1. Hi Nick, lets start off with an introduction, a brief history to bring us to more recent times and to see your journey
I’m a lawyer by academic training, a photographer in my spare time and a PR manager for a software development company by day. And I want to be an MP.
So yeah, let’s just say things (on the photography front anyway) have turned out better than might be expected.
T in the Park had a 'fancy dress friday' and so I embraced it without question - this pic is me having my tea in the catering tent! sadly only about 7 people in the entire festival seemed to have heard about it and i was roundly laughed at for most of the day!
The only constant thing has been my love of music – from an early age it’s been a huge part of my life, and music photography is still a passion more because of the music element than the photography. I’m not someone who carries a camera everywhere I go, but I do carry my walkman!
And a very canned history of my photography – as a student, I started doing some reviews for a student website, and then (as I’ll come onto later) got a point-and-shoot camera which I took to a couple of gigs – the rest, as they say, is history. I now work with several agencies, and will be covering about half a dozen festivals, including Glastonbury and T in the Park for the BBC.
2. How long have you been into photography?
It all happened accidentally – as a teenager I used to stack shelves in Boots, they got rid of our team and I ended up on the photographic counter. After a while I got trained up to work in the lab and in-between the millions of dog/baby/holiday photos that I processed, every so often a shot would come along that grabbed me. I never really did anything about it until University, when I met a guy called Barney Britton.
Barney is not only one of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet, but a remarkable photographer. He was the editor of Durham21, a student website I started working for, and I learnt an incredible amount from him. Equipped with that knowledge, I was able to enjoy taking photographs of bands far more, and push myself technically. (Mainly in the vain hope of taking something as good as him!)
That was 2005, and I got my first SLR in January 2006 and the first gig I covered with it (a Konica Minolta 5D, for information!) was a We Are Scientists instore at a record shop in Newcastle called RPM. (A really great record store too!) and in November 2007 I got my D200, which I think was the beginning of the journey which took me to the ‘next level’ of people starting to hear who I was.
We Are Scientists at RPM Records, Newcastle. An acoustic set before their set on the NME Awards Tour 2006. Sunday, Jan 29th 2006.
3. How did you get started in the music photography scene?
I think it’s important to remind myself that I’m not a photographer who goes to gigs. Camera or no camera I’d be at the gigs, so the main reason I got into music photography was that it offered me a chance to combine a passion with a hobby. (and handily not have to pay to go to gigs!)
I think the first gig I ever photographed was the NME tour 2005 – I was writing a review and interview piece for a student website, and the PR for the opening act (a little known outfit called the Kaiser Chiefs) kindly put me down for a photo pass. I used my dad’s 35mm camera that we took on family holidays.
I got a few alright shots, so decided I would get a camera that I could learn with. I ended up opting for a Sony DSC-V3, which was my 21st birthday present from my parents.
My first break came when I was at a gig in Newcastle, Yourcodenameis:Milo. I spotted a girl in the audience with a notepad and asked if she needed any photos – she did, and this picture ended up in Newcastle music mag Get Rhythm. The editor seemed to like my stuff and he sent me to a few gigs – it was very handy in the early days being able to write a review too as it meant I got sent to gigs to do both.
I kept doing bits for local music mags and student publications, then through nothing other than sheer luck I cold-called a photo agency in London before a Leeds festival called ‘Across the tracks’ in the summer 2006 and they asked for some shots. I put an edit up – sold absolutely nothing – but they liked my work and I started getting assignments. The rest is history really, and last year I shot Glastonbury festival for them – in the world of music photography, a press pass to Glasto really is the holy grail.
Yourcodenameis:Milo
Unfortunately, for anyone wanting to get into music photography you need a great deal of patience – I spent hours calling and emailing band PRs trying to get photo passes, which isn’t easy when all you are offering is some publicity on a small student website – but eventually you do get breaks and the hard work pays off.
4. What’s in your kit bag?
What isnt! My bag is set up so that when I’m at a festival I dont need to think about remembering things, I just know its there. That means a waterproof, deoderant, food of some kind, spare everything and bin-bags!
Camera wise, I use two bodies – a Nikon D300 and a D200, with an 8GB and 4GB CF card respectively.
Lenses are – a 17-55 f2.8, 70-200 f2.8 VR, 14mm f2.8 fisheye. I also have two prime lenses – a 85mm f1.8 and a 50mm f1.8. I think everyone should shoot on a 50mm at some point, it teaches you so much about composition and positioning when you don’t have the luxury of zoom!
I carry an SB600 flash and a few diffusers but most of the time they stay in the bag – one of the biggest challenges of music photography is not being allowed to use flash, but I’ve got used to that now.
5. What’s your setup for an average gig? Body, lense and camera settings?
At an average gig photographers are only allowed the first three songs, so I always have both bodies set up even if I don’t think I’ll need two lenses. My primary camera is the D300 with the 17-55mm, and on the D200 I’ll either have a fisheye (for bands with several members) or if I need portraits of the singer I’ll use the 70-200 or 85mm prime for that.
The 85mm f1.8 can be a real life-safer when it comes to dark gigs – for example I recently shot La Roux, supporting Lilly Allen, and she had two LED strips at each side of the stage, and that was it for lighting. But by opening the 85mm right up, I managed to capture this shot which got away from the blue-wash look of the rest of the set.
