Video: The Libertines acoustic set

In March 2010 I was lucky enough to be working at MOJO magazine for a few weeks helping out on the picture desk and on my last day there they asked whether I would be interested in going to take photos at the press conference for The Libertines announcement that they were re-forming to play Reading and Leeds festival that year, of course I said yes, definitely!

It was a really exciting experience and I managed to get a really close spot to the band during the conference and then to my amazement they said they would be playing some songs for the press too. I managed to squeeze a little closer at this point as these are more the kind of photos I am interested in taking, as I was snapping away I suddenly remembered I could also record some of it on my camera!

You can probably tell I didn't have much room to move about during this as the rest of the cameramen/women were also trying to get a good angle on the performance!
I can still remember how surreal it felt to put down the camera and realise I was actually there right in front of one of my favourite bands witnessing this performance first person! I think the video portrays a bit like how it was to be there, I was being pushed around a little but had to stand my ground to keep in place, it would have been really useful to have some kind of support for the camera (like a shoulder mount perhaps) to get smoother shots - but i'll expand on that in a future post!

Inspiration: Nocturne by Vincent Laforet

Nocturne is one of the first video's that I came across that really opened my eyes to the potential DSLR's have when it comes to working with moving image. What really struck me was the depth of field and the sharpness of the shots which made me realise the quality that could be achieved with the lenses available.

Nocturne was filmed entirely using available light which really demonstrates the camera's amazing ability to reduce noise even at high iso's, although I do note this was shot with the Canon 1D MkIV which was the most advanced Canon model at the time so it's noise reduction is better than the 5D MkII, but I have also found the noise reduction on that superb.

Nocturne from Vincent Laforet on Vimeo.