Have put a batch of Glastonbury photos up of my friends on my mates site

Glastonbury 09

There are some low light stage shots inc Blur Jarvis & some others.

I always thought there where 2 exchange rates going on for camera gear. Doesn't most gear come through Germany via Intro 2020??? So yen to euro then euro to GBP no wonder things get expensive when they eventually get here...

Or maybe I heard wrong???

Blur ones have not gone online yet, looks like the editors wife also shot Blur so used her photos instead

Yup I was there, working the photo pits again, managed to get in the Pyramid pit for Blur, probably the most exciting moment of my career so far

Finally finished editing & culling the 1500 plus photos today, some have just gone on line too
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Samsung GX20 DA* 50-135mm 2.8

First festival with the 50-135mm & it stayed on nearly all weekend too!!

I'm sorry, but if that happened to me, with a lens I sold for $4000. I think I would be paying the buyer a visit with some, ahem, large friends.

DA*17-50
DA*50-135mm
FA*70-200mm
FA35mm 2.0
F50mm 1.4

That would cover all my needs, already have 2 so just 3 to get...

I use Transcend 8gig class 6 cards. I also have some of their 4 gig cards & a Toshiba class 4 card.

Shooting a festival last month I filled my 8 gig cards & the first card I pulled in teh darkened pit was the class 4 Toshiba, haven't used this card for a whilst so formatted it & away I went. well the time it took to write to the card was rediculous, when you have just 3 songs in a pit believe me when you feel the pressure & want the fastest card you can get.

The 8 gig transcend cards are now £11.99 plus postage from 7 dayshop
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Buy a local PAYG sim card for internet access when abroad, thus avoiding the frightening bill

Been using a Toshiba Satelite Pro Dual Core Duo with 2 gig ram. However I fancied something smaller so recently bought an Advent net book atom processor upgraded the memory to 2 gig & it comes with a 160gig hard drive.

The best bit?? Well it comes with a sim card slot meaning I can put any sim card in it including PAYG & up comes internet.

Have installed Lightroom as that is all I use nowadays & it works brilliantly. 3 hours battery time out of the box, also has built in wifi, bluetooth & webcam for those times you need to chat to the other half on MSN.

£250 and then £20 for the 1 gig upgrade, works for me & it fits in my camera bag.... Bonus
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When I go around Grimsby in the winter doing my night shoots, I regurlaly get asked if I am working for the council & why am I working so late. When I tell them I am taking photos then the perception of people change & are more interested in why am I not using flash or I get drunks laughing about me taking photos without flash in the middle of the night.

I generally find light hearted banter helps & remember not everyone out there is a thief or mugger.

I did however recently cover a gig in Doncaster for an on line mag. Unfortunately the venue was tiny & had no photo pit meaning I had to lean against the speaker stack to get an uncluttered view of the stage & keep out of peoples way. 2 songs in & this guy starts shouting abuse & asking me how much I paid to get in. I tried to explain that I was working & after one more song I would be leaving. Unfortunately this did not seem good enough an answer & he preceeded to throw beer all over the front of my camera whilst I took another photo. Thankfully the security on the stage saw what was happening & promptly removed the guy by his head through the doors! Thankfully the body sealing proved perfectly adequate but for one fleeting moment I really did fear for myself & my equipment.