Gig : King Creosote

Manchester Academy 3 - 30/1/08

If you haven't heard of this band / Kenny Anderson then you need to listed to the latest album Bombshell. Then look for KC Rules OK.
As the founder of musical initiative Fence Collective, he is included in that rare set of singer songwriters who seem to sum up feelings or emotions in a way that seems almost effortless.
Live, everything comes across as recorded. The nuances of the band, his guitar work, the enjoyment obviously there on record. All are present to make this one of the best gigs I've been to in a while. The only difference between live and disc is the humour between tracks. Kenny clearly is at home up there and even in the close confines of Academy 3, there is little else on this band's mind other than getting the music across and making sure everyone there feels part of it.

Oh, and for some reason it made me feel of this I shot earlier in the week.

Elliott

Picked up a PK-A 50mm f1.7 off ebay this week. Wanted to try it for the DoF which I'm not getting off any of the digital lenses. Taken a few of my kids today to try it out and although I've got to say my eye is hopeless on manual focus ( I'll get used to it... ), the sharpness and colour rendition from a £35 lens is at least as good ( if I'm honest it's much better ) than the 40mm limited I picked up a while back.
If the K20D is the right price or the knock on effect on the price of the K10D is like it should be, I know where the 40mm is going.

Sunset over water

Going through some shots taken last month and I hadn't noticed this one. Untouched except for a slight crop and straightened the horizon.

A couple more from Manchester

Smoke break - I'm slowly putting together a piece on all the people forced onto the streets for their daily drags. Walk through the city centre mid morning and it's incredible where they pop out from and what local features they've turned into their new natural habitat.

George's Barbers

Had an hour free while in the city so walked across it with the camera. Spotted an old barber's near Piccadilly and asked for the shot. George didn't say much but didn't seem to mind - I was polite, grabbed a couple of shots and thanked him before saying when the barnet needs a trim, I'll be back.
I wonder who uses the other chair - I hope George's legacy doesn't end with him as there aren't many of these barber shops left.

Tombs and trees

Shot as three exposures all 1 stop apart ( 0, +1, -1 ) then merged.
Came out pretty moody with the colour of the sky and the obvious content - posted it on Deviantart and within ten minutes the goths had snapped it up as favourites. Great taste I guess....

City gents crossing street

Seem to be thinking more and more in black and white from looking at what;s being posted on here. This was shot colour on the Pentax and then desaturated and tweaked in Lightroom. The contrast LR gives seems much better that Photoshop.
These three chaps were stood at the crossing chatting, I leaned back and got off a couple of frames before they marched across, got to the office and clinched a couple of deals....

Another B&W

Trying an image from earlier in Lightroom - the colour scales are so much better than CS2 - need to check if they're in CS3....
Only issues so far are why not call it open and save, not import and export. When will people realise that Bill Gates actually does rule the world.

Adobe Lightroom

Playing around with lightroom a little more. Seems to be more in depth when it comes to post process - changing to mono, flicking about with colour channels. This was a shot of Morecambe - colour raw then into CS3 to clean sensor spots and tweak contrast slightly, then into lightroom to convert to mono. There are a lot more settings to give it the edge like the old filters when enlarging or the lens filters when shooting on to b/w film.
Looking to change some portraits to the high key contrasty that seems popular - I'll try the convert in this.

Hay bales, fields and winter sun

Shot these back in December 2007 - the low winter sun, the hay bales, and the cypress trees reminded me more of a painting. It was freezing out there - roll on spring - but I was happy with the results. After these and a couple of other scenes, I decided to look at the other lenses available for the Pentax - the kit lens 18-55 is good in the right environment but lacking when given any test.
I saved a little and picked up the 16 - 45mm DA which seems to cope a lot better but I'm still learning....

Lytham - winter sun over the water

Another from Lytham St Annes - real cold here and the batteries were feeling it as well as my fingers.

The northwest coast

As well as being close to both the cities of Liverpool and Manchester, the coast of North Wales, Blackpool, Lytham St Annes, as in the photo above, and all the way up to Cumbria is only up to an hour or so away. As you'd expect, there are some fine locations to be found in all of them.
From the boozy weekenders at Blackpool to the serene quiet of the Lakes, the NW has it all........I sound like an advert.....

Manchester

Living in the NW of England, Manchester is only 20 minutes or so away. Coming from Preston ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preston ) which was given city status in 2002, Manchester is a true city in every sense. The architecture, the characters, the diversity ( oh, and I guess the shops ) is what really highlights the difference from a town.
In another life I have an apartment just off Deansgate or the Northern Quarter and work via the net from a balcony watching the world walk past.

Quick introduction

Just before the birth of my daughter nearly 12 years ago, I picked up a compact camera from a large electrical store that will remain nameless. The sales person popped in the film, I paid and walked back to wait for the call.
A couple of days later, she was born and the camera came out for the pictures of my newborn. These amazing images of my daughter would have been treasured forever, pored over as she grew up to become the person she is now.
They would have been treasured.....but for one small problem. The shop had not put the film in correctly and the miracle of childbirth was witnessed by a 35mm film canister that resolutely refused it's contents to be pulled across behind the shutter.
Walking back from the chemists staring at the glossy black 6x4s, I made myself a promise that that would never happen again....