The Homespun Tip

My boyfriend Aled and our good friend Mel have been meaning to put on a gig together for a good few years. Finally, after many months of organising, their first gig took place on Thursday. Under the name The Homespun Tip, a great line up of folk and acoustic music was planned for a favourite venue of ours, The Slaughtered Lamb in Clerkenwell. Headlining were CoCo and the Butterfields, with support from Patch and the Giant, Charlotte Carpenter and Andrew Butler. The gig was a success, the music was amazing, and the basement venue was rather packed by the end, and the thanks for this goes mainly to the stellar effort of our friends.

I found it quite tricky to photograph the gig, as it was quite dark (like most live music photography, obviously) and my skills in manual mode are still developing. Although the photos aren't necessarily sharp, I quite like the dark and grainy effect. Let's pretend that was intentional!

Lounge on the Farm

A few weekends ago I went to Lounge on the Farm festival near Canterbury in Kent. It was a lovely weekend, despite the schizophrenic weather (thunderstorms, torrential rain and sunshine are just great when you're camping….), and even though it slightly paled in comparison to other smaller festivals I have attended (namely Larmer Tree and End of the Road), we really enjoyed it nonetheless.

The highlights, musically, for me were Jessie Ware, Seasick Steve, Sivu, Beans on Toast, CoCo & the Butterfields, Tribes, Lucy Rose, Eliza & the Bear and Gentlemen of Few. I would recommend checking out any of those artists you haven't heard of! Talking of music, I keep meaning to do another monthly playlist. I posted the first one in January with high intentions that have never been channelled into actual posts.

I took along my camera to take photos for Aled's review for The 405 which you can read here!

Here are a few of my favourites...

A wedding & a festival

I thought i'd share a few photos from the past two or three weeks. I spent a weekend at home recently for a friend's wedding and a family christening. The wedding was a lovely day, luckily with sunshine, and I may have gotten a bit tipsy (read: very). I love attending weddings and hopefully this is the first of many over the next few years, as we enter the second half of our twenties and everyone seems to slightly grow up!

A few weeks ago, Aled & I went to Bushstock, which is a one day music festival held in Shepherd's Bush, put on by folk indie record label Communion. I was only familiar with a few of the artists but had high expectations as the quality of music is always very high with any artist on Communion. I was lucky enough to be able to take a few photos for Aled's review. I love live music photography but am still very amateur. I haven't yet mastered the manual mode on my DSLR and I need to teach myself over the next few months so I am ready for a few summer festivals we are covering. It's only a hobby and hopefully I can slowly improve my skills. I have also picked out a new lens which is waiting in my Amazon basket for my next pay day!

These photos were taken during our brief week of summer here in England. It's now rather grey and dreary. Summer, you were great.