Accidental Photography

I can't say that I have ever made a mistake that has led me into a new direction. But I have made plenty of mistakes. Just this week I was sent to photograph a gig in Cardiff in a big venue that I have never shot in before. I was anxious about the fact it was a big venue, plus that it was new and we were marched into the photo pit as the band took to the stage. There was no time to adjust lenses or camera settings to the situation, I had no idea what the lighting would be like although I assumed (correctly) that it would be much better than the small venues and pubs that I am used to shooting in. But in my anxious and nervous state, and with the haste of being rushed in at the last minute without being able to adjust, I made the most rookie mistake. I waltzed in with my 18 - 105mm 3.5 - 5.6 lens, thinking it would be fine in that lighting. The first band were on stage, I had set my aperture wide open, my white balance to auto and with aperture priority and Continuous High setting and in amongst other photographers I raised my camera, pressed the shutter and 'cliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick'! I tried again. 'cliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick'! I carried on the façade as I didn't want to look stupid in front of everyone, But in that moment of panic I couldn't figure out why the shutter speed was so slow! And then all of a sudden the first three songs were over and were were being chaperoned out of the photo pit to await the next band. I was in a panic. I didn't know what I had done wrong. I even changed the lens down to a 50mm 1.8 prime lens thinking that the lighting wasn't as good as I thought. I lined back up ready for the next band, looked down at my camera worrying that I wasn't going to get any good shots of this gig and then I saw three little letters....I.S.O. And then the wave of stupidity hit me! I had charged my battery, formatted my cards, organised my lenses, amended all the camera settings.....except the ISO!!! How could I have missed that one?! Needless to say the rest of the gig went swimmingly and despite losing photos of the first band, the only damage was to my ego. The photos below are the best of the worst of that first band.

Photo by Amanda Callow 

Photo by Amanda Callow

Photo by Amanda Callow 

Photo by Amanda Callow

Photo by Amanda Callow

As you can see, these photos are in no way useable for the coverage for the website although I'm sure one could possibly use shots like this to make alternative art in gig photography, especially the last one. I even submitted some photos like this in Assignment one where the light takes precedent over the subject (which most of the time are mistakes) but that is as far as I have currently taken it. I could possibly use all these images to make a collection one day but not as yet. I guess this takes into account the work of Paul Graham, that we have been shown in the course notes, and evidently I have looked at my own mistakes and how they could be used to produce something else, however I'm not too sure they would be more exciting.