Cracking Evening of Retro Party Fun with the Hot Dub Time Machine @ Sydney Town Hall

On Sunday Night, 27 Jan 2013, I was privileged to see DJ Tom Loud and his Hot Dub Time Machine, performing at the Sydney Town Hall as a closing party for the Sydney Festival 2013.

For the duration of the festival, the Town Hall has been transformed into "Paradiso at Town Hall" and has hosted a great diversity of musical events. Although I am sure other events would have been very well supported, Sunday must have surely had the most enthusiastic audience participation as Tom took the them on a 3 hour long multimedia extravaganza of musical milestones.

Having been a "retro" DJ myself in a previous life (though only audio), I can only imagine how long it must've taken Tom to compile his set of music, entertainment and popular culture video clips spanning an incredible 6 decades. The music was well chosen to represent each year and provide a no stop party experience. Tom's mastery of video media is amazing as exemplified by one of my favourite clips, featuring the world's quirkiest penguin, Pingu.

By the end of the night my clothing was drenched with sweat (and I was only capturing the event on camera) as I made my way back to my car, having experienced on of the best compiled party events I have been witness to.

So, now for the pics and video. Although I'm almost exclusively a still photographer, Sunday clearly warranted a fuller multimedia experience, hence the large number of video clips that I shot as well.

See the photos here

See the videos here

The Pied Piper of Paradiso

Wave your hands in the air like you just don't care!

Riot of Colour

A view from the back

Cheers

Craig

Craig's Weekly What is it Photo Challenge: Challenge #26 - 14 January 2013

Today's Craig's Weekly What is it Photo Challenge is here:

Craig's Weekly What is it Photo Challenge: Challenge #26 - 14 January 2013

To play the challenge, click the image to go the the Facebook group and join if you are not a member yet.

Post your guesses as comments on the image. The answer will be revealed at approximately midday GMT on 16 January 2013. Clues may be given along the way.

Good Luck
Craig

Craig's Weekly What is it Photo Challenge

Hi

For those that don't know yet (which probably includes most of you), I run a weekly challenge on Facebook, where I post an abstract photograph that I have taken, for people to identify the subject.

It's all for fun, with no prizes, but who knows what may happen in the future if it becomes more popular. I have quite a few ideas up my sleeve.

Challenges start every Monday morning GMT, or evening Sydney time, and run for two days.

Winners will have the supreme honour of seeing their name up in lights at Craig's "What is it?" Hall of Fame

So pop on over to the group page on Facebook and join up at Craig's Weekly "What is it?".

Some of the past challenges were:

Macro Lighting Overkill? Perhaps...

Recently I had the idea to attach 2 Metz 58 AF-2 flashes to the adapter for the MT-24Ex. Although it is probably overkill for the 100mm macro lens, it could work well at greater distances with the 180mm macro lens.

It also works well for long distance portraits with the 135mm f/2 or 200mm f/2.8, on which the larger 72mm adapter ring fits.

Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 STM Pancake Lens - Initial Impressions

This morning, I received my new 40mm pancake lens from Adorama in the USA (not bad considering I only ordered late Friday night). Although I haven't given it a full workout, I thought I'd put down a few of my initial thoughts.

Build

I am very well impressed by the build of this lens for a non-L lens. For its size, it feels very solid and well made, with no rattling or looseness of the focus ring. It definitely feels better made than the 50mm f/1.4 and 85mm f/1.8 that I use regularly (this is not to say that there are any issues with the build quality of the 50 and 85).

Size

The size of the lens actually surprised me. I was actually expecting it to be a little smaller than it is. Although it is small, it is still seems a bit bigger than the other pancake lens I have had experience with, namely the venerable Pentax 40mm f2.8 DA SMC Limited. I will say though that it has been a long time since I have used the Pentax, so I haven't had the opportunity to compare them side-by-side. Nevertheless, the new lens is certainly very compact. It is dwarfed by the nightly 1D MkIV and almost succeeds in turning the 5D MkII a pocketable full frame DSLR, albeit only when wearing a pair of oversized over-pocketed cargo pants.

Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 STM Pancake Lens on the 1D MkIV

Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 STM Pancake Lens on 5D MkII

Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 STM Pancake Lens on 5D MkII

Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 STM Pancake Lens on 5D MkII

Cutie Combo - The 40mm on an EOS 500D/Digital Rebel T1i/Kiss X3 Digital

Image Quality and Performance

Although I haven't really had much of a chance to put the lens through its paces I managed to take a short walk around North Sydney during my lunch break and after work. Thus far, the image quality is looking promising. Initial impressions are:

• Images seem very sharp even wide open at f/2.8
• Images are contrasty
• Colours are crisp and striking.
• Focus seems fast and relatively silent although not quite as silent as the SDM lenses.
• Distortion seems fairly minimal for a lens of this focal length.
• I really like the field of view on the 1.3 crop factor of the 1D MkIV. It equates to roughly normal at 52mm equivalent.
• I haven't really used the manual (focus-by-wire) focus, so can't really comment.

Samples

A few more samples can be viewed on my Facebook page. Feel free to click like if you found this useful.

Cheers

Craig


Craig Jewell Photography | Promote your Page too

DSLR: David versus Goliath

I thought this would make an interesting comparison of the two extremes of DSLR. On the left is the Pentax Kx DSLR that we bought for my girlfriend's mother. On the right is my Canon 1D MkIV. 

I really like the little Kx even though it is dwarfed by my large hands. It certainly has its purpose as a travel camera with some pancake primes, although the lack of focus indicators in the viewfinder is a pain. In case you are wondering the lenses are the smallest pentax and canon lenses I have. The Tokina EL 28mm f/2.8 on the Kx and the EF 15mm f/2.8 fisheye on the 1D

Candid About Candids

In recent years, I have been doing more and more candid portraiture at parties, company functions, wedding receptions etc. I've started to realise how much I really enjoy this style of photography. It is care free as well as rewarding when subjects appreciate being captured in their "natural habitat" withough having to force a smile. An added bonus is being able to mingle and chat to as well as meet new people as you go about your job.

I'm starting to think perhaps I should specialise in candids :-)

Here are a few of my faves: