Julian Baird 25/04/2019 Julian Baird 25/04/2019

2019

The Joy of Live Music Photography

It’s been a while since I’d last shot a live music event so when my friends over at MusoMuso asked me to photograph the Newton Faulkner gig at the The Great Hall in Exeter, I just jumped at the chance. The excitement started early as I changed my camera setup from landscape photography to live music photography, and before I knew it I was outside The Great Hall picking up my photo pass.

As soon as Charl0tte hit the stage I remember why I love capturing those amazing moments you only get from live music. I’m very pleased to share some of the images I captured that evening.

Charl0tte

Newton Faulkner

Julian Baird 01/05/2018 Julian Baird 01/05/2018

Frank Turner at The Great Hall in Exeter - 28/04/2018

I first photographed Frank Turner at the Beautiful Days festival last year. I was not only blown away by his music but also his stage presence. He was a real joy to photograph. Every music photographer wants to photograph an artist who has lots of energy and style as it makes the whole process of creating great photographs that much easier.

So when I heard Frank was stopping off in Exeter as part of his Be More Kind tour, I was straight on the phone to my friends over at MusicMuso to see if we should team up to cover the gig. Of course, the answer was yes and we both got ready for what was almost guaranteed to be a great night of music and photography.

Here are the photos from the night.

The Homeless Gospel Choir

First up on the stage was The Homeless Gospel Choir.

Arkells

Following seamlessly on from The Homeless Gospel Choir came the Arkells.

Frank Turner

Normally I will only post two or three photos of the main act on the blog, but I captured so many great images of Frank Turner that I just had to share a few more than that!

It was great to see three great bands and for The Great Hall to be packed out like that. Not a bad way to spend your Saturday night working.

If you want to read a review of this fantastic gig and see even more of my photos from the gig then head over to MusicMuso.

See you next time!

Julian Baird 16/11/2017 Julian Baird 16/11/2017

Ben McKelvey and Scouting for Girls at The Great Hall, Exeter - 13/11/2017

I'm Back!

Yes, it's been a while since I posted here on The Unplugged Blog. I've been working on a number of exciting photography projects but I'm pleased to be back on the blog. I'm even more pleased that I'll be sharing images featuring Ben McKelvey and Scouting for Girls.

So let's great straight into it and let's take a look at those images.

Ben McKelvey

Scouting for Girls

So there you have it. It was a cracking gig. I'd never seen The Great Hall so busy so early on and Ben did an amazing job getting the crowd going with his set.

Just a brief blog from me but hopefully you've enjoyed the photos. Remember that MusicMuso will be posting up a review of the gig really soon.

Bye for now!

Julian Baird 30/10/2016 Julian Baird 30/10/2016

Black Foxxes with Big Spring and Magpies at Exeter Phoenix - 29/10/2016

I've been lucky enough to shoot local rock heroes Black Foxxes a couple of times now including their epic set at the Radio One Big Weekend earlier this year. Aside from the fact that they are a kick ass band they are fantastic to photograph. The sheer energy they put into their performances makes my job so much easier. My only complaint is having too many pictures to pick from!

So when my friends over at MusicMuso asked me if I could cover their sell out gig at the Exeter Phoenix there was no way I was going to miss it. It was sure to be a awesome night of music with some quality support bands.

Here are some of the photos I took...

Magpies

First up on the stage were 4 piece rock band Magpies.

Big Spring

Turning it up a notch were Big Spring...

Black Foxxes

As I expected the mighty Black Foxxes did not disappoint as not only did they play a great set but they also gave me plenty of great shots.

There you have it. I hope from the images you get an idea of what a great night of music it was. If you are looking for a full review of the gig my friends over at MusicMuso will be posting one up soon.

On a technical note....

You may have noticed that all of my images on this blog post were black and white. Ask any gig photographer how they will process their images when there is very poor light (in photographic terms) and they will tell you they will go black and white. The gig was actually upstairs in the Voodoo Lounge at the Exeter Phoenix. It's a fantastic room and it really allows the crowd to get up close and personal with the bands. However, it's a really challenging environment for photography as there is very little in the way of lighting.

With flash photography generally being frowned up I really had to push the limits of my Nikon D750. At a minimum I had the camera set at ISO 6400 but often pushed it to ISO 12800. This was in addition to the camera being set at f/2.8 and 1/125 sec. With the ISO so high the images had a lot of noise, and to combat that and the prominent pale blue lighting, I opted to process the images as punchy black and whites. Despite those technical challenges, I like the results.

See you next time!!!

Julian Baird 22/02/2016 Julian Baird 22/02/2016

Fun Lovin' Criminals at The Great Hall, Exeter - 19/02/2016

When Steve from MusicMuso called me last month and asked if I wanted to shoot legendary band the Fun Lovin' Criminals there really was only one answer I could give... yes!

So Friday night came around and I got in the car and drove all of 5 minutes to get to the Great Hall at Exeter University. (It's rather handy living beside one of Exeter's biggest music venues.) When I got there the crowd had already started to build up and I had a feeling it was going to be a good night!

Fortunately FLC did not disappoint! My primary job of course is to take quality images of the night but when you get an experienced band like FLC on stage that becomes a little easier. They had plenty of stage presence and Huey was kind enough to stick is tongue out for a shot (see my Twitter or Instagram feed)!

So here are some of favourite FLC shots from the night:

Fun Lovin Criminals

One thing you might notice from the images is that these are a bunch of guys that just love playing as a band. When I was finished shooting I stood at the back of hall and watched these guys put on an awesome show. Plenty of smiles and interaction with the crowd. Quality stuff!

If you want to read a full review of the gig then MusicMuso will be posting up one soon, and it will of course be featuring some of these images and more, so do keep an eye out for it.

That's it for my FLC blog post but just to let you know that I've got a BIG March coming up so make sure you keep an eye out on my Twitter and Instagram feeds for more live posting and here on The Unplugged Blog for more great images.

See you next time!

Julian Baird 20/09/2015 Julian Baird 20/09/2015

In The Garden

In The Garden had all the elements of an epic night. A great Exeter city centre location, nice weather (for September), a quality line up of artists and 4500 tickets sold. So when I was asked by Hold It Down to cover Exeter's biggest ever music festival with MusicMuso I didn't need to be asked twice!

As usual on The Unplugged Blog I'm going to let my images do the talking and I'll leave my friends over at MusicMuso to wax lyrical about the event (a full review will be on their website really soon). But one thing I can say is that the packed out crowd had an awesome night and were treated to some of the UKs finest musical talent.

Here, let me show you...

As you can see it was a bit of an epic night and it was a lot of fun to shoot. It's always good fun at the festivals as you get to photograph artists on a big stage and the crowd enjoying themselves.

Well, that's about it from me. Keep an eye out on my Twitter feed and this blog for a very special post that I'll be making this week. I'm also shooting the Bluetones this Sunday night in Bristol, so you can see some images from that gig both on my Twitter feed and here on the blog.

On a technical note....

As regular readers will know I like to tweet images live from the gig to my Twitter feed. I had some real issues with this on Saturday night though. In certain locations around the In The Garden event my tablet struggled to maintain its WiFi connection to my camera. As you can imagine this made tweeting images rather difficult! I'm not sure what the issue was as my workflow is normally rock solid in the field (including other festivals). It could have been the density of people (and mobile phones), or the radio transmitters that had been installed. I'm not sure which it was, but something I'll need to be aware of for next time!

See you next time...