A Sequence of Compositions (and a trip back to the 80s)
After a load of total failures at this exercise the Flashback to 80s music festival at Clumber Park looked like it might prove an ideal spot for another attempt! EOS5D with the L series 100-400 should be ideal, well the best laid plans and all that, a finger infection meant on the weekend of the festival I was down to one useful hand so time for a rethink! Well I won;t manage all I had in mind with the SLR but I think the Powershot G10 might produce interesting results as well, with added advantage people will be far less likely to notice me taking their picture and carry on with what they were doing.
With around 10000 people expected I decided to get the final sequence I had in mind I better arrive early and stray slightly from the brief towards the end of the sequence getting to the front then recording a sequence as it changed through time and movement around me rather than by me. First shot as I get out out of the car and I’m there early enough to be at the front of the carpark.
Though looks like I’m not the only one getting there early!
Arriving at the ticket barrier and we get our first glimpse of the stage, though everything is still looking very 21st century! Still there is a stage and I guess that is where the action will be so lets see what we can find on our way over there.
Big stage, big screen and deck chairs and picnic tables, guess the 80s generation are showing their age, but lets keep heading for the front, the next couple of shots are just a couple of little candid shots the G10 is so good at, at least half the folks glanced in my direction while I was taking them but no one deviated from what they were doing.
But then again there is certainly some 80s hair on display on the deck chairs!
Spotted the two ladies in the very 80s skirts as I headed to the stage, and when the closer one bent over it was just too good to miss! Had to crop the shot as I was a little far away for the powershot but I’m pretty sure the EOS with huge white L series would have been noticed and I wouldn’t have got this shot. Anyway not quite at the front yet so time to move on!
More 80s colour heading to the front!
Getting to the front and it is getting busy but I’ve got myself a good spot and should get some interesting follow on shots over the next hour or two.
On stage the crew are busy setting up for the first act and testing the smoke generators! Time to move closer to stage along the front ready for the acts to start.
The warmup act are doing their stuff so lets see what the crowd think of it!
They certainly seem to be having fun!
This shot is from a little later in the evening but laying the photos out it seemed to fit here better!
So finally time for the big 80s names the crowd was really here to see, here is where I ran up against the limitations of the powershot as after the the first couple of acts it got a bit dark to get useful images.
And it doesn’t get much more 80s than Toyah belting out “I want to be free”!
With the 5d I could have kept shooting but much after this and I was having to ramp the ISO up into the unacceptably noisy settings to get anything with the G10. In the end I took about 30 shots in the walk from the car park to stage but laying them out the sequence here seemed to tell the story best. Many of the other shots are very similar to the ones presented and while they would fit into the sequence I think they would distract from the story being told, in the words of my teenage daughter ‘too much information!’
See and Imagine 