Great service

Moaning is easy, but when I receive great service from a company, shop or otherwise I like to talk about that just as much. So here goes...

This summer I took delivery of a Sigma 50-150mm f/2.8 DC telephoto zoom lens to use at festivals. I'd had terrible luck so far, with two lenses breaking in two months. My much loved Tokina 80-200mm f/2.8 had some sticky aperture problems, so I purchased a Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 AF second-hand, which broke within one day of use.

I decided on the Sigma, mainly because I was missing shots when performers came to the front of the stage (80mm was too long) and also because the AF was so sluggish on the old Nikon, that I though Sigma's HSM would be a very welcome addition.

I was very pleased with the lens for the day and a half I used it before my run of bad luck struck once more and the lens died (they say these thing come in threes!). Of course, I was disappointed, but then I suppose these things happen to the best of us.

I contacted Sigma support through their website, and they asked for me to send the lens in to be looked at, so I packed it up and posted it off, not expecting to see it for a good long while. To my surprise, the lens was returned to me in just over a week, functioning perfectly!

The picture on this post was one of the few I managed to take with the lens before it died. It's a great lens, very sharp and quick to focus. I'm very glad to have it back!

Architecture in Helsinki

Architecture in Helsinki
Originally uploaded by inventory

An image from last night's gig at the Plug in Sheffield. To be completely honest, this band aren't really my cup of tea, but the crowd seemed to enjoy them, and that's what matters after all... isn't it?

Even more busyness... just about caught my breath!

Two festivals in two weeks, that would be V in Chelmsford and the Leeds leg of the Carling Weekend, plus plenty of standard giggery-type fare in-between.

So what were the highlights for me? well:

The Ghost of a Thousand performing at The Leadmill in Sheffield
They put on a great show, to a fairly sparse audience. That audience was made a little more sparse by my early departure for another gig across town. Shame as I've enjoyed these both times I've seem them.

Municipal Waste performing at The Casbah in Sheffield
The venue couldn't have suited this gig better. The Casbah, for those who aren't familiar with it, is a small underground cellar-type venue. The low stage and complete lack of any security barrier fuelled the explosive atmosphere, where the crowd ended up commanding more of the stage than the band by the end of the gig.
I shot most of the gig using wireless flash, triggered with my camera's built-in strobe. As the crowd got rougher, my camera started to take more punishment though, ending with someone punching the pop-up flash clean off the top of my camera! It popped back into place just fine though, and seems to be working fine... thankfully.

Foofighters performing at V 2007 Festival in Chelmsford
It was just one of those moments where I realise, crap, it actually really is the Foo Fighters!

Rodrigo Y Gabriella performing at V2007 Festival in Chelmsford
Definitely the musical highlight of V 2007 for me. That should be no reflection on the lacklustre line-up. I would've loved their performance all the same if I'd seen them anywhere else.

Sepultura performing at The Corporation in Sheffield
This was quite possibly one of the most difficult gigs I've shot in a long, long while, but I enjoyed it all the same.

Cancer Bats performing at Leeds Carling Weekend
First band of the weekend after a delayed arrival, and they were great. Great to shoot.

Battles performing at Leeds Carling Weekend
Finally I got the shot of the drummer from Battles about to strike his highly placed cymbal I had missed on my previous attempts at shooting them. That made me a very happy snapper.

Crystal Castles performing at Leeds Carling Weekend
I really didn't think these would be my cup of tea at all. I couldn't have been more wrong. I enjoyed them immensely.

Grammatics performing at Leeds Carling Weekend
A great surprise from the Topman unsigned stage were Grammatics from Leeds. they have a very sophisticated sound for such a new band. They're definitely worth checking out if the opportunity presents itself.

Kaiser Chiefs performing at Leeds Carling Weekend
I got the obligatory Kaiser jump shot. Now I can truly call myself a music photographer! :-)

Nine Black Alps performing at Leeds Carling Weekend
Not so much a musical highlight, but more a spectacle of weird, for me at least. The guitarist, David Jones went to the same school I did. It was a bit odd to say the least recognising someone on stage as someone I remember from school! :-S

MuteMath performing at Leeds Carling Weekend
They put on a great live show, and I was quite chuffed with the shots I came out with. Happy days.

Tilly and the wall performing at Leeds Carling Weekend
I had earplugs, so everything was OK.

Here we go. That should be me pretty much up to date now. I've just discovered how the 'blog this' thing works on Flickr, so there should be no excuses for me not keeping this blog up to date from now on. Even if it is only, here's a picture. No time to say anything useful.