2020 New Year Concert – St Mary's, Eaton Bray

 

             A New Year and New Decade begins for the Aylesbury Concert Band, with its opening Concert for the Season. At the rehearsal the Car Park was filling steadily as I brought my Sax-playing daughter in, and as she went in to set up, a steady influx of Band members continued as I gathered my kit, locked up and walked in with the Day's Conductor.

               Inside St. Mary's Church, Eaton Bray, the atmosphere was alive with the sounds of animated chatter and the setting up of numerous music stands, and arranging of seating for the Band. The numbers of Band members arriving continued to swell, gradually giving way to the more musical sounds of tuning up – Cacophany in C; if there was any nervousness amongst the players it was certainly lost amongst the general hubbub of greetings, re-arrangements of seating and constant flux as Chaos gave way to Order. It was during this phase, I realised I was missing a vital component if I was to use my monopod. I left my kit on a couple of chairs close by the aisle towards the front, and when I returned two reserved tickets had been placed where my camera bag was, so I had to find an unreserved place, one row nearer than planned.

               The Vicar greeted me to generously offer access to the Organ loft, which I accepted gratefully, but from which, on this occasion I found I was unable to use. Once I felt sufficiently organised, I took a few shots to gauge the lighting levels and set my base exposure, and learning that a very full congregation was envisaged, realised that the majority of images of the Band playing were going to be gleaned not from the Concert, but during Rehearsal, where I was free to move around, and take shots of musicians who were in the rear rows or hidden behind pillars.

               It does mean that many views were framed by clothing over chair backs, and many of the musicians were in mufti, rather than their formal dress, and only certain players were visible from my static position during the main event. Hopefully though the spirit of the occasion is carried by the overall range of images I have captured, When listening to music, my feet take on a life of their own, but somehow my hands manage to keep sufficient control to retain their stability; sometimes in post production it does mean verticals do have to be restored, or judiciously cropped to ensure the viewer does not suffer vertigo! It is all a measure however of my enjoyment of the occasion – a Happy New Decade to all who read the blog and enjoy the images captured.

Fairford Leys 2019 Christmas Concert

Each year, Fairford Leys provides a Christmas Concert in the central square, and the Aylesbury Concert Band performs under the overhang of the colonnade to provide possible shade from the weather.
When we arrived, there were warming flames from braziers to welcome us, and the seats were already arranged for the Band, and as my daughter set up her Saxophone, I brought out my camera and placed the camera bag behind the players for security and chose the 24-70mm lens and checked its settings and took a shot of the nearby instrument to see what shutter speed I was having to consider, and despite the lighting being only from candles above us and the spill from numerous individual lights placed on the music stands by individual musicians, it was on the cusp of useable.
This was definitely going to be right on the edge of usability, as the ISO indicated was 12,800 and gave me a shutter speed of 1/5th of a second at f/7.1, which meant, I would often be taking multiple shots and 'chimping' to ascertain whether I had achieved an acceptable image. The one advantage that cameras with focal plane shutters have over shutters with iris blades is that the slit is travelling over the frame faster speed giving effectively a faster shutterspeed.
Another advantage the EOS R has over my other two camera bodies is this full-frame body has a higher pixel count than my EOS 5D MkII, which means the noise is less obtrusive, and with judicious use of noise reduction, the end result is slightly smoother. Towards the end of the afternoon, I was asked to take some group Band shots, and it was fortunate that I had brought along my electronic flash, because I would need to stop down further to encompass the greater depth needed for such shots.
The informality of the Concert here allows me to move around the band taking either individuals or small sections with reasonable ease, but with the narrow depth of the covered area, pillars and stands and other players, still meant getting perfect compositions unfettered by lights on music stands and banners, other musicians, or their instruments intruding, is unavoidable. Also at low light levels, I can easily miss the intrusions of these LED lights, clothes pegs, or sometimes, other instruments. There were no trombones on this occasion, which can sometimes be a challenge.
One noticeable absence on this occasion is Band uniforms, replaced by layers of warm outer garments, gloved fingers, festive headgear, flashing lights and large woollen scarves.
The programme of tunes was governed by the interspersing of other parties providing the Christmas narrative, which meant there were lulls in the Band's playing schedule, which often plays havoc with ever-changing notes due to cold instruments and often frozen lips of the musicians. It is fortunate that the Festive Spirit tends to accept these inevitabilities, and there are other diversions, such as the Cymbals, which add to the enjoyment of the players themselves! Altogether a very enjoyable introduction to the season of Goodwill.

