Last night, I went to a session in the main tourist drag of Edinburgh. It was the first time since January as I'm usually busy most of the year on a Wednesday.
Of course, all the tourists have now arrived and I (we) must have had our photographs taken hundreds of times last night. I was tempted to take my glasses off for a better picture but was too busy playing.
Anyway, how do you all feel about getting yer photie taken at a session? Does it happen much where you are?
Absolutely dog sick of getting photographed at the sessions.
I particularily love it when you are ready to change into another tune and then all the flashing starts. It can be very off putting you know, not to mention the fact that playing flute isnt conducive to producing a pleasant visage. It just looks as though I'm gurning. Ugh!
The tourists in Belfast mostly travel in tours round the bars, they enter the bar a regular intervals, 20 people all looking out of their depth and drinking half pints of guiness. We can always tell if you are a terrorist (tourist) by the fact that you drink a half pint of black, we always drink pints, and you have a camera in your hand and a glazed confused look on your face!
I thought all you guys here played with your eyes shut, for that - 'I'm so into this' - effect, so how the heck would you know if yer photo was bein' took?
But seriously, it can be a real atmo killer, but something, sadly, I think you just have to put up with during July & August.
Worst was for me was one night, the whole session was suddenly bathed in this huge .. GLOW .. as a video guy switched on this big lamp to get a better shot of us.
If someone like that destroys your atmo, why not stop playing, swop instruments, saying - "Oh sorry, we were just mucking about there, we didn't know you were filming, here, please take that film again" - & of course sound absolutely fecking horrendous as you all scratch & toot into & onto, strange instruments - but you must keep a straight face while doing it!
ha ha, being the poser/attention seeker that I am, I feel the complete opposite
I usually tend to look up and make a grumpy face if I get photographed unexpectedly and enjoy the reaction before laughing my ass off, or if I see someone getting ready to take a pic I usually pull some silly face.
What annoys me is when I give them my email address to send on the pics and they don't even bother ...
Hm, I always find it rather funny - except for the moments when they flash me in the eyes without warning. Otherwise, it's not my business, so why should I bother getting nervous? And these guys sometimes even pay for me drinks, so agreeing to be photographed is the least I could do for them.
C'mon, let them tourists have their enjoyment. I've read somewhere that this old belief that photo cameras are stealing our souls, is actually obsolete.
a few years ago i was having my locks shorn at the barber in greenwich when a group of about 15 japanese tourists appeared in the doorway and asked if they could take photographs.
as for sessions,snaps don't bother me as someone sticking a camcorder in yr face without having the manners to introduce themselves.
on the other hand i will do practically anything for a pint...
Och, who cares? Take a picture of me any time, what's the big deal? It's only a modified form of *seeing*. If ye get a pint out of it even better. As my job has lot to do with microscopic image acquisiton, where I am constantly imaging the microscopic world, I guess I owe the world a few images back. Shame they have to be of me, though.....
As long as the prints aren't delivered to me later in a plain brown envelope with instructions on where to send the blackmail money, I don't mind being photographed.
Although photographers always seem to catch you at the wrong moment--not when you are looking all flashy and on top of things. It's like when you are watching a baseball game on TV, and the camera zooms in on a baserunner taking a lead toward the next base, who unwittingly decides that it is a good time to scratch his crotch......
Four of us were playing open air tother evening on one of those bandstand type yolks, in a kind of an amphitheatre with stone steps for seats in front of us.
It was a beautiful evening & we had a nice friendly wee crowd in front of us when this group from some local church on some kind of a photographic game, just walked right up to us & asked if they could take a photo of us with our 'guitar'. When we explained that a Mandolin is not a Guitar they didn't seem to mind & just said it was close enough.
People seem to regard their camera as some kind of a weapon and see it as giving them some extra leverage & power when dealing with other people.
Maybe, one day, someone will even design a camera that looks like a Colt 44!
Our session was invaded by a visiting choir the other night. They'd been singing at a local arts festival. They were a great bunch and very appreciative of the music, but one in particular was a bit of a nuisance with a flash camera, leaning over people to get really close close-ups, without asking or apologising. I wonder what his reaction would have been if someone had stuck a camera right in his face during one of his choir's recitals.
