The Vexed

The Vexed promo, originally uploaded by suzyska photos.

Just a quick edit on one of the shots of The Vexed that I got yesterday.

The Vexed are a York punk band. I've taken photos of a couple of the members before when they were in The Hazard. I was really pleased that they asked me to do some promo shots for them :) We were walking around York for about 2 hours yesterday and I took about 320 photos so I have lots to look through. It was fun despite the rain. We even went to the National Railway Museum!! Needless to say, afterwards my feet were sore and I was tired so I decided to skip the Deathstars gig in Leeds (not really sure if it was really my kind of music anyway).

For this shot I used a wide angle lens with flash gun on camera. For some of the other shots I used a flash off camera with trigger. I don't have any fancy lighting and it would have been impractical with all the walking we did. We used about five or six different locations.

Funeral for a Friend with WATO and People in Planes

We are the Ocean, originally uploaded by suzyska photos.

A couple of weeks ago I went to cover a band called People in Planes for pushtofire.com and luckily they were supporting one of my favourite bands Funeral for a Friend. I last saw FFAF in 2005 when I was still up in Durham.. they were playing at Northumbria University and it was a baking hot gig as it was in June. We spent the entire gig beside the fire exit as one of my friends' brothers was feeling the heat and not enjoying it... he had to go outside as he felt ill. The gig was good.

And so was the gig the other night. It was at Rios in Leeds, which is a pretty informal venue. It was rammed from front to pack. Almost sold out but not quite. I've heard there were about 750 people in attendence which is crazy as it's not that big a venue. FFAF were brilliant.. for the first time in ages I actually enjoyed being at a gig not taking photos the whole time. We got told to leave the pit after two songs and no flash.. it was a nightmare, but never mind.

We are the Ocean supported who are a up and coming UK band. They were great too. It was clear that a lot of people had come to see them as well as FFAF. People in Planes were pretty good, not really my thing, but they did play well.

The photo I've posted in this entry is of the singer from We are the Ocean. It's one of the best photos I got that night and possibly one of my favourites to date. :) I like the clarity of it - something only achievable with flash in that venue. It was really dark hence why my FFAF ones are so poor. 1600 ISO with a f1.4 lens. Not fun! I definitely am someone who is 'for' flash. I don't like using it for acoustic sets or slow songs, but when the lights in a venue are going mental it's cool.