Aylesbury Concert Band — Christmas Carols — St. Mary’s Church

A crisply cold afternoon in the warmth and welcoming atmosphere that pervades this Annual event hosted by the Town’s Mayor, Councillor Mike Smith, with the Reverend Douglas Zimmerman officiating.

The readings were given by the Town Mayor, followed by His Honour Judge Sheridan DL, Fran Bourgeois-Wheeler, CEO Youth Concern, Julia Upton, MBE, High Sherriff of Buckinghamshire, Group Captain Katherine Wilson, CO, RAF Halton, Alicia Foster, Thames Valley Police Cadets.

  The start of the afternoon’s ceremony was heralded by the Band playing the Pavane from Aylesbury Dances by Wiffin, which brought the general level of Audience conversations down as the local dignitaries filed in from the rear to take their designated seats at the front of the congregation, and the Rector of St. Mary’s welcomed all to the Season’s singing praises to God.

It was less easy than some years to cover the event, as I was shooting from a comparatively low viewpoint, and current etiquette requires avoidance of the young children, which is almost impossible, so I have tried to lessen the lighting on those in the forefront where possible. I hope however that I have still recorded the ambience of the event without causing offence.

Aylesbury Concert Band — Park Summer Concert

The Concert in Aylesbury takes place each year in the Park adjacent to the Aquavale Public Swimming Pool. Due to the necessity for Band members’ vehicle numbers being registered before arrival at the Car Park on this occasion, I was not the chauffeur of my daughter and her Saxophone, but a passenger.

This year it took place on one of the hottest ever days, making it extremely heavy-going in the oppressive heat, resulting in the rehearsal being truncated due to not only the sun making it difficult for the players being able to see the Conductor, but also extremely tough if they were to survive till the evening’s performance. 

In addition there was a preliminary photo shoot of the Band members for future publicity purposes in their full concert dress and, with their instruments.This took place in the small amount of shade afforded by the trees in the Park opposite the Swimming Pool.

Due to the Band members’ vehicle numbers being registered before arrival at the Car Park, on this occasion, I was not the chauffeur of my daughter and her Saxophone, but a passenger. I had brought along three lenses to use, my general purpose all rounder zoom; the 24-70mm, the 70-200mm and the 100-400mm, and I would be using the EOS R body throughout.

I told myself I would be sparing in the number of shots I would be taking to minimise the subsequent time at the computer due to the high temperatures expected, however that did not happen, so it was not going to be a speedy run once back in front of the Computer. (Upper case — as at present with the larger file sizes of the EOS R has meant I have become its slave because it is taking more time to process the shots due to this increased individual size).

The high temperature brought another problem — keeping every instrument in tune, and in the interlude between rehearsal and Concert, considerable effort was made to ensure each instrument was in tune, and here technology was playing its part as individuals were being calibrated with the aid of small electronic samplers, so I captured these efforts in the cooler shade outside the inferno of the Stage.

The Audience had been swelling and sweltering all the while and as the sun lowered, it was shining directly into the players’ eyes as the Concert started, but the heat did not abate for some while, making hats and dark glasses ‘de rigour’, but the large gathering of families showed its appreciation by applauding, and several of the really young danced in the space between the front of the crowd and the Stage; cartwheeling and dancing, and waving flags.

Although there is an obvious difference in the Singers’ and Musicians’ attire between Rehearsal and Concert, to the Audience this transition is blurred, all is performance and fun, and enjoyed equally and informally, and simply the end of several days of enjoyment culminating in the Fireworks display after a short speech by the Mayor.

I hope that my images convey at least some of the enjoyment shared by all who attended and serve as a memory of family fun in the Park.

Aylesbury Concert Band Plays at Fairford Leys

A seriously warm day as Fairford Leys celebrates its Summer Fair with the Band to play from the Bandstand in the Centre of the complex. This was an occasion where I was able to use the EOS R with just the one lens, in this case the 24-70mm Canon lens. A mark of just how good the EOS R is can be seen by the shots towards the end where my son-in-law and young grandchildren were tiny fractions of the full frame on the Ferris Wheel whilst using this same lens — well-cropped! The other point worth a mention was the high ISO speed used, yet displaying little evidence due to that tight crop.