In the sessions I go to in Bristol, photos, if any, are usually taken by session members for distribution within the session.
Last Monday at The Lion was an exception. We had an unexpected influx of 30-40 Spanish tourists on a cultural exchange. Incredibly nice people and flash cameras and the occasionally video were popping frequently, but nobody minded. Our session leader welcomed and talked to them in Spanish; our best singer (a powerful tenor) surprised us by explaining to the visitors in fluent Spanish the Irish songs he was about to sing, and capped it all by later on singing a flamenco song in Spanish. One of our fiddlers also sang a Spanish song, one of the Spaniards borrowed a guitar and played us some flamenco, and then they all sang us a couple of Spanish songs. A wonderful evening to remember!
I have asked and shown someone how to take reasonable pictures with the flash turned down and off. As one of the unconfident at sessions, I find the flash really disturbing. With digital cameras it is possible to take a photo in near darkness without a flash.
Ooops. I took some photos at the last session for a website I did for the group. It didn't even occur to me that it would bother anyone. I just thought everyone would like to see the themselves on the web. I will be more considerate in the future. I learn so much here.
OK its not about taking photographs. Its about HOW you take them. It is possible to take photos discreetly and without a flash. There is no need to act like an idiot by annoying and/or startling people.
A couple of years ago I filmed a pub session in Bristol with an analog Sony Hi8 camera. No add-on lighting was necessary; in fact the camera light sensitivity was good enough to give the impression that the light levels in the pub were far better than they actually seemed.
Now I come to think of it, if I can lay my hands on that old tape I might (just might, mind you) put edited extracts of that session on YouTube for your amusement and delectation
That video I mentioned 4 posts ago; I've uploaded to YouTube the final tune played on the flute as we were packing up our instruments at the end of a session in The Plume of Feathers in Bristol last year.
The YouTube link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbrQKGfN2aM
It was video'd using an analog Hi8 camera in the pub's low level of ambient lighting at closing time, which probably goes to explains the slight graininess and soft focus, and may not have been helped by whatever YouTube do to videos to get them down to a size suitable for streaming.
Unfortunately, I now longer have the original tape (I must have needed it for something else). I made the YouTube upload from a lower quality mpeg copy I found on my computer.
No Photographs ..Revisited
No Photographs ..Revisited
Last night, I went to a session in the main tourist drag of Edinburgh. It was the first time since January as I'm usually busy most of the year on a Wednesday.
but was too busy playing.
Of course, all the tourists have now arrived and I (we) must have had our photographs taken hundreds of times last night. I was tempted to take my glasses off for a better picture
Anyway, how do you all feel about getting yer photie taken at a session? Does it happen much where you are?
See previous thread
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/4165
# Posted on July 13th 2006 by Johannes J
Re: No Photographs ..Revisited
Absolutely dog sick of getting photographed at the sessions.
I particularily love it when you are ready to change into another tune and then all the flashing starts. It can be very off putting you know, not to mention the fact that playing flute isnt conducive to producing a pleasant visage. It just looks as though I'm gurning. Ugh!
The tourists in Belfast mostly travel in tours round the bars, they enter the bar a regular intervals, 20 people all looking out of their depth and drinking half pints of guiness. We can always tell if you are a terrorist (tourist) by the fact that you drink a half pint of black, we always drink pints, and you have a camera in your hand and a glazed confused look on your face!
# Posted on July 13th 2006 by blas
Re: No Photographs ..Revisited
I play a light brown chesnut flute so it stands out. So I get a quite a few pics taken when playing
Feel like a caged animal or a goldfish sometimes. Don't really like the flash cameras.
# Posted on July 13th 2006 by flauta dolce
Re: No Photographs ..Revisited
I thought all you guys here played with your eyes shut, for that - 'I'm so into this' - effect, so how the heck would you know if yer photo was bein' took?
But seriously, it can be a real atmo killer, but something, sadly, I think you just have to put up with during July & August.
Worst was for me was one night, the whole session was suddenly bathed in this huge .. GLOW .. as a video guy switched on this big lamp to get a better shot of us.
If someone like that destroys your atmo, why not stop playing, swop instruments, saying - "Oh sorry, we were just mucking about there, we didn't know you were filming, here, please take that film again" - & of course sound absolutely fecking horrendous as you all scratch & toot into & onto, strange instruments - but you must keep a straight face while doing it!
