Audley End Picnic Concerts 2011

Highlight: A Summer weekend away at a British Stately Home, with fireworks, picnics and classical music.


Lowlight: Being offered champagne and strawberries by the very hospitable crowd and not having time to take advantage.
Fill in: The Audley End Estate needed some general publicity shots for the events and brief was to capture people having good time with the house and stage in the background as well as a few shots of the live acts. How hard could it be? Actually getting just getting around through the crowds sprawled across the grounds without knocking over bottles of wine, lit candles and lanterns, or landing head first into a Harrods hamper was an accomplishment in itself. Other obstacles included inflatable beds, candelabra, washing lines with knickers pegged to them (Tom jones was performing) and whole family dining rooms recreated in the open air complete with napkins, dinner service and champagne chillers.Plus people tended to be arranged facing the stage (how inconsiderate of them) so getting laughing faces and the stage in the background usually required some furniture arranging. But the sun was shining and people were having a good time.






Tech Spec: The sun was setting right behind the stage so the crowd were either heavily back lit or my long shadow was in the picture. Fill in flash didn't really do the job but a lens hood was essential and well as lots of squatting and leaning to try and get my shadow out of shot. I shot with standard zoom to the the groups of people and overall scenes and a long zoom to get close up and details. The scene was highly lit so differential focussing was the only was to eliminate the very busy backgrounds.

For more info www.ldcommunications.co.uk

Westfield Showcases

Highlight: Trip to Westfield, Shepherd's Bush - shopping heaven!

Lowlight: Too brassic to be able to afford anything plus the sound of screaming teenage girls rivals any rock band in the decibels stakes. Earplugs a necessity in this game.

Fill in: Photographing for a major record label showcasing its latest wares - Bluey, Loick, SixD and Talay to the kids in West London. Placing oneself between a teenage heartthrob and a crowd of extremely worked up teenage girls is one of the most dangerous situations you can get in in music photography (yes - I have had broken ribs from this situation) so it was with some apprehension that I slid into the rather flimsy looking pit, but the security looked hefty enough so I kept them close. The stage was right slap bang in the middle of loads of prestige stores three stories high and lining the balconies crammed with cool kids. Brief - to get this wondrous scene but to avoid getting any picures of brand names, shop logos, shop fronts or shop identification. In short - close ups of the artists only. What a waste of a fab photo opp but a job is a job.






Tech Spec: So it was on with the long lens and an hour of solid concentration trying to get the action whilst eliminating anything of interest from the background! I left the flash off and used a wide open aperture to get the background really indistinct. Even so I still had to clone out a few logos format he final images before they could be used.

Mediaeval Babe!

Highlight: Seeing Emily Ovenden and her 5 day old new born babe!
Lowlight: The delights that a nappyless bottom brings to the proceedings

Fill in: Emily Ovenden has managed to get through her pregnancy without the rest of the world knowing, but when the baby was actually out she felt it was time to tell the world at large! So naturally a picture was required and I was more than up for having a go at my first new born shoot (apart from Kyle of course but he doesn't count..). The baby was fab and woke up at just the right time and didn't cry - a superstar in the making. He was a natural in front of the camera and had no inhibitions about his body (or his body functions come to that).




Tech Spec: Emily's flat had beautiful natural light form a north facing window. Saxon has inherited his mother's lovely pale complexion and raven locks so the soft light was perfect. I used a white duvet cover to reflect light back into the subjects, we scattered some rose petals and the rest was easy (well Emily got a stiff neck, aching arms and a handful of Saxon's finest but it was pretty easy for me anyway). A photoshopped rose petal frame was added afterwards.

For more info www.mediaevalbaebes.co.uk

Magic Festival 2011

Highlight: A jolly day out to Hatfield House for pop and Westend music - and managed to get plus two!

Lowlight: The queue to get in! Over an hour and a half to get into an afternoon event that consisted of a stage and a half.

Fill in: This offering from Magic FM had some great pop acts but I missed the beginning of them as was stuck in an interminable and inexplicable long queue that ran half way round the least interesting parts of the estate. We did get good backstage access even if the press area was cordoned off into what was more like a concentration camp (no loos, no food, no tea or coffee and stage running times hand written and sellotaped to the side of the portacabin). The pit was extremely narrow and high so it was mainly up the nose and skirt shots plus squalling showers burst over the proceedings at regular intervals. Luckily the three songs we had for each act managed to avoid most of these but the raincoats for the cameras were constantly at the ready.







Tech Spec: Usual festival gear of long zoom, short zoom, full frame and DX bodies, plus storm jackets for both all shoved into a crumpler rucksack - fairly robust and waterproof. Because of the narrow pit and high stage I took lots of the live shots from extreme stage left or right on a long lens.


