Lonnie Smith

Jazz legend. Lonnie Smith was playing at the Sela Bar in town Tuesday thru Thursday this week. I got a call off Dan Medhurst about 2ish on the Thursday, asking if I wanted to come and assist him on a portrait shoot for the man himself. What an opportunity! I went and we did the shoot. Watching Dan made me realise how much I have yet to learn about photography.. I've barely scratched the surface. Dan's photos can be found on his flickr or website probabily. Google him.

I went back down to the Sela Bar that evening to take some shots, and experience the legend. Corinne Bailey Rae was there too. I left before the second half of his set, it was already midnight, so I missed Corinne singing with him. Apparently during the interval, Lonnie made the bar staff run to McDonald's to get him some fries.. That's a true legend!

Columbo Promo Shoot

I did a promotional photoshoot for Columbo. Ace fun.

Met in town. Took some shots around chinatown. Snook into a construction yard. Caught a bus. Took some shots near the river. Took some shots in Kirkstall Abbey..

Harlan Ellison Interview

Watch this. It's relevant to photography as much as literature.

My Top 7 Favourite Portraits At The Moment

Obviously one of my favourite portraits had to be of myself, cos I just love myself that much. The real reason I like this one is because it seems to be one of the few portraits in which I've (more or less) successfully pulled off off-camera flash. Also I photoshopped away all my imperfections, and my eyes are really blue.





This was taken at a Eurovision party that my mum held. It's my uncle as a frenchman.



Charlotte in Cayton. I took a metering from the sky then used a burst of fill-in to keep both Charlotte and the sunset correctly exposed.






Danny was asleep.








My favourite ever portrait? Maybe.

Long Exposure

I've been experimenting with long exposures recently. I tried some in the country near Scarborough when it was near pitch-black (see above). I managed to get about 1 good shot for every 30 shots I took, and when they're all about 40 second exposures, that's an annoyingly large amount of wasted battery life. Bastard cars kept speeding down the road that I was stood next with full-beam headlights on which was kinda annoying.

Another day, back at home in Leeds, down on Kirkstall Road. I took out a tripod and some fresh batteries. I got some interesting photos, but there seems to be a lot of mess in the photos near the light sources.

 

I stood in the middle of the road for a few shots. These ones seemed to work a lot better, except people kept slowing down in cars to look at what I was doing. Or maybe they thought I was some kinda speed camera guy. I'm not.

I tried some off-flash techniques too on the same night, but because I don't have a sync cable or anything, I set long exposures so I could manually trigger the flash at the subject. In this case, my subject was my sister, who is always eager to pose. 

 

For these photos I used a small Vivitar 16m flash unit. It's less complicated and recharges faster than my FL40.

The Velvet Orchestra

I got in contact with The Velvet Orchestra through myspace. I went to meet them at The Cockpit, but realised that I hadn't a clue what they looked like, so I spent a while stood outside feeling stupid. Not as stupid as I felt when I discovered that I'd actually been stood right next to them for quite a while without realising.

After introducing ourselves and stuff we took a short walk and I took some photos under the arches. Unfortunately, my FL40 was playing up a bit so I missed a lot of potentially great shots.

We couldn't shoot for long as the had a sound check, which I stayed around for and they were amazing. They gave me free copies of their EP and single, which I have yet to find a record player to listen to it on (it's a WHITE vinyl!). And a badge, which has been pinned to my camera bag since.

    

 

They were amazing performers and great people. They have inspired me to make more music. Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to see them live. One of the doormen refused to let me back in after I stepped outside to make a phone call, then I stood in the rain till I found them again round the back. I hate doormen.

I took a few shots for their record label (Salt The Wound), but due to fore-mentioned problems with my flash, only two came out.

In the photo is The Velvet Orchestra, Solus Locus (another band signed to Salt the Wound), and the label managers.

Then I went home to change into dry clothes. 

I planned to go to their next gig a few days later. The doorman didn't let me in. I hate doormen.

Even though I haven't seen them play live yet, I'm still incredibly chuffed that I managed to watch their soundcheck, cos they're ace.

The Velvet Orchestra can be found at: www.myspace.com/thevelvetorchestra

Listen to: The Creator, These Children Are The Future.

Salt the Wound label can be found at: www.saltthewoundrecords.co.uk

Leemun's art company is worth checking out too, I love their design work. They made all the album artwork. The Velvet Orchestra aren't just music. They are art.

www.kraffhics.com

The Eloquent Young

I designed the flyer for The Eloquent Young's next gig.

I'm also doing the live photography for it. Which is nice.

If you're in Leeds on 23rd September, it could be quite a good night. I'm going.

Can you tell what albums are piled up on the left? They're in my room.

Boozy Hawkes

I did a promo photoshoot for the legendary Boozy Hawkes. What a privilege.

Basically just did a bit of experimentation with fill-in flash and stuff. 

We tried a couple of different locations with a few different guitars and stuff, but these turned out the best. The photo above is one of my favourite photos that I've ever taken. Even though there's a VW Golf in the background.

  

The Eloquent Young

So I did a promo shoot for Paddy's solo project, The Eloquent Young quite a while ago (April), but I'll tell the story as if it's just happened.

So it was a kinda sunny, yet oddly cloudy, thursday afternoon, about 4pm. The sunlight was a bit too harsh for my liking, but we couldn't have done it any later. Paddy needed some promotional photography, I needed some portfolio material.

We started off dossing about around the streets of Burley.

  

He took my guitar with him for some reason.

After messing about on the streets, we went down by Goitside Walk and the weir.

I got better photos. Paddy fell in a stream.

What a commodity.

  

The Eloquent Young can be found at: www.myspace.com/theeloquentyoung

Listen to: Ballad of Folly

Introduction

Obviously, this is my first post on blog-thingy, so this is just to experiment to see how it works and shit. So don't read this. Well, you can if you want.

I'll start by introducing myself. My name is Benedict Smith. I am a photography enthusiast. I want to be more than just an enthusiast. I'm still 17 tho, so I have plenty of time to improve. I take particular interest in band photography and portraiture. And I enjoy playing about with different lighting techniques. David Hobby's blog 'Strobist' is what has inspired me to start my own blog, with the hope that mine will one day have a fraction of the success that his has. It would be great to have such an influence on other people. I do doubt that I could ever achieve such a thing but I can try. I'm not a very good writer either, which is a fair disadvantage. I am vaguely literate and have no problems with spelling, but I can't really write anything very interesting, or particularly relevant. So hopefully I'll be able to keep somebody's attention through my photography at least.

I started taking photos as a hobby a few years ago, but only recently have I started actively pursuing it as a career option. I have done a few promotional photoshoots for bands and solo artists, and I'm sure I'll share the stories behind them with you when time permits. But for now, here's a few: