The second act was something I wasn’t prepared for. I’ll admit I have not been to many local music sessions so the soft Lisa Thuenissen was something I was expecting. When The Swamis came out they were loud, fast, powerful and made me stop and go “YEEEEEAAAHHHH!!!!!!!!!”
Absolutely commited rock. As well as the sound I was very impressed with their pressence and performance; for such a small venue they really rocked it out; the crowd was immediately behind them. Now remember Aylesbury is just know for it’s Ducks so three members were a breath of fresh metal to my ears.
Shooting the band.
By the time the lads came on, it was getting quite dark so the lighting conditions had to be compensated. I couldn’t use the wider 18-200 because of the poor lights so I really needed my 70-200mm to do it’s job and it really did pay for itself! Like Lisa’s set I shot from the back to mix up the shots a bit then I went in for the close ups. The lead singer Dan was giving it all his worth; his voice was just demanding to be heard. This showed in his physical performance and was just brilliant to photograph. He commited to everyword, screamed every high note and “rocked out” during the guitar sections.
But it was the lead guitarist Paul Jackson who really showed anyone starting out how to fill a venue with high energy and passion. He really sold his playing to the crowd and the photos were just a joy to shoot!
One disappointment (from a photo point of view) was I couldn’t get a clear shot of the drummer Matt. He had his head hung down most of the time and because of he has long hair i couldn’t get a clear shot that I was happy with. I regret not focusing more on him, the drumming was just as commanding as the other two members. There is some good though, as he was leaving I managed to grab him, introduce myself and got some candid photos of him. The light was poor but I saved it using some post production in Lightroom.
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