One of the beauties of this venue is that since there is always an abundance of activities for the visitors and a central location, not only can I listen to and enjoy the music, I can move all around the Bandstand to capture the musicians and Conductor performing, without disturbing the experience for the audience.

The Concert is in two parts, so I also get to spend some time with my young grandchildren. There is also no need for long lenses as is often the case with all the normal venues that I cover with my daughter who plays Saxophone in the Band.

I still consider myself a complete novice in the handling of this mirrorless body, there are several occasions when I simply do not perform as smoothly and instinctively as I do with my dSLRs; the 5D MkIII and 7D MkII, but with each time out, many of the techniques I use with this camera become smoother and with increasing confidence, but whereas with the dSLRs failed shots are infrequent, the Success Numbers with the Mirrorless are interspersed with either failure due to the focus point  moving to the edge of screen, or my failure when panning to be able to follow due to delays in the screen image displayed related to actuality.

Having completed the preparation of the gallery, I can say that the quality of the Concert images is good technically, only you, the viewer can decide whether emotionally the images carry the same message as the music the Band were playing, which I was enjoying. I certainly was as always, I hope that I convey the spirit of what is being played, and provide the Band with images that promote the concerts into the future. After I had made a concerted (pardon the pun!) effort to include the banners strategically, I learned that the Band is changing its Identity, so that was bad timing on my part.

I am now having problems reaching my blog to get these images online, so hopefully, this will be resolved shortly.

Aylesbury Mayor’s Concert – Concert Band at St. Mary's Church

Although the need for a ‘Roadie’ for my daughter is hardly necessary now she is no longer playing Baritone Sax, I still enjoy the excuse of her Concerts to meet up and keep my hand in (read shutter finger!) covering her concerts — I enjoy the music, the company, and it gives me the chance to keep in touch with her and the children, on a reasonably frequent basis.

I travelled over to her house with my camera and lenses, and on this occasion we went to the venue in her car, as my longer wheelbase might have proven a tad tighter when taking the spiral in the Car Park she intended using, so on this occasion it was I who was the passenger. We made our way through the shoppers and arrived moderately early and though we arrived at the familiar church, both of us found that with the layout being reversed relative to the last time we visited it was unsettling. However, the shock over, it seemed a far better orientation. Another bonus was our visit was in daylight, and the sun was shining brightly, and the church was surprisingly warm too!

On the last occasion, not only was it dark, but I found it necessary to use a monopod for stability, on this occasion, I was able to use even my long lens handheld, and without resorting to high ISOs and the attendant noise. Nevertheless, I spent the freedom of movement that the rehearsal offered to capture as much of the informality to record the life of the Band’s natural interaction, and record some of the Band’s members who are normally less featured through being hidden behind the front rows, such as the percussion section, and the lone guitarist.

This church offers no high viewpoint, which could offer the chance of  capturing some of the less visible musicians, but rehearsal gives me the freedom to make amends, and since my shoes were clean and dry, I took the opportunity to gain some height by standing on a chair every so often. The Mayor arrived early and immediately busied himself shifting chairs into an ordered layout that put the front rows a tad further back, which meant the Band had space and the audience’s ears stood a chance of a reduced volume of sound to improve their appreciation of the music. The opportunity of  projecting a hardworking Mayor offering a helping hand was too good a chance to miss!

The beauty of taking photos at the rehearsal is in the capture of some of the lighter moments, as well as the chance of differing viewpoints, and although I am sometimes close to the action I am careful to keep a respectful distance and tread carefully, and silently. However it does mean that outer garments and various bags do make their presence apparent, and often the less formal dress does mean the images tend to be less useful from a Publicity standpoint, but they do provide a record of the fun and enjoyment of the participants. On a previous occasion, I separated the Rehearsal and Concert images, but on this occasion, I have provided one complete entity, and I hope this gives the true flavour of the event. One last point; Carl Quaif and Marie Biswell, who compèred and signed from the distant platform are seen in the gallery far better than could be seen by the audience, by my using a long lens to drag them closer. I hope this means that the blog audience can put a face to each of these two distant figures and a disembodied voice.

