Monthly Archives: January 2010

‘Plumpton Presents’ – Battle of the Bands

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Leeds music stalwart James Owen Fender decided to host a Battle of the Bands to dig out Leeds’ finest upcoming groups in association with his night ‘Plumpton Presents‘.  It’s been cunningly named ‘The Battle of Plumpton’ and has some quality prizes, such as the winning band getting a track waxed by ace producer James Kenosha, which gets onto a limited edition Plumpton Presents Record (via ADA distribution) and get to play the Beach Break Live 2010 music festival.

The Battle kicked off to a roaring start at the Wardrobe in Leeds, with the Leeds College of Music heat.  Those kids generally require a grade 8 in something to get in, so musical tightness & mad skills were pretty much guaranteed.

I went to the fourth heat which was held at the Leeds Met. One of the bands I know well ‘Gavin Mart & The Saturday Vandals’ was playing so it was great to go along photograph the gig but also be there to support Gav. We managed to get there in time as Barns and I had seen Martin Parr earlier in the evening.

Below are some images of Gav and the guys in action.

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Also we caught the next band playing which was DodoDeadDead. These guys eventually won that night’s heat and will play in the final at Oporto on the 3rd February 2010 at 20:00. The other bands playing will be Moody Gowns Charlie Bath and The Luminaries. Go along and vote for your top band. Free admission too. Bargain!

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An Evening with Martin Parr

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Thursday night I went to see ‘An Evening with Martin Parr’ – Martin Parr is probably one of the most influential living British Photographers still working today. With over fifty books and countless exhibitions, Parr is known for his lurid and sometimes shocking use of colour in photography and his satirical witty approach to documentary photography leaves the viewer not sure whether to laugh or cry.

The audience was invited to vote on which one of 3 presentations he had put together and they would most like to hear; ‘Parrworld’,  ‘Martin Parr – the story so far’ or Martin Parr my collection of Photo books. After a number of chances to vote the audience selected ‘Parrworld’. This was exhibition that was held at the Baltic in Gateshead. It was an a exhibition  with a difference, less an exhibition in the standard sense – although it’s the largest ever to be dedicated to his work – and more an old-fashioned cabinet of curiosities.

Parr has Saddam Hussein watches, a wall of commemorative plates from the miners’ strike, an Afghan kilim depicting a plane flying into the Twin Towers, a Falklands conflict tea towel, a Stalin alarm clock and a roll of Osama bin Laden lavatory paper.

Also there was a collection of his Postcards showing hotel lounges and Butlins indoor swimming poll from the 60′s.

Joining me on the night was my 3B Media chums Mr Aldrick & Mr Booker. But when we arrived it turned out to be a mini Randall Network get together with The Lawsons, Rebecca Honeywell, Oliva Brabbs, Susie Lawrence all being there as well.

The evening was held by Creative Networks at Leeds College of Art and they hold such events every month.

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Urban Portraits // 3B Media • Inspiring Photography Workshop – a great success!

This week Rob Booker, Barnaby Aldrick & myself ran our first 3B Media ‘Inspiring Photography’ workshop, called ‘Urban Portraits’.  We’ve been planning it for quite some time now and it turned out to be such a fantastic day!

3BM in action-007At the Round Foundry Media Centre near Leeds’ Granary Wharf we brought together 2 models, a make-up artist & 4 delegates and spent the day teaching them how we shoot portraits in the urban environment.

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The delegates had fun shooting our pro-models, and it was so rewarding seeing them grow in confidence through the day.

In fact, some of the images they were getting were starting to make me feel we’d taught them too well!

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Here’s one of our shots of Stef, who’s always such a joy to work with.

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3BM in action-004To start with I did a classroom session  running through exposure and how to shoot manually, Rob ran the mornings ‘finding backgrounds’ and ‘Communication & Etiquette’ practical shoot classes.

Urban Portraits - Alex-005We taught delegates how to quickly find & use clean backgrounds, such as this one of Alex.

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Here I am teaching the Natasha’s (there were two!) This was up a fire escape over looking the Saw Mill. This place was amazing for loads of different backgrounds and textures. I’m sporting my lovely little Shootsac.

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Our long time 3B Media make-up artist also models, so after she’d made Alex & Stef up, she got involved herself!

What amazing brown eyes!

3B-Media-Urban-Portraits-Workshop-008In the afternoon we walked over to new revitalised Granary Wharf to try out some  new backgrounds and I went through composition and finding light with the delegates.

Urban Portraits - Alex-011Another shot of Alex trying to demonstrate you don’t have to shoot head on but consider different angles.

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Barnaby did a lot of filming the day – a little video will follow soon. But also he spent a lot of the time during the practical classes on hand to help delegates once they got shooting.

3B-Media-Urban-Portraits-Workshop-011This is one my favourite shots that Barnaby took and the one below is my favourite one that Rob took.

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These next few shots I took of Alex under the arches behind Granary Wharf. I love these as a group of six. Here we were showing the benefit of using reflective light and using the lines of the lights to add a dimension to the shot

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3B-Media-Urban-Portraits-Workshop-013Here is Natasha working with Alex. It was great that by the nend of the afternoon session – the delegates had the confidence to take the models off on their on and start shooting in their own style.

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Then back to the Round Foundry forBarnaby’s classroom module on how we bring images to life in post production & Adobe Lightroom.

Check out Barns  looking all teachery!

It was such a awesome day, with everyone getting a set of stunning photos and leaving inspired and in control of their DSLRs!

It was equally inspiring to us as 3B Media, and we’re going to run the same course again in May and start planning further workshops on (amongst other things) flash, wedding photography & post production!

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After a quick group shot, we popped to the pub (3B goody bags in hand!) for a cheeky beverage or two…

I’ll be posting more on the workshop soon, once we’ve edited some video and rounded up some images shot by delegates! But keep your eyes on www.3bmedia.co.uk or on our facebook page below to become a fan / get news on upcoming workshops!

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Singing in the Rain – Charity Gig

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I found myself with my good friend Barns covering a charity concert on Friday night. Called ‘Singing in the Rain’ it was in aid of the victims of the Cumbrian floods and they had got together some great local bands from Leeds.
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Birdman Rallies
Hannah Trigwell and
The Moves

We didn’t manage to stay for all the gig but caught the set by Hannah Trigwell & The Moves. These guys both put on some great sets. Head over to the The Sound Gallery Blog for more images.

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Jedi Knights in training

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On Saturday I was asked to do a family shoot for one of our wedding clients from last year. Kate & James were married on August Bank holiday weekend and recently asked me over to do the shoot. We spent the morning doing some great portraits of everybody but things became interesting at the end when James produced 7 proper light sabres. It has to be said in all my time as a photographer this was a first. I will post more images from the shoot later this week but I thought it would be cool to share the one above. Although you probably can’t tell – the room was almost pitch black and the only available light came from the light sabres themselves. Darth Vader if you are watching – you better watch out!

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