Zesta Grande on Fujifilm 400

I went to Zesta Grande at 924 Gilman on Sunday. I brought an Olympus Stylus Epic DLX camera I had never used before and a few rolls of film. The first one I started with was a roll of FujiFilm 400. I was a bit nervous because I had never used the camera and unsure if it would function normally. I read good reviews, so I had high hopes. First off, I want to mention I had a great time at the show! Killer bands and everything ran smoothly. I had also not been to that venue in ages! And it was wonderful to bring such a light camera that fit right into my fanny pack! I usually bring my big Canon with external flash, and it always makes my hand ache. The convenience of the little film camera was a game changer, for sure!

I dropped the roll Fujifilm 400 off at Mike’s Camera yesterday. I also dropped of a B&W roll of Lady Grey, but I was told they are backed up on B&W developing and it could take up to two weeks. I do want to rant at how pricey it is to develop film and get them scanned! $19.99 per roll! I really need to be developing myself again, but I will save that discussion for another day.

I was thrilled when I got the email today that my photos from the Fujifilm 400 scans were ready to download. Overall, I am very pleased with the outcome! Here are four of my top picks:

(Bands: Endless Swarm, Crohns, Human Obliteration)

I like the composition, nothing is blurry, everything looks fine. There are a few others that turned out nice, as well.

Unfortunately, there are some that could have been better. I was a little late hitting the shutter on some of them! This resulted in faces covered by the microphone, or heads turned, and I didn’t get the greatest shots. I noticed there is a very tiny delay when pressing the shutter. I’m not sure if that is the way the camera is meant to be or if it’s a defect because it’s old. Either way, I missed a few good shots due to changes in position made in just a fraction of time.

Another issue was some of the subjects closer to me turned out blurry but everything in the background came out sharp! That was a bummer because I missed the chance to take some really neat pictures. But now I am aware this camera does that and can be mindful in the future. Maybe there is a way to prevent this from happening and I need to explore the features of this camera a little more, but the camera is pretty simple, and I don’t know what adjustments could be made.

I added all the photos to my gallery:

[CLICK HERE]

If you click on each picture it will show the band name and you can also save the pictures.

I’ve included all of them so everyone can see the little flaws I pointed out. I do love the look and excitement of film, but it’s also challenging because you don’t know what you’re going to get. I can walk away from a show with my digital camera and say, “I know I got some good ones”, but it’s a surprise with film. Gotta hope for the best!

I’ll share my next roll of film when it’s ready!

A little different technique

I went to Cafe Colonial last night to see Goatcorpse, Slege, Abhorrency, and Demoncy! I decided to use my camera a bit differently since I have been feeling a little more mindful about my flash. The venue is much too dark for me to go without my flash, but I can take advantage of certain situations and I have also been experimenting with having the flash on at a low setting.

The lighting was low, like usual, but Goatcorpse and Slege had candles, and there was also a smoke machine being used for all the bands, so that helped with lighting a little bit. I got a little lucky if a musician was standing under one of the lights. I had my ISO up to 6400, which is the highest it goes. The images are grainy at that setting, but I can get away with that when photographing black metal aesthetic. A lot of the pictures with no flash turned out too dark, but some of them where salvaged with some editing.

I have been using the flash on a lower setting lately and editing if need be. I have also been revisiting an older technique that I used to experiment with years ago and had ditched for a while, which is slowing my shutter speed. I used to take pictures like that a lot years ago. Once in a while, I’d get a few really neat pictures by doing that. The pictures started looking like they were taken through drunk goggles the rest of the time, and I decided to stop doing that. I’ve been doing it again at the last few shows, but I don’t do it the whole time.

Anyways, here are some examples of photos I took doing one of the aforementioned techniques. Two photos of each band. In general, I think the photos turned out okay! I was feeling concerned when I was taking the pictures, hoping I would get some good ones. All of the pictures I took are here. I hope you all enjoy them.

Band Photo Shoot Info:

Rates apply to everyone, with the following exceptions:

Practice room 218.
My photography has been used in your album art or will be in your album art.
You have an artistic vision for the photoshoot. A theme, a good location, and willingness to put in effort for photos that best represent your band and provides me with an artistic outlet.

