Glowing

Eventually, there will come a point when you get fed up of seeing concert photos- but hopefully, not yet. Any fans of The Script will realise that the blog title refers to a song by The Script; for other readers, feel free to either listen to the song in question, or disregard the previous statement and assume that I’m referring to the lighting.

This photo was taken during one of the last songs of the concert (excluding the encore), which was started slow, explaining the smoky atmosphere. The singer was walking round the stage, but at this point wasn’t singing. Being a compact, I couldn’t change many settings, but did have control over the white balance. I selected flash, as I didn’t want to lose the bright blue. I did use flash in this photo, as I wanted to deliberately under expose; the only way to do this was to trick the camera. This didn’t affect the image, as what I wanted to focus on wasn’t in range of flash.

I have edited this photo in Photoshop. I increased the contrast and decreased the brightness to make sure that all of the people in this shot were completely silhouetted against the blue lights. I also sharpened the image to make the edges of the starburst more prominent.

The starburst wasn’t intentional, but appeared in one of my other photos so I tried to achieve the same effect when taking this image. I’m really pleased with this photo; it’s probably one of my favourite shots of the evening.

Bex

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The Man Who Can't Be Moved

As mentioned yesterday, last night Mat and I went to a concert. If you’re a fan you’ve probably read the title, and by now realised who we saw; but, for the benefit of non-fans, we went to see The Script!! They are definitely one of my favourite bands, whereas Mat was there a little more as company (even if he did admit he enjoyed it!).

D-SLRs aren’t allowed into the concert venue as they are deemed to be professional, so I took my compact with me. I had to use digital zoom to take this photo, so I shall apologise for the image quality now. It came across that the band were enjoying themselves just as much as the crowd, which made for some amazing photos!!! Around half way through the evening, they duetted with the audience on one of their most well known songs; the lead singer pointed to the audience when he wanted them to sing. I managed to capture this just as the video wall lined up with the singer.

Due the lacking quality, I edited the image in Photoshop. I sharpened it and increased the contrast, followed by decreasing the brightness and hue. Finally, I increased the saturation and removed the noise. I’m really pleased with this photo; as it was standing only and incredibly dark, it was almost impossible to get any sharp photos- let alone while trying to use maximum zoom.

One small pearl of wisdom I should pass on is learnt through experience; COLDS AND CONCERTS DO NOT MIX- EVER. My friends seem happy at the moment; it may have something to do with the involuntary ban on anything vocal… oops!

Bex

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Midday Fireworks

I’m afraid today’s post is rather abstract. I tagged along at another Bradley Stoke Radio outside broadcast at the weekend. It was a glorious break from the rain, meaning there were a lot of people around and there was an amazing atmosphere!

In terms of scale, this was a rather large outside broadcast so there was a lot going on. One of the things we had was a bubble machine. However; it attracted me as well as younger children (all be it that I was attracted for a more artistic reason!).

Because of the sunshine, you could see rainbows on the bubbles, which I thought might make a good photo. I got my camera as close to the bubble machine as I could to try and get the most bubbles in the picture, and I used a shutter speed of 1/20 to try and make the bubbles blurred, as I was only interested in the rainbow that could be seen through them.

I ended up with this, which I think worked very well. I needed to mess around with the contrast in Photoshop afterwards, but over all I love this picture! It reminds me slightly of the photos you see of car headlights on a motorway. If you fancy taking a look at Bradley Stoke Radio then you can do so HERE.

Bex

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Jive Bunny

Even Easter bunnies like to shake their tail feather sometimes! Apologies for the musical pun but I’ve just come back from an “Eggstra” special Easter broadcast.

I thought, being Easter Sunday, this picture would be rather relevant. In Thursday’s post I mentioned I had a musically saturated day with Bradley Stoke Radio’s outside broadcast team. I was lucky enough to be offered the role of photographer to which I readily agreed!

As I was walking back from getting myself a coffee to warm up from the freezing temperatures, I saw this seasonal mascot enjoying the music.

Now to get myself some chocolate… I hope you had a great, chocolate filled day!

Bex

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Community radio- at it's best!!!

I am lucky enough to live in a community where there’s always something going on! I’m part of a community group called Bradley Stoke Radio (BSR). We are all volunteers and have our own roles but generally happily help out wherever needed. I’m one of the presenters but I like to do a bit of everything if I get the chance!

Today I joined our Outside Broadcast team at a promotional event, I mostly accosted people with BSR leaflets and it wasn’t the sunniest of days, but it was a lot of fun and the bubbles were a nice touch, even if I’m not at the age for which they are intended!!!

Mat’s off on holiday at the moment so I’m afraid for most of the next week you’ll have to put up with me!!

Oh, and if you fancy a listen, Friday nights at 6pm is a good time…. ;)

Bex

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