Posts Tagged: music photographer

Music News — 5 Comments
20
Feb 10

Find what you have lost…

 

I love my music, I love my photography and for the last two years I’ve been combining those two things in my quest to become a music photographer… Well, I got what I wanted and I’ve had an amazing time doing it! I wanted to be that guy, the one in the pit in front of the crowd, nothing to distract me from the band, just me and them and my camera and that was that.

The Rushes play Hammersmith

My very first music photograph - The Rushes

I’ve decided to give my little project the weekend off, let it out to pasture. I’m done with music photography for a number of reasons and I’m very happy with what I’ve achieved in the last two years.

My highlights, well… Alice in Chains was special, Metallica was powerful, NiN was sombre, Counting Crows was electric, Dave Matthews Band was invigorating, Lou Rhodes was emotional, U2 was large… The list goes on and on (well, for another 90 or so bands)

Stefan

Further down the track - Stefan | Dave Matthews Band

What did I learn? Most bands don’t even know you’re there, PR agencies think they’re god and are part of what is wrecking the music industry, You don’t need a really good camera but it helps, It’s hard to focus sometimes when you’re singing, Alcohol and photography are not friends, Photographing festivals is tiring and inspiring and some artists, the ones that do see you, and encourage you and engage you, they’re awesome. (There’s one like this, I’ll be shooting her again – but for the love of it)

Like I said in podcast four, Maybe it’s time to check out other areas of photography, I don’t like being stuck on the one country road for to long, so maybe it’s time to get that baking book that my friend Nicki gave me out and start baking and snapping – though, we already know just how good I am in the kitchen!

Already had one...

I'm awesome in the kitchen, awesome...

Camera Gear / Music / Photography — 4 Comments
30
Oct 09

Top Ten “Bits of kit” for the Music Photographer

You can have “great” gigs and “rubbish” gigs… but it doesn’t matter WHAT your gig is like, without gear you “ain’t got no gig” and yeah, blah blah “It’s not the Camera it’s the photographer” …Tell me that when you have the choice to shoot, in the dark, backlit with red light, at the Islington Academy… Yeah, it’s the gear and then, if you know how to work it – you get the photos!… (Note to yourselves.. I’m right, don’t argue..haha) Warning! This post is littered with links that lead you to amazing places that have lovely stuff that you WILL want to buy – If you go broke, not my fault.

Get out of my bag...

Get out of my bag...

10. Picture this! You’re at the front of the crowd, only a thin rail seperates you and 25 THOUSAND screaming fans! There’s screaming and cheering and whooping (you should get that looked at! what the hell is whooping anyway?) and you’re about to take photos with your new 5DMk2 / D3s / 30D / 10D / Ixus / GRIII – errr, you see where I’m going… the lights drop! the music comes up! and a HALF FILLED BOTTLE OF WEE lands on your camera!!… destroyed… finished!… WEE O’Clock! …Now, that’s to say that it’s only happened to me once, and the wee was on me, not my camera – BUT – to be less dramatic, I’ve shot in the rain at a festival and a good WATERPROOF cover is a great buy at ..well, very cheap! Or you can use supermarket bags!..I use the OpTech 18 version..

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Music / Music News / Photography — 7 Comments
29
Oct 09

“Top Ten” Music Photography “Issues”

A little series here, a little series there – Today we start the “Top Ten – Music Photography” series.

The theme today is “the Top Ten issues you could run into that might ruin your shoot if you let them” (And, in true X Factor form… the Top Ten issues, in no particular order are….)

10. Gear Failure! I recently shot a fella named Nate James for Blues & Soul magazine – Most of the images on THIS aData memory card that I used came out “in half” – You can read about it here

9. Shooting rock gods IS amazingly fun – I mean, you’re feet away from your “hero” he’s singing for you… and then, a plastic beer bottle half filled with WEE hits you in the back of the head, drips down your shirt collar and goes on your camera.. Not fun!

8. Red Light, Blue Light! – Here… Let me illustrate! …Nothing kills a good shot like badly placed Red and Blue (And purple and green) lights… Badly placed, no whites… Color is good, sometimes!

Movement, Power, Blue, Red

Movement, Power, Blue, Red

7. Security! Sometimes they’re amazing and helpful and chatty and approachable. Sometimes they’re complete low life, jobsworth, hard headed “I’m the god of this place” scum…

These guys were the good guys...

These guys were the good guys...

