Teenage Kicks Through a Tiny Screen

A hand went up three rows ahead of me and suddenly I had my shot. The Undertones were tearing through their set at Cyprus Avenue in Cork, the stage lights throwing fat circles of purple and magenta across the room, and this person decided twenty seconds of shaky phone footage was worth the effort. It gave me the frame-within-a-frame I’d been waiting for!

Everything around it dissolves into these massive, dreamy bokeh orbs that make the whole scene feel slightly unreal. I shot it wide open and let the background go completely, trusting that the phone screen would anchor the image. It’s one of those concert moments that sums up how we experience live music now. We’re half watching, half recording, the real thing and the digital copy sitting right next to each other.

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The White Swan in the Black Water

Like the hoot of a coot, this one was a difficult shoot. The swan floated in near darkness — the kind that tricks even the most advanced metering systems. The white of its feathers reflected light so intensely that every automatic setting wanted to blow out the highlights. So, back to full manual it was.

Shot in Park Sonsbeek in Arnhem with my Canon 5D Mark IV and Sigma 100–400, I carefully balanced the exposure — 1/250 s, f/6.3, ISO 12800. A few test frames later, I found the sweet spot where the white plumage stayed detailed without losing the subtle ripples in the near-black water.

A bit of contrast, a touch of color correction, and that was it. The rest is natural — the quiet precision of light meeting patience. Sometimes photography feels less like taking a picture and more like measuring reality in fractions of a second.

Photography, after all, is just another way of studying light and life.

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