British India, Amplifier

British India seem to be more popular on the West Coast than anywhere else, and two nights of a packed house at Amplifier showed that the trend was continuing. I’d bought a ticket to see them last time they toured, but didn’t actually stick around to see them play. With all the media frenzy and hype surrounding the band, I thought it was worth my while to finally see what I’d missed out on.

 

First point, really really bad lighting. I got 90% of my useable stuff in the first couple of songs, snatched in the split seconds where front lighting was actually offered up. Other than that, the big flashing white lights behind the band were the only sources of light, and I spent far more time squinting against them than taking photos.

The band themselves weren’t too bad from memory. I was concentrating 110% on getting my shots, so I wasn’t paying a huge amount of attention to the musical aspect. They were a super energetic band, which under normal conditions would have been great. 

I shot RAW for this one again, and wasn’t overly stoked. I much preferred the saturation of the low-quality JPGs I shot alongside. I guess I’m just so used to how my shots look in JPG that it’s going to take a while for me to adapt, or to redevelop my style of shooting and processing.

At the end of the night, and all during the shoot, the overwhelming feeling was that it all just felt very very hard. I haven’t been enjoying taking photos for a little while now. I’ve always been driven by the hunger to nail a killer shot, and if it faded a little, all I needed to do was take a week or so off, and I’d be chomping at the bit to get back out there. It just hasn’t been that way this time.

When I went through the photos the next day, I genuinely struggled to pick out a couple to send through to the paper. I’ve always been my own toughest critic, which is pretty good for quality control, but the pressure is starting to feel crushing, and it would be silly to drop my standards as a solution. So I made a decision. No more gigs for the time being, future plans are to do about a gig a month, and see how I go. Working hard for no pay is quite draining, especially after two years of doing it, so I need some time off to rediscover WHY I loved it in the first place. The next planned show is Panic at the Disco, about a month away. My 5D Kensei and I are now officially ‘on a break’, and we’ll be teaming up again at the end of August.

So I guess I’m saying in as many words, don’t expect an update for a while! Haha.