Parkour

Turns out this was my last ever shoot with my camera, it broke right after the last few shots were taken.  In fact, the last photo in the Parkour gallery is the last photo I ever took with the camera that started ConcertsCaptured. Plus, the cool effect on that photo is all due to the shutter breaking, no Photoshop needed!

I did this shoot as I was intrigued by the idea of parkour/free running.  I heard about it after seeing a feature on John Morrison of the WWE who is big into the parkour scene.  So, after researching a little I came across a few people on Facebook who do it regularly in Birmingham and were happy to let me shoot their Saturday morning routine.

I didn't really know what to expect but suffice to say the guys I photographed were cool, down-to-earth peeps who were happy to go about their free-running business whilst I balance on high ledges trying not to take too many steps backwards.  The things I do for "the shot"!  I got in some good positions for most of the shots and once I knew what the guys were going to do it became easier to anticipate and therefore get a better shot.  I had to be really quick to capture the action as I didn't know if they would be doing some of the stunts again.

I took these shots with either a 28mm f2.8 or 50mm f1.8 lens.  Considering it was my first time shooting something like this, I'm happy that I captured some of the intensity of parkour in these shots and there's a few below that I'm REALLY pleased with.  I especially love the shots of Buggs Wabbit Runner leap-frogging the Birmingham balls and flying through the air whilst the little yellow man tells normal people where to walk :)

The full set, as always is on ConcertsCaptured.co.uk and you can share these shots on our Facebook and Twitter pages also.  A BIG thank you to Buggs Wabbit Runner for allowing me to shoot this.

3rd Time Lucky

I've never shot a band more than once but this week I ended up shooting Taking Hayley for the 2nd and 3rd time.  I chose to do this for a couple of reasons:

1) I'd never shot at The Flapper or the Temple room at the HMV Institute
2) The Taking Hayley guys are good chaps, play good music, put on a good show and could be destined for big things
3) I wanted the challenge of getting original shots even though I had photographed them before (I'll let you be the judge of if I accomplished this, all 3 sets are up on ConcertsCaptured.co.uk)

Biiiig crowd at the HMV Institute for, I think, 7 bands with Taking Hayley (Taking Hayley on Facebook) headlining.  They've got quite a following of youngsters but this was the first gig I had seen them play with a more mature audience taking up residence at the sides and at the back.

I won't review the music (heck, I'm a photographer, what do I know ;) ) so I'll just talk about shooting the show.  The lighting was terrible.  Yucky LEDs (I think) and the usual bad spotlights.  It was nice to be faced with this challenge and having to work my way through the crowd to get the shots I wanted though.  There was a photo pit but I don't think I would have fitted in it and would have just ended up with lots of up-crotch nostril shots so I decided to be that annoying guy who stands in front of you at the show (apologies to anyone if you were the one behind me at any point!!).

Had a drink spilled on me at one point, thankfully it was water (not cider like at The Streets) so that was quite refreshing.  Besides, water is no match for my camera :) Tried to get a few wider shots and some more atmospheric shots (that's my way of saying "the lighting was bad so I couldn't get good ones") and there's a few in the gallery on ConcertsCaptured.co.uk that look kinda cool.

It's also weird when the day after the gig loads of people say "ahhhh, I saw you last night" no Facebook.  People need to say hello more, I'm quite frugal with free drinks :)

Free parking after 6pm

Over two years ago (15th February 2009 to be exact) I was just starting ConcertsCaptured and had agreed to shoot two bands at The Flapper in Birmingham.  I drove into town to park up but didn't have any money for parking.  I also didn't know you could park for free after 6pm.  So, I drove home and apologised to the bands and wondered if this false start, stupidity and humiliation would get to me and put me off.  Turns out it didn't...

Two years of photographing in Birmingham and I had NEVER shot at The Flapper so I figured it was about time I sorted that out.  How can you validate yourself as a music photographer in Birmingham without shooting at The Flapper!?

So, on Tuesday 12th April I popped down to shoot Taking Hayley, Mimi Soya and Kids Can't Fly.  Soooooo much fun shooting in a sweaty, dirty, badly lit, crowded venue, honest! Met a few other photographers there including Andrea May (who runs AMCH Photography) who was a pleasure to chat with.  Also got chance to catch up with the boys from Taking Hayley who were having way too much fun for a support band, anyone would think they enjoy watching live music as much as they enjoy performing it... :)

Was chatting to Levi Keeling from Taking Hayley (who can you find more info about here at their official Facebook page) who, when talking about how some bands make my life easy by putting on a show and enjoying their music, said "that's why it's called a performance".  'Nuff said.

Mimi Soya were the main support band on this UK tour.  The comparisons to Paramore are everywhere but forget that, Mimi Soya's lead singer has a much better voice and her and the rest of the band are much more fun to photograph.  Check them out at their official Facebook page.

Kids Can't Fly are building up quite a following and this UK headline tour is certainly helping.  The Flapper was packed out by the time they came on and they even had a little skank-filled moshpit going!  They threw some pretty cool shapes on stage too and sweated their buttocks off and will no doubt continue doing the same in bigger venues soon, check out their official Facebook page for more.

Admittedly, I need more practice shooting bands in smaller venues with a flash-gun, just the excuse I need to go and see these bands again and pop down to The Flapper again soon :)

As always, higher quality photos and full sets are available at ConcertsCaptured.co.uk and you can tag, share, like and discuss more on our Facebook and Twitter pages.