(I don’t wish to do shoots against a random wall or any other location that compromises aesthetics.)

If you don’t fit in any of these categories, kindly review my rates.

RATES.

“I’m not using my flash tonight”

I went to venue The Arlene Frances Center in Santa Rosa on Saturday night to see some bands play. I had never been to that before but it’s pretty nice and very artsy. I brought my Canon Rebel T6, which old, but still a newer camera than my other Canon, which is a Rebel Xsi…and that is old. I usually bring the Xsi to rowdy or shows that I don’t mind if it gets broken. This Canon T6 has a higher ISO that goes to 6400 of course that only does a little bit if you have a shitty lens, which I do. I really need to buy some better lenses.

Anyways, I wasn’t sure how the lighting was going to be there, but I believed it to be better than the other darker venues that I go to, which is pretty much just Cafe Colonial. Anyways, I decided I wasn’t going to use my flash, just to see how that went. It didn’t go too bad for the first band! I was able to take some good pictures as long as the musicians were standing directly in the light. I like how it looked. But then Abhorrency played, and they want the lights dark and all red, which is never good for me.

Lucky for me, the other two bands used pretty much the same lighting as the first band did. I knew almost all the pictures would have to be edited. I was able to look at the pictures the next day and found about 50 decent ones. I was just kind of sad because I didn’t get photos of every single member and I didn’t really get any good drummer pictures. I always like to have pictures of every musician, just to make it fair.

I’m fairly happy with the pictures I took, but I’m always amazed to see the pictures from other people who have better gear. It almost looks effortless that they get great pictures with a good lighting, even of the drummers.

I’m not gonna lie… I don’t have very much experience playing with different lenses. I don’t even know what lens I would get if I was to buy one right now. I also don’t want to dump a lot of money on the lens because I probably won’t use it that much. I pretty much stay taking pictures in darker venues and rely on my flash. I wish I had some different lenses to play with to see what I liked.

I did get to meet another photographer that I’ve been following on Instagram for quite some time! Super nice guy! You can check out his work here on his Instagram: GRAIN FACTORY

Here are some pictures I took of Hexen House, Abhorrency, Funeral Chant, and Vile Rites:

These are just some that I feel turned out decent based on my low lighting/shitty gear struggle. You can see the rest in my gallery.

Finally broke down and bought an external flash!

I started taking live music photos digitally with a point and shoot in 2008 until I got a Canon Rebel in 2010. I have been using the built in flash since then. I won’t use the flash at all if the venue lighting is good enough, but it is almost always not! But 13 years is a long time to use my built in flash.

The thought of buying an external flash crossed my mind many times, but I kept saying to myself, “Ahhh my camera is already a pain in the ass to lug around and I don’t want to add another piece to it! Then it won’t fit in my camera bag anymore. Then I will have to learn how to use them damn thing!” Of course, these excuses have kept me from taking better quality photos. Some pictures would look nicer if the flash wasn’t so harsh.

My images have pretty much looked the same for many years. I haven’t spent much money on new gear. I feel like the quality of my images should have improved over time. My subjects deserve better. So I did it today! I went to Mike’s Camera and bought an external flash! I’ll need to do a lot of experimenting with it to get good results, but I am excited I am doing something to improve my photography. It’s been way too long.

A lot of shows!

I have been kind of going to a lot of shows and haven’t really been making a point to post here about them. I do post on Instagram, however, because I really don’t know who even visits my website.

You should visit my GALLERY to check out everything I’ve done lately. I’ll try to be more active about posting here, because there is always a story behind everything, and I should take the time to share it.

There’s a few things I need to be working on. I want to do more weird shoots. I also need to finish that double exposure film experiment I started and have not finished because I am too busy being extra picky. I also have a roll of 110 red lobster film that I need to use! I’d like to use that for something cool, though. The 110 camera I have does not have a flash, so it has to be outdoors during day. It’s expired, as well, so the images should look really nice.

Anyways, here is a random picture I took at the Cancer Christ show on Sunday night.