Try This At Home

So, I haven't actually blogged in all of November. Does that mean I haven't taken any photos? Erm... no. I've just been a bit busy.

Frank Turner


Alter Bridge


Beverley Knight


Red Hot Chili Peppers


The Darkness


Evanescence


The Pretty Reckless


Smashing Pumpkins


Incubus


Wiz Khalifa


Tinie Tempah


Tori Amos


James


And the month ain't over yet...

I Kissed A Girl

A pleasure to shoot Katy Perry again at the MEN Arena tonight, even if it was from the back of the room. Much more at The Music Fix tomorrow.

School's Out

Terrific fun shooting Alice Cooper tonight - 4 songs from the pit, then the whole show from anywhere else in the venue.

Dream On

Noel Gallagher tonight at the Apollo - not a pit shoot but we were pretty close, if constrained to one spot.

Ghosts

Laura Marling at the Cathedral last night - missed blogging the Chase & Status show on Saturday night, which was incredibly difficult - good to get overall shots of the stage on a wide, but just wasn't practical to get close ups of the performers.

Laura was fine, but as usual when shooting her I felt guilty with the shutter clicks - such a quiet audience.

Gentle On My Mind

A genuine privilege and a pleasure to shoot Glen Campbell this evening at The Lowry. I've had a rotten day, but he was superb.

Sometimes

Nice to shoot Erasure at the Apollo tonight - one of my favourite acts growing up.

When A Child Is Born

Soundboard fun with Johnny Mathis at Manchester Arena tonight - got to say his voice is still sounding good. Just wish we'd been a bit nearer!

Ghost Town

The Specials at the Apollo tonight. I'm nearly at 100 for the year now... hoping to hit that by the end of the week.

You Raise Me Up

Josh Groban tonight from the back of the Bridgewater Hall. Another photogenic artist who insists on us being miles away. Will never understand it!

Louder

A couple more nights of action - Brett Anderson last night at Club Academy



and tonight Katy B at Manchester Apollo

Diddley Bow

Missed blogging about the Wombats show on Saturday (summary - very tricky lighting, not worth a trip out)

Seasick Steve tonight at the Apollo - nice lighting, although they neglected to light some fellow called John Paul Jones who turned up... hey, not like he was in a major band or anything...

Shut Up & Drive

To Liverpool again tonight for Rihanna. My advice on shooting this with anything less than a 500mm, preferably f/4? Don't bother. I found 400 on a crop didn't really give me the range, and there wasn't as much light as on her last tour - added to which, there was no central ramp. Very tricky.

Sophia

Gig season has begun in earnest, with Nerina Pallot and Snoop Dogg so far this week.

Hello, It's Me

Been a quiet week, but here's Todd Rundgren from tonight's show at Manchester Ritz.

Complicated

After some last minute shenanigans, managed to get a pass to shoot Avril Lavigne tonight in Manchester. Unexpectedly, was from edge of the pit, not soundboard as other shows have been.

God Only Knows

Felt really lucky to shoot Brian Wilson tonight at the Bridgewater Hall, sounding great.

Jolene

Another legend, another soundboard shoot - Dolly Parton last night at Manchester Arena.

Be Mine

Enjoyed shooting Robyn again tonight - the songs have really evolved from the album versions, would have liked to have stayed, really!

Let England Shake

Great to shoot PJ Harvey, especially after the Mercury win. Well deserved.

No Cars Go

Challenging lighting and a high stage, but still nice to shoot Arcade Fire tonight.

Leeds 2011

Here's a quick hit from Leeds Festival 2011 where I'm currently shooting. Tonight's headliners, My Chemical Romance

V2011

Having been on the sidelines for most of August, was good to hit the ground running at V Festival. Two days of solid shooting... here's a handful of spare shots.

Swagger Jagger

Spent yesterday shooting two festival - Leeds Party In The Park, and Key 103 Live. Here's a couple.

One Last Soul

Black Country Communion tonight at Manchester Academy - first gig in a week!

Atomic

Splendour Festival today in Nottingham. Cameraphone city in the pit. Not good.

Sometimes you photograph the rock stars, sometimes they photograph you...




Didn't do quite as well with Scissor Sisters tonight. Partly due to the sheer volume of people in the crowd, but some of it was me. Still got some shots - including one that ranks amongst my favourite live shots I've ever taken. It's not the one below, BTW.

Public Service Announcement

Over the next few weeks (if I get the work) I'll be blogging about moving over to a Macbook Air for my on the go photo editing at festivals. Having received the thing, I felt I needed three things

- A photo browser
- Photoshop
- IPTC Editor
- FTP Client

No problem getting a 30 Day trial of Photoshop from Adobe, Filezilla exists on the Mac, so that's my FTP client sorted, I'll find a find photo browser - but finding a freeware IPTC editor was a nightmare. The best suggestion I could initially find was using a script with Automator, but I couldn't get to the bottom of adding the script to the finder, or basically just working out how to pass the script a file to modify.

In the end, I found XNView which does batch IPTC editing, supports the fields I need, and helpfully allows you to save templates, so I was able to take one of my PC files that was properly captioned, identify the fields, and make a template. Hopefully this will save some other poor sod from spending all night hunting for one.

Nighttrain

There's something ridiculous about one of your childhood rock heroes being stood in front of you... Slash tonight at the Apollo. Insane.