Alessio Michelini Photography

That's a band I've missed their gigs in Dublin a few times for one reason or another, but this time they were supporting Biffy Clyro at one of the many outdoor gigs this summer in the beautiful frame of the Royal  Hospital Kilmainham.

I'm definitely not in the target of this band, I'm too old for them or they are too young for me, but I have to say that they are an interesting band to see, very energetic on stage and very dynamic band. From a photography point of view it was good to photograph, even if was shot in daylight so the stage lights were pretty useless and barely visible, and for once I couldn't complain for the lack of lights, but maybe for the abundance of it, the sunlight was the key light and I could shoot at 400 ISO, and I could use shutterspeed of 1/2000 with f/4 or higher, but even if I could use smaller aperture I always prefer to bring down the ISO and have confy shutterspeeds and keep shooting at wider aperture like f/2.8 or f/4 where I can have incredible sharpness from the main lens I used for that gig (the Canon 135mm f/2 USM L) and at the same time a decent Bokeh and have a good separation between the subject and the background.
Anyway, interesting gig to photograph, and I'm pretty sure that it would be the same, or maybe even better if shot in a normal venue where the stage lights dictates the show, I would say it's a gig aupair with Fall Out Boy and All Time Low.

Anyway, as usual you can find some of the best shots I took at their gig, while on my flickr account you can find the full set.

One of the main advantage of a mirrorless system is to being mirrorless (sorry for the pun). Of course in an ideal world where we all rich, the best solution is to buy the top of the gamma lenses of the brand we have and then we are pretty much sorted, but for who just started into photography, or like me, where the mirrorless camera is more a lightweight alternative to the heavy duty DSLR we already own, and maybe we don't want to invest billions on a second system knowing that we already have spend plenty of money for the lenses for the big boy. But there is any cheap alternative? Of course there is, and you can find it in vintage lenses.
On ebay and similar sites, or even in most of the camera shops in your city, it's pretty easy to find old used lenses, sometimes even older than us, and most of the times, unless you are looking for rarities, they are extremely affordable. 

A month ago I posted an article regarding my impression of the Fujifilm X-T1 as a viable camera for music photographers, so some of you are probably going to think “why he’s doing a second review on the same camera?”. Well, since I got that camera in my hands, I had two questions in my mind. The first one was to know if that camera could  potentially replace my DSLR for live music photography, and the second was to see how this camera is good for general shooting, so that’s why I want to make two articles, because the first one was specifically driven by the first question, if that was a good camera for music photographers, a very specific field of use, while this article I’m going to show if this camera is a good camera for the average Joe.

Big September is one of the fastest raising band in Ireland, and a couple of months ago I had the chance to photograph these five lads from Bray for an interview for the magazine The Thin Air.
And after a few emails with the band we decided to do the photo shoot in their hometown, in part because it was logically better as it's easier for me to get there than bring 5 people plus manager up here in Dublin, and in part because I prefer to link the band with their environment when I can, I didn't want to put just a pretty background behind the guys, but I wanted to link the band with the backdrop, and this gave me the opportunity to take some shot in a place I didn't know, which it might be risky sometimes as you mind end up going around to find the right place, but on the other side it gives you some variance from the usual Dublin places.
Anyway, the shots turned out well in my opinion and down here I posted some of the best, but you can always see the full set right here.

Histogram is the best tool to understand if a photo is correctly exposed or not, but often is the most ignored tool by photographers or aspiring photographers. Yeah, in most of the cases you can see with your eyes if the photo is well exposed or not, but the histogram can tell you quickly if there's something wrong that you might have missed on a quick glance. And there are situations where you can't simply trust what you see on the screen of your camera, for example on a very sunny day in summer, where is quite difficult to see perfectly on the screen.
In this video by John Greengo made for CreativeLive it simply explains how to read the histograms you can find in any DSLR or MILC.

(via PetaPixel)

Canon USA made this video to explain simple tips about maintanance, cleaning and system checks we should always do to our camera(s). Doing these tasks will help you to keep your lenses and sensor clean longer, and to keep your gear in the best conditions. Some of these might sound trivial, but they are essential, and many photographers I know keep forgetting these simple checks.

