Kirstiekins Blogs: love

Showing posts with label love. Show all posts

Concert photography - Tonight Alive

Friday

I have always enjoyed photography - from a small age I much preferred being behind the camera rather than in front of it. However, although I enjoyed it, I never really thought I was any good at it, I did it for fun, as a hobby, something to do! It wasn't until I started using my photos within my art coursework a few years ago, that someone said to me 'hey, have you ever thought about doing this professionally?' and although, the thought sat and festered in my mind for a few years, I never really wanted to pursue it. I have shot a few family weddings, parties/events for some friends and a few society things at uni, but nothing that has made me want to devote a large amount of my time to photography - that was until I discovered concert photography.

Last Monday I went to see Christina Perri, and discovered the lapse rules the KoKo have about DSLR cameras. Most venues prohibit fans from bringing them in, unless you have a press pass, but just in the brief moment I discovered this, I counted six or seven people around me with DSLR'S that had much bigger lenses than my 75-300mm. It was at that point I decided, I would bring mine with me on the Wednesday when I saw Tonight Alive at the same venue.

After about an hour of debating myself, I packed my camera into my bag and headed to the venue. The security people didn't even bat an eye lid at it when they checked my bag, and after finding a good spot, and messing around with the settings, I was ready to attempt my first lot of concert photography.

In all honesty, figuring out the settings was the hardest part of the evening. Shooting under red light is hard. Shooting with strobe lights, is hard. Shooting in really dark conditions, isn't so hard, BUT it's harder with all of the above, and people bashing you about every two seconds. It's also hard, when you have left your bad ass 75-300mm lens at home - but I made do with what I had and what I knew, and I couldn't be more happier with how the photo's turned out.

The whole experience has made me rethink my earlier views on taking on photography professionally. Obviously I still need a lot of practice, but I really enjoyed doing it, and I want to do it again soon. It may have helped that the band I was shooting - Tonight Alive, are one of my favourite bands, and I had some weird adrenalin going on, because I had gone on my own, something i never would have done before, so yay me for that.

Anyway, I know they're kinda shit, but I'm proud of these photos. New possible careers for Kirstie, woo!

Wednesday

As today is Mean Girls' TENTH anniversary, and it's a Wednesday, I figured that its my right and duty as the greatest person you'll ever meet, to start the celebrations for this occasion.

Wear some pink, shout some quotes, and kick a CD player in someone's face. There's a great turn out this year.

Thursday

I was walking passed a field today, and thought I saw a dead horse. It turns out he was just sunbathing, but he didn't mind getting up for a selfie with me!

Wednesday

Sunday

I'm not going to pretend that I haven't been caught up in this summers hottest new drama series Orange is the new Black, because I have, and if you haven't seen the show then you are seriously missing out! The interesting mix of characters have all been locked up in Litchfield prison for their various crimes, and we follow their daily lives including flashbacks, romance and life on the outside world. The show revolves around Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling), who has been imprisoned for being part of an international drug ring with her ex-girlfriend Alex Vause (Laura Prepon) 10 years prior, however what Piper doesn't know is that her ex is also in the prison, and she is still pissed at Piper for leaving her! I won't give much more away in case you haven't seen it, but lets just say that Pipers new fiancé isn't happy about the events that unfold.

After sitting down and watching every episode back to back, I came to the conclusion that I could easily survive in prison! Just don't insult the food, stay away from the redneck meth heads, and always wear flipflops in the shower, but surely prison isn't really like that? I have always had a strong image in my head of what prison was like, however every prison drama that I watch seems to contradict all of the expectations that I have!

The ladies of Litchfield (who are portrayed by some amazing actresses) aren't the only prisoners that are bringing in the viewers at the moment, as hit Australian prison drama Wentworth Prison has finally come to the shores of the UK! The show is a revamp of another Australian show from the 80's, however these prisoners live a very different life to the glamourous ladies of the Netflix Original series Orange is the new Black.

Inmates at Litchfield have an element of freedom, they have jobs, friends, social circles, love lives of which the viewers get so see and and 'ship' and they can even take trips to the resident transgender hair dresser! We get to see a lot of aspects of the different characters lives, which I think is great for the plot of Orange is the New Black, as the audience can see prison from many different points of view. My favourite so far has to have been when Piper was screaming at the crippled teenage gangbanger about how life is on the inside! Wentworth on the other hand has a different approach to life in prison, although the inmates have split into their own groups, we only see what the main set of characters are up to, but we do get to see a lot of the prison guards lives in and outside the prison!

Wentworth seems like a stricter environment, due to the older prisoner Jaquie who seems to run everything everyone does, but I still think I could survive in prison! I'm not saying I could be the next queen bee of some random prison somewhere because I don't ever plan on going to prison, however if I was to happen to find myself locked up I could probably survive! I'm not that little girl who can't stand up for herself any more!

I'm not stupid, I do know that prison is obviously very different from how it is portrayed on TV, but I'm presuming I'm not the only person who has has suffered from the CSI effect from this show! I know for a fact that after watching CSI I thought I could easily investigate crimes/commit the perfect murder!

How about you!? What are your thoughts on this? Could you survive in prison?

Comment below or tweet me with your reply!

@iamkirstiekins

Thursday

Yesterday I took an adventure into my favourite past time, and got tattooed! There is no better feeling than walking into a tattoo studio, showing the artist your designs, and then watching them go to work on your skin! Actually, if I'm telling the truth, the best part of being tattooed is feeling the needles weave in and out of your skin over and over.. If you have a tattoo, I'm sure you'll know what I'm talking about when I say that the pain isn't even a pain, and that it's more like a dull stinging similar to a papercut, only it's an addicting pain that you keep going back for!

The tattoo I got yesterday was my 9th, and by far my absolute favourite! I had been wanting it for about 4 years, but I never got around to actually having it done. So when my student loan came in, I decided to treat myself to an early birthday present and finally get it!

A lot of people have meanings behind their tattoo's which I think is all well and good because I have a few that have meanings, but sometimes it's just awesome to get one because you're like "hey that's amazing I want that on my skin". Their is only one meaning you should have behind all of your tattoos and that is "because I (insert your name here) fucking want it"

However, although I initially thought "I have to have that" as soon as I saw it, I have came to the conclusion that this is the perfect tattoo to describe who I am as a person, as I always have my head in the head in the clouds thinking about something or other!

If you're a Paramore fan, you might get the reference as soon as you see it, and you might even know exactly where I got the drawing from! The brand new eyes album came out in September 2009, and if you bought the vinyl edition you were given a copy of Hayley's 'lyric diary' and next to the lyrics for BBBB there was a drawing that Hayley had drawn! I fell in love with it, and 4 years later I finally have it tattooed! I've loved Paramore since I was about 14/15 (I'm 21 next week) I remember going to buy their AWKIF album with a bunch of pennies that I had saved up when it first came out in the UK!

I can't wait to see them play at Wembley on Friday, who knows... Hopefully I'll bump into them and get to show my arm to them!

Wednesday

For the past few years, I have been writing messages on note cards, and sticking them where ever I go. Buses, trains, Uni, art gallerys... in the hope that someone might take notice of at least one of them, and it would improve their day!
A few months ago I decided that I wanted to create a mailing list so I could spread joy all over the world, rather than limiting myself to London/places I happen to visit!
Today, my dream came true (well the beginnings of my dream... it's still a baby at the moment)
You can sign up to said mailing list below! And the sign up form will be displayed in the side bar too, because knowing my luck, it will stop working when I upload this!!

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