Jazz at the Lot: Chris Grieve Islay Quintet

[rhythmaning]

Last month, I went to see the Chris Grieve Islay Quartet at the Lot in Edinburgh. According to my sources, they played a storming gig at the Islay Jazz Festival last year (hence their name…). It was a while since I had been to a jazz gig – this was the first of the year; and I took my camera with me.

I had decided to start shooting RAW – a specific kind of digital format, akin to a negative on film. I can’t work if it had made much difference to the images, though I think the black and white pictures are deeper and richer.

Anyhow, here are some of the pictures I took – there are a lot more on flickr…. Mostly they are of Chris Grieve (trombone), Ryna Quigley (trumpet) and Phil bancroft (tenor and alto sax).

It was a great gig – Quigley and Bancroft were particularly storming.

Comments

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

Those b&w ones are FANTASTIC!

Presented together like this the colour ones look like decent photos, the b&w ones like art.

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

Black and white seems to add a bit of credibility to the pictures, I think.

But now I seem to be able to get richer blacks - which might be down to taking RAW - I shall probably be doing more portraits in black and white.

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

If that's what you mean, I don't think that it's conditioning (b&w = art), I think in these particular photos the colour is one element too many, a distraction. When you take that away, I feel as though I see the shapes and contrasts more clearly.

On the other hand, I suppose it could be that colour photos are always hampered by the familiarity factor, whereas b&w makes things unfamiliar and new.

I dunno. Either way: well done!