Aylesbury Concert Band New Year Concert – 2 – St. Mary's Church Eaton Bray

 

     Finally, I have processed the shots of the New Year Concert itself, that took place on Saturday, there are fewer images than there were at the Rehearsal, since my movements were naturally constrained, and the view of individual musicians is more often than not limited by whether they are in the front rows. On occasion I can move slightly to get a clear view of some of those Band members in rows behind, but many, especially those in the percussion section, or the large horn section, it is simply not possible to feature them unless I can take pictures of those musicians at the Rehearsal.

     I also look around to note some details of the venue, that catch my eye (to ensure my hands are exercised and I am alert!) My feet have no difficulty in maintaining movement especially in rhythmic masterpieces, such as the Radetzky March, where frankly it is a challenge to keep my feet still!

     The engineering that goes into musical instruments is a source of great admiration, so there will often be close-ups or interesting angles of certain instruments that catch my eye, both static, or in the hands of the musicians. Likewise details I note at the various venues that I cover, such as on this occasion when  I took a shot of one of the figures in a stained glass window that appears in the Rehearsal gallery, and in this one someone changing their reed, but these are not distractions, but observations worth recording, and my galleries are peppered with these items that ensure my eyes are always actively sensitive to my surroundings.

     One item that gave me some frustration was trying to capture a lady’s hands playing her flute with the Band’s logo beyond, it has now been placed in the image header, to remind me of how difficult it was to capture the juxtaposition due to her hand and flute invariably covering the word ‘Aylesbury’ in the end I stood up to ensure I got the shot! My apologies to those in the audience behind me if I momentarily interrupted their view of the Band.

     I hope that my decision to separate the rehearsal from the Concert proper which avoided a delay in getting shots up to the blog, is not a disappointment, but at least, now that the concert pictures are up, it will have been worth the wait, with those who might well not have featured at all, now able to have some time in the limelight.

     From the packed audience, I think my enjoyment was equalled by all those who attended, so thank you to the Band and the Church for a memorable afternoon.

2019 New Year Concert–St. Mary's Eaton Bray – 1— The Rehearsal

     The Aylesbury Concert Band celebrated their first concert of 2019 at the church of St. Mary’s, Eaton Bray, and as Roadie for my daughter I first drove to Quainton to pick her and the Tenor Sax up, then after a short wait as she collected her outfit and some snacks ‘n’ Sax we set off to Eaton Bray, where we parted, for her to join the Band and set up, and for me to get an idea of just how much light I would have with which to take photos, and also choose which lenses would be suitable. I also had a chat with the Lay Reader, Gordon Gray, who is the de facto head honcho, and asked whether I might be allowed to get up into the Organ Loft to take some high level shots of the Band, because it gives me a chance to have a clear view of every member of the band, and later a good proportion of the audience.

     Gordon very kindly unlocked the door to the narrow spiral staircase that winds its way to the Organ, with its even narrower space, between the back of the organist’s bench seat and the balcony, from where I hoped to get some higher level shots of the event later. I took with me two lenses to check the angle of view with each, the 35mm f/1.4 and the 24-70mm and they seemed a good choice.

     I returned to terra firma, and took a few shots to decide what ISO I would be using and realised to have a decent shot of sharpness, I would be using 3200 or 6400 for the darker shots and 1600 if I was blessed with more light and little movement, or needing only a narrow depth of field! Fortunately, using the EOS 5D MkIII Body I know I can keep control of the noise level, provided I do not have to crop too tightly.

     By the time I had ascertained all this, most of the Band had begun testing how well their instruments were tuned; they perform a rendering of “Cacophany in C” for this purpose as more and more of the company arrive and set up their stands and music sheets, amidst small clusters of those more ready, chatted; and numerous helpers prepared the church itself for the onslaught of the audience and distribute programmes and arrange seating. Having found a suitable seat from which to operate, I was fortunate to have an adjacent seat to place the three most likely lenses within easy reach.

     Because once the concert is in progress, I will be operating from a fixed location, I spend the Rehearsal constantly on the move, so I can capture every member of the Band, so everyone basically is given equal prominence in the subsequent gallery.

