42nd Street Photo: One to Avoid

New York is a city that's the home to many a fantastic photographic retailer. Between the rather fantastic B&H, the solidly competent Adorama, and - if you're going to shop online anyway - the ever-reliable Photo & Video section at Amazon, there shouldn't really be any reason to go anywhere else... ...As aptly confirmed by the nightmare of an ordering scenario a friend of mine, Sarah, had just before Christmas at the tail-end last year.

What happened?

Sarah lives in London, but her parents live in California. She decided to order a couple of cameras (given how much cheaper camera equipment is in the US, that makes sense), and have it shipped to her parents address. Sound pretty straightforward, right?

It probably would have been, if it hadn't been for the fact that she decided to try and use 42th Street Photo to place her order. Here's what happened;

On December 17, Sarah ordered a Canon Powershot S95 and a Canon EOS Rebel Digital T2i, but because her shipping address (in California) was different from her invoice address (in London), the order was blocked. Fair enough, I suppose, there's a lot of credit card fraud out there.

Dodgy card charges

So instead of trying to confirm with Sarah that this was a genuine order, they call the shipping address, where her mother answers the phone. Now, I don't know much about credit card security, but it sounds to me as if they are worried about that, they should call the invoice address - not the shipping address. I'll leave this thought for you: If you were a fraudster, would you be at the shipping or the invoice address? Exactly.

Interestingly enough, Sarah's card was charged on Friday December 17th, so they clearly didn't care much about the security anyway. Also, by the time the 18th rolled around, the order status on 42 Photo had already updated to 'shipped'. So why did they call? Well.. when they spoke to Sarah's mother on the 21st (four days after the card was charged and the cameras had supposedly shipped), they tried to upsell to faster shipping (even though their website, they said that shipping was only going to be 'less than 10 days') so the order could get there in time for Christmas. Then, they tried to add memory cards to the order, stating that "the camera wouldn't work without them".

Weird upselling

Parents come in all sorts of shapes and sizes - and amounts of photography knowledge. It just so happens that Sarah's mother's photography knowledge is, well, shall we say, somewhat lacking. So when somebody calls her and tells her that Sarah must have made a mistake, and that she must have forgotten to order a piece of the camera which is needed for it to work, what should she do?

I find it curious anyway, that a phonecall to someone at a delivery address should potentially be enough to add additional charges (shipping; memory cards) to a credit card that was already charged and authorised via a website, but that's by the by.

In addition, if you check the 42nd street Photo website, you'll find their terms and conditions state "Although you have received an email confirming your order, we do not charge your credit card until the item is ready to be shipped and all customer adjustments if any are applied" (emphasis mine). Since the card was charged on the 17th, and 42 street Photo started calling Sarah's mother on the 21nd, that was clearly ignored as well.

Shipping... Too late.

Then, eventually, Sarah receives a shipping confirmation on the 22nd of December, via UPS, stating that the items had been shipped, and were scheduled to be delivered on December 30th - 3 days later than expected.

Now, most people are perfectly happy to wait for another three days, but there was an itsy-weeny problem: Sarah was going to leave the country on the 29th, and needed her cameras with her. Since the order was placed on the 17th, and the 42 Street Website promised a 10-day delivery (at most), Sarah figured she would have a couple of days leeway. Instead, the cameras would arrive two days too late.

What have we learned?

Between the slow shipping (5 days to ship an order of cameras that are marked in stock?), charging the credit card too early, breaching their own terms and conditions, trying to upsell memory cards and shipping (the latter, presumably, to cover their own ass for being too slow in shipping the items in the first place), trying to get a person unrelated to the transaction to authorise additional spending on a credit card, rude one-line replies to genuine customer service woes, and an apparent lack of care about fraud prevention...

I don't know about you, but I don't think I'll be turning to 42 street photo for my photography needs in the future.

Very cute slideshows from Cute Slideshow

I’ve hundreds of photos on my iPhone but, bizarrely, I don’t tend to do much with them, except for contribute to Haje’s Locks on Toilet Doors project, or document the bruising on my recently injured foot. When I was asked to review a new app that would let me turn these loved-but-languishing photos into slideshows, and even set them to music, I got a bit excited.

Very cute slideshows, but you can't export them

The app’s called Cute Slideshow and it’s made by Cute Logic. You can put together a slideshow of up to 1,000 images from your camera roll, use 20 different transitions, add text, and choose a sound track from your iPod music library. It took me about ten minutes to put together a slideshow, complete with music, that paid tribute to my shoe collection. I was very proud of my slideshow and I was impressed by how easy it was to make something so fun.

I’d really like to be able to show you my slideshow, too. But I can’t, and this is where Cute Slideshow falls down.

Unless you’ve an iPhone 4 or a fourth generation iPod Touch, your slideshows are stuck there on that piece of kit. Even with an iPhone 4, you can only display them on an external screen using a cable. To turn Cute Slideshow from something that I think is quite cute into something that I think is rather groovy, I’d really like to be able to export my slideshows.

One of my friends, who has been my mental sparring-partner for the past eleven years, raised all sorts of problems when it comes to exporting slideshows. ‘What about platform compatibility?’ he asked. ‘And coding for YouTube is a nightmare,’ he told me. ‘Could there be rights issues with the music?’ Well…

The interface is very simple, though

Pick one or two platforms that’d be compatible to play slideshows; don’t most of us have access to a selection, anyway? I’m not a coder, so I don’t know how much of a problem coding for YouTube is, but as a consumer, having a product that doesn’t do quite what I want it to isn’t very useful. As for the music rights issue, there’s no difference with this than any other slideshow or time-lapse or video that you or I might set to music: it’d depend on how we used it.

I want to love this app, but it feels as if it doesn’t go far enough. I’m sure that there are plenty of people who’d be happy viewing their slideshows on their iPhones or iPod Touches, or be able to hook up their iPhone 4 to their big screens. For me, though, it feels a bit half-baked.

What my sparring-partner and I did agree on, though, was that this would be a great app for the iPad.

So the verdict? Great start, but this cake needs a bit longer in the oven.

Cute Slideshow is available from the App Store for £1.79 or US$2.99.

How To: Concert Photography

Of all the types of photography ever invented, I would claim that live concert photography is up there among the most difficult ones. You have five thousand fans behind you, and there is a band in front of you. Nobody stands still. In fact, even the notion of standing still ruins the idea of a good music photo. The bouncers hate you, because you are in their way. The crowd is jealous of you. Crowdsurfers will kick you in the head. The band thinks you’re annoying. The lighting is never bright enough, and changes so frequently that you’re screwed even in the few moments that it is.

And nonetheless, concert photography is one of my all-time favourite pasttimes. It’s hard. It’s unrewarding. But it’s deeply gratifying on a personal lever. It’s about capturing the mood. Capturing the looks. Capturing something the audience is feeling.

Of course, it’s also something I know something about – I’ve done my share of concerts…

Tristania – Live in Manchester by Photocritic.org on Flickr

So, how can you take photos at a concert successfully? First of all, remember the “standard” rules for most concerts:

• No flash photography
• First 3 songs only
• What the security guys say is Gospel

The first two rules are a blessing and a curse rolled into one. No flash photography is a nightmare at many venues, but it is often better to take photos without. You don’t get the “feel” of the gig without the stage lighting. The “first 3 songs” rule is a bugger – most bands look the most energetic towards the end of their set. On the other hand, it means that you have a very clear time limit: You’ve got 10 minutes (or so) to get the photos you need. If you screw it up, well, you’re unlucky. But there is no saving film, you obviously have to make the best of the time you have.

Using the available lighting is a challenge, but can be rewarding, especially if you manage to cotton on to the pattern of the lights. This is Emanuel in concert 2 by Photocritic.org, on Flickr. More Emmanuel photos here.

