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BEFORE YOU ENTER THE ARCHIVE... Things to do while you're here... Welcome to Front Rows, Pits and Pavements, the website of photographer Carsten Windhorst (that would be me). Click on any of the four categories below - i.e. Live Photography, Portrait Photography, Video Production Stills, Reportage - to see a selection of my portfolio shots or scroll down to read my blog. To find out more about me, check out my Biography or head to the Tearsheets section of the site to see where my photos have been published. Last but not least, if you want to get in touch, please send an email to carsten.windhorst@gmail.com. Enjoy your stay!
ARCHIVE Blasts from the past... 29 June 2010 Back on stage I'm still recovering from Glastonbury and have used a well deserved night off to edit my Hot Chip photos. I couldn't wait to get home and put them up as they are by far the best photos I have taken in a while. Being on stage makes a huge difference when you shoot a band. In Hot Chip's case I had free reign of the entire stage, and a beautiful backdrop with the sun setting over Glastonbury. As you can tell I started out in the pit, then moved to the back of the stage and as the show drew to a close my confidence grew and I stood right behind the guys for the last 30 seconds they were on stage (there was an amp between me and them though I should add - I wasn't THAT confident). Check out the gallery for the full set. View the 'Hot Chip' gallery
28 June 2010 What a scorcher I'm back in London after spending five nights in the sunny fields of Glastonbury. I think I shot around 30 bands so there are lots and lots of photos to come, but let's start with LCD Soundsystem who I had the pleasure of shooting on the Other Stage on Sunday night just as the sun started to set over Glastonbury. I was on stage for the entire shoot which always makes for interesting photos. Having said that, shooting into the sun without flash can be tricky but I guess that's why it makes sense to think about the right combination of shutter speed, aperture and ISO when you do a shoot. Anyway, make sure you keep checking the site for updates as I have some more on-stage shots of other bands for you. View the 'LCD Soundsystem' gallery
23 June 2010 Scissors are doing it for themselves again The Scissor Sisters have arrived back in London town after a rather long three year break - it's definitely good to have them back. Last night they played the first of two shows at Brixton Academy and as you might have guessed I was there to capture the action. More to come later as I'm off to a certain festival!
20 June 2010 The end of a rocking week Aerosmith, Stone Temple Pilots AND Green Day all in one week - not bad, not bad at all. Yup, it's been a rather productive 7 days for me and I finished the week by shooting Green Day at Wembley Stadium yesterday. I won't bore you with all the details but let's just say that despite the size of the stadium, the pit was so small it was practically non-existent so moving around was pretty much impossible. We were pressed up against the stage and runway, and the shorter togs really struggled - fortunately some of them had brought steps to stand on. I'm not sure why shooting bigger shows in London has started becoming such a fucking pain - pretty much every time you look forward to shooting a gig these days you arrive at the venue only to be told there are some ridiculous shooting conditions in place. "First three, no flash, with the lens cap on please!".... View the 'Green Day' gallery
18 June 2010 Go into the light OK, I know that fictional place called heaven doesn't exist but even if it did I wouldn't go there - sounds way too boring. Give me hell (that other fictional place) any old day of the week. However, Heaven - the venue, that is - does exist and I have now decided I won't be going there again either as it's the shittiest venue ever to shoot a band at - and that's official. The highest stage you can imagine (eye level when standing up), narrow as fuck, no space to move around, and yesterday the added fun of monitors at the front of the stage which basically obstructed my entire view. It was awful. Performing at this dump were Robyn and I Blame Coco who both were fun to watch but a lot less fun to shoot due to the previously mentioned shooting conditions. And in Robyn's case I need to add 'extremely bad stage lighting' to the above list. Right, that's enough moaning and swearing for one day. I'm off to play with my ouija board...
17 June 2010 That was mega... Another exciting shoot for me yesterday - this time it was Stone Temple Pilots at Brixton Academy. Front man Scott Weiland is always a pleasure to shoot - with our without a megaphone in his hand and with or without Velvet Revolver or Stone Temple Pilots! That's not to say his band mates didn't strike a pose or two for the photographers. Check out the full gallery for some more live action shots. View the 'Stone Temple Pilots' gallery
16 June 2010 As crammed as an elevator... I think it was three years ago that I last shot Aerosmith so when I heard that they were going to play a show at the O2 I decided it was time to get some new photos of the guys. Last night I headed to the O2 for the shoot...as did 14 other photographers (apparently there were 25 on the original list!), and to say the pit was crammed would be an understatement. To make matters worse we could only shoot from the right hand side of the stage - right next to the runway that formed part of the stage - and just before the show started security tried to move us to the far right hand side of the stage from which we would have got no photos at all. Luckily none of the togs moved and in the end we all stayed in our previously designated area. Since we weren't allowed to move around we all spent most of our time looking at the back of Steven Tyler who had wandered to the end of the runway, away from the photographers. When he did come near us it proved quite tricky to take photos as there were so many of us piled on top of each other, so every time I thought I could get a clear shot I had someone's elbow in front of my lens. Funnily enough it was still pretty good fun though... View the 'Aerosmith' gallery
14 June 2010 I haven't done it all... As you have probably guessed by now, I enjoy shooting the odd live show. In fact, I enjoy it so much that I often shoot the same bands and artists several times in one year. However, every now and again a musician will come to town who I have not photographed yet and it's these shoots that tend to be particularly exciting. I cannot tell you how much I had been looking forward to shooting Chris Isaak when I first heard he was going to play a show at the Shepherds Bush Empire. Not only is Chris a bit of a legend ('Wicked Game' video anyone?) but the Shepherds Bush Empire is also my favourite venue to shoot at so this was always going to be a bit of a highlight for me. Well, Chris did not disappoint and I came away with a lovely set of photos. View the 'Chris Isaak' gallery
12 June 2010 How could I forget? Well, I was just in the middle of editing some photos when I realised that I had shot Supergrass this week but hadn't as yet put the photos up. Well, the Supergrass shoot wasn't exactly super (the lighting was just bad) but here are three of my shots for you anyway (I'm struggling to find a fourth one that I like enough to put on the site). Since I didn't shoot a show yesterday and have a night off tonight as well, I'm now officially up to date on the blog front. Hurrah! I shall use my spare time to create galleries for some of the shows I have shot this past week. So without further ado I give you the Crowded House gallery as well as the Paul Weller one from last month which is now finally live.
