10 Questions with… Mike Kelly

Thanks to the guys at ramsbottomonline.com for a nice profile that’s just been posted on their site.

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Band Photography // Manchester // Little Volcanoes – 2

Thursday tips over into Friday at the Hacienda with a lot of dancing, a lot of pizza, and a bit too much white wine.

Later, after sleep, a lot of tea, more sleep and cakes, on the phone with Phil from Little Volcanoes – “what is it you guys are after from this shoot?” – “don’t worry Mike, we’re all creative people, we’ll work it out”.

And of course, we’re also in Manchester, where we can roam freely around the station and back streets of Piccadilly without drawing any more than a wry smile as dusk fulls across the city on a busy bank holiday Friday. Exploring a little corner that I thought I knew so well, we are looking for angles, looking for light, somewhere between concentration and openness, close focus and wide angle, we are being creative. A pure pleasure that banishes the last bits of fuzziness from the night before.

Finishing up in Chinatown, we pass on beers with the band and opt instead for more tea, chinese this time, and an expertly dispatched, velvety sea bass in the Little Yang Sing.

A Good Friday.

What kit do you use? (geek warning…)

I’m often asked what camera equipment I use. At the last wedding there was some alarm from the wedding party that my 5D Mk II + 50mm lens combo looked significantly outgunned by one of the guests’ Nikon + huge beast of a lens + monster flash gun. Well… depends what you’re looking for. I like to work with available light if at all possible and to observe events from the sidelines without intruding on the day. My aim is that most of the time, my clients won’t even be aware that the shot was taken – it’s an entirely natural, authentic record of the day:

Here’s my standard list of kit, capable of dealing with 90% of shoots:

Bodies
I shoot entirely Canon kit and primarily use the EOS 5D Mk II, with the EOS 1D Mk 3 as backup

The 5D Mk II is a ground breaking camera that can work in extremely low light, especially when coupled with a razor sharp lens like the 50mm f1.4. For my purposes it works just great and gives me the results I’m looking for.

The Canon S90 has been my pocket friendly walk around camera after my beloved G9 passed away. At f2.0 it’s very fast and absolutely tiny – smaller than an iPhone – with the same chip as Canon’s high end professional cameras inside.

Glass
Canon 17-40 f4L
Canon 28mm f1.8
Canon 50mm f1.4
Canon 85mm f1.8
Canon 70-200 2.8L

More and more I’m finding I use the 50mm 1.4 for most of my shots. It’s a beautiful lens, especially on the 5D Mk II and can work in extremely low lighting conditions. I’m also rapidly moving to an all prime lens set, though the 17-40 and 70-200 make great end stops.

Lighting
These are for those occasions when there is just NO available light to draw on:
2 x 430 EX II Flash units
ST-E2 Lighting controller
Stroboframe Pro flash bracket

Processing
Aperture 2 for almost everything
Photoshop for the final touches
MacBook with Apple Cinema Display for love
Drobo for peace of mind