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.

Melissa Auf der Maur - Scala

Last time Melissa Auf der Maur was over she managed to get caught up in the joys of the Icelandic volcano and her gig got shuffled about. I was also ill was having a very intense week with lots going on (similar to this week strangely).

She announced a show at the Scala and I was over the moon about this. Scala is a really laid back venue, great lighting and they have a barrier! I decided to go into the venue a bit later so I could grab a drink with friends but when I got inside Japanese Voyeurs were about to start. They took me by surprise when they started playing and I really wanted to grab some shots. I went to go get my spot on the barrier to find there wasn't one and I had to find a spot in the crowd which meant I had to duck and dive round peoples heads to get some shots.

The lighting for Japanese Voyeurs was p-e-r-f-e-c-t and between that and the band themselves, everything really felt like it clicked. I really want to shoot them again.

In almost total contrast to JV, the lighting for MAdM was a lot less intense and tended to be single colours and not much front lighting. I think some of this was for atmosphere and also they were using a projector. I like how the photos came out but I definitely had to work harder for her.

I'm trying to shoot a bit differently and a bit more free at the moment. I will be working on something that could be really exciting and it might help me to push myself a bit more with what I'm able to do.

Japanese Voyeurs

Melissa Auf der Maur

The rest of the photos of Japanese Voyeurs are here.

The rest of the photos of Melissa Auf der Maur are here.