I’m busy. Real busy. Healthy dose of the Fear busy. Drowning in a sea of deadlines so the (Blog)Writers Guild are going on strike until the workload subsides. Yes, I’m the only member of this fictitious organisation.

So apologies for the impromptu hiatus. Your usual service will be resumed in a few weeks or so. In lieu of real updates I provide you with this instead. Say hello to my friend Parasitic Gordian worm.

“Gordian worm live inside crickets for long periods, feeding on the cricket’s diet. Once fully grown, they inject chemicals into the cricket’s brain brainwashing it and forcing it to kill itself by jumping into the water. Once in water, the worm wriggles out of the writhing body and swims off in search of a mate.”

Wow, where’s my head at. In my rush to actually update I forgot what I initially wanted to update with, and a matter of utmost importance at that. Our mascot has arrived!

The namesake of this very blog, Mr. Chocolate Jetpack is here, courtesy of artist extraordinaire Tiwidot. Do visit her blog for more of her artistry, you won’t have to go far as it’s hosted right here! Greatest, most heartfelt gratitude Annabel for your most excellent contribution.

With the North Londoners recent improvement in form, it’s time to feature a photo of the best stadium in the land. Clearly it’s not Old Trafford.

An ultra wide-angle 10-20mm lens @ 10mm gets the entire stadium in the frame. A subtle -ish amount of HDR processing makes the image pop with more detail from the shadows and highlights. Not sure what HDR is? Here let me Google that for you.

Sorry, always wanted to do that. Also apologies for the slow updates. In the history of blogging never has the regularity of updates decreased after a fortnight. There’s just no precedent.

Rarely do I ever carry around a tripod, so it’s not often I get to do a long exposure. Pretty pedestrian approach here, with a balanced composition being my main aim. The movement of the carousel creating light trails does most of the work.

Well, I would if I were needed. But this lady has been carrying wood up and down a mountain since forever and didn’t want nor need any assistance. Eighty-five years old and still strong as an ox. Most likely from all the good karma, as the wood is being carried to a Buddhist temple.

Although she wasn’t concerned with any help, she did want to have her photo taken, so of course I obliged. A pretty straight-forward capture but I still really like it, if only for her story and the fact she reminds me of my own grandmother.

Sometimes you just can’t motivate yourself to leave the house, so it’s nice to find something to shoot indoors without the inconvenience of getting changed out of your favourite pyjamas. No idea where these came from, or who made them, but they looked nice scattered randomly by the window, lit by nothing more than a spring sun.

We probably all baby our equipment, it’s an expensive hobby after all. So of course you want to look after your hard-earned investment right?

But are filters to protect the front lens element really that necessary? I rarely use them as I feel they’re just another layer of glass for light to refract around. And if you read this article you’ll be amazed at how much sheer abuse and damage the front element can take before it impacts image quality.

Still, I doubt I’ll be throwing my equipment around anytime soon.

It’s tough being a photographer. Sometimes you’re forced into the female dressing rooms to shoot everything that goes on behind the scenes. What kind of life is that? Absolute travesty. [/sarcasm]

Ever the consummate professional, I didn’t have any off-camera lighting equipment on me. So hotshoe flash was the call of the day. When you’re stuck with a hotshoe flash and a suitable room, bounced flash is a life-saver. I bounced flash off a nearby wall behind me as sometimes bouncing over your shoulder is a safer bet than bouncing off a ceiling. I find ceiling bounce too close to the subject results in shadows under chins and hotspots on foreheads which isn’t very flattering. So a wall-bounce lights the face more directly and evenly but diffuses enough to not create harsh shadows or massive hotspots. E-TTL pretty much handles the flash output so you don’t have too much to worry about other than dialling in any exposure compensation.

I’m still rueing not bring extra equipment with me to shoot some Strobist style portraits. Not everyday you have the opportunity. Damnit.

Some of you may have already noticed, but I have a gallery page now. Yes, right there, at the top of the page.

So go give it a look if you haven’t already. Yes you, you there.

The page may well change in design in the future when more galleries are added, but right now photos from the Synergy event are available for your perusing. There’s a strange bug where the resized versions are somewhat soft looking with some odd saturation but if you view them in full size they look fine (awesome even). I’ll look into rectifying this as a matter of utmost importance.

Well, if not now, then eventually.

So I was asked to go along to a music and cultural event called Synergy and take some photos.  Held by Queen Mary University of London in conjunction with Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, the venue was the Indig02 at the 02 Arena here in London. A sort of fusion of music, fashion and culture was the tagline of the night. As well as shooting some behind the scenes stuff for the Fashion Society, I got to try my hand at shooting live music, an opportunity that hasn’t arisen much. It was quite a challenge, although flash photography was permitted I opted not to use it, as 9 times out of 10 at a real gig you’re not permitted, and a challenge is always fun.

Enter the Canon 85mm F/1.8 to rise to the challenge. Fantastically sharp and great in low light due to the large maximum aperture. Bump the ISO a bit and you’re getting high enough shutter speeds (though some of the more enigmatic performers were seriously difficult to keep up with). Combine that with a Tamron 28-75 F/2.8 and low light coverage was more than adequate on the whole. You never can judge how the lighting will change over the course of the evening though.

I imagine I’ll be posting more from this event over the coming weeks, but to kick things off, here’s a shot I got of the saxophonist for one of the bands. I commandeered the front row so was nice and close to the performers. Shot with the 28-75mm I went as wide as it could go to get as much of the performer in as possible. The fantastic lighting does the rest. Now, fucking play something Saxman!