2008 NEC Bike Show Photos
I was invited to come to the Carole Nash NEC Bike Show on trade day and it was great fun with all the major bike brands represented and lots of fun stuff going on. I’m personally not a biker but there were also interesting fun stuff for non-bikers, including the Bat Bike from the latest Batman movie, as well as a Thunderdome show and of course the essential PR girls. I also saw one celebrity – Charley Boorman, who’s been biking through Africa with Ewan McGregor. Here’re a few shots (please contact me if you’re interested in using any of the shots. There’re also more Bike Show shots where these came from):
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- Carole Nash Custom Bike
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- Sexy Bike at the Carole Nash Stand
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- A Drag Bike
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- A Custom Bike from the Carole Nash Stand
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- Sexy Bike Wheel
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- Carole Nash Custom Xtreme Bike
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- It looks like a lady with wide hips and chest, with a lovely slim waist.
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- Charley Boorman and the promo girls
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- The Carole Nash Custom Xtreme Winner with Charley Boorman
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- Charley Boorman and the winner of Carole Nash Custom Xtreme
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- Cross Bike Maniac at the NEC
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- Thunderdome
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- The Bat Bike
My Carole Nash NEC Bike Show photos are my first of the kind but I hope you like them. I brought my 50mm as well as my 10-20. As you see I only used the 50mm, which was great for people, but often only allowed me only to photograph part of the bikes. Nevertheless I like some of the shallow depth of field the F1.8 exposure gives, although it’s sometimes difficult when you take picture of two persons that are at a slightly different distance away.
I must say the Thunderdome Show (entered a free rehearsal) was the greatest, with some nice bike tricks accompanied with some appropriate heavy metal.
Gig Photos – Off The Wall
My dear photo buddy Mark invited me last week to see a Pink Floyd tribute band called Off The Wall. It was my first gig with the main purpose of taking nice photographs, so exciting! It was also my first experience shooting only RAW so I made sure I brought both my 2GB cards, which was just enough. The venue was the Victoria Theatre in Halifax, with a classic theatre feel with 3 stories. Check out a photo.
I had some great fun enjoying the music (including the Pink Floyd classic “Money”) and a reasonably new photo experience. The key learnings from the night were:
- Obviously the higher shutter speed you use, the sharper your shots become, but the grain and reduced contrast can sometimes ruin some of the quality (what would we do without Photoshop eh…)
- With such low light conditions, try to use a lens with as wide an Aperture as possible to allow you to use a lower ISO. I started out with the Canon 70-200 F4 but soon moved over to the 50mm F1.8, which allowed me to sometimes get the ISO down to 400 from 800/1600. Much nicer shots!
- A tip Mark taught me was to adjust the exposure down by 1-2 stops, which would make the shot darker as it was shot, but would allow for a faster shutter speed at lower ISO. This can then be adjusted back up again later in Photoshop.
Below are some of the shots I got – more can be found at my Smugmug site.
Saxophonist Solo, taken from just in front of the stage using my 50mm at Aperture 3.5 and ISO 800
The saxophonist and guitarist battle it out taken with my 70-200 at F4 and ISO 1600
The frontman singing and playing the synthesizer centre stage. Used 70-200, F4, ISO 1600
One example of what the light show looked like. 50mm, F3.2, ISO 800.
As mentioned, check out more of the shots here. It was a great night and a good learning. If you want to check out the band, go here.
