London Tattoo Convention 2010

I spent Saturday and Sunday this week down at this years London Tattoo Convention at the Tobacco Docks thanks to the very kind Fuel Girls.

I've been pretty excited about this for a while as they were going to be performing more than the fire routine I'd seen/photographed before. I've been to the tattoo convention before and knew that it's fairly well lit as most of it's roof is glass. When I got down there on Saturday, I found out they were going to be doing a fashion show for Jane Doe which I was pretty excited about but unfortunatly the crowds were too big and I couldn't quite manage to get close enough to get a lot of decent shots. I managed to get a few which I was happy with. I decided as I was going to be there for two days that I would just stick to the stage and make sure I got their performances covered so that I was a bit less restricted the following day.

I decided to shoot a lot in colour as it was quite bright and during most of the routines they were in very bold Jane Doe latex. The fire show itself was great, as it wasn't part of a club night they had a lot longer on stage which meant that Teta did a much longer solo dance to start with. The stage was square and had crowds on all four sides which meant that the girls were quite spaced out in terms of positioning so it wasn't easy to cover them all.

As well as the fire show they also had Colette Morrow and The Amazing Ari doing aerial shows on ropes/silks. It's the first time I've properly photographer anything like this. I really enjoyed it, I think I was lucky with the glass roof and all the beams across it as it made for some really nice line work on the photos and contrasted nicely against the flowing silk/rope and their body positions. Vanessa and Teta also did aerial work alongside Ari (Teta and Ari also did a Tango/aerial routine).

The Sunday I shot some people tattooing and grabbed a couple of shots of Craig Burton being tattooed by Oliver Peck but I found it quite hard to make the photos varied and interesting. The rest of Sunday was spent catching the Fuel Girl shows again and try to catch it from different angles and get better coverage of some of the other girls.

I think the highlight of my weekend was the fact Nina Kate performed with them on the Sunday. I've been a fan of Nina Kate for a while and I think I met her once when I did a photoshoot for Rockworld TV about 3 or 4 years ago and I still regret not really knowing about Jane Doe or Nina Kate at the time. I would have loved to have done more stuff with them before they got massive.

As I covered so many performances over the two days, there are shit loads more photos on the links at the bottom.

The general shots of the convention are here.

The other Fuel Girls photos are here.

Burlesque Idol - September

After what I thought was a pretty successful night at the Shipwrecked! show I went down to see the Burlesque Idol show at Madame Jojos.

This show was another one to highlight the inconsistances I notice in my photos. I'm not really sure why but something didn't click, whether it was the lighting or my positioning I'm not sure but I just felt like the photos were no way near as good as the previous show despite being in the same venue.

The show itself was good, the performers were trying to win a place in the Burlesque Idol final. There was a nice mix of performers at various stages of their burlesque careers. The judges kept their comments constructive and positive choosing to highlight the strong parts of the acts and things they can do more of rather than where they may or may not have gone wrong. One of the highlights though was that they had a comedian performing called Dan Wright, who I didn't realise until he mentioned it in his set that he was 'Little Cook' from 'Big Cook Little Cook' which took me back and made me smile.

One thing I've been happier about over this show and the last one is that I'm actually talking to people and making myself a little bit more known or putting a face to a name. This may seem like something small but it's a big step for me personnally. I find the burlesque scene to be far more welcoming and less intimidating (as a photographer) than the music scene.

The other photos I took from the show can be seen here.

All in all, it's been a busy 3 days over the weekend. There should be another update in a couple of days from the London Tattoo Convention.

Shipwrecked! - A Tropical Burlesque Extravaganza

I haven't shot a burlesque show since June and shooting things like the Fuel Girls and looking back through old photos made me really want to get back out and starting shooting shows again.

I still really want to work on my burlesque book and I was planning on starting work on it in October but I got a message from Temptest Rose. She invited me to come down and shoot her new show at Madame Jojos. I've known Tempest for a while and written about her before as she hosted most of the Glitter Room shows.

She said I could come down early and shoot some backstage stuff beforehand (I've been dying to do this for a while). They had set Madame Jojos up with tables and chairs which was unusal for me as I've only ever seen it when it's just standing so I decided to shoot from the small walkway besides the stage as there was noone DJing up there like they normally have.

The show itself was called Shipwrecked and something I noticed and really loved about it was that it was a proper show. It had a theme that carried through most of it and with an opening performance (with Tempest Rose, Lola La Belle and Miss Betsy Rose) and one to close all of the performers joined in on stage (instead of calling them up for a bow) really helped bring everything together. I know it sounds obvious and other shows have themes but most burlesque shows I've been to feel like it's a selection of people performing one after another rather than performing together as part of an act. I hope that makes sense.

Madame Jojos is a weird place to shoot at, they normally just stick to having a bland red light for the whole performances and while they moved slightly away from this to start with by the end of the show the lighting was really stunning. Shooting from beside the stage was something new and I really liked some of the angles I was able to get (with the group performances).

I really loved the show and really enjoyed being back shooting burlesque again.

Thank you to Tempest Rose and Lola La Belle for a great evening.

The other photos I took from the show can be seen here.

Protest The Pope

Living in London I always see or here about things like protests, marches and other public events happening and always want to go down to take photos and never get round to it. After shooting Pride it really made me want to take photos are more things like that.

Recently it's been hard to escape the fact that the Pope is on a state visit to London and there's been a lot of people objecting to the fact he's come over. The reasons why people are against his visit have been well publicised and there was a 'Protest The Pope' march to try and get the point across.

I went down to grab some photos but I wasn't really sure beforehand how big the event would be or if there would be restrictions on taking photos like there were for Pride (I had to get a press pass for that). Thankfully they allowed anyone to come down and take photos and I managed to get to the front to take photos of the people leading the parade as well as some of the speeches that were being given. From what was said/what I've read since being home was that there was about 10000 people taking part. I'm really glad I went and am pretty happy with the photos. I definitely want to try and get down and cover more things like this.

There's plenty more photos from the protest here.

My 'dream' list of people to photograph

OK so I always see people who I think I'd love to photograph / do a documentary series of photos on. I've been adding them to an imaginary list and have finally gotten round to writing it down.

I know some of these are slightly more achievable than others and some will never in a million years happen but that doesn't really matter. It's my dream list right?

So here it is...

Zak Smith
Mandy Morbid
Steve Prue
Fearne Cotton
Tara Mcpherson
Jim Mahfood
Insa
Miss Led
Brian Ewing
Courtney Love
Davina Mccall
James Woodford
Frank & Steph Carter
Gallows
Hearts Under Fire
Glassjaw
Paloma Faith
Jamie Tworkowski (TWLOHA)
Banbury Cross
Kelly Osbourne
Lindsay Lohan
Audrey Kitching
Demi Moore
Steph Carter & Eva Spence
The Bangkok Five
Stan Lee
Marino Lambrix
Juliette Lewis
Fuel Girls
Jared & Shannon Leto
30 Seconds To Mars
To Write Love On Her Arms
Vans Warped Tour
Travis Barker
Lauren Conrad
Dita Von Teese
Gerard Way
Craig Burton
Lights

Craig Burton & El Wood - Comic Readers

Last Saturday I was hoping to take some photos of Craig Burton and El Wood for the 'Read Comics In Public Day' but didn't manage to do it on the day.

Thankfully I managed to rearrange it with them. Craig is a photographer and has been very helpful and extremely supportive this year and El is a model but they both help out at Frith Street Tattoo shop and I managed to grab 20 minutes with them on my lunch break to grab some shots for my comic readers project.

I was pretty nervous because of what they do but I guess because I didn't have a lot of time and I've known Craig for a while the nerves went pretty quickly.

We shot outside the tattoo shop and while shooting Craig the lighting was pretty nice but the sun really came out during the last few shots. It made shooting El a bit more tricky as there were a hell of a lot more shadows which I probably could have sorted out with a reflector (which I don't own but probably should) or flash (which I didn't really want to use). El was a trooper for doing this despite feeling really ill.

