Working on that

So, Christmas vacation was also spent remaking the office. I just placed everything moving in and it has stayed like that ever since. Desk towards the window which resulted in headache every time I used it. No good with light right in the face.
So I moved the desk towards the wall and put the storageshelf infront of the window. Also bought myself a glass cupboard for my old cameras. Most of it I got from my dads collection though. My old film EOS 1, the Leica, chinon, box camera, super 8 with projector and everything. Lots of stuff. And nice to look at. Perhaps should take them for a spin some time? The Leica really needs a cleaning though. The really old ones I doubt I can find film in the right format though.
I also bought myself a good office chair to be able to sit comfortable. Which Peter almost stole right away after trying it out. He was good with his old one he said before I left for my shoppingspree. Not as happy with it seeing mine! :-D
I also bought a very good scanner and a new printer. And a light-table to be able to work with the negatives in a decent way. Merry Christmas to me!

Of course the cats got a fake sheep skin to sleep on too. Maddox LOVES it.

I decided it should be my inspiration room so I'm still working on the decoration. And I need to figure out a way to make the desk a little bigger, the cats flip everything over and kick the mouse and the keyboard off the table. And yes, they need to be there when they want to.

I'm really happy about it all, I enjoy working up there now and I feel good, no headache...
So hopefully this will help keep up with the Concert and Festival reports and all that. Maybe also inspire to do some editing to learn more about fotoshop, perhaps do some simple videos or so. Time is the only constraint really... Even with prioritization.

Cheers E
NP: SLEEPY HOLLOW - Tales of Gods and Monsters

Easter full moon

The moon sure is impressive tonight. Of course, completely impossible to shoot and get a decent shot so I have to settle with looking at it. 
And it sure has been good with a few extra days off now. Not that I've had much time to relax though since Friday meant Void Moon rehearsal from 9:30 in the morning... (normal bands rehearse at night and take a beer, Void Moon rehearse BEFORE breakfast on occasion...) But ok, we got to have a BBQ lunch before the guys had to leave for their easter comitments and I had the afternoon to take care of other stuff. For some reason it feels like things are taking so much more time than they used to. I never had problems to squeeze in Rehearsal, fancy dinner, photo-editing, TV watching and a party in a day but that don't happen often now.

My plan was to catch up as much as I could with photo editing since I can't open the raw-files from my new camera in Elements 7 and I can't install creative cloud on my work computer. Need to see if the little red one can handle it so I'm not locked to editing on weekends only. There's just too few of them to manage everything that shall fit. But else I'm very happy with the new camera and my new toy... Yep, I bought the Canon L 8-15mm lens... Turns out rather crazy and it's not all that useful, but it is FUN!!! Also, I tried the Sigma 10-20 but it was too slow for the price so it felt right to add a bit more cash and get the really good one.

Perhaps a 10-20 would have been more useful since it the 8mm almost takes 180 degrees, the pictures are virtually round. And I assume it is stressful for the bands as well since it focuses on 15cm away from the target and fully opened, this is what it looks like from 2-3dm away from the fist dude on stage!!! I.e. I get AWFULLY close with it... :O)

But it was quite a challenge for a while. My main lens broke during the Satan gig in Gothenburg. I got it fixed but I was out of it for Sacred Steel, Sanctuary and Up The Hammers. As a backup I had a fixed 50mm and the 8-15. A BIT of a mismacth in the middle but it turned out ok. That VERY CHEAP fixed 50mm is still very good and stable but it's hard to not have the zoom, I've always had that and I'm used to it so it becomes rather strage with a fixed lens. Also, for the EOS 50D I had 17-50mm and for the EOS 5D I have 24-70mm which made me miss the mm's up to 50 more than above. 

 
It sure would have been good with a few more days home now. I've been away a lot lately, two weeks in Dallas felt like an eternity and prior to that we went to Katowice to see Overkill and of course Up The Hammers in Greece. So these days has been really nice even ifI haven't completed what I set to do. I doubt I will manage by tomorrow but who knows, I might wake up early (fat chance, nooo) and feel inspired and start right away.

