Wednesday, May 23, 2007

The EEgos

The EEgos are the hottest new band of the moment in Portland, Oregon. Due to the fact that their guitarist, Dave:

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is one of my oldest friends, I was granted unprecedented access to photograph an invite-only show a few weeks ago.

It was extremely dark where they were playing, so I was forced to shoot at ISO 1600 and I illuminated the shots with my SB-800 held in my left hand. If you're not already aware, the D200's built-in flash can control the SB-800 wirelessly and without the use of an extra slave. I simply changed a few settings on the flash and camera, set the strobe to slow-sync (dialing it down one stop, if I remember correctly) and fired away. I really like this effect, which freezes certain elements of the frame, but also suggests motion and action. And the fact that the light is coming from an angle makes the lighting that much more attractive.

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The backstage party, as you can imagine, was totally insane, and I had to use my connections to bail Dave and five underage groupies out from a local jail.

Friday, May 18, 2007

Derby: AIK vs. Hammarby

While in Stockholm I went to a couple soccer matches, including a derby between two Stockholm teams, AIK and Hammarby. My friends are hardcore AIK supporters, which gave me the idea to photograph the fan activity at an important match.

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Lining up for the game outside Råsunda Stadium. The alcohol-related mess is indicative of the mood of much of the match

At the beginning of the match I stood in "knacken", the area reserved for the more hardcore AIK supporters.

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Ultra-wide view from above

But the point of going was to photograph fans, so after a while I moved down to ground level.

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Most interesting was the the fence directly behind the goal that, too my surprise, fans were more or less allowed to climb and stand on.

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Rousing the fans

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Security guards

AIK scored first.

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and eventually won the match.

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Afterwards, those standing in gnaget had to wait an extra 20 minutes before being released as to avoid any confrontations with Hammarby supporters.

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Leaving the stadium

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