The Mess Hall

The Mess Hall

I wrote in a blog last year about the joys of photographing The Mess Hall, in particular Cec and his photogenic drumming skills. The album launch last year was a disappointing affair, with very little light being stuck in a poor position to photograph from. When the Brisbane date in support of their latest single ‘Pulse’ was announced I couldn’t help but see it as a chance for redemption, even though it was at The Zoo with its very hit-and-miss lighting.

As has been a recent event at The Zoo, the gig was mostly backlit, with some lower power red AND pink lighting from the front. With backlit conditions similar to the recent JAMC gig, I experimented a bit more with wider angle shots (using my new-ish but very little used, AU$165 absolute bargain 28 – 70 f2.8 lens) and photographing directly into the light. I was trying to get something more than just a normal silhouette-type image and make the actual lighting an integral part of the photo. It’s a bit hit-and-miss, especially with lens flare, but when it works I think it works well. The general quality of the lens is fantastic but it is a bit slow to focus and it under-exposes by over ½ stop – which makes it less than ideal for photographing concerts…

The Mess Hall

And of course took some more close-up shots of Cec… which are ok but would have benefited from more front light and being able to use a higher shutter speed and less back light causing the annoying glare when I changed side to get the really close-up shots.

Cec Condon

Cec Condon

Cec Condon

Main support band were The Scare. They weren’t bad, better than had seen them before but seemed to be a lot less energetic than the past, especially Kiss Reid, who seemed very sedated all night and almost apologetic for their last appearance at The Zoo in 2006 before they moved to the UK. So much for hating us all…

Kiss Reid

The Scare

Violent Soho opened the night and were as good as ever. About time they got around to releasing another CD…

Violent Soho

Violent Soho

Lots more photos on flickr.

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