# Posted on July 13th 2006 by Ptarmigan
Re: No Photographs ..Revisited
ha ha, being the poser/attention seeker that I am, I feel the complete opposite
I usually tend to look up and make a grumpy face if I get photographed unexpectedly and enjoy the reaction before laughing my ass off, or if I see someone getting ready to take a pic I usually pull some silly face.
What annoys me is when I give them my email address to send on the pics and they don't even bother ...
# Posted on July 13th 2006 by Jonathan Roche
Re: No Photographs ..Revisited
Hm, I always find it rather funny - except for the moments when they flash me in the eyes without warning. Otherwise, it's not my business, so why should I bother getting nervous? And these guys sometimes even pay for me drinks, so agreeing to be photographed is the least I could do for them.
C'mon, let them tourists have their enjoyment. I've read somewhere that this old belief that photo cameras are stealing our souls, is actually obsolete.
# Posted on July 13th 2006 by EastPole
Re: No Photographs ..Revisited
people will snap anything.
a few years ago i was having my locks shorn at the barber in greenwich when a group of about 15 japanese tourists appeared in the doorway and asked if they could take photographs.
as for sessions,snaps don't bother me as someone sticking a camcorder in yr face without having the manners to introduce themselves.
on the other hand i will do practically anything for a pint...
# Posted on July 13th 2006 by biggus dave
Re: No Photographs ..Revisited
Och, who cares? Take a picture of me any time, what's the big deal? It's only a modified form of *seeing*. If ye get a pint out of it even better. As my job has lot to do with microscopic image acquisiton, where I am constantly imaging the microscopic world, I guess I owe the world a few images back. Shame they have to be of me, though.....
# Posted on July 13th 2006 by Alf Tupper
Re: No Photographs ..Revisited
As long as the prints aren't delivered to me later in a plain brown envelope with instructions on where to send the blackmail money, I don't mind being photographed.
Although photographers always seem to catch you at the wrong moment--not when you are looking all flashy and on top of things. It's like when you are watching a baseball game on TV, and the camera zooms in on a baserunner taking a lead toward the next base, who unwittingly decides that it is a good time to scratch his crotch......
# Posted on July 13th 2006 by AlBrown
Re: No Photographs ..Revisited
Four of us were playing open air tother evening on one of those bandstand type yolks, in a kind of an amphitheatre with stone steps for seats in front of us.
It was a beautiful evening & we had a nice friendly wee crowd in front of us when this group from some local church on some kind of a photographic game, just walked right up to us & asked if they could take a photo of us with our 'guitar'. When we explained that a Mandolin is not a Guitar they didn't seem to mind & just said it was close enough.
People seem to regard their camera as some kind of a weapon and see it as giving them some extra leverage & power when dealing with other people.
Maybe, one day, someone will even design a camera that looks like a Colt 44!
# Posted on July 13th 2006 by Ptarmigan
Re: No Photographs ..Revisited
Silly me, of course they already have 'Gun Cameras':
http://www.rocketryphotography.com/moviecameras/MovieCamerasN9Guncamera.html
# Posted on July 13th 2006 by Ptarmigan
Re: No Photographs ..Revisited
Our session was invaded by a visiting choir the other night. They'd been singing at a local arts festival. They were a great bunch and very appreciative of the music, but one in particular was a bit of a nuisance with a flash camera, leaning over people to get really close close-ups, without asking or apologising. I wonder what his reaction would have been if someone had stuck a camera right in his face during one of his choir's recitals.
# Posted on July 13th 2006 by millionyears_bc
Re: No Photographs ..Revisited
Go on millionyears_bc, I dare you!
# Posted on July 13th 2006 by Ptarmigan
Re: No Photographs ..Revisited
In the sessions I go to in Bristol, photos, if any, are usually taken by session members for distribution within the session.
