2021-12-03 Tolka Hot Club

2021-12-03 Tolka Hot Club - Sin É Dublin

So, it turns out that this gig, The Tolka Hot Club at Sin É in Dublin, might well be my last gig of the year. The Govt. brought in new Covid restrictions limiting gigs to 50% capacity and most, if not all artists are rescheduling their shows for next year.

Anyway, back to the gig. I'd never seen THC play live before, but I had seen their accordion player Ken perform with Emma Langton on many occasions and, when offered the chance to go shoot them, I jumped at it.

I was unfamiliar with their music, but it was fantastic to see live and the crowd loved it! I'm not sure how to describe their music, but maybe a dash of swing, a bit of jazz, maybe some French cabaret and a dash of the Balkans thrown in would it justice! I'd definitely recommend going to see them live when you can.

Needless to say, I really enjoyed it and if this does indeed turn out to be my last gig of 2021, then I went out on a high!

I won't lie though, it wasn't the easiest shoot ever! It's a tight venue to move about in and it's difficult to not block someones view when taking photos. Also, the stage lighting was difficult to say the least. I ended up placing three Ulanzi Rechargeable Lights on the stage to brighten things up a bit! Thankfully, they worked well!

Anyway, on to the photos:

2022-03-26 Buskers on Grafton Street, Dublin

I took a walk around Dublin today, thought I'd check out the buskers on Grafton Street. There's a fine history of busking in Dublin, acts like Hothouse Flowers , The Frames , Rodrigo y Gabriela , Damien Rice , Paddy Casey , Kodaline and a host of others all cut their teeth on and around Grafton Street. It stands to reason that some of those busking today will be successful in the future! So, who did I get to see today? Well, check out the photos below: Zoe Clarke Allie Sherlock Paul Jenkinson

Bye Bye Spotify...

I ditched Spotify Premium this weekend. Why? Well, I read an interview with Daniel Ek , the CEO of Spotify, and I profoundly disagreed with what he said and his attitude towards musicians in the interview. So I said 'F*ck it', and closed my premium account. I still do have a free account* as many bands choose Spotify to release their music, so I'll keep it for that reason. What now though? Well, I'd created a large library of music on my home server over the last 20 years or so. Every time I bought a CD, it got ripped to the server. Every time I bought digital music from Bandcamp , Google or 7 Digital , they too got stored on the server, and that was fine for home use, it worked well. But now I'd dumped Spotify, what could I do, how could I access my music outside the house? I'd played around with software called Plex a few years back, but had no use for it. I ended up doing nothing with Plex, but for this project, I decided to revisit it. I knew that i

Pete Kavanagh - Mercy Video Shoot

I've been asked a few times if I'd be interested in shooting a music video. Each time I said no because, well, I'd no idea what to do. I'm not technical behind a camera. I know the look I want, I take my photos and, that's it. I honestly don't know what I'm doing, it just works for me, sometimes (they're the photos you see!). I've known Pete Kavanagh a long time. We both grew up in the same Kildare town and know many of the same folk. Over the last few years we became friends through music. He played, I listened and or photographed. So, when he asked me if I'd shoot his video for 'Mercy', I said yes, albeit a hesitant yes, one filled with self doubt! Day one of shooting came around all too quickly for me. I'd looked in to shooting video, read up a bit on how to do it on my camera, what settings to change and so on, just so I wouldn't look clueless on set! I charged all the batteries and lights, packed all the gear away an

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