I think I'm finding that I'm far more comfortable shooting if I don't really have to give people directions. Just being able to just concentrate on shooting away relaxes me and I like to think it gets more natural looking shots.

I'm really happy to have gotten another two people done for this. I've got a few more people I have in mind to shoot I just need to sort it out. I don't really know where I'm going or what I'm going to do with all these photos in the end but it's really nice to be working on something.

Thank you very much to Craig and El for letting me do this!

The rest of the photos of Craig are here.

There's a few more of El you can see here.

New York - Black & White

This is going to be a quick update. I used two rolls of film in my Lomo Fisheye while I was in New York in July, one was colour and one was black and white. I haven't scanned the colour shots in yet but I've only just got the black and white ones developed (and scanned at the same time).

This is the first black and white film in my Fisheye and I like how the shots have come out despite them being more grainy than I expected. I really want to start using the Fisheye more, there's loads of experimenting with double exposures and film swapping I want to try out. Using the camera is pretty fun as you don't have to worry too much about the shots being perfect but I find it makes me think more about lighting and conditions (hopefully it helps with judging conditions for my SLR too).

Thinking about New York makes me feel a bit better but I fucking miss that place.

There's a few more from the roll you can see here.

Lights & Reading Comics In Public

Well this has been a pretty shitty week. It seemed to all kick off after my last blog post about my problem with Banquet Records and although I had a lot of supportive comments, there was also quite a few negative comments. I don't take compliments well but I take anything thats negative to heart. I know I shouldn't but I'm very hard on myself and don't have a lot of self confidence/esteem and negative comments just reinforce everything.

The whole situation couldn't have come at a worse time, I've been struggling again and insanely low in general and this seemed to be the icing on the cake. I saw that Lights was playing the Water Rats in Kings Cross and I had pretty much decided that if the gig goes well I'd carry on with photography and if it didn't then I'd take some time out from photography.

I felt like I'd hit a bad run of gigs and was really struggling to get reasonable images, let alone anything I was really proud of. With everything that had gone on I felt like it was all too much and didn't really felt like it was worth it.

Lights sounded great as she always does but the whole situation was terrible. I got there at a decent time but it was pouring with rain and the queue was huge. They opened the doors late so I was soaked and when I got inside they hadn't opened the main room so everyone was squeezed into the small front bar and once I got into the main room I couldn't get a decent spot. I got stuck and the person in front let two other photographers in front of her/me and I tried shooting round them but it just wasn't working. I ended up taking about 4 photos in the first 3ish songs and decided to leave. It's one of the worst gig/photography experiences I've had. It was so frustrating and just added to all the shit I was feeling. I'd pretty much had enough and had decided a break was the best thing.

This was the only remotely ok photo from the Lights gig...

I was pretty ok with my decision but the next day I got a message from Craig Burton about some photos we were meant to do together and I told him I think we'd have to leave it but totally regretted saying it. I don't really know why and I can't really explain what had changed as I was still feeling shit but I was actually excited about taking photos again.

I had planned to photograph some people for International Reading Comics In Public day and decided to try and do it anyway. I mentioned a while back on here that photographing people reading comics was a project I really wanted to do and I thought this would be a good starting point.

Thanks to rain and Craig being unwell I only got to shoot Mark Gamble. I've arranged to shoot a couple more sets of photos this week, so hopefully this all goes well.

The photos of Mark aren't amazing but it was nice to be out shooting again.

The other photos of Mark are here.

Banquet Records & photo usage

Before I get started with explaining whats happened between myself and Banquet Records, I would like to say that I know I'm not the first person this sort of thing has happened to and I won't be the last. I'm sure this won't even be the last time this happens to me.

The second thing I'd like to say is if you don't know me or haven't had any dealings with me when it comes to photos and photography but I hope this is something that comes across in my blog. I love taking photos, I love going to gigs and I'm not in this to get paid. I do it because of how it makes me feel. I don't watermark my photos and I try not to be too protective over them. I want people to see my images. I happily give bands, performers and venues my photos if they ask for them. It means a lot when someone wants to use my photos. I've turned down paid jobs because I don't believe my photos are worth the money. Most people I've given my photos to credit me or link back to my website/flickr/blog. This is all I want but by the same token I don't want people to take the piss and walk all over for me.