Anyway, if I can keep the speed up with writing and editing the days I'm home I will be in a good position before the new Festival season start. And I'm sure looking forward to it. I got a report yesterday saying Exciter kicked ass at Defenders of the Old Festival. I'm really looking forward to see them at KIT together with Uli Jon Roth, Riot V and more... Great line-up as always. But first we're off to Ireland!

Cheers
E

NP: Riot V - Unleash the Fire

I know how men feel now...

Because I think I caught a man-cold... I feel very miserable and frustrated, sneezing and coughing like crazy. Also, I was stupid enough to not listen to Peter on Monday morning so I actually drove to work and now I'm stuck in my shoebox flat in Borås. No records and nothing in the freezer. And worst of all NO COFFEE in the morning... (The Horror)
Even if I'm not well I've decided to take a few meetings over phone for work, mainly because it's easier to live with that than to rebook all other busy people in the near future. 
But without coffee in the morning I felt like this;

(yes, I stole it from internet...)

Lucky for my colleagues they weren't close before I could go out and shop for a cup of coffee I tell you...

 

I've boosted up for tomorrow though to not have to go through the same thing again.

 

Anyway, I'm not completely out of Metal here even if the selection is very limited to what I brought to listen to in the car. New The Haunted, sounds amazing, disappears a bit in the middle though, songs just becomes a big mash but beginning and end of the record is kick-ass. Also, I think it needs more than 2 spins to settle so I shouldn't say to much about it yet. Same thing goes for Entombed A.D. and Wolf, that I shouldn't say too much but both sounds amazing and will easily make it to the selection for album of the year (the pile for that should be extensive this year and there's so much more to come).

 

Else I'm working hard on catching up. My new computer is installed at home with a new monitor and the Photoshop CC as well as Lightroom 5 handles .raw files from both my cameras. And damn there's a difference. 

 

Deep Machine from Keep It True with my old camera;

And Kansas from Gothenburg with the new one;

Perhaps not the best way of checking to add pictures adjusted for web to compare but the feeling with the new camera is so good. Also, to be able to push the ISO has showed to be very efficient for concerts to get faster shutter-speed and increase the sharpness in the picture. And no, the grain is not that huge pushing it as it was with my old camera. So of course the EOS 5D MkIII wins but I really like the EOS 50D still, the built in flash comes in handy still, since it is very dark in smaller clubs and flash is a necessity to get any pictures at all. Now, to complete my wishlist is to get a real fish-eye lens. Have my eyes on a Canon L 8-16 which can't fail but the guy at Rajala Photo really recommended the Sigma 10-20 also as a very good one and more usable (Peter still looked a bit bothered when I tried it out in the store though, camera was a bit too close to his face to be ok...) Price is half off on the Sigma compared to Canon so the main question is if I want the lens NOW or I can wait for next years Festival season and save some money and buy the Canon...

I really want this week to be over now, first because I hope that my cold will be gone to the weekend. Also that we have a Void Moon rehearsal planned. Dutch Doom Days are coming closer so we really need to get in shape NOW! Also, one big package from Pure Steel (Project Terror and more) and from TPL should have arrived until then!!!  

Now I'll go back to self-pity here!!

Cheers
E

NP: Serpent Venom - Of things Seen & Unseen

 

 

Upgrading a bit

Yes! I've finally come to the point to start using my EOS 5D MkIII now. Have just been playing with it up until now but tonight I'll bring it on a real mission. Sebastian Bach @ Sticky Fingers in Gbg.
I still don't have the right program to handle the raw files, but hopefully I will be able to fix that during the coming weekend!

Also bought a new bag for the camera yesterday. Lowepro Sport something... I like the old one but it wasn't designed for cameras and squeezing down lenses and camera sure tore on them. Hopefully this new won't do that as much!