     I hope that I have captured the atmosphere of the rehearsal in this gallery, and whilst these images are up on the blog, I will once again put my head down to create a gallery of the Concert proper with slightly less pressure, and since there will inevitably be fewer shots because of my limited view of individual  members of the Band, hopefully it will not be long before those images are prepared. there will be two Conductors for this Concert, Rob Wicks and Chris Doyle.

Fairford Leys Christmas Concert in the Centre

After a dash back to Marston Moretaine to change into clothes that were more suitable for the afternoon in the centre of Fairford Leys and to also offload the pictures taken at the lake of Windsurfing activity so there was no danger of their suffering any mishap before I was back to processing that afternoon’s images, I collected a group of lenses that I felt would be suitable for the inevitably low light levels I would encounter.

I gave myself a reasonable amount of leeway as I knew there would be a higher level of traffic as the route involved passing Milton Keynes, and to add further insult the A421 road now has a 40mph limit which actually simply backs up the traffic such that even that speed most of the day is an unfulfilled dream; it tends to be a series of 20mph spurts between 10 second standstills, I found it pays to hold back and keep a steady speed of around 18-22mph and save fuel, frustration and brake wear, and fortunately the driver behind seemed to agree as he did not come up and sit on my rear bumper – that was a pleasant surprise.

Although the traffic was still fairly heavy after the spell before the new sections, at least it moved at a fair pace, so I arrived in reasonable time such that my daughter and I were able to take a relaxed pace as she collected her music and most importantly some pegs to anchor it to the music stand, though she did find she was missing some of the necessary pieces she was due to play.

We arrived early and found a place to park with ease and headed for the centre, however, actually reaching the venue had still proved to be somewhat circuitous, as it was later to be repeated when leaving! As we took the saxophone and music bag from the car it dawned on me that my camera gear was still sitting in Quainton with Tim, Lizzy’s husband and the children – they were due to follow shortly, and when Lizzy broke the news to Tim, he had very fortunately not left the house! Acquiring the missing music sheets fortunately presented no problems and the afternoon went well, so whilst Lizzy got herself organised I simply stood around like a spare part, but was soon very relieved to see Tim with my camera bag (some Professional Photographer I turned out to be!) Tim very generously did not make a meal out of it.

I set up the most likely lens I would be shooting with; the 35mm f/1.4 and took a few shots and set ISO 3200˙ and found I could get by at:

Yes, ‘get by’! – if I needed more speed, I had a stop in hand but at least I could cope with the inherent grain at this speed – Thank Goodness for Image Stabilisation or what my friend Adam refers to as Anti-Shake, also when you have my level of unsteadiness I am grateful for the burst, because sometimes the second image can be usable if the first suffered from my tremble.

I think I did occasionally open up to f/2.8, and 1/8th of a second I think was my slowest shutter speed, so I am grateful for the technology jump from my earliest days when 400 ASA still meant I had to use auxiliary lighting and a tripod! Even in Brighter light levels!

Flash under the situation such as this was out of the question as it would have been extremely distracting to those who were playing as well as killing the ambiance of the scenes I captured.

Remembrance Service – Aylesbury Concert Band - St. Mary's Church

I drove to Quainton to pick up my daughter to collect her and the far less weighty Tenor Sax and head for the car park in Aylesbury Town Centre where she would be playing with The Aylesbury Concert Band to celebrate the Mayor's Centenary Remembrance Service in Commemoration and Thanks for those who gave their lives in service of their country in The Great War from 1914 to 1918.
I was joining her for the Rehearsal, and I soon learned I was going to be some considerable distance from the Band, so began shooting early whilst I was still able to wander quietly around to be able to obtain less obstructed views of the Band Members, I also realised that with the low level of lighting I was going to find it hard to get the quality of shots I wanted without something to give me extra support, so I soon headed back to the car to collect my monopod as a tripod would not be feasible.
It was definitely a good move, because I found my self shooting at speeds of 1/20th of a second if I wanted to keep a low ISO and the noise level to a minimum, which meant I was often over-shooting to ensure the success rate was good. The Conductor, Rob Wicks's, baton was certainly going to often be a blur even when I had managed to hold my camera and lens steady! Almost all of the shots in the Concert proper were taken at full aperture, and I still often had to resort to setting an ISO speed as high as 6400˚. During rehearsal, I should have pushed the speed higher as I was in the low light in the left aisle whilst Alison Langer was practising her piece, and I really needed the extra speed to capture the pianist's hands at the keyboard.
The Concert was full of Music that was familiar and often rousing, and there is always a great chance of me singing with gusto, especially when the audience can cover any mistakes I might make in my exuberance. The congregation were amused by the presiding Minister's request we sing Jerusalem through a second time to allow enough time for the Collection! I was more than happy to oblige.
Altogether another enjoyable evening, the only slight sadness was that the length of the event meant that on my return I spent very little time with my young grandchildren before they went up to bed.

