Stopped Breaking My Neck!

Summer was gadget time. I got myself some custom made earplugs, and some other fancy stuff to play with while the concert calendars were white and empty over summer.

Gadget number two are my beloved Black Rapid R-Straps. What I'm wearing on those pics is not a backpack, it's my double-black-rapid shoulder gear for wearing two cameras at once. Hands-free!



Normal straps scream the name of your camera manufacturer, get sticky round the neck and have sharp edges, so when you carry them around your neck and pull the camera up, you get your combat marks where other people get love bites.

Many photogs wrap the strap around their shooting hand, but that never was for me. I need my hands to fidget with other stuff even when shooting with one cam only - I mostly shoot with two, so I'd be a bit handicapped if I had a camera tied to each hand. Quite sure it'd look funny though ;-)



So what does the Black Rapid Strap do?

• other than "traditional" camera straps, the Black Rapid doesn't attach to the camera's strap holders. Instead, you get a freely turning loop that you screw in as if it were a tripod. Then you attach a carabine to said loop, and said carabine is attached to a square metal eye that freely moves along the strap.
  • That way, you can move the camera along the strap, and the strap will stay where it is.
  • The camera can rotate any which way thanks to the loop - no twisted straps at any time
  • When you let go of the camera, it will hang upside-down along your behind and is safely out of the way
• it's comfily padded, so even with heavy cameras, no love bites
• when you drop the camera, it will hang behind your lower back and won't annoy you while you walk.
• you can wear a single one (if you only shoot with one cam) diagonally, or two of them linked together like a backpack. Either way, if you let go of the camera, you can do what you want with your hands without having to be afraid that the expensive toy might drop off of your shoulder.
• it's got little pockets in the strap which I use for business cards (cause I never managed to fill 32GB plus 4GB in one night of shooting 3-songs-only even with 6 bands up to now - so the spare memorycards are somewhere in my pockets along with the wrinkled money and the cellphone).

The photos in this post were taken by my friend Maceman at the Moby show last Thursday

Loudness War!

If you've ever been to a rock concert (and if you read this blog, you *probably* have), you know that sound that reminds you of what you did last night for all of the following day. Beeeeeeep. Until you either constantly hear bells ringing or don't hear anything any more, which both keeps you from enjoying music, which sucks.

Front row at a live rock concert

In Switzerland, there's a law that says concerts can't excel 100dB, and that concert promoters have to provide free earplugs. Bands make fun of the law ("What are they gonna do? Arrest us all?" said one Duff McKagan, who, given his biography, probably needs the 100dB on the monitors to even be able to hear himself). Concert promoters team up with whoever wants to put their ad on the box to be able to provide the free earplugs. I grab tons of them when I go to shows, 'cause I've gotten used to sleeping with my ears shut when I lived next to a train line.

Duff McKagan, formerly of Guns N' Roses, performing with new band Loaded

But the quality of the free plugs sucks, naturally. You can't hear the audience. Then this great singalong song comes up. You take the plugs out. You forget that you should put them back in. Back to square one.

Fans holding up lighters and cell phones during Guns N' Roses' performance of Knockin' On Heaven's Door in Baltimore, MD

So I went to the music shop to get better plugs, and spent 60 bucks on a pair of plastic thingies with "filters". They sucked as much, and I decided to live with the sucky free ones. At least they are always available, just in case you forget yours. But it kept sucking.

Custom made "in-ear" earplugs keep the noise out without distorting the sound - highly recommended if you watch a lot of concerts live!

Now I got myself a pair of custom earplugs. Yes, you're looking at the inverse of the inside of my ears (no worries, the pics were taken before any serious use ;-) . They cost 300 Swiss. That's a lot of money. But see it this way: If you had tinnitus, or were deaf, how much would you give to be able to enjoy music again?

custom made earplugs, as worn by this photographer while shooting pictures at live concerts

Protect yourself!!