For more info www.wireimage.com

Ellie Goulding

Highlight: Ellie Goulding spreading rose petals over the stage floor...


Lowlight: …not being able to see the effect because stage was so high.
Fill in: Yes the rose petals were scattered by the roadies but the visual effect was lost as the stage was way above everyone's heads. Maybe Ellie needed them to mask the musky smell that almost certainly emanated from the sweaty photographers in the pit as it was a balmy evening and there were lots of snappers crammed into a tiny space. Support came from The Knocks.






Tech Spec: Ellie was in a white dress and the stage was totally back lit for first song. I try not to panic in these circumstances as there is only so much you can do with a backlit figure so I bide my time. If the situation has not changed by the third song then it's time for drastic measures (PANIC), but usually they do turn up the lights in the second or third song. I always shoot in manual mode with backlights and take a spot reading off the face of the artist. Although it may seem like the lights are all over the place, they are pretty much constant form darkest to brightest setting and if you listen to the music you can predict when they are going to go up or down as the rig is usually synchronised to the music by computer.

For more info www.redferns.com

Yamaha Jazz Scholars 2011

Highlight: An evening with the hottest new Jazz talent of the year.

Lowlight: I'm a Jazz philistine - the talent is wasted on me.
Fill in: The awards are hosted at The House of Commons by PPL, so politics meets Jazz - sounds improbable but it works.
Jazz and politics! This event held at The House of Commons is one of the best events of the year for me, mainly because Jazz musicians are the nicest to photograph as they are truly 'just about the music'. The brief is to get the presentation awards, guests mingling and performance shots. The Joe Stilgoe Trio and a showcase from the Scholars themselves provided the entertainment.







Tech Spec: The hardest shot of the night is the last one. Yamaha like to have a shot of the scholars in front of Big Ben (Jazz. Politics). Trouble is by the time we get to do the shot it is way past 10pm and whether the light will be good enough to get any detail in the sky and tower is down to the weather. Today it was unfortunately cloudy but that didn't prevent the tourists being out in full force. I can't crank up the ISO too much or I will blow out the musicians in the foreground so it's 400 ISO on F4 with a shutter of 1.15 to try and get as much as I can of BIg Ben in the background.

For editorial enquiries: www.ppl.com
For review: Londonjazz blog Spot

The Eels

Highlight: An evening at Somerset house - so civilised

Lowlight: The lighting always pretty difficult as the pit is narrow and the stage high.
Fill in: Always try to do one of the Somerset House gigs as atmosphere is fab. and the the backstage area is the terrace overlooking the Thames.

Okay so not the most profitable of bands in terms of picture sales but infinitely entertaining to go and see, the Eels never fail to amuse and with support from the kooky Jesca Hoop it was unmissable.




Tech Spec: The biggest problem with this venue is the light. From the narrow corridor afforded to us in the pit the only way is up - up into the stage lights which cause huge amounts of flare in camera. A lenshood provides some relief, but it does require a bit of post processing to kick some contrast into the proceedings. On traditional film I would push process the bugger to the limit but on digital I overexpose by a stop and adjust in aperture, taking down the exposure and compressing the blacks. Another fly in the lighting ointment is the constant changing of saturated colours. Gree, blue, yellow and Red all feature in every song. I tend to leave the WB on default and again adjust after. It's not ideal but it means you aren't fiddling with your equipment all the way through the three songs.

For editorial enquiries: www.gettyimages.com

Arqiva Commercial Radio Awards

Highlight: An event which always boasts big breaking new pop acts.

Lowlight: Red Carpet Duty. I'm not great at celebrity spotting.
Fill in: Weirdest award moment: Ronnie Wood receiving best newcomer!Brief for this job is Red Carpet Duty, followed by performances, followed by awards snap in front of sponsors boards, followed by aftershow party. All of it to be turned around at the end of the night so it's pretty full on.

This year the entertainment was provided by songbird Beverley Knight, girl band Wonderland, electronic revival artists The Sound of Arrows and the inimitable Pixi Lott.







Tech Spec: The Red Carpet usually demands a side bracket mount for your flash in order to avoid the nasty side shadow that is caused by shooting portrait format shots, however as most of my images are for the internet and I shoot at very high res. I tend to shoot everything landscape, so there is an option to crop to portrait. You only get a couple of seconds to grab Red Carpet stuff so every shot counts and I can't afford for the best shot to be in the wrong format.

For editorial enquiries: www.gettyimages.com
For further information: www.cryingoutloud.co.uk
For list of winners and more photos: www.commercialradioawards.org/ArqivaAwards/Awards_Night.html