11 June 2010 As good as Goulding On Wednesday it was time to shoot Ellie Goulding again. I had shot her twice before - the first time at the Tabernacle and then again at Heaven. From a photography point of view, those two shows hadn't been particularly exciting affairs so I was hoping that Ellie would up her game for her biggest London show to date. Well, I'm happy to report that we did get some nice lighting as well as a screen at the back of the stage, and since Ellie doesn't exactly go crazy on stage when she performs I got some nicely composed shots of her. View the 'Ellie Goulding' gallery
10 June 2010 A sold out house On Tuesday Crowded House played the first of three shows at the Apollo. SInce there was no pit we had to shoot from the aisles which is always a little restricting, I feel. Not the greatest shoot I've ever done but the photos came out OK and I have just been told I have a "marvelous shot" in The Times. Hm, I need to go and check the paper. View the 'Crowded House' gallery
9 June 2010 Ultrabrite On Monday I spent most of the day at the O2 Arena to shoot Bon Jovi who are in town to play a month long residency at the venue (they're "only" doing 12 shows, I should add). We were supposed to shoot the band playing a gig on the roof of the O2 in the afternoon, followed by a photocall in the VIP bar, followed by the actual concert in the evening. On arrival at 2.30pm we were told that we could no longer shoot the roof top gig as there was not enough space up there to accommodate us all but we should hang around for the photocall at 4.30pm. Lovely. As photocalls go, it was over before you could say "Cheese", and instead of hanging around for another few hours I decided to go home briefly and come back to the O2 for the gig later that evening. At this point I should add that Jon Bon Jovi has the whitest teeth I have ever seen - I'm sure you could blind a small child with those things! The show itself started very promptly at around 8.45pm and we were allowed to shoot the first two songs from the back of the VIP section, i.e. approximately 10 rows back. Overall a rather enjoyable shoot but moving around was somewhat difficulat as there were about 14 photographers there. They only had 3 there on the second night so those guys definitely got the better deal. More photos to come soon.
8 June 2010 Rage Factor I'm a bit behind on putting stuff up on the site so you will have to wait an extra day for yesterday's photos. For now here are some shots from Sunday's phenominal (and more importantly FREE) 'Rage Factor' gig at Finsbury Park in north London which was put on by Rage Against The Machine to thank their fans for beating X Factor winner Joe McElderry in the battle for the 2009 Christmas number 1. Rage were fun to shoot but the support acts - Gallows, Gogol Bordello and Roots Manuva - also deserve a mention here! I have finished editing all the shots from the shoot so it's now only a matter of putting up the actual gallery. View the 'Rage Against The Machine' gallery
4 June 2010 Where to begin? I have lots to report, so let's get stuck in. First things first, there is a 2-page feature I wrote in the July issue of Photo Pro Magazine here in the UK. I believe the magazine is available abroad as well so do check it out. It talks about FOR THE RECORD - my photography project for Amnesty International. I know I haven't mentioned anything about the whole thing before but hopefully there will be regular updates on this special collection I'm putting together from now on. I wrote the article about the shoot I did with Duran Duran's John Taylor which was a really rather memorable experience in many ways.... In other news, yesterday I shot Tom Jones at a church in Mayfair. Tom has a new album out next month and played a special showcase for industry people in the rather beautiful surroundings of One Mayfair (aka St Mark's North Audley Street Church). After the show I headed to Koko in north London to shoot Netwon Faulkner headlining the 2nd Ambition gig in aid of TreeHouse - the national charity for autism education.
3 June 2010 S Club 7 this was not... One of the great things about shooting bands is that one night you can be out photographing a pop band at the O2, and the next night you can be standing in the pit waiting to shoot those big bad motherfuckers of heavy metal, i.e. Slayer, at the Forum. Well, that's what happened yesterday evening - and I do apologise for the tagline in case I completely misjudged the band. I don't know any of Slayer's songs (if you can call them that), I don't know any of the band members' names, but I knew I wanted to shoot these guys just for the experience.
1 June 2010 Then... It's 1st June today - does that mean it's officially summer? Well, it certainly doesn't feel like it. In fact, I'm THAT close to turning the heating on! Summer or not it certainly doesn't bode well for the 2010 festival season... Anyway, time for some new photos. Actually, make that "photo" - as in the singular of the word photo. Yesterday, I headed to the Roundhouse to shoot The Charlatans. Shambolic is the word that springs to mind. I'm not referring to the band's performance I shoud add - I'm talking about the lighting. I'm not happy with my shots at all so here is one for your viewing (dis)pleasure - just to keep the blog up to date.
Continue: May 2010 archive |
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carsten.windhorst@gmail.com
Concert photography - Live photography - Rrock photography - Music photography - Live Music Photography - Rock photos - Llive photos - Music photos - Rock photographer - Live photographer - Concert photographer Carsten Windhorst, London, UK.