Else vacation mode starts to set. I still have things to take care of before I can call it a day but it feels like I'll manage most things before Friday and that's good.

Looking forward to a few cold ones now!

Cheers
E

But life goes on

I really want summer now!!! Everything feels so gloomy and dark right now, for several reason. But the weather, it's depressing. Let the snow stay or come summer!
The good thing with winter, and travel is that I get time and peace to read. Sure, the books get old before I get my butt around to pick them up but that's the good thing with books, especially band bio's and such, they keep actual regardless if they're laying around for years before I pick them up or not.

Most recent book was Blod, Eld, Död (Blood Fire Death) a Swedish Metal History. Very interesting I'd say, cool views in many aspects of Development of Brutal music in my dark corners of the world. The difference between this book and the ones I've mainly been reading is that I've lived through the development of Death Metal and Black Metal, tape trading, fanzines and so. Nostalgic for sure. And very interesting reading. 

A full review will be up on Metal Kaoz in a while!

And since I was in the middle of a travel when finishing the book, I had to get something more to read. I was looking in the pocketshop at first but decided to go for the latest issue of Terrorizer instead. Not very surprising choice, but the fun thing was on the plane, the man next to me looked VERY surprised when he saw the title of the book. Finishing that one and picking up Terrorizer instead, well, he moved towards the guy sitting next to him on the other side instead... 

So back home I needed to choose a new book to read, I've bought a lot lately and are not reading in the same pace as I buy them! So I better at least keep a steady pace.
My choice this time was Kiss - En osminkad historia (an unmasked history), by Sweden Rock Mag Carl Linnaeus. I've just gotten through the first 1½ chapter yet but it sure seems promising, good language this far at least!

Both books are in Swedish though, have no clue if they're available in any other language yet... 
But while I'm at it, one more book well worth reading, despite if you like the band or not is The Legend of Hammerfall, amusing, well-written and to the level of detail you really want to have in a band Bio... Also just in Swedish though.

Next up should be Iced Earth concerts in Copenhagen and Gothenburg... I'm really looking forward to some Metal Gigs now... I can't start playing with my new camera yet though, seems like the Camera Raw isn't compatible with PSE7, need PSE10 at least... And I suppose PSE10 won't support Raw-files from my old camera, my computers SURELY can't take both versions of PSE so I assume I need a new computer too! Anyone who has any experience here and can help out? What do I need to support one Canon EOS 50D and one Canon EOS 5D MkIII? Gonna be good when everything is in place though.

Cheers
E

NP: ICED EARTH - Plagues of Babylon

 

 

Shot in the dark

Well, I've had my eyes on it for a while now, been reading a bit and checking comments. And it seems that everyone is all happy with it. I'm talking about the Canon EOS 5D MkIII with a Tamron 24-70 2,8 to go with it. In most cases I'm really happy with my 50D and the 17-50 lens but there's so much difference between the 70-200 and 17-50, it never gets as clear with the 17-50 as it does with the bigger one. The downside is of course that it needs to be BIG concerts to be able to use the big one. I want the tight, close and fast pics to be as clear and sharp as well. Apparently the 24-70 should be. Also, to get to higher ISO than 2000 makes the pictures very grainy, arty it becomes but that's not what I want.
So yes, I've ordered it... Went to talk to a really nice salesman at MediaMarkt and he promised to get back with delivery date and more info today, which he didn't. Gonna call back tomorrow to check it.

I think the combination will be very good, I do think I will miss the last few steps towards fisheye. Especially at smaller concerts... Of course, there are lenses available for a full format camera as well, rather expensive though.

I hope the performance on higher ISO will be as much better as the reviews and information describes, if so, this will be awesome. And I can't wait until I get the chance to try it out (yeah, yeah, I know, I need to get it first...) on a concert and see if it is as good as they say.

Got some things coming up so I will have opportunities to shoot!

Cheers
E
NP: SLAUTER XTROYES - Winterkill