Come back form local legends Itchy Trigger Finger playing with their new drummer “Big Sexy” Kev.  Support by Eyesclosed who are finally back in action.

Eyes Closed:

Itchy Trigger Finger

Trig Promotions Group Shot.  Some members of both bands missing.

It’s suprising how easily distracted one can get when there are buckets of photos to be put up online.  Its gotten a little dead around the rayobrien.com shelves.  Not that many gigs going on at the same time that i have a night off.  And a night not off was a long time ago!  With a few days this week to scratch my bum a little i have decided (not influenced at all by Aido giving out to me at the weekend) to dig up some old photos that should have gone up ages ago.  Im also going to start taking more photos again.  I have a CD cover to prepare for.  Concept art is done, now all i have to do is create the assets and build the full res layout and piece it all together.  Oh, and of course, release the CD long side a big green mushroom cloud!

Shown bellow is a series of photos taken during the last second edition of Trig promotions featuring; first time on stage “A Message from Vega”, nationwide known Tool tribute band “The Grudge” and one of Dublin’s biggest metal outfits “Hero in Error” with their really tight t-shirts for sale!?!  Even Jimmy had trouble fitting into a small.  Best cut out those cheese burgers dude

A message from Vega:

The Grudge:

Hero in Error:

Group Shot:

Apologies again to everyone for the lateness of the photos.

Jimi Trigger again. This time with a somewhat epic pose exaggerated by green smoke streaming from the his hand. My only problem with this shot is the mic stand in the way!! Would have made it to have the  scream in the shot!

Again, very happy with this shot.

Show above is lead guitarist and legend string man Robbie from itchy trigger finger performing at ballykeefe.

The slight burst of green light in the background gives a little depth to the image as the soft focus forces Robbie into the extreme foreground. I am really liking the clarity of this 50mm! The stage looks huge!

Shown above is James Doran or Jimi Trigger as he likes to be known! The all time front man of Kilkenny prog metal outfit Itchy Trigger Finger. The guys played a stormer lastnight in what can only be described as an express set. They stage time was cut by a song due to delays earlier in the show, however, the guys still managed to get the crowd going!

Its being a few years since i’ve seen them play and i must say they’ve gotten a lot heavier and a lot more confident on stage. This was also the first time for me to test out my new 55mm lens. It was a shock to see myself shooting at shutter speeds of 500 and 1000. Everything just so clear!!

I will post up more shots from the night over the weekend when i get a chance to search for my photoshop serial number! Fucking activation shite when changing to a new computer really pisses me off!

You can also see this photo printed on canvas down at A+ Design and Print. A new Graphic design and print agency in kilkenny city, situated on Rose-Inn Street kilkenny.

A few weeks back I read an instruction on how to configure my camera (350D) to shoot in RAW. I’ve been hearing about RAW a lot recently as i dig deeper into the possibilities with different formats and styles in photography. The first main difference i found is, RAW is HUGE!! Using a 2GB Compact Flash card i could store over 650 photos in JPEG large format. This is considerably reduced to 169 photos in RAW. Interesting enough though, when shooting RAW on the Canon 350D, you might notice you have duplicate images when importing. This is because the built LCD display screen cant display RAW files, it needs a smaller format, hence makes a duplicate processed image.

The best thing about RAW is of course, you can do all the processing when you get onto your computer. I use photoshop CS3 (the best program in the world!). When you open the RAW file (the extension on my images is .CR2, a canon RAW format), you get presented with a new window, well, it was new to me. This new window is basically the manual replacement for all the in-built magical processing that pretty much determines the cost of your camera! Most of these settings are available for JPEG but you really do get a serious amount of control when mastering the colours, tones, shades and lights and pretty much every bit of visual information of the photo!

Shown above is a image of Norm Power (my new business partner – more on that later) playing with Tame in the Zoo underground, kilkenny. Now, you might notice there a few pictures of this amasing guitarist, thats simply because the guy really likes to pose on stage!

I had a bit of fun playing with this photo during work. Reducing mid-tones, increasing highlights and shadows to give the dark sinister effect. I hope you like it!

z

A gig that ends well is a gig where the stage was trashed. You always know when this band enjoys the set when after their second last song (time is well up by now) you hear the ring of that a minor and those mumbling words of wisdom that im sure not even the signer knows what he’s saying ( i remember “ham and jelly sandwich” was part of a verse some years ago. Nanoo, an amasing war call signaling the destruction of pretty much everything, including themselves. I recall, bruises and a cuts from flying symbols and stands, guitars punching and head butts given and received by all!

Shown above is Jp, lead singer of Tame smiling contently to himself while the remains of the crowd look on at the stage in awe

Here’s a shot im going to put. A very over exposed black and white shot of Tame playing in Ryans. I bounced a great deal of light of one of the white walls and it just worked out dingin!

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Also supporting Tame in Ryans on April 25th is bad mothers union. A band short a bass player but full on sound. Its actually really entertaining watching Conor Kavanagh playing his guitar. I was sad to hear he lost his Les Paul to a previous gig but fuck it, thats rock and roll!

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