Aylesbury Parklife Summer Concert

  

 

          Aylesbury Concert Band brave the drizzle, and are rewarded with an excellent concert that pleased the crowd that attended regardless of the conditions, and a wider audience on this occasion, as it was also streamed via Facebook. Headlining were the now married couple who have performed with the Band in previous years; Alison Langer and Lawrence Thackeray. 
          The Star for me, having earlier heard her perform at the rehearsal, was the highly accomplished fifteen year old on the violin playing the Tsardas by Monti, Shona Beacham. As can be seen from my picture of her whilst she played at rehearsal that I put in the headline image for that gallery, the two people in the background are obviously listening intently to her performance, in admiration.
          The violin is a notoriously difficult instrument to play, and she justly received a rapturous applause,  but to play that piece with such panâche, and at so a young an age is stunning. Keep an eye out for that name in the future. 
          I was really pleased that the rain which had drizzled throughout the entire rehearsal, began to stop soon after the concert itself started. The programme was packed with numerous pieces both enjoyable and familiar, which is always a challenge when my feet want to dance, and I am trying to hold my camera and often longish lens steady. The light level even before the light dimmed towards evening, meant that when the concert proper began, I was already shooting at ISO 2000° and at f/4! When the lights were really low I was at ISO 12,800° which is what I describe as ‘Unavailable Light Photography’ which is challenging when shooting handheld with hands as unsteady as mine! The Hit rate falls significantly, hence why I favour 32GB cards, and that can become an embarrassment when I do not have a spare empty card in my pocket. 
          In the Interval, I moved Stage left and took shots of the Drummers, which when their leader took to the grass to dance with another of their number, that was seriously tough to keep sharp!!
          I must apologise to anyone in the Band who has waited for these images to arrive on the blog, but life can sometimes supervene as I do have to do other mundane tasks, such as in this case, take my car for its MOT and wait four hours in the car showroom till it is complete, then shop for the mundanities of life such as food that was delayed due to filling the time taking the photos in the first place!
          However, here the images are, and I hope they give others as much pleasure as I enjoyed whilst listening and watching the show.

Aylesbury Concert Band Rehearsal – Proms in the Park

 

        Aylesbury holds an Annual Concert with a Fireworks Display to celebrate the August Bank Holiday Parklife weekend. This Year’s event is also due to be streamed via Facebook, which considering the weather was possibly a stroke of genius, as it meant the event will still reach a wide audience who might have otherwise been put off attending due to rain.
         As it happened, despite the rehearsal taking place in light drizzle, by the time the concert began, this had all but stopped. My camera gear is not too well protected, and if as looked likely it might rain, I decided to get in as many shots of the Aylesbury Concert Band during rehearsal in order to carry a gallery of images of the players even though they were in ‘mufti’. I knew my time was somewhat restricted for processing my images, so this initial gallery is entirely of the rehearsal.
         I hope that these images will be an appetiser for the concert proper which will follow in a couple of days. I will say that the Music for this event was really enjoyable, and for me the Star event of the evening was the astonishing talent of the fifteen year old Shona Beacham playing Monti's Tsardas. Get to the Aylesbury Concert Band’s Facebook page to hear and see it. The piece would stretch any player — this is really exceptional from one so young!
         My gallery for the concert proper will follow in a couple of days.

Fairford Leys Summer Concert

   

The Aylesbury Concert Band were once again invited to play in the Bandstand in the centre of Fairford Leys with the sun burning down from a clear blue sky. I came along once again with my younger daughter who plays Baritone Sax with the band, and we arrived early which meant we did not rush around and get overheated before the event even started. We even had time for me to turn the car around so we were facing the right direction for leaving as well as being close enough to transport the baritone sax case with ease.