A couple of months ago I found that Banquet Records had used one of my Gallows photos for a poster to promote a Gallows gig they were putting on. I sent them an email and asked for a copy of the poster. Although I wasn't overly happy they had used the image without asking but it was Gallows so I was happy to see a poster with my image on.

At the start of August, Gallows were playing another show which was put on by Banquet Records and I saw when buying tickets that not only had they used another photo of mine (without asking) on this new poster but they were also selling copies.

I emailed them again and said that I wasn't happy about this being used again without permission and that I thought the selling of the poster was going a bit to far.

They sent me a few emails saying sorry and that they weren't making money on the posters, they were doing it for the fans and as something to take away. After a few emails back and forth I got them to add my name and website onto the poster and thought this would be the last of it. I could have demanded money or demanded the poster be taken down and not sold but what was the point? At least people were seeing my name on the poster.

I bought tickets for the show and they arrived on Saturday and inside there was a flyer for a Banquet Records run club night (New Noise) which had the same image on as the one used for the second poster. I felt like the fact that this was the third usage of one of my photos without asking was just going too far and felt like I was being walked over.

I emailed them and said...

I hate the fact that I'm having to write this email again but I just received my Gallows ticket and inside the envelope was a flyer for New Slang which has my photo on it (the same one used on the Peel gig poster) which once again has been used without my permission.

If the flyer was made before I emailed and complained then I feel let down by the fact you failed to mention that you'd used it more than once (are there any more instances of this image being used?). If those flyers are printed again I want the same credit line from the poster added to them.

If the flyer was made after I emailed, how could the same mistake happen again?

I am happy for you to use my photos if you let me know what they are being used for and ask permission (as well as provide credit).

If one of my photos is used again without my permission then I will take this matter further.

I don't think I've said anything wrong in this email but again, as this was the third usage without permission, I felt like I needed to say that if it happened a fourth time that I wouldn't just roll over and let it slide.

These were the two emails I received from different staff at Banquet records...

The New Noise flyers have rotating images at the top and are used for maybe a few weeks at a time when there is a memorable show that's appropriate for the club night. These were made the week after the show, long before you mailed originally. I've made so many variations of this flyer and they are such a small deal that I wouldn't have even thought about mentioning it. If it ended up in your ticket order it's probably just because the mail order flyers are the more out of date ones. I'm pretty sure it's not the one we're currently using but as I say...I do so many and they're used for such a short amount of time I don't know.

The poster was amended with the credit and hasn't been printed without it since.

As your last line suggests you will take further measures if this happens again...well obviously that won't happen again as we won't use any of the pics. We'll re-do the flyer tomorrow (when I'm actually at work, it's my day off right now). Also although as the photographer you do own the copyright to the image itself - on the same token the subjects of the photo have as much right to tell you you can't use it / profit from it unless you were issued a photo pass or given permission. The band were stoked on the pictures as it was one of their favourite ever shows and that's why they were used.

We simply do not have the time to go through every picture and credit it, which is why we have our own photographers at a lot of these events. As much as I appreciate you're just standing up for your art it will only serve to restrict the ability for anyone to bring cameras to shows in the future without approval / being issued a photo pass in advance, which is obviously not something we want to do.

And I mean jeeze, this would be different if we were Live Nation or any of those multi-national corporate promoters (who will have lots of small print about photos, model release stuff) but I mean...what exactly would be the point in taking anything further, If you want the broken chair with no back or the recycled garden furniture...sorry, workstation I use in our office you're welcome to it... :)

As I said, we will remove the photo and use the official one for the tour ASAP. Obviously we can't do anything about the ones that are already in circulation.

and...

Hi Derek

Yeah, just want to re-iterate what **** said really.

