Live concert photography

I've done this stuff quite a bit in the past, but haven't done it for quite a while. One reason is that even if Sweden is one of the largest countries when it comes to exporting extreme metal to the world, there are very few concerts here, at least in my region. So I haven't been to many concerts the last few years and I simply can't be bothered travelling too far either (lazy). 

And I've had these shots posted before, just not on this website, but I will start to post a few shots now and then. Bear in mind that these shots are a few years old, been taken with a noisier  DSLR with mostly with a tele lens out in the crowd (I don't work for anyone so it's impossible to get press accreditation and a good place in front of the stage). The members have also changed in a few of these bands as they tend to do.

And I'll start off this very light with probably my favourite shot, Shagrath of Norwegian melodic/symphonic black metal band Dimmu Borgir, which sadly was lost before being able to backup, so a small version is all that is left and this is a shot people have been interested in buying more than once...

Shagrath of Dimmu Borgir

Wotancraft

Been swearing by (and still am) my F-stop backpacks as the best ones you could get today, and they are. Though I'm not as impressed with their shoulder bags, not that they would be of an inferior quality than the backpacks, I just don't fancy their looks. 

But of lately I've got to know about Wotancraft, a company based in Taiwan that makes hand crafted bags of top notch quality (I’ve learned that after reading and watching reviews of their bags).

Basically they have two collections, the “Urban Classic” which is basically just made out of premium leather and not really my style (plus I think they might be a bit heavy). But then they have the “City Explorer” which looks like WWII era army bags (not camera bags) in waxed canvas with leather details. They seem very rugged and got the right kinda worn old looks which is awesome. 

So I emailed them about two things. First, I listed some gear and asked if they knew if it would fit in a good useful way (it has to be easy to get to the gear) and second, if they knew if a 13” MacBook Pro would fit in it. They replied the following day (Sweden and Taiwan is not exactly in the same time zone) with a very friendly and nice email, with a photo where they had put a 13” MacBook Pro, a Fujifilm X100 and some other stuff. And they also told me that they owned different parts of the Fuji gear that I listed themselves, and that they would bring their gear to the office and take a photo and send it to be (after the holidays). That is pretty awesome I think, and really service minded. 

I’m already pretty much sold on the bag, but am looking for their next reply and photo which will give me the last input I need.  

Here’s a link to the Scout.

Model shoot

Just got home from doing a model shoot with the beautiful Hanna. It was normal Scanian "winter" weather, grey, rainy and kinda cold, but it was lots of fun and she is awesome.

I will start going through the shots soon and will post them shortly in my portraits section.

Update:

Some shots from today are now in my Portraits section.

Not much going on here atm...

That's how it is. Not doing much shooting at the moment, doing more recording and stuff in my home studio these days and have no real plans on doing any photography this year, but that might change. Might go to Copenhagen a couple of weeks before xmas though, haven't been there for a while now, so maybe some street photography among the craziness of xmas shopping.

We'll see. 

I will buy myself a new 3 Legged Thing tripod at some point though. Gonna get the even lighter and smaller EVO3 Punks Rick carbon fiber tripod which will be even better to bring along to accompany my Fujifilm X-T1 and X100T on (if not earlier) my upcoming trip to London in May 2016.

Autumn

Autumn is great. Or well, it's usually great. It can be a bit on the dull side, but still, it's great.

Nature is starting to hibernate, things are dying. Awesome. 

And even if Black Metal suits all seasons of the year, it really suits autumn and winter like a glove...

Photography wise it can be a bit of a dull period, but it doesn't have to since the first period of autumn you've got great colours, again when things are dying. But then here in Scania, the south of Sweden, it gets kinda boring. And then winter comes. Again it's very boring here in the south of Sweden, since it's mostly windy and rainy. Cold as fuck because of the wind and moist air from the North Sea (I'm on the West Coast) and it's just mainly dull and boring. But if we get some snow this winter, that would be great...

Maybe I'll continue my "Project Mundane" of boring, dull, meaningless life in January-March. I mean, myself I like chilly or cold weather better than hot, but it's the constant rain and dull grey/white skies that is boring, otherwise I like it. Spring is okay, some nice green colours in our beech forests, but allergies starts to set in so otherwise it's shit. Hardly have to even mention summer, since it's as you probably guessed, shit. 

Fujinon XF 90mm f/2 R LM WR

The Fujinon XF 90mm f/2 R LM WR is a lens that I'm really interested in and it will probably be my next purchase, maybe in early 2016. I don't do close to the amount of portrait shots that I'd like to, but still I'm really interested in getting this lens. 

