This Is Not A Photo Opportunity

Big Sound 2009 – Wednesday

For a few days back in September I got to play at being a proper bona fide photographer for a few days when I was commissioned by the organisers to be part of a three-person team of photographers covering the Big Sound conference in Brisbane.  The work involved covering the panel discussions and also all the live music in the evenings.  The sessions were divided up between the photographers, meaning that we each had to cover two half-days at the conference.  The live music was roughly split up so that each photographer covered two of the six venues being used, with a bit of fine tuning to allow photographers to also choose some specific bands that they really wanted to photograph.  I wasn’t needed to photograph the conference on the first day, so instead got to relax and listen to some really interesting sessions, particularly Noel Mengel’s Keynote Interview with the very inspiring and very legendary Van Dyke Parks and the very lively ‘Blogging, Twittering & Online Publishing: Time Wasting or Tastemaking?’ panel discussion, obviously a subject very close to my heart.

The live music started early with the invite-only Dew Process/Universal Music Showcase at Alhambra Lounge, with sets by Matt Walters, Washington, Dew Process’s latest local signings Last Dinosaurs and Yves Klein Blue, who replaced the late-cancelling Bluejuice.  The showcase was the calm before the storm, with another ten acts photographed in three venues over the course of the evening.  It was very much a case of turning up a venue, photographing the first few songs and then moving on to shoot the next band, allowing a bit of time in the military precision planning to move between and to also get into the venues.  As such it was hard to properly check the bands out.  Based on sheer numbers, The Middle East at Family was the show to be at, although sadly, and in typical Brisbane fashion, most of the crowd disappeared before Robert Schneider played.

A selection of photos is on Flickr, with all the conference photos on Big Sound’s website.

Robert Schneider

The Middle East

Sola Rosa

Rocketsmiths

Ladi6

Philadelphia Grand Jury

The Optimen

Hungry Kids of Hungary

Romy

DZ

Yves Klein Blue

Washington

Last Dinosaurs

Matt Walters

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 14th, 2010 at 3:01 pm. It is filed under Music Photography and tagged with 2009, Big Sound, Brisbane, DZ, Hungry Kids of Hungary, Justin Edwards, Ladi6, Last Dinosaurs, Matt Walters, Philadelphia Grand Jury, Robert Schneider, Rocketsmiths, Romy, Sola Rosa, Sony a700, The Middle East, The Optimen, Van Dyke Parks, Washington, Yves Klein Blue. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.