It was also a day when England had a match against Sweden and after the concert I, with Lizzy joined Tim and the football enthusiasts who were watching the match on a large screen inside the hall.

The tunes the band had played included pieces that had a bearing upon nationalism and by association, with the match being played; England won which meant the beer was flowing, and even offered at a reduced price to entice.

Due to the bandstand being open-sided there is always some breeze present which means that one very obvious addition to every music stand is a plethora of clothes pegs, which does make for distractions to any photographs I take and the tight space means it is very difficult to avoid their presence in almost every shot, which can be a challenge. I try to capture the build-up as well as the playing, and was pleased to be early enough to capture scenes of discussion between the Conductor and Percussionist, and other interactions between the players, which capture some of the atmosphere of the group.

As there was also the attractions of a fair, I still have more images to process for the family.

Aylesbury Concert Band, Stone Fête

Proem

There is no gallery of images on this occasion, it is simply an illustrated explanation regarding one of the ways my images might be tweaked on occasion

On one of the very few occasions when I am not taking pictures of the Band in Concert, I found myself chatting to Ian who it turns out is married to one of the Band’s musicians; it is during this conversation that he mentions that he noticed that I seem to have somehow picked out an individual in some of the shots I have taken of the Band, but he somehow thought it was the way I had taken the shot. I had to own up that when taking the shot it was often because for me one person, or one group was what I envisaged capturing at that specific moment, and that when I am back at the computer and come to that shot, I realise why it was that I captured that moment and wanted to ensure others viewing were treated to what I had sensed at the time I pressed the shutter.

I use Lightroom for processing the images I take, and it is the reason I shoot in Raw, so have the ability to use the Develop module to subtly alter individual images that become those I then put into a Gallery and place on the server, to be viewed over the Internet from my Blog. I am often using a zoom lens, so frequently an image is used without further cropping and what I am then doing is ensuring that I capture detail in both shadows and highlights by altering the range to suit what I am hoping to project from the scene.

It is at this point I may wish to use the entire picture, but try to somehow highlight the area I want the viewer to notice. The Radial filter is what I then bring into play by making an ellipse around the chosen area and may also rotate it to finesse where I wish to draw attention, which on this occasion was to darken beyond the musician playing the clarinet, and rotate the ellipse slightly anticlockwise. The tool can made to operate either within or without the ellipse that has been drawn, also the subsequent mask that is being created can also be feathered to apply the changes I make with the required subtlety to hide how I have achieved the effect.

  Here is the image before I have made the alterations I have just described, and as you can see your eye is treated to several rows of musicians right through to the percussion section at the rear, and even though my focus is upon the Clarinet section, no person is noticeably more obvious than another, it is entirely egalitarian, however, when I took the shot I was focussed upon the lady in the blue jacket, so when I wanted to draw the observer’s eye to where I wanted them to look, I despotically lessened the contrast of those around and beyond her so that the observer did my bidding and concentrated on this individual player. I also lessened the highlights.

To get across my point, I have over-egged it a tad here, but it is still sufficiently subtle as to not look ham-fisted in my attempt at explaining the mechanics involved.

Note I did not tick the ‘Invert Mask’ box, so that the changes I made to the parameters I chose were applied beyond the selected area of the ellipse. I lessened the Contrast, because had that area been less brightly lit, it would lack contrast relative to the lit area, in addition I targetted the highlights and lowered these too for a similar reason, and lastly the feathering of the mask was just enough that there was no obvious sign of the ellipse that created the mask being obvious when the visitor viewed the end result.

Creating Galleries of images quickly, efficiently and effectively is the reason that I use Lightroom for the task, since to involve Photoshop to carry out retouching prior to creating a gallery adds way too much time to the process, and though the tools are less sophisticated, with practice ways can be found that mitigate the limitations and allow a large number of retouched images to be available to the Internet audience in fairly short order. Another beauty of working in this manner is that if I am approached for a high resolution image to be used in Print, the hard work is largely done, and the subsequent file can be despatched rapidly, and this leaves Photoshop for the more subtle or detailed work by exporting directly from the original in the Lightroom catalog.