(via FStoppers via DPreview)
 

I'm not a videographer, and I don't see myself starting anytime soon, but that's a very simple yet a very effective video, created by Filme von Draussen, that shows you some simple basics of how to create quality videos. It doesn't show you insane tips, but how to create the concept for a video and the basics of how to shoot it. And while the title of the video is How to Make a Mountain Bike Film, I think you can copy and paste the idea for almost anything you want to shoot.

(via PetaPixel)

I have to be honest with you, I didn't know this band at all, and the only reason I went to this gig was because I replaced a fellow photographer who couldn't go to this gig at the very last minute, but not knowing them and even if alternative southern country rock music is not exactly my thing, I have to say that was a quite interesting band to see on stage, but I was there only for the first three songs, so I can't really give a proper judgment. But what I can judge are the lights, and from that side the gig was just "okay". Vicar St is a fantastic venue to photograph a gig, but probably to match the mood of the band in this case they weren't exactly bright, and I know a few photographers who probably would hate to photograph gigs like this one, but at the end thanks to my beloved fast primes I brought home some decent shots, nothing outstanding, but decent.
As usual down here I'm posting the best ones, but you can see the full set on my flickr page.

I've been pretty silent on the blog in the past weeks, but in my defence I can say that I spent one week at home in Italy, and when I'm there I don't generally spend more than 5 minutes on the laptop, I just don't have the time for doing anything, apart relaxing or doing the usual things like:

• Meeting relatives
• Meeting parents
• Eating
• Go to my GP
• Buy things (this time I bought a new pair of specs)
• Sneezing (in May my hey fever is pretty bad down there)
• Pet my (girlfriend) cats and dogs
• Eating again
• Being sick because I ate too much

So as you can see, I just didn't have any time left to write on the blog. Then the following week was just pretty depressing due to lack of sun and I just wasn't in the right mood, and the fact that the hunt for a new home is not going anywhere it doesn't help.
Anyway, despite that last month it was pretty preductive photography-wise, and I have tons of photos, especially from Italy where I took some from one of my favourite summer places, Sirolo, and some other from a small but beautiful village close to where I live in Italy, called Palazzo, for an exhibition I'm going to do with other photographers this summer about the village itself.
I'm  not going to publish all the pictures in this post, as there are too many, but just the best ones. But if you want to see all of them, you can click here to see the photos I took in Dublin, here for the ones in Italy, and here the specific set for the village of Palazzo.

Sirolo, Italy

 

A couple of months ago I've been asked to photograph a local band called Ginnels, an interesting new project lead by Mark Chester, for an interview for The Thin Air, an northern irish music magazine based in Belfast, I've recently done a photo shoot for them, Extra Fox.
Unfortunately it didn't start well, as the weather wasn't exactly "nice", and also I was waiting the band in the wrong place. But an hour later I was in the right place, Bull Island, one of my favourite spots in Dublin, a beautiful artificial sandy island. Unfortunately what I totally forgot about that island is the fact that it's one of the best places in Dublin for kite-surf, and why it's a bad thing? Because it's extremely windy, and trying to use a flash with an umbrella with all that wind it's not exactly practical, unless you have a body builder as an assistant, which it wasn't my case.
So the idea of using a soft light with natural light was trashed. I tried to use the flash without any modifier, but I just don't like it, I don't like to fire straight hard light on the subjects, so I went all natural at the end.
And despite we didn't have much time, I think we spent about an hour, trying to use different spots, especially the beautiful old structures, a relic from the past, where men and women had to swim in two separates places, we managed to have some great shots, and I have to thank you the band for their patience as it was freaking cold and windy, and at the end it started to rain as well, marking the end of the photo shoot.
Anyway, down here some of the best shots I took that day, here you can read the article on The Thin Air, and on my flickr account you can find the full set of photos. As usual any critics are accepted, just leave a comment on the box at the end of the page.