6. There’s RED, BLUE and GREEN and then there’s “Not Seen!” – Recent gig, Hilltop Hoods and there was NO front light whatsoever… The lighting guy decided that he’d stick some par cans on the side of the stage, facing forwards, and some white strobes from the back, again firing forwards… Not conducive to good images – even with the Canon 5DMk2 and its wonderful high iso button…

5. A “pit” full of photographers is nice, fun… You make contacts and friends… But sometimes there’s one or two that are WAY better than everyone else – maybe in their head – and they roll in like they own the place, step all over you and rock back out… How to make friends and influence people… #namingnamesisbad

4. Security at the entrance of the o2 – Nuff said… Worst in London so far as JobsWorth goes – once you’re inside, then that’s OK… but if you even LOOK like you’re going to skip out on that BLOODY metal detector, you’re dead! “What’s in the bag?” – “Cameras” – “Why” – “Because I’m a photographer, here’s my pass and my act is on stage in three minutes” – “Who hired you?” – NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!… Grrr..haha, I made myself angry thinking about those guys!!… (Yes, I realise WHY security is in place, but you go through there with a camera bag and the wrong look on your face THEN come talk to me!)

3. Evil PR people! While some PR agencies and people n the industry are stunning, helpful and lovely (You know who you are!) there are some that are almost the most unhelpful people you will EVER meet. “You can’t get a pass because I give out the passes and I don’t like you, and you can’t do anything for me and I’m smart and funny and you’re a Canon user and I’m not wearing any underwear” – Yeah, really*

Boring Crowds!

Boring Crowds!

2. With most music photography, you only get three songs and you’re out… If the band are down and don’t give you a good three songs, you can sometimes hate the photos you take and get demotivated – I think crowd reaction in part, along with how the crowd are treated and built up pre-show is key, but if the crowd are dead boring (like the lot above were) then, you’re stuffed… Aside from Aworan, My brother from another mother there in the pit looking all smart like!

and LAST but not least!!

1. Enjoying amazing music but having to leave the second the third song is finished! Having to run out while Alice in Chains are playing your favorite track EVER – Out you get, you’re finished! your WORK here is done.

So, that’s “fun list” number one – Ten things that could potentially stuff up your music photography gig!

Nice one.

Sime

Live Bands / Music News — 7 Comments
24
Sep 09

Black gives way to blue | Alice in Chains

A mate mentioned that he was listening to the new Alice in Chains stuff and said that, incredulously, it’s “the best they’ve ever done” Now, while I’m very musically fair and will give anything a couple of listens before I bin it, I thought “how can that be?!” – What about Grind and … well, everything else A.I.C have ever done?!

william-duvall-alice-in-chains-sonisphere

Mr. William DuVall

Unlike most office workers, I have a “Logitech Z-5500 THX-Certified 505-Watt 5.1 Digital Surround Sound Speaker System” attached to my pc, and yes, that is a 10″ sub woofer attached and under my desk, I’m not even close to pleased to see you… I like my music and listen to it all day – I’ve actually never considered that people don’t like my taste (I do have two different pairs of Sennheiser headphones just in-case the tension is running high!)

Well – I have had (This review copy) of Black Gives Way To Blue on for most of the day and I have to say – Alice in Chains have amazed me. The recreation with new front man WILLIAM DUVALL has been a success – There was much talk in the camp “will he fill Layne’s boots” …I don’t think it was a case of filling them, nobody ever could really.. But the guy is magic, he’s awesome on stage, sounds brilliant… I’m 2:05 into Acid Bubble and loving it – some differences, but hell, he’s not Layne. I’ve photographed the “new” AIC twice now, once at Sonisphere and once at Scala in London (Where I managed a mention on the AIC blog – see if you can work out where!)

Mr. Jerry Cantrell

Mr. Jerry Cantrell

They are amazing. The recreation is superb. Click this link and buy the album – don’t think, just do it. Black Gives Way To Blue | Alice in Chains

This album doesn’t get stars – it gets listened to, over and over again and gets bought by me on Vinyl and CD – Jerry’s guitar solo from 2:10 in “Private Hell [Explicit]” ….so so good

Sime

Music / Photography — 1 Comment
23
Sep 09

All about the music…

I’m a music photographer, and I’m an appreciator of many (not all) types of music.

I received a tweet from a friend of mine last night in response to a tweet I sent.

Here’s what I sent..
sent

I was at a gig last night (shock horror!) The show was at the Bedford in Balham, A great venue for sound (despite a gentle light based hum last night) and because of the act, Antonio Forcione, the noise showed through his amazing guitar playing (Video below) Anyway, the lighting at the Bedford is great for an atmospheric gig, it’s soft and magenta and red and mirror ball with a black’ish felt backdrop curtain. All of those things make it a horrid place to photograph amazing artists. So, My tweets saying (musically / music was amazing) were basically that, saying I had an amazing night, musically – photographically, it wasn’t so hot.

Here’s what I received back…
jilly

And it made me think about my blog post from yesterday “Should I be doing this a different way” and then, I was thinking (I know, what THE!) again on the way to work this morning “It’s not about the money” That’s not why I wanted to become a music photographer.. I know plenty of music photographers that make next to nothing – but each one of them, when asked – and I do ask – loves what they do. They’re either musical or a lover of music and there’s a difference. You can see it when we’re all in the pit shooting. “I get chills, and sometimes they’re multiplyin”

So, It’s not all about the photos, It’s about the music first. – And on that note, Here’s a hand-held video I shot last night of Antonio cranking out Billy Jean – Michael Jackson.

