Edgar Wright

Earlier this year I had the privilege of meeting Bryan Lee O'Malley which was great as I was a big fan of the Scott Pilgrim books. I also really enjoyed the movie and it was probably my favourite movie of the year (which meant I was pretty excited when I found out Edgar Wright was coming into Forbidden Planet). I've been a fan of Edgar since Spaced was on Channel 4.

The photos from the signing really aren't the best signing photos I've taken. It's a shame as Edgar was great, really nice and chatty with everyone and I wish I could have done that justice. I would love to photograph both Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg together signing. I reckon it would be pretty interesting.

I've said before that I struggle to keep signing photos different each time I cover them and I really struggled with this one getting the exposures and colouring right.

The signing got me thinking about how I would like to try photographing on a big film set and document a films production.

It's kinda weird thinking this was the last set of photos I will have taken in 2010.

The other photos from the signing are here.

Gallows - Two Shows/One Day

Gallows announced a while ago that they were going to play Grey Britain in full at the Electric Ballrooom (and they also announced shortly after that they were going to do Orchestra Of Wolves in full at the Dingwalls on the same day). I was looking forward to the show and the more I thought about it, the more it felt like an incredibly important show/day.

The band have been through it all since the release of Grey Britain ranging from parting ways with their label to playing some of the biggest shows they've ever played (supporting RATM) and I felt like these shows (especially the Grey Britain one) was the end of an era. There had been a lot of rumors and talk about them splitting up and I was thinking that if they were going to split, this would be a good time to do it or it would end up being a statement that they aren't going anywhere. One of the other special things about the GB show was the fact they would be playing with a string section.

I've always wanted to try and shoot the whole experience of a show and shoot more than just the live performance and I desperatley wanted to try it for this. I emailed the guys and pitched it too them and they seemed happy to let me come down which I was over the moon about.

On the day I joined them pretty early on for their first soundcheck and tried to shoot as much as possible. I didn't really feel comfortable shooting backstage in their dressing room as this was really the first time I've properly spoken to most of the band and didn't want to push things too far. The day must have been quite stressful and tiring for them and I didn't want to shove a camera in their face while they were trying to relax and calm down. That was a pretty big regret for me.

I found the Dingwalls show pretty hard to shoot. There was no barrier and the crowd were going apeshit. I got stuck on one side of the stage (by Steph) and didn't feel I could get over to the otherside to cover Lags and Stu so I don't feel there's as much variaty as I would have like. The show was superb though.

The Electric Ballroom was going to give me a lot more freedom to shoot as there was a barrier and I could move about a lot more. In my head I had a lot of things I wanted to try and do as well as places/angles I wanted to shoot from. The show seemed to fly by and I tried to do the things I thought about but it wasn't as easy as I had hoped and I didn't feel like I was nailing the live stuff as easily as I have in that venue before. I missed a few things like Richard Carter coming onstage for 'Black Eyes'.

They had said all day they wouldn't be doing encores and I was at the back of the stage as they were finishing 'Crucifucks' and Steph mentioned they had decided to do 'Orchesta Of Wolves' but would I take a photo of the five of them onstage before they played again. I was absolutely shitting myself. I was panicing about the photos not coming out and having blown a massive moment for them. I got up on Lee's drum stool and just shot as much as I could hoping SOMETHING would come out ok.

While I was taking the shot I just had a realisation that this is what I've always wanted to do and this was what I had dreamed about doing. It also felt like I was part of something great. I went back into the pit to shoot the last song and felt incredibly overwhelmed and emotional. If you'd have told me six months ago that I would have been in this situation I'd have laugh at you. The GB show was truely stunning and the band over the day were amazing to be around. They've all been incredibly supportive and I still feel on a bit of a high.

It may seem silly to some people and shit loads of other photographers are in this situation all the time but this sort of thing doesn't happen to me. The band, the music and taking those photos meant the world to me and it was one of the best things that's ever happened to me.

As a whole I love a lot of the photos I took but I do think I could have done better and I could have done more but I'm hoping from this I'll get the chance to do this again and it could be the start of something good.

I really want to thank Frank, Steph, Lee, Lags and Stu along with Clare, Paul and all of the Gallows crew. I know I've done this a million times already.

The photos from the pre/post show and sound check photos are here.

The rest of the photos from the Dingwalls show are here.

The other Electric Ballroom shows are here.