This last photo is my favourite from the night and a proper ConcertsCaptured classic :)

Come say hi!

Been a bit quiet on ye olde ConcertsCaptured lately so I figured why not step it up a little by doing something every day?!  Got a nice busy few days coming up and here's what we'll be up to if you want to come and say hi (I'm pretty easy to spot, what with the ConcertsCaptured t-shirt and camera :) )

Monday 11th April: Art Exhibition - The Other Side, raising money for Breast Cancer Research.  A display of local artists' work, all for a good cause with free food and alcohol too.  Get more details here at their Facebook event page.

Tuesday 12th April: Taking Hayley @ The Flapper.  A good local band who are starting to gain momentum. Check them out on their Facebook page.

Wednesday 13th April: Our first ever model/fashion shoot in Wolverhampton.  A little nervous about this one but should be fun and a great learning experience.  It'd be boring doing the same thing all the time so I'm trying to branch out a little... fingers crossed!  Will also be heading back to good ol' Snobs in the evening for the usual mayhem of a shoot there!

Thursday 14th April: Was going to shoot the UTR Easter Rave at Gatecrasher but alas, it has been postponed until Tuesday 19th April.  Any suggestions or requests then?!

Got a few more things in the pipeline for the next few weeks, including shooting the whole of The Airborne Toxic Event's concert at Koko in Camden next Friday, my first proper gig shoot in London and it's the whole show! Very excited... :)

Any suggestions of where else we should be?!

Shooting McFly... with a camera.

If you know me, you probably know that McFly aren't really my "thing" but I knew that they'd put on a nice show for the cameras so I popped along to shoot the show for ConcertsCaptured.

Shooting at the NEC, sorry, "LG Arena", is always fun.  Stood stage-side watching The Struts entertain and warm up the crowd whilst trying to remember where I'd sat at all the gigs I paid to go to at the LG Arena for in the past, ahhhhh, being old is fun.

McFly were as expected... entertaining, lively and fun which, I presume by the crowd reaction, is what people wanted.  They did seem to be having a genuinely good time which I always like to see in a band.  Us photographers were informed before the band came on that the show would start with a bang/explosion.  I had visions of The Stotts coming out but turns out McFly could afford proper pyro (check the video below at 1:15 if you are confused at this point):

I only use one camera at a shoot so I have to change lenses if I want to get different types of shots.  This led to me running in and out of the photo pit like a loon to strap the zoom lens on but I reckon it was worth the jog.  I was REALLY happy with the few shots below.  The first one is my favourite and was complete luck that I was in the right place at the right time for it.  I would love to say I planned it but no, complete fluke! (Should I have admitted that?!)  The second one took a couple of goes to get but I think I finally nailed it on the last jump he did (well, the last one during the first three songs anyway).  The third shot is one that has annoyed my friends due to the singer's Springsteen stance... surely you see the resemblance too?!

As always, the full set is over on ConcertsCaptured and you can interact with myself and ConcertsCaptured on our Facebook page and on Twitter.

She Wants Revenge return...

Good news!  There's new music on the way on 23 May from American rockers She Wants Revenge as they release their third full-length album Valleyheart.  The band look set to continue their creativity with this new album and are embracing their links to the SoCal skateboard scene with the first single's video for "Must Be The One". There's some interesting background on this over at the Valleyheart blog.

No doubt they'll be playing their new material when they hit the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival on April 17 and I would love to see them head back over to UK shores soon.  I'd love the chance to photograph these guys, they have a real atmosphere and mood to them that would be an intense experience to capture.

I love the way that the band are embracing the wider concept of "the album" too with Adam Bravin taking photos of San Fernando Valley landmarks that are important to him and the band. It's always fascinating to see photos that are important to people and to hear the reasons why they mean so much.   The band are also shooting short films for each of the songs on the album to visually represent the stories in the songs.

The full tracklisting is as follows:

1)      Take The World

2)      Kiss Me

3)      Up In Flames

4)      Must Be The One

5)      Not Just A Girl

6)      Reasons

7)      Little Stars

8)      Suck It Up

9)      Holiday Song

10)  Maybe She’s Right

Back to the front...

Every now and again I like to get back to basics and go shoot smaller bands in smaller venues.  It's always nice remembering where I started when it comes to photography and I feel that it's important to always remember where it all started.

So, I popped into The Crown in Birmingham on Thursday to see a friend's band.  Got a pleasant surprise from the support band Vault of Eagles with their mix of grungey dirty groovy rock.  Once they had actually sorted out the sound so that we could hear the singer I realised that I actually quite liked them with some of their slow songs really REALLY hitting the spot.  Check 'em out here at their Facebook page.  I just wish I could afford all the guitars the singer had!

Stranger In Death were up next with their mix of guitar heavy metal.  With a stage so small that the lead guitarist had to stand on the floor (gave him more room to pose though :) ) the band were limited in their visual performance but still played a set of Metallica/Crue inspired metal.  They put on quite a good show for only their 2nd ever show and they're playing LOADS of gigs in the next few months... check their Facebook page for more.

As for the photography side of things, it was refreshing to be able to walk around and shoot what I liked, where I liked and when I liked.  I actually found myself a little confused at times because it's been sooooo long since I was able to do this.  I also realised that I need more practice using flash when shooting live music, looks like I'll just have to go and see more bands to sort that skill out.  Got a few funny looks from people too, almost like they didn't know who I was... the audacity of some!