The Smokin' Benny Brown Blues Band

A real toss-up between this and another band's guitarist, part of a mega fund-raising event, involving a dozen bands in twelve pubs, in Salisbury earlier this evening.

A pub-crawl indeed, but without the beer, or any refreshment of any sort, either. An annual event, with possibility a few might make the local paper, Salisbury Journal.

This had a horrible mix of ogre-green and magenta, with deep shadows and I only use flash when there's NO light on my subject (yes, this happens - pubs often just use their normal ambient energy-savers glowing in the corners), but this was a proper music bar, usually lit a lot better. So, black & white it had to be.

Yes, I've made it contrasty, with bits a bit burnt out, which will have some of the old school sighing but like the music it's trying to portray, it had to be bold and a bit brave.

With the DX frame D7000 I'm now using my old Nikkor D 50mm f1.4 a lot more, rather than a slow zoom, effectively giving 75mm. This allowed for this tight framing, which I haven't cropped and a tip here on how to lessen gleaming orbs of shaved heads - cut them off halfway up....absurd, yes, but look again, the pic seems right and forces your eye down, like the guitarist's, to his guitar - and so to the music. Otherwise, one's gaze would go up, to his bonce and beyond.

This is definitely one for the picture editor on Monday morning.

Time Team's Phil Harding (our local "celebrity") - the one with the yokelly accent and wild hair, is a bit of an axe-man himself and he was at the front of the audience. On seeing me arrive, he discreetly moved - very possibly cos I got an 'exclusive' photo of him playing guitar in a seven piece band and it somehow got into the local rag...he didn't mind, they did it all nicely but he hates and shuns publicity. Sort of strangely nice to be still considered 'dangerous', though I won't go as far as topless pics of him. I have my moral standards!