First off, genuinely sorry that you’re pissed about it… but as Dave said this flyer was done long before that Gallows Peel show poster was done. . You were probably sent a NN flyer with Frank Gallows on specifically because you’d ordered a Gallows ticket. Other than that, this flyer isn’t in ‘ciruclation’ as such. We have, for years, used different images on an otherwise generic New Noise flyer. Recently there’s been some sick shows at the cocks, and its to show that off and celebrate it... Currently we’re using the New Found Glory picture here http://www.banquetrecords.com/NewNoise

I wasn’t at that cocks show as I was at a stag do. And maybe this is why something wasn’t clear at the time, but the general gentlemen’s agreement we have is that if we’re letting someone use a camera, at New Slang, at The Cocks, at anywhere we do shows, then they’ll always let us use the pictures for promo on our site etc. I really don’t know what to do about all this. Its left a bad taste in my mouth about why people would want to take photos at our shows. Shows that, in more cases than not lose us money. Punk shows, by punks for punks. The whole ethic seems to be missing through the tone of the ‘taking this matter further’ comment. As I said last time this came up (which is the same issue for us, but understandably not for you), I don’t want to get to a point where we have to make people with good cameras (does an i-phone count?) sign contracts for release of photos… Do we ban cameras entirely? I dunno.

But yeah, both Dave and I failed to inform you of a flyer that was created about 2 months ago, as, quite honestly, we have other stuff going on in a day we have to deal with. We should have told you and for not doing so I’m sorry. But that’s about it.

It wont happen again, and I wish we’d never had that Gallows show for the hassles a poster and flyer has caused

I found both their responses to be rude and disrespectful considering they were in the wrong. I found the fact they have said in several emails that they are to busy to ask photographers if it's OK to use their images. It's just bad practice as a company and a designer and I think it's quite unprofessional. I know quite a few designers who would never do this as it could get them in serious trouble.

I found the last line about how he wished he hadn't put on the Gallows show because of the hassle I've caused to be both rude to myself and the band.

I don't like the fact that they think that because they don't have a camera policy at the gigs they put that it automatically gives them to the right to use photos without permission. I don't understand how you can have a 'gentleman's agreement' without actually agreeing it with photographers.

I really didn't feel like I was going to get any further with them through emails and just felt all that would happen would be that we'd carry on arguing. I emailed back to make sure they were aware that I thought they were being rude and disrespectful.

This was the reply I got...

Hey

Leaving aside the fact I find the talk of ‘taking this further’ also disrespectful against one of Gallows’ biggest supporters over the last decade, I’m sorry you feel this way.

Like I said below, genuinely sorry you’re pissed and sorry we both forgot that those NN flyers were even made

The irony is that we do all this stuff to please music fans such as you…

Nothing has been done with that image since the first email, and it wont be at any point again.

Up until now I've always said good things about Banquet Records and had a lot of respect for them as they've put on good shows and seemed like one of the good guys. I don't think they've acted like it in this situation.

I'm a big Gallows fan and the last thing I want to do is cause trouble for them. I am always grateful of the opportunities they have given me. If I have annoyed you guys or you would prefer that I don't take photos of your band I'll understand. I just want to be treated fairly.

I'm not sure what I would like to happen from all this. I feel like they don't really get where they've gone wrong and I feel uncomfortable at the idea of photographing any of shows now because they've made me feel like I'm the bad guy for complaining and wanting some credit/acknowledge/respect. Not money. I'm not trying to screw the shop over.

If I've done or said something wrong or handled this situation badly then please feel free to let me know Hopefully some other photographers can learn something from this as well as maybe some bands, record labels and venues.

Asking a photographer for permission doesn't take much and a little bit of effort to credit photographers goes a long way.

Thank you my friends and other photographers who have been very supportive on Facebook and Twitter.

A Gun Rack? - Islington Arts Factory

My good friend Mark Gamble, played his last gig A Gun Rack? gig for the forseeable future at the Islington Arts Factory last night.

It's a shame because Mark has a great voice and insanely talented but he doesn't have the time to dedicate to his music as his graphic design work is really taking off.

Mark's been a great friend and the gig was a good send off.

