to repeat that this year.  I ran into a few obstacles along the way.  I ended up standing in the same spot as usual, but I ended up having someone to my right who enjoyed waving his hands around for much of the show, and with the way that the stage ended up being arranged, I had a mic stand that ended up being in my way as well.  Add to that the unwanted head of a security guard and I had a few photographic frustrations over the course of the show.  Thought that didn't take anything away from the show itself.  Airbourne are 110% action up on the stage.  The lead singer, Joel O'Keefe ended up all over the venue.  Singing from the stage, as well as unleashing shredding solos while being paraded through the crowd on the shoulders of a security guard.  He played while standing on the bar/merchandise stand, continuing the solo from the second floor balcony and even climbing a metal railing at the side of the stage.  All while letting us know how good it felt to be moving around since a fall while doing a similar stunt a few weeks back had left him with ligament damage to a knee and bruised ribs.  All part of the show for these Australian rockers who were in town to promote their latest album, Breakin' Outta Hell.  The first photograph was taken at f/2.2, 1/200sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/2.2, 1/250sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm and the third photograph was taken at f/2.2, 1/200sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm.  Here are a few more photographs that  I took during the show.

f/2.2, 1/100sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm

f/2.2, 1/250sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm

f/2.2, 1/160sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm

f/2.2, 1/200sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm

f/2.5, 1/250sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm

f/2.5, 1/100sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm

f/2.5, 1/60sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm

f/3.5 1/250sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm

f/3.5, 1/40sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm

f/2.8, 1/30sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm

f/2.8, 1/250sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm

f/2.8, 1/100sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm

The old 50mm must have been smoking at the end of the night.  I still managed to get what I believe to be some pretty cool shots of the band, as well as a few of my own favourites, such as grabbing a shot of the action through somebodies cellphone and the always elusive beer arc as the singer swings a can over his head from the stage.  It was another great show, and a fun way to bring an end to a very eventful day.

The Wild At Théâtre Corona

We continue to work our way through the action of last Saturday.  This time my camera and I found ourselves at the Théâtre Corona for a concert.  The opening band on the bill was a group from British Columbia known as The Wild.  This was my first time hearing them and they were fast and loud.  Just right for a rock band.  I was once again allowed to bring my camera into the building, though once again limited to my 50mm lens.  We got there early enough so I could once again get a spot near the stage, close enough to see the band, and against a side wall so that I would not have to worry about any floating bodies.  The lights were kind of low, so a high ISO was needed, though I tried to make sure I did not go any higher than 1600 in order to limit the amount of grain in my photographs.  There is still some there, but there seems to be less than I am used to seeing.  The band would often group together at the front of the stage, which allowed me to grab some nice shots of the singer, guitarist and bassist in action together.  I managed to crop out a couple of single shots as well, which are always nice to get under such conditions. The first photograph was taken at f/3.5, 1/100sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm and the second photograph was taken at f/2.2, 1/500sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm.  Here are a few more photographs that I took during the show.

f/2.2, 1/100sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm

f/3.5, 1/160sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm

f/3.5, 1/160sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm

f/3.5, 1/500sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm

f/3.5, 1/30sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm

f/2.5, 1/160sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm

f/2.5, 1/200sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm

f/3.2, 1/60sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm

f/3.5, 1/125sec, ISO 1600 at 50mm

Though they only played for about half an hour, The Wild quickly won over the crowd with their playing, and even tossed out a 'Go Habs Go!' to further win favour with the local crowd.  They put on a good show and got the crowd ready to rock for the headliner, which should be coming up in our next update.

The Lost Fingers In Longueuil

The rain was coming down in buckets Saturday morning, but it stopped long enough for My Lovely Assistant to convince me to get into the car for a short trip to the Parc Michel-Chartrand where the city of Longueuil was having their 36 Hours of Colour festival.  Sadly, a few minutes into the ride the rain returned, and it didn't stop.  We still continued on our trek as The Lost Fingers are a group that both of us enjoy.  They were also enjoyed by about 20 other people as the rain did a great job of keeping everybody away.  I don't know if this counts as a trend, but this is the second time that I've attended, and photographed, a Lost Fingers concert in rather bad weather conditions.  There was the downpour of this past Saturday afternoon, and the previously freezing cold temperatures of a New Year's Eve show they gave at the Old Port of Montreal on the last day of 2013.  Thinking there would be a larger crowd, I only brought a telephoto lens with me as I thought I'd be shooting from farther back.  Had I wanted to, I could have gone to the front of the stage, though I think the people behind me would have been upset about my umbrella blocking their view.  As it was, I stood among the other concert goers, umbrella in one hand a camera in the other.  The first photograph was taken at f/6.3, 1/160sec, ISO 320 at 70mm and the second photograph was taken at f/4.5, 1/320sec, ISO 320 at 123mm.  Here are several more photographs that I took during their show.

