First listen of Peter Gabriel's new album, i/o at WOMAD 2023

In a darkening forest clearing, ever increasing numbers of people sit, lean, lie and generally hide from the inevitable summer downpour whilst a giant floating replica of the moon hovers over them. 

We’re at WOMAD about to listen to the world exclusive play through of Peter Gabriel’s new album. If released this year, ‘i/o’ will be Peter’s first studio album of new material in 21 years (anyone familiar with his work will know this is by no means a guarantee!). The general theme of the evening is one of connections. Nature, man, relationships, artificial intelligence and mortality all get a substantial look in and the setting only enhances these. 

If you’ve been lucky enough to see Peter on his UK and European tour already this year you’ll have heard a lot of these songs live already but that doesn’t diminish the excitement of hearing them ‘live’ from Real World studios. Opener ‘Panopticom’ was the first song released on the full moon of January 2023 and deals with the power of information. ‘We’ve got WITNESS on the ground, taking in the evidence…’ I particularly enjoy the cheery and light acoustic guitar in the chorus which offsets against the very dark and brooding verses. 

‘Playing for Time’, ‘And Still’ and ‘So Much’ (one of Peter’s best ever) all feel very personal and are beautiful reflections of lives lived and times valued. 

The title track and ‘Road to Joy’ have that certain something that ‘Secret World’ had previously where by they take on a whole other level live. 

The whole experience flies by in just over an hour and judging by the number of people lying on the wet forest floor seemingly oblivious to the falling rain, this album has done what it set out to do – connect and ground us. 

Having listened to Peter’s music since my parent’s bounced me on their knees to ‘Solisbury Hill’, I really hope ‘i/o’ gets the release and success it deserves. I count myself very lucky to have been at WOMAD today and thank PG for more great music. (and please not another 21 years!)

Written by: Louise Edis

Track listing:

1. Panopticom
2. Playing For Time
3. The Court
4. Four Kinds Of Horses
5. I/O
6. Love Can Heal
7. Road To Joy
8. So Much
9. Olive Tree
10. Home
11. And Still
12. Live And Let Live

 

Upgrading the electrics in my van

I want to start using a laptop in my van to edit images while I'm on a road trip, and that meant making some changes to the electrics in the van.  All I was using the leisure battery for was a few strips of LED lighting, and to charge my phone.

What was there was a mess, so I decided to rip it all out and start again.  The leisure battery and LED strip lights were the only things that survived the cull.

First up was a fuse box, which made life so much easier when the rewiring started.

I did also install a master on/off switch so I can quickly kill everything attached to the leisure battery when I'm not using the van for a few days.

I wanted to have some information, so I got a cheap 12v meter.  Installing it with the external shunt was a bit of a mind bender but thankfully I have a much more intelligent friend on speed dial who was able to draw me a circuit diagram that even I was able to understand.  Amazingly it worked, first bloody time at that!

I found reading difficult before as there was no way of getting quality light to where I wanted, so mostly I didn't read, and mostly just dicked about on my phone when I was bored.  Now I have no excuses as I've got a couple of really nice spot lights.

What else, I installed some switches to control the LED lights, and a USB charger / cigarette lighter socket and finally a USB PD charger which in theory will power and charge my Surface PC, although I've not quite got as far as ordering the PD to Surface cable yet so I haven't been able to test it.

Before my next trip away I'd like to upgrade the leisure battery.  The one I have no is the better part of 10 years old, so a larger capacity battery is overdue.

Grounding Strip Bus Bar - https://amzn.to/2BB2Ybd
Ausdin 12v Fuse Box - https://amzn.to/309fXdL
Suparee 12v LED Spot Reading Light - https://amzn.to/3hMGZO1
Toggle Switch Panel - https://amzn.to/39zo3iK
Dual QC3.0 Cigarette Lighter/USB Socket - https://amzn.to/39zoklM
Mictuning Digital Multimeter - https://amzn.to/3hEAfBB
PD Charger - https://amzn.to/3g7NlXD
Auto Outlet Car Battery Terminal Connectors Kit - https://amzn.to/3g44vW4

I'm including some very poorly taken mobile phone photos of everything, although if you really want to see photos, Amazon does it much better.

