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Blasts from the past...

18 JUNE 2008
No T-Pain, no gain

I had a pretty good day yesterday. To start with, the London Lite printed one of my Coldplay shots (it's the panoramic shot, not the large one of Chris Martin I should add). I'm surprised that out of all my shots, that's the one that got picked but I'm happy that it found its way into the public domain nonetheless.

In the evening I headed to the Indigo2 (at the O2) to shoot American hip hopper T-Pain. I'd never shot at the Indigo2 before so was looking forward to the shoot. Security was very tight (two scanners plus a body search) and after it was established that I was neither a terrorist nor a hoodie with an ASBO and a knife I was allowed to make my way to the box office to collect my photo pass. The only problem was, there were no photo passes. The guy at the box office asked me who'd organised the whole thing but since it was an agency job I didn't have any specific names. When I asked him to please call the tour manager as he would have approved the pass, the smartass says to me: "What's the tour manager's name?". Well, how the fuck should I know?! I'm a photographer and not a contestant on "Guess the name and win prizes". Anyway, in the end his royal highness decided to call the TM and after a short wait and a further quizz I was given my pass. As I entered the venue and made my way into the pit I was surprised to see that I was the only photographer there. I guess no one else managed to either get through to the publicist or make it past the box office...

The shoot itself was pretty good - there were no restrictions in terms of how many songs I could shoot so I did about 4 and then headed back home. I hate taking too many photos anyway - you just end up getting the same photo over and over again. Plus, you have to go through them all and process them which can be a real pain - especially if you are shooting RAW like me.
View the 'T-Pain' gallery



16 JUNE 2008
That's Coldplay with a capital 'C' and Disappointing with a capital' D'

Earlier tonight I headed to south London to shoot the hottest gig in town - Coldplay's free show at the Brixton Academy. I'd really been looking forward to covering this show, but unfortunately the gigs you really want to shoot can often turn out to be a real disappointment. The band came on to lots of backlighting and then performed the first song in near darkness. For song number two we were treated to lots of red light so getting any decent shots was close to impossible. Song three was slightly better but we got kicked out 10 seconds into it. One of the security guys insisted that the instrumental that had been playing at the very beginning of the show counted as one song - strange really as the band wasn't even on stage then. Anyway, there was no point arguing with him. I got one or two shots that I'm fairly happy with but overall it was a bit of a waste of time. I'll post the full gallery in the next few days.
View the 'Coldplay' gallery



14 JUNE 2008
It's June and from now on we'll be having it large!

It's been over two weeks since my last update so I guess I really have to make it up to the two or possibly three people who visit my site on a regular basis. One thing I should mention upfront is that from now on I will be posting slightly larger photos on the site. Very generous of me, I know. Just like music should be played loud, photos should be viewed large, so I'm giving you a few exra pixels from now on.

OK, so let's see what I've been up to. On 4 & 5 June I photographed New York dance act Hercules and Love Affair in central London. This was a comissioned job which tend to be fairly stressful. Do the job well, and you will get more business, but fuck things up and that's the last you'll hear from your client. I had been approached to shoot one of Hercules' live shows but since the band we're going to play three shows here, I offered to cover two of those - one at the Soho Revue Bar and the other one at Heaven. That way I felt I would be able to get a really good selection of shots and have a nice safety net - just in case things wouldn't go according to plan at the first show. In addition to the live shoot, I offered to do some promo shots as well - something I really want to try and do more often as I want to break into that type of photography. I'd arranged to meet the band in the afternoon of the Soho Revue Bar show and as soon as they arrived I got them to pose for me. We started out in the dressing room, then moved on to the main bar, and finished off in the piano bar upstairs. Now, taking live shots is one thing but doing portrait photography is a completely different kettle of fish and it's important to have a rapport with the people you are photographing. Hercules and Love Affair are a colourful bunch of people - in particular the very glamorous Nomi - so it was a challenge to be sociable with three complete strangers who I'd only just met for the first time and concentrate on getting the shots I wanted. Luckily, the photos turned out really well and I learnt things that will make my next job a little bit easier.
View the 'Hercules and Love Affair' gallery


Following the two Hercules live shoots, it was time to photograph one of the biggest rock bands in the world at one of the most famous stadiums in the world...the Foo Fighters at Wembley Stadium. Collecting a photo pass at a stadium is a real pain in the arse as no one seems to be able to tell you where you need to get your pass from. I'd been told by my contact to go to the west box office but as soon as I turned up there, I was told to go to the east box office instead. However, the fun didn't end there cos even though I was now in posession of a photo pass, no one could tell me where the press area was. I walked round the entire stadium before ending up at the east box office again. It's just the sort of excercise I like doing when I carry a heavy rucksack full of camera equipment. Fortunately, I did manage to find the press area in the end and even had a little time to take a breather before we were escorted into the stadium. The shoot itself was fun even if the whole thing was a rather rushed affair as we were only allowed to shoot the first two songs. It was also not the easiest job I'd ever done due to the fact that the stage and runway, which formed part of it, were huge and rather high and there were lots of lights and other things that kept getting in the way, so composing my photos was not an easy task. Still, I got a few shots that I'm very happy with and that's all that matters at the end of the day.
View the 'Foo Fighters' gallery


After a few days off, I got a call from my agency asking me if I would shoot Lykke Li at the ICA for them. It's amazing how one day you're shooting at Wembley Stadium, and the next you're at a tiny venue that has no pit or decent lighting. I'd shot at the ICA before as it hosted the 2007 iTunes Festival but am not a big fan of the venue - especially after the Lykke Li show. Not having a pit wasn't that much of a problem as I still managed to get to the front of the stage (one of the benfits of photographing a somewhat obscure act from Sweden). The lighting, however, was abysmal. I got a few acceptable shots but nothing that I'd put in my portfolio.
View the 'Lykke Li' gallery


The following day - so that would be 12 June - I headed to the Shepherd's Bush Empire to shoot Miss American Boy Estelle. I got some really great shots at the show - it was almost as if someone knew I'd been at the ICA the night before and decided to give me some light. Make sure you check out the gallery because I'm actually really proud of these shots - something I don't say very often!
View the 'Estelle' gallery


And so we get to the last gig of the week - number 63 of the year. I got an email in the morning asking me if I could shoot 5 o'Clock Heroes at Industry in trendy Hoxton. The email said Agyness Deyn - new British supermodel on the block - was going to join the band on stage and that it was THE gig to be at. Agyness is featured on the band's latest single - which immediately explained why she would be joining them on stage. As you can imagine, the gig was packed - the guestlist was about 5 pages long - and the entire front row was made up of photographers. Industry is a tiny place so the lighting was never going to be great. However, it was so bad that one of the other photographers decided to take matters into his own hands... There were three small spot lights with red filters above the stage (and that was all the light there was) and 10 minutes before the band came on, one of the photographers went up on stage, removed the red filters and rotated the spotlights slightly - so at least we got some white light. I still had to use ISO 3200-6400 but got some pretty good shots. The band played a solid set and Agyness really added another dimension to the proceedings. It's not often that you stand a few feet away from a supermodel and get to take pictures of her performing at a gig. I'm certainly glad I went and who knows - seeing that Agyness is sougth after tabloid fodder, I may even sell a few photos.
View the '5 o'Clock Heroes' gallery



Continue: May 2008 archive