f/7.1, 1/125sec, ISO 320 at 130mm

f/6.3, 1/160sec, ISO 320 at 115mm

f/6.3, 1/125sec, ISO 320 at 200mm

f/7.1, 1/60sec, ISO 320 at 102mm

f/7.1, 1/100sec, ISO 320 at 125mm

f/5, 1/250sec, ISO 320 at 135mm

f/7.1, 1/125sec, ISO 320 at 130mm

f/5, 1/320sec, ISO 320 at 90mm

f/5, 1/200sec, ISO 320 at 130mm

f/7.1, 1/100sec, ISO 320 at 130mm

f/7.1, 1/125sec, ISO 320 at 130mm

 

 f/5, 1/200sec, ISO 320 at 200mm

f/5, 1/200sec, ISO 320 at 90mm

Despite the rain, a good time was had by all who attended.  The band played all of their hits and were having a good time up on the stage.  They were all smiles and laughs, making the best of a less than perfect situation.  Hopefully we'll see them again soon under better meteorological conditions, but if not, I'm sure they'll have everyone dancing in the rain once again.

Idéealiste Dancers

My camera got quite the workout yesterday.  A concert featuring two musical groups in the evening, and another in the rainy afternoon.  However, if anyone else worked as hard as my camera did, it was these dancers from the Idéealiste Agency of La Prairie.  While The Lost Fingers were playing on stage, these young dancers were shuffling their feet, doing Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' dance and pumping out the jams as the Lost Fingers played their version of the Technotronic song, Pump Up The Jam.  Also, they were doing all this while a steady rain poured down on them.  I decided to take a few photographs on them in action as I was impressed with their moves, and their terrific attitudes.  The first photograph was taken at f/7.1, 1/100sec, ISO 320 at 85mm.  Here are some more photographs of them in action.

f/7.1, 1/100sec, ISO 320 at 80mm

f/7.1, 1/100sec, ISO 320 at 85mm

f/7.1, 1/100sec, ISO 320 at 70mm

f/4, 1/200sec, ISO 320 at 160mm

f/5 1/125sec, ISO 320 at 115mm

f/7.1, 1/100sec, ISO 320 at 85mm

The crowd that did show up in the rain for the event seemed to really appreciate their efforts, as did My Lovely Assistant, who is responsible for my finding out who they were as I thought they were just part of the event.  I was only planning on including a photograph or two of them into the future Lost Fingers update, but felt that they deserved a dedicated update of their own.

Unwanted Visitor

I walked into the bathroom the other day and noticed this guy hiding in the shower curtain.  There is nothing I hate more than spiders, and as the 'Official Spider Killer' of the house, I knew what needed to be done.  I smacked the curtain to get the little guy into a more squishable position, but he landed on the window sill in such a way that the photographer in me took over.  I grabbed my macro lens, it was really the size of a finger nail, and snapped away.  It was late in the afternoon and the sun was going down, so a high ISO was needed, but I also played with the exposure a little bit afterwards to brighten the wood, which I really like and the spider itself so you can see his beady little eyes.  The photograph was taken at f/8, 1/60sec, ISO 1600 at 60mm and then the spider was smooshed.  Not every blog entry get to have a happy ending.  Sometimes the model gets squished.

Slayer Lights At The Metropolis

A few weeks back I attended a concert by the bands Death Angel, Anthrax and Slayer at the Montreal Metropolis.  Despite my location in the venue, I was still able to come home with what I felt were some pretty good photographs.  If you happened to miss those photographs, or just feel like visiting them again, the first group of photographs taken of Death Angel and Slayer can be found at this link, while the second set of photographs taken of Slayer can be found at this link.  As mentioned in the original posts, I wasn't sure I'd be able to get many clear shots of the band in action because of the low light and my distance from the stage.  Fortunately, I was able to get some, but in case that I wouldn't, I also took some other shots during the concert where I focused more on the lighting.  Instead of adjusting my camera settings to capture the action on the stage, I played around with different shutter speeds in order to capture both the colour of the lights while also trying to get some silhouettes of the fans into the shots in order to provide a bit of mood to the photographs.  I really like the second shot of the green lights washing over the crowd, as well as the photograph of Slayer guitarist Kerry King being surrounded by orange spotlights while the lit up background seems to watch over him as he plays.  The first photograph was taken at f/1.8, 1/160sec, ISO 1250 at 50mm and the second photograph was taken at f/5.6, 1/320sec, ISO 1250 at 50mm.  Here are a few more photographs.

f/5.6, 1/640sec, ISO 1250 at 50mm

f/2.2, 1/200sec, ISO 1250 at 50mm

f/5, 1/2000sec, ISO 1250 at 50mm

This was probably one of my most fun outings of the year.  Not only was the concert excellent, but I ended up getting a large amount of cool photographs out of a situation where I thought I would probably get nothing at all.  I'm glad that I didn't listen to that little voice in my head that was telling me to keep my camera at home.