Live Bands / Music / Photography — 6 Comments
22
Sep 09

Bullet Proof?

I wish I was, but I’m not…

A particularly uninspiring day of back and forth emails with “promotions” people, and some such bollocks. A completely misunderstood email, and a strong desire to want to slap someone – but really, life is too short. I’ll be on her black list, I’ll “never work in this town again” well, we’ll see.

There’s all this “hype” surrounding being a music photographer, unless you’re commissioned by someone and have regular work – it’s really hard to get anywhere with it. It can be quite depressing, being knocked back at a ratio of about 1:8 – Now, I’m not the worlds greatest photographer and, a lot of the time there is a little to be desired, but I’m not bad and I’m dedicated… Is that why I don’t get gigs? Are there “brilliant” photographers in every possible position available in London? Well, I’ve had a look at a few of the images that are submitted and they’re pretty rough. So, I don’t feel so bad.

Is this image “that bad” (I’m not looking for back patting, I’m just saying)

Tinchy Stryder

Tinchy Stryder

Maybe it’s time for a different approach?

Music / Photography — No Comments
19
Sep 09

Day in the life, Part Two…

Continued from part one….

“I usually start off around iso800 and work my way up (or down!) depending on the lighting, and slowly am learning how things go at a regular concert…” Is where we left it yesterday, talking about the regular day of a concert photographer – I guess what I should have called it was “Just one gig…”

So, we’ve had the support and the main act has just exploded onto the stage (not exploded ON the stage – we’re not talking about Spinal Tap here!) and you’re in Awe – I have been every time since I started – and then you focus and you’re prepared and you know your gear back to front and you’re away!… WHOA THERE, A couple of shots to start, check your exposure, watch your histogram… make sure it’s somewhere close to the middle if possible – though, this isn’t always (nearly never) the case as you always have spikes and troughs with concert lighting.. So just use it as a gauge, rather than a “damn, I buggered that up” because you probably haven’t.

Take a few shots, check and double check… One thing I used to do was let the music “take me” right from the word go – not ideal!… you’re shooting, forgetting to check your settings, just trusting that the lights haven’t changed hugely since they came on – not always the case… You can need iso400 and then iso2500 between the verse and the chorus!.. Usually though, I just (as I said) wander up through iso800 and then usually end up at around 2000 and vary the light with my aperture or shutter speed – depending on what look I’m after. So, you’ve got your metering set to spot (this is what I use mostly – average can play tricks on your camera) and you meter the light off your subject, be it the lead singer / drummer / bass player / kazoo artist… You set your shutter / aperture and then frame your shot when you’ve got your focus lock. There are many thoughts on framing, and it’s true – they change depending on what you’re shooting for. If you’re shooting for a magazine, a lot of the time they’re going to want a certain shot and they’re going to want space for captions or text, so you need to keep that in mind. Most of the time it’s best to get your shots nailed and then muck about being arty…

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Live Bands / Photography — 1 Comment
29
Jul 09

Going back…

I’ve started work on a book, I actually told a mate of mine, Paul, about it tonight, so that means I have to do it! – But more on that later! I was going through my Lightroom library and just laughing at the change in style and / or quality of the photos I’ve been taking over the last couple of years, music photos… From my first attempt at photographing some musicians in a dark pub to the larger stuff I’m doing these days – only one thing matters and that is that I get what I want out of the shoot. I’m not (A lot of the times) shooting for anyone other than press, and, as such I can pop into the pit, take a wide and a portrait and I’m done – but that’s not why I’m there… I’m a music lover first and a photographer along side that.

A music photographer, I think, can’t capture the emotion on the faces of the people he’s (or she!) photographing unless he (yes, or she!) understands the music, where it goes, how it runs and twists. I can air drum to any CD, Amy Grant included, I can get the most out of a piece of music – twice recently I’ve been stopped in my tracks by something that I thought I’d not totally enjoy… Acker Bilk the other night and a moment at the Benicassim Festival when, before the crowds were allowed into the main stage, I was standing listening to line checks early in the day and the audio engineer popped some Bach on – and we’re talking a volume that would explode a small child at fifty paces… It was truly amazing! From there, we’re moving swiftly on to Metallica, Linkin Park and NiN this coming weekend – so, I’m not precious with what music I will attempt to capture, I love music first and love capturing it equally first…

Dave Matthews from a recent show at the Brixton Academy

Dave Matthews @ Brixton Academy

Dave Matthews @ Brixton Academy

and then, moving back some time..

Roland Loop Station Trials

Roland Loop Station Trials

And, then back to one of my first gigs which, it turns out, was April 28th, 2008… My wedding anniversary?!

Miss. J MARIE COOPER

Miss. J MARIE COOPER

I really do find it amazing, the process, the trials associated with obtaining that magic “get me to the front” pass… One piece of advice I’d give to anyone trying to make it in this game – be kind to everyone you meet.

Sime – Music Photographer