/jawdrop

I wanted to quickly mention an incredibly stunning photo gallery I recently had the pleasure of discovering on flickr. I haven’t seen work this beautifully mastered for some time now. It’s really an inspiration for someone such as myself who wants to learn more about portraiture. Excellent stuff. Enjoy!

It all ties together

I just finished uploading the photos I took at the Heroes! Villains! show Friday night at the 8th Note Coffee House on the UWM campus. As I said earlier, the lighting was absolutely horrendous, and I didn’t bring my flash (usually don’t use one at shows), but the lighting was so bad that I had no other choice. Couple that with the kit lens not being able to focus for shit in even remotely dark conditions, I shot in manual focus for the first time at a show, which worked surprisingly well. I’ve actually been focusing manually more often lately; it’s kind of fun, and can be a lot quicker with lenses that tend to “hunt.” All things considered, I’m really happy with how they turned out.

Tonight I re-realized my liking of a band called Forgive Durden; I highly recommend going to their site and letting their three songs play out. While you’re at it, why not go ahead and add them on purevolume and MySpace?

In the meantime of getting more clients and/or a regular full-time Web development or photography job, I might go to Art’s Camera and apply for a part-time position after the holidays are done. The extra cash would be welcomed, and I love photography so it might be kind of cool at the same time. That, and maybe I get a discount on camera gear! That’d be dangerous.

Are you mad, man?

No post yesterday. Crazy.

I just got back from a show headlined by Heroes! Villains! It was cool to finally see them play, and they put on quite a good show, albeit rather short. I think they played just the five songs off their newly released sampler, but it was solid stuff. The opening and bridge of each song particularily shined for me. If you’re interested in hearing what they sound like, check out their MySpace page.

I took photos at the show tonight, which was tough even for a local venue. They played at the 8th Note Coffee House at the UWM campus, and I think they only had one light on, and that was lighting the far wall by the drummer. I didn’t bring my flash because I hate using it at shows, but I had no choice, even shooting at ISO 1600. I don’t have a decent wide-angle lens yet, and with local shows you’re usually right in front of the band or you can’t see them at all, so I only brought my 18-55mm kit lens and ended up having to use the XT’s built-in flash, which is just a nightmare. Pictures coming later today.