La Roux
Camera settings are mainly dictated by the lighting – which can vary from stadium-size lighting rigs to two spotlights at the side of the stage. I always start at the widest aperture and then work up to around f4, f5.6 for portraits if the light will allow it. Shutter is a similar approach – start at around 1/125 and work up as the gig allows.
Focusing and exposure is always set to spot, which I set to the artist’s eyes and then re-frame the shot accordingly.
6. How much time do you dedicate to post-processing?
Because most of my work is for agencies or web-based news outlets, speed is everything. At festivals in particular, you maybe have 10-15 minutes between finishing one band and having to set off to do the next, so you focus on speed editing – I’d say no more than 2-3 minutes doing a very quick edit, pick 10 frames, and then 20 seconds on each in photoshop. Caption/rename accordingly and drop them onto the relevant FTP folder, then ping an email to your editor saying what is on the way!
It’s not as bad when you’re at gigs, as you’ve only one or two bands worth of shots to process, but even then I try to keep it to a minimum. Take the top levels down, add a bit of contrast and maybe put a few frames into black and white – I think that too much post-processing blurs the line between editorial and creative content, and as far I’m concerned I’m there to tell people what the band looked like and hopefully convey some of the atmosphere and energy. If people wanted to see an artistic interpretation of how a gig looked, to me they’d go to an art exhibition and that’s the role of post-processing, not capturing the image.
7. What position do you take when shooting at gigs?
If it’s a smallish gig (anything under an arena) I always try to start right infront of the singer and get a few full length shots of them before the performance starts. Then its a matter of spending the first minute or so sussing out the lighting, where the big spotlights/pretty lights are and where the shadow falls on the singer. I try and conciously have a decent set of shots from both sides of the pit, so you have some variety, but if I find a sweet spot with no shadow and good lighting I’ll spend some time there getting the shot right. This Elbow shot below is a perfect example – find a point where the two main spotlights silhouette the band, and spend some time getting the best shot!
Elbow
8. Best/worst bands you’ve seen at a gig?
Best band undoubtedly Radiohead. Thom has a really magical stage presence and is far more animated than you might expect, and their lighting show is always great.
Oasis are a great live band – so much energy and passion goes into the show, and I grew up with them more than any other artist so there’s an emotional value there too.
I think it’s impossible to say who the worst band I’ve seen are as it’s trying to compare support bands I’ve seen in pubs to people who do arena tours. I will say though – and I always get grief for saying this – but I think one of the most overrated live bands are the Killers. I’ve seen them four times now, I really like quite a few of their songs, but they always seem to sound a bit flat – quite under whelming.
9. Do you get to mix with the stars and the lifestyle or are you one to catch the last bus home?
Without a doubt the biggest misconception about music photographers is that all your time is spent schmoozing in VIP bars and occasionally you click a few frames, then go back to the party.
In reality nothing could be further from the truth! At Glastonbury for example, I was in the press tent for 9.30am setting up my laptop, checking stage times and planning my day. You check in with your editor, have a quick scan around for celebs to photo having their breakfast, then off to the first band at 10.30am (shooting atmosphere on the way) Then it’s pretty much relentless, and you’re shooting/editing/running until around midnight. So if you do make it to the bar (ok that does normally happen!) then you don’t normally have much energy for the disco.
10. Have you had any bands personally request any shots you’ve taken?
I’ve been lucky enough for some of the band’s I’ve shot to see, and like, my work. A few random highlights include a photo in Idlewild’s ‘Best of’ DVD artwork, a print of Bruce Foxton put in every pair of a special edition pair of mod shoes, and a few weeks ago Kasabian used a shot of mine as a double-page tour poster in the NME.
Idlewild, The Remote Part
It goes to show the power of sites like Flickr when it comes to people finding your work – I’ve had so many people contact me through that it’s quite amazing.
Kasabian in NME - Double page spread with my shot of Tom at Connect Festival
11. Where do you shoot?
I’m house photographer at the 02 Academy Leeds, so most gigs there I’ll be down the front. Otherwise, I’ll go wherever the gigs are! Normally that means Sheffield, Newcastle or Manchester arenas for bigger shows, occasionally smaller venues like Leeds Met or the Cockpit locally.
Personally my favourite time is festival season – I’ve now shot Leeds for three years, T in the Park and V for two, and this summer will be my second time at Glastonbury. It’s a mad atmosphere – so many bands, tens of thousands of people and lots of beer. If it doesn’t rain, brilliant, but it does that’s when the bin-bags I keep in my bag come out!
12. Any advice you’d give any anyone starting out in gig photography?
Be prepared to work hard and without getting paid! Even now I don’t expect to make money from every gig, so if you’re not motivated by the music then it’s a pretty hard gig.
Otherwise, there are an awful lot of people out there trying to make it in music photography, so you don’t often get a second chance when opportunities do arise and there’s always someone who might have better shots than you. The hard work comes in making sure that you’ve got shots better than your peers – and with that, it’s all down to you.
Random Shots
RadioHead
RadioHead
White Lies
White Lies
Doves
Doves
The striking image was captured by a 16-year-old schoolgirl on a sunny afternoon as she tested out a new camera.
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