I'm sure it would be great for street photography. It is nice to be able to get up and close to your subjects in street photography, though it might be hard or nearly impossible sometimes specially if you don't want to disturb your "target", so with a little bit longer focal length it would be nice. It's still not a tele lens and it's got a rather large aperture and is supposed to be the sharpest Fujinon lens to date. 

Will see.

My tiny story of Chicago

Since I at the moment have got a cold, feeling like shit and am bored, I'm gonna tell you a little story from quite a long time ago when I still today wish I had brought a more proper camera than I did. I also wish that I was a much more into photography back then as I am today, which I wasn't. At the time I couldn't be bothered bringing my Minolta Dynax 7000i SLR with me, so I borrowed a small point and shoot camera (I even think I just bought disposable Fujifilm or Kodak cameras the first trip, not sure).

In 1997 and 1998, I made a couple of trips to a then pen pal/friend/girlfriend or what ever to call her, who lived just outside the relatively small city of Michigan City, Indiana, USA. I actually got in contact with her again a few years ago on Facebook, but today she's way more religious than she was back then and want nothing to do with the atheist that I am (I wasn't as outspoken back then either). I'm not exactly crying over that...  

Anyhow Michigan City is (if I remember it right) about an hour or maybe an hour and a half hour drive east of Chicago, Illinois (it's on the shores of Lake Michigan and on the beach you could see the city line of Chicago in the distance which could have been a great shot...damn it). I was also told by my friend's dad that we should take the big interstate I 94 and could not by any means take any road that went through Gary, Indiana (the birth place of Michael Jackson, I believe) since it was (and still is) so run down with violent crimes that the people were/are basically deserting the city. I've seen photos from Gary and it's looking like Detroit is looking today, it's just smaller but equally (if not more) dangerous.

Anyhow, I took photos of my visits to Sears Tower (second tallest building in the world at the time) and places like the ferris wheel at Navy Pier, around the Adler Planetarium and the Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park (the fountain known from the title sequence of Married With Children). I took photos even when we by mistake parked a few stories up in a parking garage and in some way ended up in the lobby of Playboy Enterprises Inc. (now moved to California I think) while coming from the garage. I took photos of the Chicago skyline from Navy Pier, which was really awesome but those photos turned out shit since it was with a crap camera and it was at night time. But what I today wish I had taken photos of was the city and not the more tourist-y parts. We got lost a couple of times during a few different trips to Chicago, once we ended up somewhere in the western parts towards O'Hare Airport and those areas didn't seem too bad, but twice we got lost on the South Side. Once was at night, didn't know where we were, but it looked pretty bad, and we stopped at a gas station covered in steel bars and where the clerk was sitting behind bullet proof glass. It was a bit weird and a little uncomfortable but today I wish I've had a proper camera and would have taken some time to take some shots (with the camera)...

At the last day of my second trip we got lost the second time on the South Side of Chicago. That time I ended up at a McDonald's restaurant asking for the directions to the Museum of Science and Industry, and found myself being the only white person there, which wasn't really a good thing I suppose. No one was acting hostile, but I was completely stared down and I saw people who looked very likely to be super high on drugs, and some sketchy looking guy wanted to sell me different stuff from a bag filled of (I suppose) stolen electronics. Really cheap, but no... But a giant but fairly friendly black guy from the kitchen gave me some vague road directions though. Through memory and the aide of Google Maps, I've come up with that it must have been the West 51st Street just after the exit from I 90/I 94 interstates. On the map it doesn't show any McDonald's restaurant anymore, but this was 18 years ago and things change. But I remember the Cook County Criminal Court and I also remember seeing hundreds of police cars close by and since the Chicago Police Motor Maintenance Division is next to the Court, that explains it and things fall into place. What I do remember more is that while riding in my friend's car I saw what I've only seen in movies before, people warming themselves from the heat of fires lit in barrels (this was in February and it was cold), derelict houses and sketchy looking people while going through some really bad looking blocks. I saw cops running from their cars into what might have been a run down, barricaded building from a smaller housing project. After a while the neighbourhood suddenly turned different and to the better and we passed the big complex that is the University of Chicago and after that we found signs to the museum that we were looking for.

At the time it was very far from what I had ever seen before when it comes to derelict houses and neighbourhoods and in a surrounding that is among the most dangerous in all of the U.S. Through documentaries I've learned that more Americans have died from violent crimes in Chicago in the last 15 years than from both their wars in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. Again, today I wish I would have brought my proper SLR with me or even better, that I had the cameras that I have today but also that I would have had the guts to do some photography there. At the time it seemed too dangerous to even stop the car again after the break at McDonald's asking for directions, and it probably was. Still I think about it now and then (I did today). Maybe I should make a shout to Chuck Jines and make a trip over there to do some street photography together with him...