Cloned products - Metz Mecalight S500 vs Iwata GL-01

A little while ago I noticed the Metz Mecalight S500, liked what I saw, and wanted to research it a bit more before perhaps buying it.  At the time there wasn't much information about it, but I did discover a rather similar product, namely the Iwata GL-01, which as far as I can make out is an identical product.

At the time the Metz was selling for £120, and the Iwata £60 (at the time of writing the Metz has got cheaper, and the Iwata more expensive).

My point here is that Metz have seemingly taken someone else's product, slapped their name on it, and promptly doubled the price.

Cheeky Metz!  The benefits of having a big (ish) name that people know and trust.

Anyway, I ended up purchasing the Iwata version, and I've been very impressed.

It throws out enough light to blind most people, and you can adjust the colour temperature between 3000 and 5500 k.  It charges via USB (micro usb), and the light output is adjustable between 5% and 100% .  It's even got a tripod mount on its underside.

Oh, and its around the size of a small smart phone, so you can easily slip it into your shirt pocket and hardly notice its there.

Highly recommended - you can buy the Iwata via this Amazon link - https://amzn.to/2CZ52q8

The incredible zoom range of the Nikon P1000

The Civic Centre branch of London Camera Exchange kindly let me play with the brand new Nikon P1000 bridge camera this week.  I only had it in my hands for a couple of minutes, really just long enough to take a couple of example photos of the insane zoom range of this beast.

I call it a beast, because it is, in every sense of the word.

I should have got a side by side shot with its predecessor the Nikon P900 because the P1000 makes it look tiny in comparison.

It has a 24mm to 3000mm optical zoom, which is a staggering x125!

What did they change?  Well probably quite a bit, but the three big changes for me are...

An improved viewfinder that is now actually usable.  It was so bad on the P900 that you were mostly forced to use the flippy screen.

The zoom range has increased a whopping 1000mm, up from the 24 to 2000mm range of the P900.

The other big change is the addition of RAW, something that was very much lacking from the P900.  However like all new cameras, the software applications take a while to catch up, so the examples here are JPG's directly from the camera (I've resized and sharpened a tad).

I'd love to have longer with the beast, but they kinda wanted it back, and I didn't have a spare £1000 burning a hole in my wallet!

Anyway, two examples of the zoom range at 24mm and 3000mm.

My quick and dirty review of the Canon EOS R

When I saw that Canon UK were having a Canon EOS R touchy feely day at Beaulieu Motor Museum, and I was available, I jumped at the chance to go along to get my hands upon one of the worst kept secrets in the photographic industry.

I've been using mirrorless cameras for around 4-5 years, having originally moved from Canon to Olympus and now Fujifilm, so for me it's not been the future, but the present, and the two big players (Nikon and Canon) have been very late joining the game.

Canon seem to be all excited about the virtues of EVF (electronic viewfinder), saying how wonderful it is, how it makes your work-flow better, blah blah....   Yeh I know, and I've known for years.

One of the things I questioned a the Canon technical people about (who I have to add were all rather excellent in helping and answering questions) was the second or so delay between taking the photo, and the image preview popping up in the EVF.  While it might not sound like long, when you're used to it being practically instant, it seems like an eternity.  I thought at first the camera was just set up weirdly, but it wasn't, it is just how it is.

I picked up the Canon 20D (14 years old) I have sitting on my old camera shelf last week, and fundamentally the design hasn't changed much even with the latest Canon 5D Mark IV.  The design of that camera was so good that it was hard to improve upon.

With all that fantastic design history behind them you'd think that Canon would design that into their new R camera, but sadly it doesn't seem to work that way.

Indeed, another recent Canon design change on their DSLRs left me scratching my head wondering "why?".  To zoom into an image (while previewing) it used to be easy - top left button on the back of the camera zooms in, the button next to it zooms out - so simple to find and use, but then they changed it.  Now you have to find a button on the left, then use a scroll wheel over on the right.  Two hands, required, so much harder to do.   Why?!  Now, with the R the only way to do it (at least with the out of the box configuration) is to pinch and zoom using the touch screen.  Hardly practical on a cold windy winters day.

This review is my views on the ergonomics of the camera - I'm going to assume that like most modern cameras, the image quality is mostly bloody excellent, and very similar to other equivalent models from rival manufactures.

Missing is the PASM dial, and to change modes now you have a press a button, and twiddle a knob.

