The Unplugged Blog is One Year Old!

September 22, 2015 by Julian Baird in Uncategorized

A year ago today I started The Unplugged Blog as a quick way to talk about and share the images I had recently captured. My first blog post shared some images from the Lewis Watson gig at the Exeter Phoenix - you can read it here.

One year and 24 blog posts later I've shared images from The South, The Boomtown Rats, Europe, Grandmaster Flash and UB40! It's been a blast.

For those who read my blog on a regular basis you'll know that I like to share my images as soon as I can. And while I will post images direct and live from a gig on my Twitter feed, you can't beat the quality of a fully processed image from the computer. So when I get back from a gig the first thing I do is catalog and select my best images. I will then normally select one or two of my best images from the shoot to share on my blog. It's important to share some images while the gig is still fresh in everyone's mind!

So to celebrate The Unplugged Blog's first birthday I've collated a selection of some of my favorite images. Not only are there images from previous blog posts but I've included some images from gigs before I'd even started the blog. So have a good look through and you might see some images previously unshared!

I hope you enjoyed this selection of images, I certainly enjoyed taking them. Remember to keep checking my Twitter feed and The Unplugged Blog for all the latest images!

See you next time!

Favourite Images of 2014

January 07, 2015 by Julian Baird in Uncategorized

As we are now firmly in 2015 I thought I'd look back at my catalogue of images from 2014 to see what my favourites have been. It was a really busy year, so there were a lot of images to look at!

The images in this post are my personal favourites, and not necessarily my best technically. I strive for technical excellence but I also like images that tell a story or have some emotional content. So these are just 5 of my personal favourites and in no particular order!

First up is this image from The South gig from October 1st. Here we have Damon Butcher working his magic on the keyboards. While I'm very pleased on how this image turned out, it's the memory of watching Damon play that makes this image special for me.

You can read my blog post about the gig here.

Next up is the lead singer of Save Your Breath from October 7th. I love this image because you can really see the passion of the singer and the energy of the performance.

You can read my blog post about the gig here.

The next two images are both from the Boomtown Rats gig of November 10th. This was probably one of the best gigs (from a photography point of view) that I shot in 2014. They were a band with so much energy that it was almost easy to photograph them.

I love this image in particular because the guitarist played up to the camera giving me a great shot. This is where the skill comes in though as if you don't have your camera set up correctly, you'll miss the shot!

I have so many images of Bob Geldof that it is was almost impossible to select a favourite. I chose this image because it shows the energy of Bob's performance.

You can read my blog post about the gig here.

And finally, but certainly not least, is an image from the Grandmaster Flash gig from December 20th. Shooting this gig was really challenging because of the very low light conditions (mostly of which was red), but this image for me really brings back the happy memories of watching a legend on the decks. It was great way to finish the year!

You can read my blog post about the gighere.

These images, and a few others from my back catalogue now appear on the reverse side of my business cards. I'm using a new supplier for my business cards and I'm really pleased with the quality of the results. If you want to check them out, head over to Moo.

I'm now busy sorting out my 2015 schedule and it's looking like a monster year. I'll be posting my gig schedule up here really soon. Hope to see you at a gig in the near future!

On a technical note...

This blog post comes out a little later than I had originally planned. Sure, some of those reasons were that I was taking some time out over the festive period, but the main reason was that I was migrating to a new PC. My trusty old Dell PC was really starting to creak. The size of the files that my D750 produces was really starting to make my workflow creak so I decided to get an upgrade.

So what spare time I had over the Xmas period was spent moving data and installing applications. However, it has proved a worthwhile investment in time and money. My new system is uber fast and I can really see how much technology has moved on in the last 5 years since my last PC purchase.

The speed of my workflow is really important as time is always tight. I'm really looking forward to my first shoot of 2015 to put the system to the test!

Grandmaster Flash

December 20, 2014 by Julian Baird in Uncategorized

It's not often you get to photograph a living musical legend like Grandmaster Flash, but that is exactly what I was doing at the Exeter Phoenix last night. Arriving with Steve from MusicMuso we soon found that it was going to be a very busy night. Over 6 hours of music between the bar area and the main arena.

Plenty of people starting arriving early and DJ Louie Louie got everyone into the party atmosphere.

Later on in the bar Rusticate kicked things up a bit more.

It wasn't just DJs on last night and through in the main area were local acoustic / hip-hop band Rapha Ghetti.

And finally, Grandmaster Flash, pioneer hip-hop DJ.

Grandmaster Flash got himself fully involved with the crowd and worked them up to a frenzy! It was an awesome night of music and a great opportunity to photograph one of hip-hops finest DJs. Expect a full gig write up on MusicMuso very soon.

Sadly, that was my last assignment for 2014, but what a way to finish. I am however very much looking forward to a break over Christmas and New Year. I'll still need to do a few tasks like sort out next years gig schedule. It's looking busy already and I'll post up all my events here so hopefully see you at an event in 2015!

See you next year on the the Unplugged blog.