Last Monday at The Lion was an exception. We had an unexpected influx of 30-40 Spanish tourists on a cultural exchange. Incredibly nice people and flash cameras and the occasionally video were popping frequently, but nobody minded. Our session leader welcomed and talked to them in Spanish; our best singer (a powerful tenor) surprised us by explaining to the visitors in fluent Spanish the Irish songs he was about to sing, and capped it all by later on singing a flamenco song in Spanish. One of our fiddlers also sang a Spanish song, one of the Spaniards borrowed a guitar and played us some flamenco, and then they all sang us a couple of Spanish songs. A wonderful evening to remember!
# Posted on July 13th 2006 by lazyhound
Re: No Photographs ..Revisited
I have asked and shown someone how to take reasonable pictures with the flash turned down and off. As one of the unconfident at sessions, I find the flash really disturbing. With digital cameras it is possible to take a photo in near darkness without a flash.
# Posted on July 14th 2006 by Joze
Re: No Photographs ..Revisited
>>With digital cameras it is possible to take a photo in near >>darkness without a flash.
What camera are you using? I want one!
# Posted on July 14th 2006 by bretton
Re: No Photographs ..Revisited
you lucky lucky bxxsratds. No one has ever taken a phot of me
# Posted on July 14th 2006 by gedpipes
Re: No Photographs ..Revisited
Well, you play the Northumbrian Pipes Ged, need I say more!
# Posted on July 14th 2006 by Ptarmigan
Re: No Photographs ..Revisited
I use a canon IS S1 most people who have digital cameras use about as many features on it as they do brain power. IE sweet FA.
If you have one experiment, go night shooting and see what you can get using different features focal length and aperture speeds.
# Posted on July 14th 2006 by Joze
Re: No Photographs ..Revisited
Ooops. I took some photos at the last session for a website I did for the group. It didn't even occur to me that it would bother anyone. I just thought everyone would like to see the themselves on the web. I will be more considerate in the future. I learn so much here.
# Posted on July 14th 2006 by feardearg
Re: No Photographs ..Revisited
OK its not about taking photographs. Its about HOW you take them. It is possible to take photos discreetly and without a flash. There is no need to act like an idiot by annoying and/or startling people.
# Posted on July 15th 2006 by Joze
Re: No Photographs ..Revisited
Sharpen your teeth and drink blood!!!!
(Vampires don't have reflections or appear on photos - allegedly)
I have had to bollck one video-er who had a bleep on the camera. I got rid of her by getting the band to turn away when she tried to film us.
# Posted on July 15th 2006 by geoffwright
Re: No Photographs ..Revisited
A couple of years ago I filmed a pub session in Bristol with an analog Sony Hi8 camera. No add-on lighting was necessary; in fact the camera light sensitivity was good enough to give the impression that the light levels in the pub were far better than they actually seemed.
Now I come to think of it, if I can lay my hands on that old tape I might (just might, mind you) put edited extracts of that session on YouTube for your amusement and delectation
# Posted on July 16th 2006 by lazyhound
Re: No Photographs ..Revisited
I have a hi8 camera, still use it. Computer backup data tapes are much better quality than video tapes btw.
# Posted on July 16th 2006 by Joze
Re: No Photographs ..Revisited
..I use a good old (ancient) manual Pentax MX with a really really really fast film. No need for flash.
# Posted on July 16th 2006 by Lizzy
Re: No Photographs ..Revisited
That video I mentioned 4 posts ago; I've uploaded to YouTube the final tune played on the flute as we were packing up our instruments at the end of a session in The Plume of Feathers in Bristol last year.
The YouTube link is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbrQKGfN2aM
It was video'd using an analog Hi8 camera in the pub's low level of ambient lighting at closing time, which probably goes to explains the slight graininess and soft focus, and may not have been helped by whatever YouTube do to videos to get them down to a size suitable for streaming.
Unfortunately, I now longer have the original tape (I must have needed it for something else). I made the YouTube upload from a lower quality mpeg copy I found on my computer.
# Posted on July 17th 2006 by lazyhound
Re: No Photographs ..Revisited
I've now put in my Bio the links to all the ITM-related videos I've uploaded to the internet.
# Posted on July 17th 2006 by lazyhound
Re: No Photographs ..Revisited
next question - what was she playing?????
# Posted on July 17th 2006 by Joze
Re: No Photographs ..Revisited
I "think" it was a Carolan tune, but I'll have to check.
# Posted on July 18th 2006 by lazyhound