The little joystick that moves around the focus point...  Yeh, that's also missing.  It's been replaced with a touch screen that you control with your thumb to move around the focus point.  It works okay ish, but for me it's not as easy to use as a joystick and of course impossible with gloves.

They've added what they call a multi-function bar to the back of the camera.  It's a touch bar that is user configurable to many different things.  I wasn't convinced when I saw it in photos, and yeh, I'm still not convinced.  Give me a push button scroll wheel that I can use with gloves any day...

The control dials don't seem to sit as well as once they had.

Some of my issues on the day were undoubtedly user error, made worst by the fact that every camera I picked up was configured slightly differently, and limited time to play, trying to get the settings back how I liked made things tricky indeed.

RAW support is non-existent as far as I can tell at the moment, with the public version of Digital Photo Professional not yet supporting the .CR3 files.  That'll change soon though of course.

I wish I could have had longer with the camera, but it being a group event, meant having to hand the camera over to the next person fairly quickly.

For me, one of the main factors of switching from a full size DSLR to a mirrorless camera was the reduction of size and weight, which in turn makes the camera more enjoyable to use.  A full frame mirrorless camera essentially does away with that - the bodies might be a tad smaller, but the lenses are nigh on as big and bulky as their traditional counterparts.  Yeh I know full frame will give a better quality of image, especially when pushed to extremes, but is it good enough to justify paying double the cost for the equipment?   Not for me.

Price wise, while I suppose it's comparable, but it's also bloody expensive.   The RRP for the body is £2349, with the 24-105mm lens at around £1199, the 50mm f1.2 lens at £2349, and the 28-70mm f2 lens a staggering £3049!





The images below are all JPGs straight out of the camera (asides from resizing and a bit of sharpening).  Normally I'd tweak my images a tad, but not having access to the RAW files it seemed better to post SOOC files instead.

And below a few out of camera JPGs that I did tweak...   For info the praying mantis was shot at 12,800 iso.

The Jimmy Sommerville Group Photo

It might have been the fifth year in a row of photographing Rewind south, but when I arrived at on Saturday morning I didn't even have a confirmed photo pass, but by the time I left I'd been asked to stand on the house bands drum riser to take a group photo of at the end of Jimmy Sommerville's set of everyone who'd performed with him.

Now I don't normally get nervous when I'm behind a camera, but I don't mind saying that I was shitting it a bit.  Not because of the 15,000 people out front but because I really didn't want to bugger it up.

To make things just a bit more pressured, I had two people telling me that there was no time to take the photo (they wanted to get the stage ready for the headliners OMD).  In the end I think the line up was there for under 10 seconds. It wasn't until getting home and looking at the photo that I even saw who was in the line up... Jimmy!  All I saw at the time was a row of people.

Oh, and my lens wasn't quite wide enough (it was all I had with me), and I couldn't see through the viewfinder (camera held high over my head to avoid getting the drum kit in the photo!).

I'd tipped off a friend in the audience to what was happening, and he (thanks Tim!) was able to get this fantastic photo of the photo!

A very big thank you to Lily and Tony for making this weekend possible for me.  I hope to work with you both again sometime soon.

Visiting Chernobyl Again

It's been over 4 years since my first visit into the Chernobyl zone.  I've now visited 8 times, and although time stands still for most of the zone, some things have changed and not for the better.

When we arrived at the gates to the 30km check point on my most recent trip, there were probably 15 tour buses waiting to enter.  I know it gets busier than this, but it was the busiest I'd seen it.  This was the first, of many, times that having a private tour booked was a huge advantage.  Despite being one of the last groups to arrive, we were one of the first to go through.  Why?  Because our guide knows how the minds of the guards work, and how to bend the rules just a little.

So what has changed for the worst?

I remember how I felt when I first saw the entrance into the zone.  It looked mysterious, very Soviet, and a bit "what the fork are we doing here".  It was exactly how you wanted the entrance to a forbidden area to look, complete with slightly scary signs.

Sadly those signs have long since vanished and they've been replaced by a bright yellow hut selling tacky tourist souvenirs.  Now don't get wrong here, over the trips I've bought a bunch of tacky souvenirs, mostly from the stalls along Andriivs'kyi descent in Kyiv, but there's a time and a place for tourist tact, and for me, it's not at the entrance to the zone.