And also, if you're going somewhere, domestic or international, bring a camera. Or two...

VSCO

I like VSCO. Anybody who has looked through posts from about a year back have seen me using them. I am not really consistent as in "this is my look", and use the same all the time, instead use the one that I feel fits the mood of the photo or at least what I feel about that photo. 

But at the same time I only use about 4-5 different "film types" and tweak them a little like always putting film grain to 0 for example, since I don't like grain.

And also, I've only used VSCO on street and some portrait shots, and not on landscapes, mainly because I haven't really shot any landscapes in the last year or so. And I also only use it in Lightroom CC, I've got it on my iPhone but never used it there. Maybe should try that at some point, but then again, I hardly use my phone to take photos. 

Also, I don't know why I'm writing this...

Malmöfestivalen 2015 Part 2

I went one day last week to Malmöfestivalen, the festival held in the city of Malmö every year. 

I had other things to do, like going to a music store, but walked around for a while, but did find it kinda boring, but took a few shots from around the festival area but mostly from other parts of Malmö since the festival is kinda boring. And this is the second and last part.

Malmöfestivalen 2015 Part 1

I went one day last week to Malmöfestivalen, the festival held in the city of Malmö every year. 

I had other things to do, like going to a music store, but walked around for a while, but did find it kinda boring, but took a few shots from around the festival area but mostly from other parts of Malmö since the festival is kinda boring.

An anecdote of aggressive ignorance while street shooting...

A few days ago I went to the city of Malmö, visited my favourite music store owned by my favourite music sales guy ever. We haven't met in a while so we shared a few laughs and other stuff, and I tried a couple of acoustic guitars (I'm slowly starting to look for a new one). And I also visited Malmöfestivalen who was on its second last day.

Anyhow, while walking on the back streets of central Malmö I saw these cool looking pillars who were casting shadows on the ground. So, I thought I should take a couple of photos, since at the time and place it looked kinda cool. And there were a few people, maybe a family (I'm not sure since I really didn't look that closely), who were going into a private doctor's practise (I saw that when I walked passed it). And I waited for them to go in to the building because I didn't want them in the frame. And I took two shots when it was clear. 

When I started to walk again I heard a guy with a very bad accent, I'd say he was originating from the middle east (yeah, I'm such a racist) saying something from inside a car. So I took out one of my in-ear buds, leaned into the passenger side and said "excuse me?". He then said (and all of you politically correct people might want to stop reading here since this is oh-so-racist) "why you take photo of people, who you work for?!", and I said "well, I didn't and I work for no one" so, he said once again "why you take photo of people?!" and once again I told him that I didn't. So he said "what you take photo of if not people?", and at this point I didn't really want to discuss with this guy, but said politely at first (at first, may I remind you) "well, it's none of your business really, but I took photos of those cool looking pillars and shadows".

He didn't understand that.

And once again he repeated more aggressively "why you take photo of people, you can't take photo of people?!", and my patience with this guy started getting close to zero at this point, so I replied, "dude, this is a public place, do you understand? I can take photos of who or what ever I like" and he replied "no, you can't take photo of people" and I replied "well, I didn't but yes I can". He then said and was getting even more worked up "no you can't take photo of people!", once again I said (and now I'm starting to get a bit irritated, since I don't have much patience with idiots) "yes I can, you should study the fucking law!". He replied "no no, you can't take photo of people!" and "you can't take photo of people, can I take photo of you?" and then started to grab his phone. I kinda chuckled and said "sure you can, it's a public place". He just stopped and looked like if he was thinking "oh crap..." and then said "no, no I can't take photo of you, you can't take photo of people, let me see your camera, show me your pictures!". So now I started to laugh at him and said "dude, I'm not showing you shit, deal with it". He was now very frustrated and looked like he was going to get out of the car and I started to get ready to put my camera away so I could punch him in his face if had to, but then he just said again "you can't take photo of people!" I laughed again, said "bye bye now" and started to walk away. I heard him mumble something more from inside his car, but I put back my in-ear bud and walked on. 

The End.

That was a fun anecdote. A free guess is that maybe he thought that I was working for the Swedish "Försäkringkassan" and was afraid of getting caught of insurance fraud or something, I don't know or maybe he and his family is in the country illegally, who knows? Anyways, while this might come off as being racist, I'm sure I'm not one of those guys. I just don't have patience for ignorant people of any kind really. And I can assure that I'm not a violent guy at all, but I wouldn't hesitate to punch this guy if he'd try to grab my camera or attack me or something. I've nearly done that to a kind of aggressive guy in Copenhagen 6 months ago.

So, this is just one of the joys of doing street photography. And also, know your rights as a photographer when you meet someone like this. :)