I took a few photos which aren't great (I never did get to take a good photo of him live) but it was nice to take them.

The other photos of Mark are here.

I've been having a really weird time as of late, my heads a mess and a bit all over the place and I just can't really deal with everything at the moment. I've been incredibly low and fed up this past week.

One good thing thats happened (I guess) is I entered a photography competition through Vice and I wasn't chosen as one of the ten finalist but I made it as one of forty runners up and my photo was exhibited at a Vice party. On one hand I'm over the moon that one of my photos was on the wall (and projected on another wall downstairs) in a public place epecially as it's a life goal to be part of an exhibit but I also felt really strange about the whole thing. I hate the idea of competing or trying to catch a break through entering a competition. It doesn't feel like I've worked for it. I guess the only way I can describe it is like entering a music talent contest rather than working away and being noticed on your own merit.

I wish it felt like the start of something good but I just don't get that feeling. I feel like it's a fluke and won't happen again. I was thinking of entering the NME photography competition but I just don't feel like I can put myself out there like that again. The building your hopes up and being disapointed is hard for me. I want to win but feel like it's cheating.

These photos from the night were taken by Zoe Jenkin ( http://www.doublemagazine.co.uk/ ) and are on the Vice website.

Fuel Girls - Unholy (Aug)

There seems to be a theme of disapointing photos at the moment and especially after my photos of The Fuel Girls from the Unholy club night at the Scala I really wanted another shot at taking photos of them as I knew I could do better.

Thankfully they sorted me out with a pass for Unholy again which was going to be the last one and when I turned up there were two acts on before The Fuel Girls.

One act was a guy just making random noises on some sample machines and shouting nonsense down a microphone.

The second act was equaly bizarre (especially considering it was a metal night), it was a deadly serious, non ironic Britney Spears tribute act. She looked and sounded like her but it couldn't have been more out of place if it tried.

You can see more of Britney here.

Last time the venue had kept the lights really low and thankfully the lighting was a hell of a lot better this time. I got covered in champagne more than I ever had before and although my camera was soaked, I'm really happy with the shots.

The Fuels Girls are great and I can't wait to photograph them again. Not sure if I mentioned this before but I really want to shoot their aerial act.

Hopefully the girls will like these photos especially as they are so much fun to take.

The rest of the photos of The Fuel Girls from the night are here.

Gallows - The Horn

The last two times I shot Gallows I thought my photos were pretty poor and really wasn't expecting much from the shots I wanted to take when I saw them on Thursday.

I went out to see them at The Horn in St Albans and they had Spy Catcher and Feed The Rhino supporting. Spy Catcher are good and I've seen them before but Feed The Rhino were a band I was really looking forward to seeing after their set at Hevy and they were a great band to photograph. The singer spent most of the set jumping in and out of the crowd and most of the band ended up joining him for the last song.

Gallows were great as usual and they had a pretty rowdy crowd. I got totally battered at the front and really struggled to take photos between getting pushed onto the stage and my camera steaming up. I ended up moving to the side of the stage for half the set and on stage by Steph for the 'Orchestra Of Wolves'.

I had a great time and the band seemed to really enjoy it.

The photos were better than I was expecting but still aren't anything special but at least I'm not unsatisfied with them.

The rest of the Spy Catcher photos are here.

The Feed The Rhino photos are here.

The other Gallows photos are here.

Hevy Fest 2010

Recently I've been very behind on photo editing. I've moved house and between that and work I've just really struggled to find time to get down to photos. This has stressed me out quite a lot. Thankfully I'm all up to date and I've got about four blogs lined up which I need to get through and get up.

A couple of weeks ago now I had a photopass for Hevy Fest. Firstly I'd like to say that the line up was fantastic and I saw some great bands over the weekend but I thought the organisation was pretty poor.

Transport to and from the festival was a joke, there were barely any buses and the festival didn't put on any shuttle buses or extra services like pretty much all festivals that aren't close to anything. They hadn't made the campsite big enough so there wasn't enough room for everyone when I turned up on the Saturday.

