This Is Not A Photo Opportunity – Blogging since 2006
Amazingly, this week was is the fourth anniversary of me starting to do a regular photo blog, first on Myspace and now on This Is Not A Photo Opportunity. The actual anniversary was on Wednesday but although I’d drafted up 90% of this post it’s been a hectic week and I forgot to finish it […]
Splendour In The Grass 2009 – Sunday Quick Round-Up
Sunday doesn’t exactly go to plan, with the slow editing and general Sunday morning sluggishness meaning I manage to miss both Danananananakroyd and Jack Ladder and despite aiming to get onto site to photograph White Lies, the traffic means I miss half of their set. So the day starts at a more leisurely starting time […]
Splendour In The Grass 2009 – Belated Saturday Quick Round-Up
Technology-wise, things didn’t go quite to plan, with the house we were staying in having no mobile reception for me to use my phone as a modem and upload some photos yesterday morning. Saturday morning’s blog post was made by parking my car on the top of the nearest big hill and uploading from the […]
Splendour In The Grass 2009 – Friday
The closing hours of Thursday bring with them rumours that Jane’s Addiction – of all the bands on the 2009 Splendour bill, the one that I most what to see and the one that I most want to photograph – have cancelled their whole Australian tour. Friday morning brings confirmation of this, with Stephen Perkins […]
Splendour In the Grass 2009 – Thursday
 Another year, another Splendour. It’s been a hard few weeks, what with a combination of work, working weekends to make up for the days I’m having off to go to Splendour, gigs, next day photo deadlines and The Ashes, so instead of feeling well rested and full of energy for a hard weekend’s photographing […]
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 […]
Brisbane Sounds 2009 on Film
As well as taking the usual digital photos at Brisbane Sounds 2009, as previously posted here, I also took a couple rolls of Ilford HP5, rating the ISO400 film at ISO1600 and then developing them for 14 minutes in ID-11 developer. The results are very grainy, as was expected, although slightly less than the photos […]
‘Do You Feel Like You’re Making History?’
Excerpts from an email I received a few days ago. Dear Justin Request for permission to archive: This Is Not A Photo Opportunity http://www.notaphoto.com/ The State Library of Queensland would like to archive your website to preserve it for future generations. PANDORA, Australia’s Web Archive, was set up by the National Library of Australia in […]
School of Seven Bells @ The Zoo
School of Seven Bells‘ debut album, ‘Alpinisms‘, has been on high rotation round these parts in recent weeks; it’s a pretty good modern shoegaze album, although being the modern age it’s way too long, especially so for a debut album, and would have benefitted by losing a 3 or 4 songs, possibly the ones where they sound too […]
Evan Dando @ The Zoo
The live experience car-crash reputation is something that Evan Dando seems unable to shake off, to the point where it feels like it’s almost compulsory to see him more than once on any tour to ensure that you get the full repertoire of one performance to remember for all the right reasons and one for […]
Andrew Morris + Texas Tea @ The Globe
It’s the first time I’ve seen Texas Tea since their album launch back at the end of November. After an all-star cast that night, it’s back to just Kate and Ben tonight. The band sound as good as ever though. Having photographed them on so many occasions, including my very first gig as a Brisbane […]
The Stranglers + Wind & Brackets @ The Tivoli
The Tivoli is surprisingly full for tonight’s Stranglers show; there wasn’t much in the way of advertising for either the original date (in December, but cancelled with the GFC being blamed) or tonight’s show, and at $90 a ticket it’s a fairly pricey mid-week night out It’s been a long time I last saw Wind […]
Summer Tones @ The Zoo
After a seemingly quiet few weeks, the Summer Tones mini-festival finds itself at The Zoo on a balmy Friday night when Brisbane is enjoying an embarrassment of gig-riches; the Fire & Flood benefit at The Tivoli, featuring Powderfinger, The Grates, Robert Forster, The John Steel Singers, The Boat People and Dan Parsons, Violent Soho’s farewell […]
Gary Numan @ The Tivoli
One of my very early musical memories was this on Top Of The Pops. So when Gary Numan rolls into town to play at the Tivoli, how can I refuse. The trouble is that I only really know the very early stuff, and whilst these songs (‘Cars’, ‘Down In The Park‘, ‘We Are So Fragile‘, […]
Jeff Beck @ BCC
When I photographed G3 a couple of years ago I crossed a couple guitarists from my formative teenage music years off my list of guitarists to photograph. Jeff Beck playing Brisbane means the list can be updated, along with a few other names I’ve added in the meantime: The List Yngwie Malmsteen [x] Joe Satriani […]
Laughing Clowns @ GoMA
Following on from their ATP Australia shows, Laughing Clowns returned to Brisbane to play their own show as part of the Up Late season for the GoMA’s Optimism exhibition. It was another excellent performance from the band, and one that was surprisingly well attended. There probably weren’t as many people as at Wolfmother’s gig at […]
Blog is 3
Today is the third anniversary of me starting to do a regular photo blog, first on Myspace and now here, on my very own bit of internet, using WordPress. In the three years I have written 197 blog posts, with this post now being number 198. I posted in last year’s anniversary post, just after […]
Bon Iver + Mckisko @ The Tivoli
The whole Alt Country/Alt Folk scene has been flirting with the mainstream for a number of years, near enough since the start of this decade, but with Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver battling for supremacy in most of the music media’s end of year polls, 2008 definitely seems to be The Year That Folk Broke. From one […]
The Black Keys + Gomez + Dr Dog @ The Arena
It’s Monday the fifth of January. For many it’s the first day back at work after the Christmas and New Year holidays. The Black Keys are playing at The Arena, with a really good support band in Gomez and one of the worst named bands ever, Dr Dog, opening.  Although there are three bands on the bill, the doors […]
Stars + Firekites @ The Zoo
There is a new (although temporary-looking) sign next to The Zoo’s door tonight, repeated up the stairs to the front desk and also in the venue itself; ‘No Flash Photography’. Restrictions at The Zoo used to be fairly non-existent, although that’s all changed thanks to Perth band Birds Of Tokyo getting precious enough about it […]
ATP Mt Buller: Part 6
Despite only living in Melbourne, a reluctance to play anywhere near as north as Brisbane in a number of years makes Rowland S Howard a real personal draw-card. Having never seen him in the flesh his gaunt appearance is a bit of a shock, but he is in good humour, and with his excellent but […]
ATP Mt Buller: Part 5
If there is one major criticism that could be leveled at the ATP Australian line-up, it’s that it’s very male and very middle-aged. In that respect, Afrirampo are like a breath of fresh air. Sure, they have the whole clichéd Japanese female punk band thing, with the colorful outfits (resplendent with artistic face make up), the […]