Got dragged along to the Abbey Medieval Festival near Cabooolture for a day back in July. ‘Medieval’ being a bit of a loose term relating to a period of 600 years or so judging by the costumes and shows…

Took camera as usual, wanted to get some jousting photos but it was impossible to get anywhere near the front to get a good clear view. So just took photos of random people, going about their every day business…

Some photos below and more of flickr.

Photographed Tim Rogers at The Powerhouse last week. Got there at 8:30pm and managed to only just get in time, having already missed The Hampdens, who were supporting.

Have experienced The Powerhouse before and it’s not the best for photographing. Was in the Powerhouse Theatre, which although an impressive room is always very dark. But, as experienced when I photographed Robert Forster there, the rules are that you aren’t allowed to photograph from in front of anyone, meaning you either photograph from ther aisle at the side of the stage or from right at the back of the auditorium, both of which are some way from the centre of the stage.

Did the first 3ish from the side of the stage and then went and sat at the back to enjoy the show, and took a few long range, wide angles shots whilst sat down there. Decided to photograph the encore from the other side of the stage.

Really enjoyed the show but the photos weren’t the best, which is disappointing as I put in for it because I really like photographing Tim Rogers - as a photograper he gives you a lot to work with, and have taken some really nice photos of him with You Am I, at last year’s Falls Festival, and with Tex Perkins, at last year’s Valley Fiesta. Still, always next time, and see that You Am I are playing at The Zoo in mid-November…

Some photos here and more on flickr.

At the end of August ended up flying down to Melbourne and hanging out with the Butcher Birds for a couple days. Was much fun, even if there was nowhere near enough sleep, largely due to getting the 0615 flight down and having an action packed Friday which ended with the 2am show at The Pony.

Plenty of more photos from the Friday on flickr.

Will have to get around to finish going through Saturday’s photos at some point…

0615 flight (tour “traditional” champagne not pictured)

Room 323

Teebs modelling the new Gypsy-Bandito look

Melbz is like totez fun

Dancing Stacey

Teebs modelling the James Dean look

Yet another break for cigarettes…

O HAI

Band Love

J-Tard

PBS

The Pony 2am Show

Photographed Parklife when it passed through Brisbane a couple of weeks ago. Not quite sure why I said I’d do it: me and dance music are generally two mutually exclusive entities… I think it was because I was asked, and flattery gets you everywhere…

Despite not really looking forward to it, I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I though I would. I think with having been away for a month it was good to get in the swing of photographing things again and the running between stages at festivals to get there in time for your three songs adds some excitement to the usual hanging around for something to happen that you get at normal gigs.

Hot pink fluoro hurts my eyes though…..

Enjoyed The Sounds. Think they had the advantage of not really fitting in with the rest of bands/artists on the bill and were probably more akin to something I might normally listen to. But it was a flying visit to see them before rushing off to the other side of the festival to photograph MSTRKRFT.

Stereo MCs DJ set (ie Rob Birch) was a scary sight… It was fun trying to keep up with MIA to get a shot of her… Justice, Digitalism, Yelle and Lyrics Born played mostly in the dark… Muscles was kinda boring, comedy-musical karaoke… don’t see the big deal, but he pulled them in… always fun photographing bands like Winnie Coopers and The Herd.

Might have to put it in my diary for next year…

Some photos here and plenty of more on flickr.

Twist Oliver Twist

Winnie Coopers

Stereo MCs

Greenskeepers

Muscles

The Herd

The Sounds

MSTRKRFT

Yelle

Digitalism

Lyrics Born

MIA

Justice

In a recent blog I mentioned when the Nation Blue played The Troubadour and that at ISO1600 with a f.17 50mm lense it was still saying that needed 1/25 second. So nothing much good came out, hence why these photos have never seen the light of day. Took some shots with good old HP5 at the gig though. The film has been in the fridge since April so I really should get around to developing it some day…

In the meantime here’s the digital stuff. The lighting was a bit better for Side Effects.

