...is more than likely one of the more frequent headlines we will see in 2010.. Do you call it the "Tenners" now? or?...but sadly for you, perverts, there are NO sex scandal videos in this post... though, if there were, I'd hope that they would include Sheryl Cole and Kylie Minogue... Well... Yes, moving on...
So, 2009 now behind us, and with good reason (time waits for no man, I guess) but what a year it was! Photographing Metallica, U2, Lou Rhodes... (not in that order) as well as about 600 other bands that I love photographing... I can only think of one very unpleasant experience in my music photography version of 2009, no wait, two...
Spending an hour rushing out to iNdigo2 to photograph Martina McBride who I referred to as "Martina McWho" at the time... I was grumpy! (I know, me grumpy! who'd have thought!) ...and the other was a lighting experience from hell at Roundhouse - they had a weekend festival and had decided to get a student in to do lighting, look, power to them for helping some uni kid out - but uni kid, learn that if you want photos (and there were many photogs there who were "Actual real photographers" (as opposed to me) you need to have a little light on the subject and not just fancy looking backlit reds... got it? - I walked...
Highlights of 2009 included (but were not limited to!) Lou Rhodes was magic, Counting Crows was amazing, U2 was large, Metallica was special, Alice in Chains was life changing... The list goes on and on... Two festivals, over one hundred other gigs... A top year!
Things I "found out along the way" Music PR people will always stick friends in to gigs before anyone else, so be nice... (You can't change it, so get in line) Small magazines will take you for all you're worth... People don't give a toss if you spent a day photographing for them, they will use your photos and ditch your name / keywords / tag line / logo - yes, they will... Photographing one gig for MTV went a long way to getting another gig... (Thank you MTV)
The best experience of 2009 came late in the year, November 19th to be exact (at 5:37pm) with the arrival of my little man, Sebastian, he's a cute little button and is going to be a handful for the next 20 years or so - much love.
I have no idea what 2010 holds, we shall see I suppose... Maybe more portraiture band stuff rather than live - there's some money in the portraiture / promo side of music shooting, though I will have had to have listened to a CD or seen the band live before I can photograph them - I'm listening to a band, The Blind Hearts, right now, trying to get a feel for the portrait we're going to produce...
New Media will be keeping me busy, Community management at dPS and Social Media consulting at thinkTANK Photo will keep me out of trouble! As well as my day job which I'm currently enjoying - new media / community management / social media for a television company here in London.
More on this later...
Sime