musik fotografie

Product review - Saal Digital Fotobuch

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A couple of weeks back, i received an e-mail from Saal Digital asking me if i wanted to take part in an offer to review one of their products.

I took them up on the offer of a photo book up to the value of €40. It's free, so why not.

After they approved me, i received an offer code to use on their website. The €40 covered the cost of a standard 26 page hardback book, with padded cover and delivery.

Creating your book should potentially be straight forward. Downloading their software was of course easy, and the software itself is full of templates for various designs. The designs are fairly standard. Baby, family, holiday, etc etc.

I went for a completely empty template which is where i had some issues. Photos could be easily aligned with each other on opposite pages (you know, blue lines pop up when the photos are level with each other), however, on following pages you can't line photos up to the photos on previous pages, or at least i couldn't find out how to do it.

The outside padded cover

 

Delivery was quick. I ordered Wednesday night, and the book was dispatched the following day, arriving Saturday morning.

 

All in all, a decent product. Although a little expensive, the quality is very good.

*i ordered a standard sized A4 hardback with a padded cover and matt paper.

 

 

 

 

 

On Tour in Kosovo

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May took me off on my jollies once again with my friends from Mottek. This time, the boys headed out to Kosovo to play two shows for the German military based in the country.

Flying out from Cologne, via Zurich to Pristina, we were greeted by hot sunshine (sunburn quickly followed) and ice cold beer, and lots of it! 

With a round of drinks and a pack of cigarettes coming in at under €10, our first evening was spent mainly in the bar!

Day two, and the band's equipment arrived on the scene. Stage and lighting arrived at Film City NATO base in Pristina for the bands first performance that night.

The outgoing contingent of troops received their medals that afternoon, and following that was beer, food, more beer and then showtime!

The following day, Saturday, the Bundeswehr packed and loaded the bands kit and shipped it over to the barracks in Prizren, about 80km away. Unload. Soundcheck. Repeat. Another rocking night of beer and fun!

Kosovo is an unusual place. Still rebuilding following the war there, the beautiful landscape, with snow-capped mountains, is punctuated by half built houses. Lots of them too! The motorways have zebra crossings (dangerous) which no-one really bothers to use to cross the carriageway (even more dangerous). Commerce in the country seems to revolves around three things: petrol stations, furniture stores and fake goods! Every second building is a petrol station, and it seems right next door to every one of them is a furniture store.

If you're in the market for a new Rolex, Kosovo is the place to go! You'll pick up the latest Submariner and have change from a 20!

Four flights, a great weekend, great friends, two great gigs, far too much beer! Looking forward to going back at some point in the future!! 

Check Mottek out near you! www.mottek-live.de 

Here's some pictorial evidence from the weekend!

Photostrip - Alex Clare - Live 19.02.2017, Luxor, Cologne

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Finally a fellow Englishman in the house again!

Sunday night took me back to the Luxor in Cologne to see Alex Clare in action! That guys voice is crazy good! Here's the pics! Thanks for looking!

The one that got away!

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Any photographer will know that feeling... You got the composition right, had your exposure all set hit the shutter, and walk away with the shot in the bag. Until... you get home, get the images off of your memory card to find the big shot of your shoot was off - you missed focus.

This, of course may not have been down to you - such cases usually are, but heres a case where one shot that i missed wasn't necessarily down to me!

The image below is Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day, shot on 30.01.17 in Cologne. I knew this moment was coming. Billie was already starting to sprint along the stage runway back to the stage.

My metering was set. My focus was tracking him. Locked and loaded.

His feet leave the floor. The lighting totally changes and that's it! The camera freaks out. It has a split second to decipher the new levels of contrast it's now seeing on the subject it's tracking - and in the split second that i press the shutter, focus hasn't been totally re-aquired. The microphone stand that came into the foreground may have confused things further. Shame. But these things happen. This would have been THE shot of the night. But hey, there were a bucket load of great shots!

I've come across pro's that would still use a great shot even if the focus was missed and it wasn't quite sharp. I was torn myself, but decided against it in the end.

What would you have done? Use or lose?

Let me know in the comments!