One last point, despite my having exaggerated the effect to explain the technique, it does not show an ellipse to give away how I achieved the effect, and I might add that I am also able to deal with the extraneous highlights or shadows separately if needed.

Ian, I hope this explanation is helpful; I dedicate it to you and your wife. I hope it may help others who wish to use such tools in Lightroom when they are taking a large number of photos for display in galleries rather than individual images.

Aylesbury Concert Band - Fairford Leys Church

In the past Fairford Leys Concerts by the Aylesbury Concert Band have taken place outside in the central Hampden Square in the Bandstand, on this occasion it took place within the church, which presented a few accoustics-related constraints for the Band, but this did not prevent the audience from enjoying the pieces played.

The architecture within comes as a surprise from its reasonably conventional exterior, and makes for interesting reflections from some of the bells of the wind instruments such as the euphonium being played by Robin Jarvis, who was soloist for the piece under the baton of the arranger, Eric Wilson, stepping in just for this piece from The Band’s Director of Music, Robert Wicks.

The spread of the players in Band, meant that whereas normally the percussion section is hidden from viewer behind all the other members, on this occasion I was able to see extensive array of the Drummer’s Toys on this occasion (that is not meant to be taken as derogatory in any way!) and the guest Conductor, Eric was equally intrigued by the boxing of the xylophone which added to its tonality and strength.

The observant visitor will notice the difference in clothing worn by many Band members from the start of the gallery, this allows me to take shots of the players because I can subtly change my viewpoint in Rehearsal that is not possible during the concert proper. The drawback is that foot-tapping is cut short during rehearsal – just as I succumb to the urge, that rhythmic section ends! I learned later from my daughter, that she had spotted my disappointment.

Aylesbury Concert Band, St Mary's Eaton Bray 2018

I collected my daughter and her Bass Saxophone from near Aylesbury and headed to the first concert of the 2018 Aylesbury Concert Band  season at St. Mary’s Eaton Bray;  this concert takes place in the afternoon, and on this occasion it was bright with occasional glimpses of a shy sun. We collected some sustenance before going to park at the church.

Even though we were in good time, we were far from being the earliest of arrivals, and the car park is more than adequate and only a short walk with my camera gear and my daughter’s large heavy case. We both then separated to assemble our respective  kit and I investigated where to sit so I would be in a position where I had a good viewpoint and would not be obtrusive.

Once I had decided on what would be the most useful lenses, I then took a wander around to see where I might get the wider opportunities of varied images during the rehearsal since once the Concert proper was in play, moving around was not an option; I would then be reliant on using different focal lengths to suit what it was I wanted to capture, whereas I am able to choose my viewpoints provided I am not a distraction to the players.

During this period of moving around I was somewhat surprised by the sight of a butterfly, and I later learned they are not such a rare sight, as they often overwinter in the church!

I also wondered whether I might be allowed to shoot from the Organ Loft, and I was not disappointed, the gentleman in overall charge very kindly unlocked and switched on the lighting so I could negotiate the narrow winding staircase. The actual entry to the Organ was protected by a glass door which did somewhat surprise me by its presence! Fortunately, no damage was sustained either to the door or myself, but it did come as an unwelcome surprise!

It is a very tight fit for the Organist up there, and it was difficult to get to the centre, so for the empty shots at the rehearsal, I was not dead centre, but later during the first number of the concert, I did squeeze further in to take a few more meaningful shots with the audience present.

I found at one stage during the concert a lovely juxtaposition of one player with the Tuba beyond giving her a well-deserved halo! I also captured a few other light moments during the afternoon, and also found that in one angle from my position I was able to benefit from the blur of intervening musicians that allowed me to play with the differing rendition of that particular musician as the colours were so pleasing.

Although, the scene looks bright, I was quite surprised how high I had to raise the ISO to capture many of the images; I was generally barely a single stop from full aperture, and often shooting at 1/13th of a second, using 3200 ISO! I frequently refer to this type of work as ‘unavailable light photography’! But that’s part of the joy — a challenge!

At one time the gentleman in charge (sorry I do not have the name) spotted I was taking a shot of the Organ and kindly offered to put on a light to improve it further! It is a truly magnificent structure, but it was not featured treating us to its sounds, which was a shame.

And the most enjoyable piece of music from the afternoon — Shostakovich’s Jazz Suite.