Nation Blue

Side Effects

Originally wasn’t going to this but ended up doing some promo shots in the Valley earlier in the evening and just ended up staying around. Had my camera with me and despite my well known love of photographing at The Troubadour decided to get a few shots. The lighting wasn’t as bad as the ISO1600, f1.7, 1/25 second that my camera meter was telling me I needed at the Nation Blue gig earlier in the year, but it wasn’t much better…

It’s times like photographing at The Troubadour that I miss photographing with film. I have no issues like a lot of music photographers when it comes to film graininess (which is far more aesthetically pleasing than digital noise), and I have no problems with blur. Sharpness is far overrated…

It amuses me that music photographers will normally say the most iconic photos are Pennie Smith’s shot of Paul Simenon on the front of London’s Calling and Jim Marshall’s photo of Johnny Cash (not live, taken at a sound check and essentially posed, as there’s a series of them and the people in the background move between the different shots, so it was obviously a held pose, even if for only a couple of seconds), both of which have some degree of blur, and yet they criticise anything that’s not pin sharp…

I guess digital camera high ISOs are improving but even though anything above 800 starts looking like the Turin Shroud, I’ve got no intention to replace my camera until maybe next Xmas. As long as it keeps going that long - it’s been experiencing the dreaded black frame for a while now. Will have had it three years by then. Don’t understand the logic of replacing a camera every couple of years, or even buying two cameras in one year because a new model has been released. Generally the differences aren’t that revolutionary. My two year old, released about 6 months before I bought it, 6MP camera gets me published regularly, does me for CD covers and inlays and for promo shots. And the people that count say they like the photos. So that’s good enough for me for now.

So, I guess for the meantime The Troubadour will remain and noisy/blurry photo environment…

More noise/blur on flickr.

Batrider

Scul Hazzards

First two songs, no flash from the back of the room, which turned out to be the lighting desk at the front of the balcony. Still a long way from the stage. The kindly lighting guy warned us it was gonna be dark, and gave a little laugh…

He wasn’t wrong…

Although what was possibly even funnier was you kinda got the impression he was trying help out in the second song by boosting the lights a bit, causing Mr Adams to throw a hissy fit because it was too bright and storm off stage…

Having never seen him before, what was strange was that nobody seemed that bothered by it, seemingly because he’s got a reputation for it. He came back after 15 minutes and ended up playing for over 2 hours. Still in the dark. Not seen a decent photo from anyone who photographed his Australian tour and here’s my contributions to that group.

Heaven and Hell played at the BEC back in mid-August. Had the usual palaver getting to the BEC on the train with the building work at Brunswick Street so made sure I got there really early. Went for a walk around and a drink when I got there to kill time and managed to miss the opportunity to photograph Down, the main support band… and the show was running about 30 minutes late so was the usual hanging around.

But eventually the show started. It was the first time that seen any incarnation of Sabbath so was really looking forward to it. Only got to see the first three songs but was quite humbling to be stood there in front of Tony Iommi. The crowd love him and the way he nodded his head in appreciation in thanks when they were chanting his name or applauding his playing was cool. And his playing was awesome. The lighting was surprisingly poor, which was annoying as really wanted to get a decent photo of his left hand with the attachments on his two missing finger tips.

Dio was great; saw on Wikipedia that he’s 65, which is pretty incredible. He might look scary and dress badly but he sang and performed fantastically. Never been that bothered about seeing the Ozzy-fronted Sabbath line up as would be worried that it would be far to close to pantomime these days. Given how good they sounded at this gig not sure if tonight made me more keen or not.  I guess it would mean that I would get the chance to photograph Bill Ward…

A few photos below and more on flickr.

So, I put in a couple of photos for the National Photographic Portrait Competition, but as the time you’d be notified if you’d made the final 60 has long since passed, I’m guessing I’m not gonna have my photo exhibited in the National Gallery in Canberra and I’m not in the running for the $25,000 first price. (Edit: The finalists are shown here - some really good stuff). I kinda knew the Tim Rogers one (taken at last year’s Valley Fiesta) wouldn’t get very far but as I’d gone to the effort of sorting it out that I would just enter it. I liked the photo but couldn’t get a crop of it that I was totally happy with.

But I really, really, really like the photo of Toby Dundas, drummer for The Temper Trap (taken at The Zoo in May when they were supporting Howling Bells). It’s one of my favourite photos that I’ve taken this year, so had high hopes for it… but guess it didn’t impress them.

Or maybe they just didn’t like my artist statement…

Through my photography I strive to produce strong, iconic images that stand out from the crowd and act as an antidote to the glossy throwaway concert photos that are celebrated by the modern mainstream media.

Whereas most music photographers will talk in clichés about endeavouring to capture “The Moment” – which generally relates to tired rock-star action poses - I have always approached my photography looking for something closer to “The Anti-Moment”.

This, to me, embodies an instance of simple elegance and breathtaking beauty, a single, fleeting point in time where the subject is caught in a period of stillness and reflection, isolated from the audience and the stage.

Guess there’s always next year…