The Bellrays @ Golden Plains

[blackshadow]

Over the weekend I was shooting the inaugral Golden Plains Festival (held in a natural ampitheatre in the bush about an hour and a half from Melbourne).

I see/photograph a lot of very good bands but it is rare that a band leaves me absolutely gob smacked by the sheer brilliance of their performance - well it happened on Saturday and the band were the Californian Maximum Rock n Soul powerhouse The Bellrays.

Enjoy - C&C welcome and stay tuned for more shots from Golden Plains and more!

1
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c251/spindoctor66/Golden%20Plains/The%20Bellrays/br26.jpg

2
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c251/spindoctor66/Golden%20Plains/The%20Bellrays/br21.jpg

3
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c251/spindoctor66/Golden%20Plains/The%20Bellrays/br20.jpg

4
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c251/spindoctor66/Golden%20Plains/The%20Bellrays/br15.jpg

5
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c251/spindoctor66/Golden%20Plains/The%20Bellrays/br09.jpg

6
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c251/spindoctor66/Golden%20Plains/The%20Bellrays/br08.jpg

7
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c251/spindoctor66/Golden%20Plains/The%20Bellrays/br06.jpg

8
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c251/spindoctor66/Golden%20Plains/The%20Bellrays/br05.jpg

[bmoguy]

I think you did their performance justice. These look great! 1, 4, & 5 are my favorites of the bunch, but you did a nice job capturing the energy of the performance. Great set.

[narlus]

5 has the BLACKSHADOW imprint all over it. well done, mate! 3's quite the keeper too, love the sweat trail.

[blackshadow]

Thanks guys!

Narlus - you should have seen what I didn't select to display - was a tough job culling this series down.

[kmb]

I like 5, 7 and 8. Not far behind comes 2.

Some notes:
1: the background is distracting because of the clutter and the light parts of the bg captures the eye (especially since the performer is dark) - in #2, the light background works because the silhouette-effect.
3 & 6: not the best expressions... (compare to the others, I hope you catch my drift)
4: flat light...
5: very nice. Even the light sources in the bg work well (because similar AND complementary colors), although I feel that the compositon could leave more space for the light sources, as I feel that they're rather important compositional element.
6: light quality is not the best (harsh and there's a nasty shadow in the open mouth).

Anyhow, good pics from a great band. For those who have not listened to them, go to http://www.thebellrays.com - they have a full album (near-CD-quality) that can be listened there.

[CanonXTuser]

I think you did their performance justice. These look great! 1, 4, & 5 are my favorites of the bunch, but you did a nice job capturing the energy of the performance. Great set.

yeah, i'd call that a triple crown with each outdoing the other till you hit #5, which is just stellar work - colors, sharpness, intensity of performance = vividness, presence, almost 3D

you make me want to get a 20D, seriously. i'm blaming my camera:) ... actually, i've notice a string of people using 20D's that I consistently like and see a difference that it has me thinking that the 20D takes distinctly better photos than an XT

[blackshadow]

Thanks Kalle and CanonXT for the feedback and compliments.

I was shooting with a 1D Mark IIN and 70-200 f2.8L (non IS). I think the gear list on my signature was pointing to the wrong post - all fixed now.

[johnstoy]

I'd choose #6 to work on and use for promo...

[blackshadow]

Thanks John - the band are wanting some of the images... not sure which ones yet.

[johnstoy]

This is also the fun part of dealing with the bands...

Just be careful with the old salesman tricks like the "take away" and the "drop"...and get your fair monies worth...

[CanonXTuser]

Thanks John - the band are wanting some of the images... not sure which ones yet.


There goes the check book. But at least it indicates that indeed it is the camera!

[blackshadow]

There goes the check book. But at least it indicates that indeed it is the camera!

I haven't used an XT but the 20D does a mighty fine job; the advantages of the 1DM2N are the AF, the build and the large buffer and high speed bursts (which I rarely use) - I believe the AF in the 30D is an improvement over the 20D. My experience is that at 3200 ISO the 20D has a slight advantage when it comes to noise.

It's not all the camera skill and lenses are much more important.

I'm sure that with an XT I could have got very good shots at the show above - there was really good lighting which meant I was shooting about 800 ISO for most of the show which I'm sure would be an area where the XT performs well.

[Wonga]

Fantastic shots as usual Richard . I'll be keeping an eye on your website for the Golden Plains update which by the way is looking awesome. Just out of curiosity , how many clicks did you take ?

[drandtus]

Great band and cool captures.

#5 Look like Stephen King, maybe? :)

[blackshadow]

Fantastic shots as usual Richard . I'll be keeping an eye on your website for the Golden Plains update which by the way is looking awesome. Just out of curiosity , how many clicks did you take ?

Thanks veryt much Wonga. Over the course of two days I took about 2000 shots. That was shooting bands over a 10-12 hour period each day.

[johnstoy]

Thanks veryt much Wonga. Over the course of two days I took about 2000 shots. That was shooting bands over a 10-12 hour period each day.

Are you shooting in RAW?

I shot 11.5 gigs in straight raw and am still post processing since last Saturday ...

[blackshadow]

I shot jpg for this one - too much PP on a big job like this and I knew the lighting would be good so decided on jpg to shoot more shots and less PP time.

[johnstoy]

I shot jpg for this one - too much PP on a big job like this and I knew the lighting would be good so decided on jpg to shoot more shots and less PP time.

It's a good thing i did shoot raw...was able to adjust the color temps and exposure on many so far...got email from band just now and they can't wait to see them and pick out what they want...

[blackshadow]

The Bellrays have picked these up for use on their website - take a peek at http://www.thebellrays.com/home%20page.html