Universal Showcases

Highlight: Dinner with Snow Patrol plus a private performance.


Lowlight: Dinner was at one of the best steakhouses in London and I'm a veggie. Mind you, the cheesecake was to die for.

Fill in: Private showcases from Snow Patrol, Pixi Lott, James Morrison and Dev along with a pitch from Red1 of all his new projects make this a major event in the Record Industry calendar as MDs from all over Europe and Asia get together to see news works performed by the artists of the moment and to get their photograph taken with them - yes that's where I come in. The brief is to get performance shots and meet and greet snaps, which, depending on the mood of the artists booked can mean shooting all night, or hanging around all night for a handful of snaps or even in the case of one artist - no shots at all as they didn't bother to show up. However I get dinner which is a sumptuous affair. Usually the meet and greet shots happen just as desert is served - or more to the point - as MY desert is served, as the top tables get theirs first and by the time the staff get to me the top table have finished.






Tech Spec: Two cameras, one set up for low light performance shots (usually first three no flash as for gigs) and one for quick snaps (full flash, point and shoot). As it happens my flash decided to conk out on this job right in the middle of shooting gSnow Patrol. There is no time to hang around at these events so I had to whip off the speed light and rely on my pop up flash - they do come in useful and for this reason I always use the D700 for snaps just in case.

For more info www.mediaevalbaebes.co.uk

Mark Stone

Highlight: Seeing Mark Stone again - he has a way of making you feel cultured and intelligent just basking in his presence.



Lowlight: After a few minutes more in his aura I realise I am not cultured or intelligent at all
Fill in: The shoot was portraits for Mark's noes project which included pianist Sholto, Violinist Johnny and Singer Michelle - all classically trained so felt more uncultured by the minute. Luckily Mark had brought along his 9year old son Tom so at least someone in the room was on my level. However it turned out he was an excellent musician and knew his way round an iPad so once again I was the philistine in the room.



Tech Spec: Used the Lastolite Hi-lite (see Gillman and Soame) plus a back light and one front light to give a white backdrop set up. Then threw grey strawberry netting from B&Q over the Hi-lite. It is translucent and the effect is great for post-production shading for atmospheric images. Finally I made the use of the room's natural light - we were at Birkbeck College and the room had a whole wall of windows facing North so it was just like a daylight studio.

For editorial enquiries: www.gettyimages.com

Gillman and Soame Training

Highlight: Landing a contract with the most exclusive schools photography company in the business

Lowlight: Finding out my photography has become appallingly sloppy.
Fill in: Work was looking slow for September so a quick hunt on the internet showed a need for schools photographers in my area. How hard can it be I thought as I merrily sent off my CV. It was then that I remembered the moans from my kid's' friends' mums (that does make sense even if it is bad English) about untidy hair, cheesy smiles and scruffy school uniform in the 'terrible' school photos and realised that if I even got the work I was going to have to take whole schools of kids of all ages of a quality that would please a doting mother.. .and quickly! I got an interview but had cold feet. Amazingly I got a contract, and was relieved to find out we had two days training and was sent with a trainer to our first few commissions.


Tech Spec: We were shown the set up for the standard white back drop portrait, the reams of paperwork that aided the smooth running of the process (this is factory photography and the long list of pc do's and don'ts. I was disappointed to find out we could not threaten the kids, call them names or swear at them to get the shot (always works for bands…) and dismayed to find we had to get the pic in ten second or less, preferably in one take. But the biggest embarrassment was not knowing how to use my expensive light metre (actually no-one could work it out) and revealing my extremely sloppy habits which had developed over the past 15 years. It was good to get back to basics and churn out a decent pic in record speed.

For enquiries: www.gillmanandsoame.co.uk

Learn To Play

Highlight: Getting Kyle into this exclusive event where kids can have a go on various instruments with a qualified teacher.


Lowlight: Having to try and take photos while Kyle and his friend created sonic bedlam and Kyle bemoaning the fact there were no drums.
Fill in: The brief was to capture the kids having fun. And boy did they have fun, blasting inexpertly on trumpets, snorting down flutes trying to get a tune, making rude sounds come out of clarinets, screeching on violins and twanging guitars. It was far from a peaceful environment plus I spent most of my time on my knees to get the right angle accompanied by the constant caterwauling coming from every room.





Tech Spec: I didn't want to use flash as the natural light was great, but it meant using prime lenses on full aperture (F2 or less) to get enough exposure. This did get the backgrounds nicely out of focus though and was less imposing for the kids than huge zoom lenses (also easier to manage as I was virtually crawling round the place.

For more info www.musiciansunion.org.uk/

Pythia

Highlight: A chance for another Emily Ovendon shot to see the light of day and to get creative.
Lowlight: Digging the images out of the archive - my system is under constant review to make it better so I can never find anything.

Fill in: Brian Froud had done the artwork for the British version of the Band's new album, but Japan like to get Emily on their covers and who can blame them.




Tech Spec: I used the graphics supplied by Brian and the Pythia 'The Serpent's Curse' website for the colour scheme and just added layers of textures to frame Emily. Her hair was given a quick perm and lift and make up was accentuated.

