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Keynestock 2009

gloda — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 14:08:47 +0000

[Note: also check out photos from Keynestock 2008 and Keynestock 2007.]
Keynestock has by now become part of my yearly routine at the University of Kent and it’s become one of the defining events of the summer term for me. The Keynes Student Committee once again organized a well-rounded mini-festival with a great atmosphere. My personal favourites of the day were Andy Jeffs and Inertia. At every Keynestock a judges panel determines an overall winner who can then go on to play at Artsfest (which will be on the 13th June here at the UKC) and become the lead act for Keynestock the following year. The winners this time were Bardo Thodol, followed by Harvey Hyde & the Hecklers and Corduroy Fashion Threat. For some reactions to the judges’ decision head over and read the comments in the inQuireLive review.
Also check out the video from Keynestock 2009 on the University of Kent youtube channel:

Here’s the lineup of this year’s event. If you want to have a link to your bands website included drop me a message.
2pm – Budgie & Durex (Kent Factor 2009 winners)
2.30 – Kieran McGrath
3 – Andy Jeffs
3.30 – Firefly
4 – Bardo Thodol
4.30 – Harvey Hyde & the Hecklers
5 – Corduroy Fashion Threat
5.30 – Joel Williamson
6 – TECH BREAK – with music from Kent Tech
6.30 – History of The Trade
7 – Katy & the Thundercats
7.30 – Inertia
8 – Arundhati Riff
8.30 – Black Sun Down
9 – The Legacy
9.30 – Half A Crown (Keynestock 2008 winners)

Similar stuff: Keynestock 2010, Keynestock 2008, Artsfest 2009

Canterbury photolocations

gloda — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 18:14:49 +0000

One of the last meetings I organized as photography president of the University of Kent Photography and Modelling Society was an exploration of the places in Canterbury that would be best suited, from my point of view, for photographers to shoot, be it because they are worthwile in their own right or because they offer themselves as nice backdrops for photoshootings with models. First we went up to the Westgate panorama tower which is part of the Westgate Museum, as most participants had not yet been up there and it’s only around 75p for students to go. Then we made our way to Greyfriars, a former monastry which has its nondescript entrance in Stour Street. Some of the monastry’s walls still stand and it’s a nice park-like place to hang out and just read too. From there we went to Canterbury Castle, or the remains of it rather. It was used by a gas company decades ago and they knocked through some of the walls to get their pipelines installed.
While we were there the rainclouds which are inevitable when I organize a phototrip caught up with us and we returned to town centre to take shelter in Starbucks. — What? Which one of the three? :)

Fashion Shoot: Unique

gloda — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 19:56:43 +0000

For this week’s edition of inQuire’s fashion section we photographed clothes from Kent Union’s clothes outlet, Unique, situated on the University of Kent campus. Since the clothes are intrinsically linked to the student experience here at Kent campus itself seemed a suitable location for the shoot. We were lucky to have sunshine and tolerable temperatures for our outdoor shoot.
In technical terms, one comes closer to the limitations of flash photography with these bright conditions though. I wanted to shoot with a wide open aperture, but if I wanted to use flash without moving into Canon’s HSS system, in which a good deal of flash power is lost, I had to stick to the 1/250th sync speed of my 40D. Solution: I popped a .9 ND filter onto my lens. That way I could shoot wide open without having to reduce the shutter speed beyond the x-sync.
For some of the photos I also used a single reflector as a fill light source instead of flashes. Since we were shooting with more than one model, one of the others could easily hold the reflector for me.

Fashion Show 09 Photos

gloda — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 01:17:46 +0000

My computer’s decided that stitching panoramas isn’t going to happen tonight. Instead, here are some photos from this year’s edition of the University of Kent Fashion Show, organized by the Photography and Modelling Society. We had guest appearances from the Pole Fitness and Capoeira societies. All the profit that we made has been donated to the British Heart Foundation. I still have to find out from our treasurer exactly how much that was but I think it’s something around £700.
This week will also be my last as co-president of the society, on Saturday we’re holding committee elections and a new team will take over. Ooh I’m getting all sentimental about it… :)

