It was my birthday this week and my misses got me the Diana F+ Lens Adaptor for my Baby along with the Diana+ 38mm Plastic Lens which is super cool because I have wanted the kit for ages.

Today I ran out to meet her for a quick lunch and decided to give it the first test although the sky was super boring so I only really took a few shots. I battle to shoot if it just looks crap. Haha. This is one that I kind of like of Southwark Cathedral. I found it quite difficult to see if the image was in focus or not but I guess that is the joys of shooting with plastic. The aperture for the lens is locked on F3.5 and this images was taken at 1/1000th at ISO800 to give it a bit of grain although you cannot really see that in this low res photo.

The image is straight from my camera without processing or editing and just a quick resize and watermark. Cannot wait to use this on a sunny day and experiment with some Profoto Lighting.

I photographed The King Blues the other night and it was the 4th time that I had worked with them and seen them live but this time I was really grabbed by the positive messages that the band give out and its got me thinking this whole week. They have a song / poem called What if punk never happened and it’s the bands take on what the world would be like if punk never happened and for me it’s a sad, crazy and almost unbelievable option because I know how much punk shaped my life. I am not speaking about me walking around with a big mohawk and a million piercings but rather the way that punk made me think about life and how things work and realizing that I can make a change even if it is a small one. This is the last verse of the song / poem I am speaking about, thought it would be good to share.

There’s a lesson to be learned, one that I will take home,
When I return to my normal reality zone,
Punk rock has the power to change the world,
It lies in every single punk rock boy and girl,
So don’t let anyone tell you you’re not worth the earth,
These streets are your streets, this turf is your turf,
Don’t let anyone tell you that you’ve got to give in,
Cos you can make a difference, you can change everything,
Just let your dreams be your pilot, your imagination your fuel,
Tear up the book and write your own damn rules,
Use all that heart, hope and soul that you’ve got,
And the love and the rage that you feel in your gut,
And realise that the other world that you’re always looking for,
Lies right here in front of us, just outside this door,
And it’s up to you to go out there and paint the canvas,
After all, you were put on the earth to do this,
So shine your light so bright that all can see,
Take pride in being whoever the fuck you want to be,
Throw your fist in the air in solidarity,
And shout “Viva la punk, just one life, anarchy”.

You can see more of the photos I shot on the night by clicking here.

A few of the bands that I have worked with recently convinced me to create a Facebook Fan Page for my work so I did exactly that and it’s one of the easiest places for me to keep up to date and connect with so if you are on Facebook make sure to hook up with me on facebook.com/marcusmaschwitzphotography

For those of you that don’t know I also work as a website designer when I get asked and on projects that I know are going to work out exciting. Verb is an amazing skateboarding company that has just launched today and I finished off their website in preparation for this and it has just gone live. I love the way that it came out and it is one of my favourites sites so far.

You can see it on weareverb.com

I had a really good shoot with the boys from the band, Delica Black, the other day and they are a really nice bunch of guys that made the shoot feel more like hanging out as apposed to working. We met up in Crystal Palace Park which was the perfect setting and I filmed a few quick clips with my happy snapper just to show off the setting and a bit of the process but it’s really hard to do that and focus on my actual work so it’s not the best but still worth having a look. The video is below and if you are interested in seeing a few of the photos you can see them on my music photography blog by CLICKING HERE.

As most of you will know I have been a big fan of messing around with old vintage cameras as well as lomo cameras to create different images that are really hard to duplicate with the best technology … raw images if you will.

Anyway, I have always wished that I could use the lomo format or atleast produce similar images with my D3 but only now just found out that you can purchase an F-Mount kit for Nikon and Canon cameras so that you can mount the Diana range of plastic lenses with ease. I haven’t yet used the system but am really considering it and wondered if anyone else has explored this system and if you had any thoughts. If not, that’s alright too, keep posted and I will add a few of the images as soon as I have shot some. I know I am probably going to buy it soon.

Other than that, I hope you are all well. Marcus

I have been working really hard lately but having a lot of fun at the same time which is always good news but unfortunately I battle to make time to keep my sites up to date and blog as much as I would like to but that’s just how things go. I finally had some time to go through my portfolio site and update a few of the galleries on their although I have to admit I still have a lot of shoots to go through so I will keep updating it.

If you have the time you should check it out and let me know what you think. The band / music galleries I have just updated include Group Portraits, Individual Portraits and Live Music.

Back last month I had a shoot with the guys from Adelphia of Kings (ex The Glass Empire) so I traveled down to the Isle of Wight for the day to shoot with them which was really good fun. I filmed a bunch of footage with my wife’s happy snapper point and shoot and quickly pasted the footage together and this is it.

I will post a few of the photos later when the guys launch their MySpace.