For more info www.mediaevalbaebes.co.uk

Pythia

Highlight: A chance for another Emily Ovendon shot to see the light of day and to get creative.
Lowlight: Digging the images out of the archive - my system is under constant review to make it better so I can never find anything.

Fill in: Brian Froud had done the artwork for the British version of the Band's new album, but Japan like to get Emily on their covers and who can blame them.




Tech Spec: I used the graphics supplied by Brian and the Pythia 'The Serpent's Curse' website for the colour scheme and just added layers of textures to frame Emily. Her hair was given a quick perm and lift and make up was accentuated.

For more info www.mediaevalbaebes.co.uk

Over 50 Bands in 3 days

Highlight: 1. Being given a rain cape by security guard - what a gent.
2. Being one of the few adults allowed into the Underage Festival.


Lowlight: 1. I obviously looked like a pretty sorry case if security were being nice to me - believe me, these guys are made of granite. Soft hearted does not come into it.
2. Not being asked my age for the Underage festival- I obviously look well past it as well as a sorry case.

Fill in: A series of one day festivals - Underage, Field Day and Apple Cart all with their own distinct character. Not least Underage which meant adults had to wear a special band. I wasn't asked my age at the box office, so still getting over the shock that now I'm not even asked if I'm over 18 out of politeness. In fact the pert girl behind the media desk took one look at me and I swear she was considering giving me two Adult wrist bands as I was about twice the age of the oldest person in the vicinity. So, moving swift on, it was a case of getting as many bands as possible into the bag without passing out - three days of wall to wall bands heaven.

UNDERAGE



FIELD DAY


APPLE CART (more to come)


Tech Spec: Guide to getting as many bands as possible in a day.

As well as your normal gig equipment you will need: Good pair of shoes/boots. Rain poncho. Raincoats for cameras. Rucksack for spare equipment. Pen and paper or electronic notebook. Money for food. Tissues for toilet paper. Jeans/long hard wearing trousers (not shorts or skirt), layers of clothing (vest/t-shirt, long sleeve card/top, thermal jacket - put extra clothing in rucksack - you will need it in the late evening). Business cards. A small bottle of water. If you can get running order and site map from festival website beforehand then do steps 1 and 2 at home.

1. On arrival go to press office and get the running order and a site map. Try to get there at least an hour before your first 'absolute must get' band is on, preferably two. (It can take an hour to get your passes, then another trying to find out procedures for photos and then it is nice to have a dry run in the pit before-hand).
2. Re-write all the bands in chronological order - in a table with time in 1st column, band name in 2nd and stage in third - if times clash, write in your preference first. Ring all your 'must get' bands . Then mark all the band it is feasible to do with the list as it stands with a star). Plan which bands are possible to do taking into account whether photographers need to be escorted to stage, whether you can by pass the escort meeting place by meeting them at entrance of pit, how far it is between stages etc. If you are really keen to cram them in, then you can just allow one or two songs for each band instead of three, however some stages may not let you leave the pit until the end of three songs.
3. Do a tour of the site taking note of rough time it takes to get from one stage to another, how to get into the photo pit, how crowded thoroughfares are likely to get, where food stalls are and where the shortest queues for toilets are (usually backstage but not always).
4. You are ready to start. Take a note of the time, and look at the times of the bands on in the next hour and your wish list and go to first band taking note of the next band on list and whether it is a tricky change over.
5. After shooting you first band, re-asses the situation. Keep this up til you finish. Throughout the day make adjustments to the list according to the following:

a. Whether stages are running late/early (this WILL happen)
b. Whether you can get into pit after band has started (if you are nice to security they may let you - also some stages may let you shoot for longer than three songs)
c. Whether acts are cancelled or change stages (give yourself time to visit the press office occasionally to check this)
d. Whether it is raining (will be harder to walk in mud, but less crowded).
e. How busy it is - it can take twice as long to push through a busy area
f. Whether it is an easy act or hard act to shoot (a motionless singer songwriter could be done in 1/2 a song whereas a full on all singing dancing twelve piece jazz orchestra may need all three songs to shoot)
g. Whether you can get decent shot from crowd - early in day it is possible to get to front of pit without too much trouble.
h. Whether you need to eat or go to the loo. In my youth I used to go the whole of Glastonbury on one bottle of water and a cornish pasty a day but when I collapsed of heat exhaustion at said festival in 2009, Keith has insisted I have a breakfast and sit down for ten minutes during day to eat something. Of course this inevitably means going to the loo - another wasted ten minutes but it has to be done.
i. Whether you have collapsed of heat exhaustion…..

You will start off very busy as the sets are shorter at the start of the day, but the less experienced acts are usually easier to shoot and are in daylight so the lighting is easier, so one or two songs is usually sufficient to get a stock shot. As the day goes on the sets get longer so you have more time in between. 6pm - 7pm is the best time to try and get a bite to eat. After 8pm you will probably be hanging around a bit between bands bit it is a nice time to get some general festival shots. Good luck and enjoy!