The photos are also up on Frank's website (frankxcarter.com) and (twice as many photos) are on the Gallows Facebook page.

Quick post about the Gallows shows

I spent Friday photographing Gallows’ two album shows in Camden. I’m waiting to see what happens with the photos before I put a full set online but I uploaded this one.

Friday is a day I’ll never forget. I’ll write about it properly soon.

Also everyone should be reading Frank's blog anyway but there's a few of my photos from both Gallows shows on there now if anyone is interested.

Frankxcarter.com

London Rollergirls Season Three - Bout Three

Saturday was the last London Rollergirl bouts this year and it was a great way to go out. Was really happy that the Ultraviolent Femmes won their first bout of the season and Habour Grudges winning really opens things up. At half time they had a Space Hopper race which was pretty fun to watch. I was quite surprised to see they'd used one of my photos in the programmes.

I got to shoot from the middle of the track again and feel I had a bit more of a grasp on it this time but I felt I struggled a bit more than normal shooting from the outside. My camera was doing it's usual taking photos when it feels like it wants too and I got a new error message which I haven't seen before. As long as my camera holds out another week then I'll breath a big sigh.

I really want to improve by the end of the season and I'd like to be taking more photos of the whole event/more candids than I'm currently doing.

I'd like to thank (again) Erin and the rest of the London Rollergirls for being very welcoming and helpful. I really love this sport and love being (sort of) involved in it in a very small way.

Steam Rollers vs Ultraviolent Femmes

Half Time

Harbour Grudges vs Suffra Jets

More photos of Steam Rollers vs Ultraviolent Femmes are here.

More photos of Half Time.

More photos of Harbour Grudges vs Suffra Jets are here.

I feel like I'm counting down to Friday which is going to be a massive day for me. I'm pretty fucking nervous but it's all pressure I put on myself to perform and deliver. I'll write more about it soon I guess. I also want to do an end of year 'review' of sorts. It's been a big year with lots of highs and lows. Might be good for me to reflect a bit.

I've started working on a project I've had in my head for a little while now which could open some doors and be pretty exciting. It's one thing that makes me look forward to 2011.

Instax

Despite being broke I picked up an Instax on Ebay a couple of weeks ago. It's taking some getting used to, especially getting the focal lengths right and framing everything. Some of them are ok but some could have been better. Hopefully I'll learn from the mistakes.

The rest of the Instax prints are here.

Japanese Voyeurs & Young Guns - Electric Ballroom

I got an email from Romily (the singer of Japanese Voyeurs) saying she'd seen the photos of them I'd taken at the MAdM show and liked them. She offered to sort me out with a pass for their show supporting Young Guns at the Electric Ballroom. Recently I've felt a little weird with regards to my blog. Some days I'm proud of it, really enjoy writing it and putting it up. Then other times I struggle to find things to write and feel like it's incredibly boring and self indulgent. Things like the email from Romily make me a bit more sure and justified about the way I do things.

I'd been away with work for several days and had worked some ridiculus hours so before hand I really wasn't excited for the show but the minute I got to the venue I felt a hell of a lot better. Japanese Voyeurs were on early and they killed it. I really like them and they are great to shoot. There's something about them. The Swellers were second and were ok but not 100% my sort of thing. I've photographed Young Guns before and their singer Gustav is really fun to photograph, he has a lot of energy and covers the stage well.

I'm pretty happy with how the photos have come out and I'm really enjoying how I'm taking photos at the moment. I'm trying to shoot a bit more free and looser. I hope it shows.

Thank you to Japanese Voyeurs for sorting this out.

Japanese Voyeurs

The Swellers

Young Guns

The rest of the photos of Japanese Voyeurs are here.

The rest of the photos of The Swellers are here.

The rest of the photos of Young Guns are here.

Someone at the show I had a brief exchange that went like this:

"Who do you shoot for?"
"Me"
"Oh so you do freelance for a lot of different people and magazines?"
"No, I just shoot for me"

I feel like photography and music photography especially can be a bit of a pissing contest and unless you are working for someone it can feel like you are being looked down upon. It shouldn't matter who I work for, I do what I do because I enjoy it and it made me really appreciate the other photographers I know who don't make photography feel like a competition. The only person I compete with is myself. I am constantly battling with my confidence and self esteem and when I am happy with the photos I take (like I was last night) and get emails or comments like I did from JV (and Gallows), it justifies everything for me.