The most unorganised part of the festival was the security. The festival organisers had stated that the photo pit rules were three songs with no flash. This is pretty standard and I think everyone expects to have those rules but the security changed the rules for every band and just made it up as they were going on. We were allowed three songs for the first band but every photographer was told that we 'didn't have the right type of photopass' to shoot the second band. This resulted in at least 25 photographers going to the box office and complaining. They restated the three song rule and sorted it with the security. During the third band of the they kicked us out after half of the first song.

The security were saying they were kicking us out because of safety but virtually every time they did there were no crowd surfers and no rowdy fans or anything like that. They just seemed to ignore everything they were told and did what ever they were felt like. I know we were 'press' and 'in the way' but I just think if you are going to make rules then stick to them. Don't mess us about as it just makes everyone elses life hard.

There were two smaller tents with stages and because of the high number of photographers they were limiting how many photographers could be in the pit at one time which meant I had to make sure I got to the stages early to avoid being turned away.

I managed to shoot Glassjaw, The Subways, Lower Than Atlantis, Throats, Devil Sold His Soul, Young Guns, Bury Tomorrow, Gallows, Comeback Kid, The Computers, Rolo Tomassi, Hearts Under Fire, Trash Talk, Santa Karla, Dead Swans, TRC and Feed The Rhino.

The lighting for Gallows was terrible and once again we were kicked out after one song and this resulted in me taking the worst photos of Gallows I've shot. Was so disapointed. Getting to shoot Glassjaw was a dream come true and I'm thankful for that experience.

Another band I loved that weekend was The Subways. Having seen them before there were several things I was hoping and waiting for. The first was Billy has a habbit of doing massive jumps off the drum kit and the second is he tends to get in amongst the crowd or stage dive during their last song which is normally 'Rock & Roll Queen'. I manage to get a good spot in the middle of the stage and I managed to nail the jump and I made sure I had my camera all set up and ready for the last song and the minute I saw him getting ready to jump in I made a quick dash straight into the middle of the crowd and got some nice shots of him crowd surfing. I was also reminded of how much I love photographing Rolo Tomassi. They have this really nice swagger and stage presence and are just so easy to shoot.

I had a good time despite the trouble with security (I'm very thankful to Hevy for giving me a pass) and I got to hang about with some good people including some fellow photographers Ben and Penny.

I feel a little disapointed in some of the sets of photos as I've stressed over these photos for at least two weeks and once I got them sorted I felt a bit like 'is that it?'.

All the photos from the weekend can be seen here.

Bryan Lee O'Malley

I started reading the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels about 4 years and loved them straight away. The creator, Bryan Lee O'Malley was one of those people I never actually thought I'd get to meet unless I went to a convention in the states.

Thanks to the Scott Pilgrim movie (which is great) we managed to get him for a signing at work.

He was a really nice guy and I had a great time at the signing. My photos from the signings at work tend to be pretty standard but there's one where he looked straight down the camera which I think has come out really well.

I'd strongly advise you to see the movie and read the books.

The rest of the photos from the signing are here.

I've moved house and am without the Internet, both these facts mixed with being very busy in general means I'm still editing photos from Hevy fest and reckon I may have them done and online this weekend.

I entered a competition through Vice and although I wasn't chosen as a finalist, I made it as one of 40 runners up and there's a party tonight showing all the finalists and runner ups photos. It's going to be weird seeing one of my photos up on display in public. Not sure how I'm going to react. It's something I've always dreamed about and I may have a little panic attack or something as the tiny bit of attention I may get is something I'm not used to. There's an NME competition as well which I may enter but there's two categories, professional and amateur and I don't think I fit into either of those so I don't really know what to do or if it's worth entering at all.

I'm seeing Gallows again tomorrow night and I'm not expecting much photography wise as my photos the last two times I've shot them I've been disappointed with my photos.

Recently I've been looking more at other photographers work and I've found it a little soul crushing. I find it hard thinking about the fact I'll never shoot to the same level as these people.

I've also spent a lot of time daydreaming about shooting Warped next year for the whole tour. A guy can dream right?