Thankfully as soon as you turn your back and start walking through the check point the Soviet era returns and then the robotic and emotionless guard checks your passport against his list, normal services are resumed and you're in the zone.

You might think that all of those buses, perhaps 200-300 people would be a problem, you'd be bumping into them throughout the day.  Again, this is where having a private tour is a huge advantage as you can avoid the "beepers" for most of the time.

Beepers was the name we gave to the normal tourist groups because they have the threshold alarm on their dosimeters set so low that it beeps (annoyingly) for the majority of the day.  Ours still beeped, but only when held close to a hot spot, or when driving through the Red Forest.

Most of the beepers were on day tours, meaning they'd be out of the zone by 5pm and back in Kyiv by 7pm, which I guess works for a certain kind of people who just want to get a few selfies to throw up on Instagram.

Other than mealtimes at the Chernobyl canteen, and back at the Chernobyl Hotel we really didn't see any of the big groups, which of course made the whole experience so much better.

I want to be a tour photographer

Through my music photography I've already found myself in places I never thought I'd be privileged to be in.   I've been on stage with the likes of Rick Astley, Tony Hadley, Midge Ure, and I've photographed one of my favourite bands - Afro Celt Sound System more times than I can remember.

I want to be a tour photographer. 

There, I said it.  Being in a position to photograph bands on stage performing is huge, and I love it, but I also want to capture those backstage, behind the scenes candid moments, like this photo of Leo Sayer ironing his own shirt before going on stage.

When I am privileged to be behind the scenes, I respect the privacy of the artist  and don't take photos, and yes, I asked Leo before taking this photo (fully expecting him to say no!).

But I'd like to be capturing everything, warts and all, from the glamour of headlining to 1000's of people under the lights, to the energy draining travel between gigs.

At the bigger events and festivals, unless you're known to the artist, it's normally first three songs and you're out.  I get it, the artists want photos of them looking their best, before they get sweaty, and the paying audience really don't deserve a horde of photographers annoying them for the whole gig.   In reality this means you get around 15 minutes, which for any half decent photographer should be plenty long enough.

Sometimes though, at the more theatrical gigs, the artist does stuff differently - take Peter Gabriel as an example (because I've seen him more times than anyone else).   During his "Growing Up" tour, he'd hang upside down, bounce around the stage in a zorb ball, cycle around the stage, wear a coat made of light bulbs, none of which happened during the first three songs.   During his last tour (Back to Front) he performed the first three songs with the house lights still on.

With the tough economics of music, it's probably only the bigger name acts that could afford the luxury of a full time tour photographer. 

Tom Bailey, pictured below, taken from the sound desk at a recent concert.

I'll end with a photo of Morton Harket from A-ha, just because....

Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum

We were in the neighbourhood, with a few hours to kill on a particularly hot and stuffy day in early May.   What should we do?   I know, we'll go and visit Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.

I mean, what's not to like?  An aircraft carrier, moored up in one of the greatest cities in the world, with fighter jets, a Concorde, and a Space Shuttle. 

I'll start with the best bit, and I've always said its people that make things like this, and a few minutes chatting to a long retired Navy guy who was sitting in the bridge was by far the best part.  Indeed the rest of the time any kind of "crew" were in very short supply, with pretty much no-one outside of the ticket office and gift shops available to ask questions to.

The selling point of any aircraft carrier is always going to be the flight deck, and the front part was good, with fighter jets on display on either side, however, when walking towards the back of the ship, the presentation of things all started to go a bit wrong.  First up was a huge shed where they were renovating another plane, and then behind that, a huge warehouse construction ( that contained the Space Shuttle Enterprise) covering the back third of the deck.  So you were never really able to see the scale of the carrier, which was a shame.

Oh, and it turns out the "space" Shuttle on exhibit hadn't even been into space, it was just the PR version.   Colour me rather unimpressed. 

The flight deck, running nearly the whole length of the ship, was much better laid out.

A British Airways Concorde, which should really have been positioned on the flight deck in prime position, was poorly displayed on the dock alongside the ship.  Little thought seemingly given to its presentation, with a scattering of cheap tables and chairs underneath.

If entry had been free, I'd still have been a bit "meh", but as it was a really rather hefty $33 per person, a simple "meh" doesn't even begin to cover it.

Anyway, here's a few photos - all taken with the Sony RX100 IV.   I didn't feel hugely inspired.