...and now for something completely different (2)

So following on from my previous post about trying something different with gig/music photography I thought I'd share some of the shots from the recent massive freeparty put on just outside of Manchester. This was an epic night, where an alleged 5000 people turned up to dance through the night.

I had a camera on me but it wasn't mine. Bearing in mind the sometimes dodgy goings on at events like these, and the value of my usual equipment, I borrowed my mate's Nikon D40- the same camera I started out with- as it was much cheaper to replace if anything unfortunate were to happen.




 So with the fairly basic kit involved I decided to shoot the whole night in B&W. It lent itself better to the quality you can get from that camera in really low light. One I was going through the pics they were pretty grainy- this reminded me of bad CCTV stills. Combined with the attention the police ended up paying to the event, I decided to make up the pics as if they were taken from police surveillance. I stuck a time/date stamp in the corner and some branding in the others.

As a final touch I decided to 'anonymize' everybody in the pictures with the classic black-bars-over-the-eyes look. I was a bit unsure whether to do it & whether everyone would get it, but it went down pretty well in the end- and I think about half of the people that went are tagged in the big group shot now!

Film vs Digital

So, working in a camera shop, ive been privy to a fair few conversations about digital not matching up to the quality of film. To an extent the film buffs are right, theres a certain je ne sais quoi that film gives you, mainly through the colour tones and dynamic range. The advantage of digital photography is obvious; instant results & you can take as many shots as you want. Another thing of note is film has been around for a good century longer than digital cameras- when digital technology reaches the same age it will definitely beat the film output of today

Im never going to use a film camera at a gig because I'll usually knock out the best part of 1000 shots in a night- that would be pretty expensive on film!

However I just went on holiday and, along with a compact digital, brought a 40 year-old Nikkormat and some film- the results were awesome. Shots which looked garbage on my compact, when taken on film took on a new life, and I cant put my finger on why!! You stop and think before firing the shutter

People think the expense involved in using film should make it redundant but I basically shelled out £30 in total. Not a bad price to enjoy a weeks photography while on my hols!!

PS. I'll bet anything that no Digital SLR will still be functioning after 40 years!