Equipment

Personally, I have done all all my concert photos with a Canon 60D, 10D or 20D. Don’t even bother trying with a compact camera – you’ll look like an idiot, and the photos will come out rubbish. (Granted, I have worked with a few photographers who have proved me wrong on this point, but why make your life more difficult than it has to be?).

My lenses of choice are a Sigma DX 70-200mm f/2.8 lens, which is great for getting in close, a Sigma 17-35mm f/2.8-4.0 lens which is great for overview shots, and a Canon 50mm f/1.4 fixed length lens. Notice a pattern? Damn right – go for brightness all the way. If you can’t afford zoom glass that is bright enough, then get a 50mm f/1.8 lens. it is normally the cheapest piece of glass you can find, and focussing is a bitch, but you need all the light you can get when doing this type of photography.

Try to capture the artists in the moment where they are most “into” their song. Photo of Eighteen Visions on Flickr. More 18 visions.

How to get in the pit

The first problem you are faced with is that unless you have credentials, the bouncers are unlikely to let you into the venue with professional (i.e anything beyond a compact) camera equipment. So you need a photo pass.

They don’t hand these out to everyone and his dog, but there are a few ways you can get them. Personally, I was shooting for an agency, so they sorted out the photo pass for me, but you can call up your local rag and ask them if they would like concert X photographing. Offer to do it for free. When they say they want the photos, call the venue, and tell them that you are photographing it for the local rag. This isn’t going to work when Metallica comes to town (the local newspaper will send their own photographers, no doubt), but for smaller bands, it usually works: The small bands are thirsting for publicity, the newspaper wants photos, you want into the pit and to get some experience. Everybody wins.

The second avenue is to become an in-house photographer for a venue. This doesn’t work with all venues, and it means you need to get friendly with the managers of the venue. Expect to photograph crappy small local bands for a while, but once they see what you can do, and they start to get faith in you, you may do better.

Finally, you can just call the venue anyway. Tell them that you are a budding photographer, and would love to take some photos. “you have ‘no’, and can’t get a ‘yes’ unless you ask”, as my mother used to say.

Photo of Tarja, of Nightwish. More Nightwish

Tips to taking good photos

So, you are in the photographer’s pit in front of the crowd. Well done. Now, you need to actually take the blasted pictures.

First of all, select an ISO value on your camera that is as low as you can get away with. ISO 200 will give you far better photos than ISO 800, but if all your photos turn out blurry because of lack of light, then you would have been better off with ISO 800 after all.

Second, observe. Concert lighting move in patterns, and you need to try and snap the photo of once the lighting is exactly right.

Always shoot in fully manual. It’ll be too dark for your auto focus, and the rapidly changing lights mean that your light meter is worthless. You need to be good, but your instincts will save you. If you can’t “feel” how a photo is going to turn out before you look at your digital display at the back of the camera, perhaps you aren’t ready for concert photography quite yet. There’s no shame in that – just keep practicing.

Take a lot of photos. Personally, I throw away 99% of my concert photos. In fact, some times, I come home without any really good photos – it isn’t always your fault. The lighting can be particularly tricky, etc. And you can’t plan for any of it – you have to roll with the punches.

Change your vantage point. You can walk all the way back and forth in front of the stage. Do it. If you are in your face enough, chances are that the lead singer will show off for the camera a little – they may even look at your cam for a fraction of a second. That is your cue. Get the photo.

Finally, get as close as you can. I guess this is mostly a personal thing, but I prefer photos where I get really close. Action portraits, if you will: photos taken of an artist at work.

Inspiration

Check out Lithium Picnic’s concert photography galleries, or talented music photographer Andrew Kendall’s photo gallery.

We’ve also done a separate article on ‘more on live concert photography‘ and ‘concert photography at smaller venues‘, both of which might be of interest to you :)

Making money off your concert photos

Originally, we had a lot of information here on how you could monetize your concert photography, but it all became a bit wieldy. I would strongly recommend you have a look at our seperate writeup on event photography, and our making money off your photos article.

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