This Is Not A Photo Opportunity

DZ @ The Troubadour

A friend asked me a few week ago who my favourite new Brisbane band was.  I replied that I didn’t really have one; most the Brisbane bands I like have been around for at least a couple of years and when you become more ‘successful’ in photographing bands, getting the opportunity for higher profile gigs, you sadly lose touch with the grassroots music scene and what’s new and upcoming to some degree.  But all that changes tonight with DZ firmly installed as my favourite new(ish) local band and their 1am Troubadour show being the best show I’ve seen in a long time (I had seen the band before at last year’s MereNoise Xmas Party, but with them being the first band I’d photographed with the new camera I’d bought a few days earlier, I wasn’t giving them my full attention). 

It’s amazing stuff and despite my usual views on photographing in venues without photo pits, there’s still something really exhilarating about trying to photograph from within a really energetic crowd and being in the midst of it; you feel a true sense of documenting what is happening as opposed to the more sterile environment that exists when there is a barrier separating the audience from the stage, even if it makes it a whole lot easier and a much more pleasant experience for photographers.   

It definitely is a case of suffering for my art, with the hand operated strobe lighting being held right in front of my camera lens at one point, giving me an unhealthy flash of bright light from point blank range.  Having not actually left the house on Sunday, it’s not until Monday that I really notice it , with my eyesight being really shimmery and finding it hard to keep my eyes fully open at work, as it just seems far too bright outside my office window, even though it’s overcast and rains on occasions during the day and feeling like I really need to be wearing sunglasses indoors.  Looking at my eyes in the bathroom mirror is worrying as almost two days after the gig my pupils aren’t dilating, but by the Tuesday everything seems back to normal.  

I don’t normally put videos on my blog; I’m never sure of the copyright implications and I’m also trying to keep it focussed on still photos but here’s some video footage from the night.

And this is DZ’s must-see video clip for ‘The Mess Up’.  Stick with it to the end; you can probably guess how it’s going to end.

More photos on Flickr.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 6th, 2009 at 9:51 am. It is filed under Music Photography and tagged with Brisbane, DZ, Justin Edwards, The Troubadour, www.notaphoto.com. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.