Varsity Poster

gloda — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 15:31:39 +0000

This is the poster used to advertise this year’s edition of Varsity, a series of sport events in which the University of Kent and the Canterbury Christ Church University compete against each other. The original idea for the poster was to have students from both universities facing each other in two rows which through perspective would have formed something like this: ><.
However the Christchurch students left before I arrived; I've been told they took their photo in five minutes, so they either have a photographer who can work way faster than me or, well... I haven't been able to find their photo, the Christchurch Varsity page hasn’t been updated since last year and still shows David Cater’s 2008 poster.
Change of plans then, I had the Kent students stand back to back in a V formation in front of Westgate (part of the medieval defence system that spans around the city centre), facing east towards Christchurch. Most sports gear is easily distingushable, the only trouble I had was with trampolining, a sport which distinguishes itself through jumps and figures, none of which could easily have been implemented in this picture without breaking the symmetry. So I had the trampolining representative on the right pull one knee up which she said was similar to one of their figures.
I borrowed a Canon 5DMkII with a 24-70 lens for this shot; it was good fun to work with that combination. I metered for the ambient and dropped it about a stop and a half to make high street a bit darker, then I lit the students with four speedlites. I only had three light stands available, so Cai Robbins, the Kent Unions sports sabbatical stood in as voice activated lightstand. You can see her in the original photo. The one thing that still annoys me in this photo is that I couldn’t get the lights high enough, as a result of which the light which was in the front camera left cast a shadow onto the cricket player’s cheek.
Post processing consisted of cleaning up the chewing gum from the street, removing pedestrians and the lightstands and some cables which were visible in the sky. I dodged and burned the players to give them a bit more edge. With a fifth light behind and in the middle of the players the whole thing would have looked much better, giving them a rim light on the inside to set them off against the background. Time to buy more flashguns, I guess :)
Teams f.l.t.r: Netball, Tennis, Women’s Football, Basketball, Women’s Rugby (2x), Cricket, Women’s Hockey, Trampolining, Lacrosse.

Snow brings the University of Kent to a halt

gloda — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 23:01:10 +0000

On 1st February 2009 it started to snow in Canterbury and large parts of the UK. In London traffic collapsed, flights got cancelled, people didn’t get to work. In Canterbury, on Sunday, the University of Kent campus was transformed into a giant snowfight warzone. People got buried in snow, Canon 5D MkIIs had to prove that they were indeed water- and snowball resistant, students tried to dodge massive projectiles from the three-man snowball slingshot. In the calmer areas, the occasional snowman saw the light of day. The Rutherford field became a massive slope for makeshift sledges, including inflatable matrasses, office chairs, binbags and construction site signs. On Monday, the University sent out an e-mail to all students saying that campus would be closed from 1pm onwards. The library and all colleges closed down. Society meetings got cancelled, parents had to pick up their children from the campus nursery. Only the builders on the Mansell site just opposite the Venue, where a new drama building needs to be completed on schedule, kept working.

Halloween Studio Session

gloda — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:16:06 +0000

On Halloween, the UKC Photography and Modelling Society set up a studio in the Lighthouse at the University of Kent. The aim was to raise some money for the society to buy more equipment, and it worked out quite well.
The last photo shows out setup. The trickiest part was lighting the background without having too much spill on the people since we only had about two metres in depth with which to work. The backdrop is lit with two Canon Speedlite 430 EX flashes, both with gobos to make the light hit the background only. The lights left and right of the camera are a Canon Speedlite 580EX MkI and MkII with Manfrotto 001B Nano stands and Westcott 2001 double-fold shoot-through umbrellas. All flashes were set to slave mode and triggered with a Canon ST-E2.

UKC Welcome Ball 2008

gloda — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:43:40 +0000

I’m back at uni, and the academic preparations, my job in the Venue and the work for the Photography and Modelling Society have kept me busy throughout September. So for now I’m just posting some photos from the Welcome Ball at the University of Kent, with Cricket Lane, City Girls, Fake That, and Coolio.

Artsfest 2008

gloda — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 15:51:25 +0000

Returning from my summer break and with a slight delay I can finally post some photos I took during this year’s Artsfest at the University of Kent. Many thanks to Katie Van-Sanden and Tom Christian who supported me in my endeavour to gain permission from the university to photograph the fireworks from the Templeman Library rooftop.
Related post: Artsfest 2007

Similar stuff: Artsfest 2007, Keynestock 2008, UKC Welcome Ball 2008

Keynestock 2008

gloda — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 18:19:08 +0000

Last weekend I covered the annual Keynestock concerts organized by Keynes JCC at the University of Kent. The weathergods were benign; it had been raining all week before the event and it’s been raning every day since, but we got through the concerts without a single drop. Even so the day was a demanding one for photography, the pictures you see above are a selection from 17 acts performing over 10 hours.
Below is the lineup for reference – and to make Google happy.

Randol (winner of Kent Factor)
Joel Williamson
Green Diesel
Martyna Baker
Katy McGrath
Maniac and the Circus on the Moon
Fumer Tue
Parker Brown (my favourite band of the day)
Cartoon Heroes
The Legacy
Trick
Catharsis
Inertia
Belleville
Racketbox
Verse
Elena Goulding / Ellie Goulding (winner of Keynestock 2007.