Bec Reid Photography

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Friday, May 6, 2011

I Am Not A Control Freak...+ COLOUR = GOOD

The first part of this blog entry is going to be a rant. Sort of.

I GET that the internet is huge. I GET that not everyone abides by copyright laws. I get it. Doesn't mean I have to like it.

Ever since shooting Escape The Fate last weekend, I've had no end of issues... First of all I had someone re-post almost the entire gallery straight from the FasterLouder.com.au website, on their personal Facebook. Yeah they linked back to my FasterLouder gallery and everything (not with my real name or website though) but it's still not cool to do that without asking me. I can do my own promo work thanks... It's all been sorted now though. The person in question wasn't trying to hurt me or degrade my work - they just didn't realise.

What is still bugging me is that one of my photos has been blogged on Tumblr...and re-blogged....and re-blogged.

I don't really understand Tumblr and why/how people can just re-blog hundreds of images a day. It seems to me to be the most lazy form of blogging in existence.

I don't have the energy tonight to follow it back to the first blogger...and how long would it take to get ever re-blogger after him/her to remove it?

So, I'm not a control freak, I don't have to track my photos all over the net 24/7...I cant let it go sometimes. For now...anyway.

Now for the COLOUR topic.

For awhile there, I had issues with colour. Every person on stage HAD to have proper skin colour. None of this red wash or green tinge. I binned a lot of photos because of my ruling on this.

Lately though, I've begun to realise (re-realise, really...) that colour is all a part of the concert experience. Yeah, there was a pink light washing the entire band in Barbie's favourite hue during that song - That's what it was really like! Trying to fix the colour would be faking it. Photos of a sinnger washed in a particular colour can be beautiful and dramatic. 

What I want to do, first and foremost, in my photography - is have a photo that someone who was at that concert can look back at and go "Wow...yeah it really was like that! Awesome memories..."

For example, this image;

I would have binned that, when on my 'Everyone must have REAL skin colour!' rampage. Now I look at it and see the beautiful blend of colours, the awesome effect it has on the dude's mohawk, and I appreciate it. I like it, even.

However, I STILL HATE RED STAGE LIGHTING!

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Escape The Fate + Escape the Sleepyness...

Easterfest was only really 2 + a bit days this year...so I can't imagine how 3 full days would have smashed me - because i think I might still be recovering!

Well, maybe not. Last weekend might have done me in anyway. This was my schedule;

(Mon + Tues is my weekend) Weds  - Sunday; work (the paying job) then on Sunday night straight from there to the Tivoli (Fortitude Valley, Brisbane) for Escape The Fate, which I was at from 6pm until around 10pm (an early finish, really) It was a good night. Fairly good crowd, mostly the 15 - 21 age group, a lot of dark eye-makeup and skinny jeans...but they liked me taking their photo - for the most part - so it's all good.

What wasn't good was my favourite lens (also the one that cost the most) 24-70mm f2.8, seems to be having problems with focusing and a weird clunking movement when I zoom past a certain point. Bit worried about it actually... it was the lens I had on the D700 during the deluge at Easterfest, so moisture may be a problem. 

I only got kicked in the face once and the kid was so tiny it didn't hurt, and one security guy bumped me - but he was so apologetic it was sweet. It was fun once the barrier crowd was given water - made for a slippery shoot. I actually shot for 4 songs - I was given no '3 songs no flash' rule that night, but I was ready to skedaddle after the 4 songs, the crowd was discovering how to climb over the barrier...

The next day was a public holiday, about the only one my work is closed for, so guess what I did that day? I edited photos. I swore I could do it in like 3 hours. 6 hours later...my eyes had turned square. Well, rectangle... and were watering a little.

Then I got to do one of my favourite things, drive through the Valley at around 10pm.

See, at 10pm, it's late enough for people to be out and about having fun, letting off steam...but not late enough for the crazy mob to be mobile. By that I mean the really rowdy/drunk/high/offtheirface type of person, the ones involved in things like glassings... they tend to be out between midnight and 2am.

No no, the 10pm crowd are my people. The ones who are looking for live music, good club atmosphere and are grinning from ear to ear! I love seeing them milling around Brunswick Street Mall and those places. My favourite places to 'people watch' from are on Brunswick St. I didn't stop there on Sunday night though, just drove through. I was dead tired, even after the awesome hit of energy I got from Monster Guava + Energy - my new fave energy drink. Just SMELL that stuff- ahh heaven.

I love it, I really do. In fact I'm sad now, because I have a couple weeks until my next gig. I think I just need to sleep more. I tend to stay up very late at night, often on the computer, editing photos. I honestly don't notice time passing when I'm in that 'mode'. It's like a trance...

So on that note, I'M GOING OFFLINE. At least for a little while.