Trying out the big lens while listening to some great music

Saturday night found me in Gatehouse of Fleet at the Midsummer Music Festival Fundraiser event, featuring local singers and bands – from the foot-stomping rocking blues of Steve Dowling and the Obliviates, to the sweet tones of the incredibly talented (and at 15 is young enough to make you feel really old) Zoë Bestel, via the melodious tunes of Susi Woodmass and Steve’s brother, Huey, with The Belted Blues Band.

It also gave me my first chance to try out my 70-200mm lens in a performance situation.

I’ve been using it in most of the woodland photos I’ve been posting on the blog (see A Bit of Snow and Twigs and Droplets), but I’ve been itching to use it to photograph musicians and bands in action, so this seemed like a good opportunity. Unfortunately the light was crap – overhead strip lights (possibly the least flattering of all light set ups), but dropping the images into black and white and playing with the editing a bit was able to offset some of that.

Overall I was really pleased with the lens coped. I’ve posted a couple of photos below, but for the full set from that evening, please visit the album on my Photography Facebook Page


Al Price playing a wicked moothie


Melodious Susi


Huey Dowling of The Belted Blues Band


Steve Dowling watching his brother


Intimidatingly talented Zoë

In a couple of weeks, Zoë will be supporting the band I'm in, Scruffy Buzzards, when we open the new season of The Mill Sessions (see - https://www.facebook.com/events/326511140783412/)