I party at Red

It was Red on Thursday. My favourite nightclub ever. This place is fantastic, I always have a great time shooting and a great time full stop - the atmosphere is guaranteed to put a smile on my face (even when I am tired and grumpy*).



I have had the honour of being their official photographer and have been documenting the nights for the past year now. As a photographer, the challenges of shooting in a dark bar, with constantly changing coloured lighting and fast moving dancers on a packed floor are not inconsiderable. But man, what a great crowd to work with!

This time I was working virtually entirely with ambient light - there was often plenty of it, just not always where I wanted it to be. I didn't have a flash with me, so I had a go at using the built-in Speedlight on my D100 for some shutter-drag fisheye pictures. The trick here was in not underestimating how puny this flash is, so requiring a close subject. Once I figured how close I needed to be to the subject for them to be lit about right, I ended up with a shutter of about 1/2 second at f/16 to give me some trace of the ambient lights.

My aim at Red is to capture the atmosphere of the party, to see everyone lost in the music and the lights, to share the moment these people are enjoying. It is so cool to be there with my friends too.



A rare treat.

* Yes, occasionally I do get grumpy. But not often.