Rolo Tomassi - The Barfly

Second update today and my 3rd show of the week. Went to see Rolo Tomassi at the Barfly in Camden. Rolo Tomassi are a band that have been around for a while but it's only been the last 3 or 4 months that i've gotten into them. Seen them a few times now but this was the first headlining show i've been to. Supports were Child Abuse (put on a good show but not my cup of tea) and Hang The Bastard.

Like a lot of small venues, to be on the safe side I try and secure a decent spot. I love photographing in the Barfly but for shows this like it's hard work. The lighting constantly changes from being too dull to too bright in an instant so you really have to adjust quickly or watch the lighting and spot the pattern.

Because of the type of venue and the type of bands playing you have to pay attention to the crowd. Pits open up all the time, crowd surfers can come over the top and I spent the whole of RT set getting battered into the stage and pushed over the monitors (at one point I was trying to change a lens, got hit and my lens cap got knocked across the stage). It's all worth it though.

Rolo Tomassi were superb and Eva Spence is everything you could wish for in a front person and subject. Definitely going to have to catch more shows of theirs.

Child Abuse and Hang The Bastard photos are here.

Rolo Tomassi photos are here.

Alkaline Trio - The Underworld

So second show at the underworld this week was Alkaline Trio. Bands like Alkaline Trio don't play these kind of shows often so I was pretty excited and I managed to get a photopass for the show thanks to Cindy Frey.

The difference between the Alkaline Trio show and 99% of other shows at The Underworld was that they had a barrier at the front of the stage creating a little photo pit but the only thing was they had the usual 3 songs/no flash rule.

After the 3 songs I shot from the side of the stage as usual for a little bit.

It was a superb show and i'm glad I didn't waste the opertunity.

Hopefully I should have some Rolo Tomassi photos up later today.

Rest of the photos can be seen here.

Kittie - Underworld

This week has been one of the busiest for some time. Shot 3 shows in 5 days, 2 of which were at the underworld with 2 different experiences there.

So first gig out of the three was Kittie at the underworld. The doors opened earlier than they advertised and missed the first support band but was there for Malefice/It Dies Today/Kittie.

I'm sure i've written about shooting at the underworld before and it was pretty much the same. Shooting purely from the side of the stage can be difficult. Thankfully all the bands put on a good show and were quite eye catching (although holding your guitar up and out towards the crowd seemed to be the order of the day).

This was the first show i've shot this year and it felt good to be back out.

The Kittie photos are here.

The It Dies Today photos are here.

The Malefice photos are here.

Cupid's Cabaret Shoot

The awesome Keith Suave asked me if i'd take some photos for him for the poster/fliers for his valentines day show 'Glitter Room presents Cupid's Cabaret'.

The first idea mentioned was an American Beauty style shoot but Keith decided he wanted something quite simple and classic. We used the stage from the venue where the Glitter Room takes place.

Banbury Cross (who I shot at one of the Tassel Club shows) is headlining the show and modelled for the photos. Banbury is just effortlessly stunning and so easy to work with.

I really don't find doing shoots and working with models easy. I'm really unconfident in myself as a photographer, especially in front of people. I'm quite bad at giving direction, I get flustered easily and panic about the photos turning out badly (and disappointing/letting down the people i'm doing it for). I tried using flash but i'm not very good with flash as I just don't have the experience nor the practice with it.

What we ended up doing was taking one of the filters off one of the few stage lights that was working. The only problem with that was it was a weird angle and we struggled to get Banbury Cross' feet and legs light as well as the rest of her.

It took a while but normally I rush through and regret doing so but in the end i'm quite happy with how it's all turned out.

I put up 3 of the shots onto flickr but they are quite similar as we were trying for a certain look but there's some small differences which I like.

All in all it was a good experience and brief confidence booster so thank you to Keith and Banbury for baring with me.

This was my favourite of the shoot.

This is the final poster design for the show.

A couple more of the photos can be seen here.

Snow

First post of 2010.

I know it's a little cliched and there's millions of people taking millions of photos of the snow and yes i'm one of them. In the grand scheme of things I hate the snow. I hate the fact that it's cold, wet and disruptive. On the positive side I like how it makes everything look different and new. It also makes quite a lot of people happy. You see more people out having fun and playing in the snow than anything else.

Normally the snow photo I take are during the day but this was the first time i've been out at night taking snow photos.

More snow photos can be seen here.