A few weeks back I spent half a day with mountains-based death metal band Resonator.  For all these shots I put a 24″ softbox on the key light and used a second flash for fill/rim.

Thought this gig deserved posting up, given what a sweet light show it was.  Never seen such energy at the Enmore

Here are some of the shots …

Segression @ The Annandale Hotel, 06.05.2011

I looked on my memory card a couple of days after this night, only to find loads of photos I don’t really remember taking.  As far as my own memory serves I missed Segression’s whole set, but all evidence suggests I actually found the time to climb up on the stage (!) and get some pictures.  Hooray for beer.

Contrive @ The Annandale Hotel, 06.05.2011

Contrive were playing when I arrived at the venue.  I’ve photographed these guys before, when they were supporting Testament last year.

Steve Hughes!

What a nice fellow.  Here’s Mr Hughes at the Annandale with Greg Trull from Dreadnaught and his cousin from Scotland.

Suicidal Tendencies @ The Metro Theatre, 14.05.2011

This isn’t the best shot of the evening, but it sums it up for me – that is, the challenge of low light photography with a frontman who DOES NOT STOP RUNNING up and down the stage.

Toe To Toe @ The Metro Theatre, 14.05.2011

Supporting Suicidal were Sydney band Toe To Toe.  They did an admirable job of warming up the punters on this night.

My situation was this: For a year I’d been using Zenfolio for my image hosting, and this meant that I’d been hotlinking my photos into blog posts. But because I wasn’t using many of the premium features that Zenfolio offer, I recently decided to cancel my subscription.

And so I had a problem.  In deciding to move away from Zenfolio, all the images that I’d linked to in my blog posts over the past year were going to disappear!

*poof*

Just like that.

“Crap!!!” I thought, “am I really going to have to manually re-host all these bloody photos myself?!”  But then it occurred to me that this would be an ideal job for a web server to do, in a fraction of the time.  Maybe, just maybe, someone had written a WordPress plugin for this…

Google.

And there it was!  Add Linked Images To Gallery is a WordPress plugin which looks through all your posts (or those in a single category if you want) and extracts the image tags; then it automatically downloads the images, uploads them to your WordPress media gallery and replaces the original remote links with the new, local links.  Just like that.

The plugin processing some of my past blog posts

So if you have a bunch of linked images on your website which you think might suddenly disappear, or perhaps that are unreliable or slow to load, then I want you to know there’s an easy way to re-host those pictures yourself.  Go check it out.

I personally take my hat off to the developer of this plugin, for saving me so much heartache.  Worth a donation I reckon

Here are some of the shots…

Papa vs. Pretty @ Oxford Art Factory, 01.04.2011

Popular local indie kids Papa vs. Pretty. An evening of rear curtain flash shenanigans (flashenanegans) for me, and a few beers.

City and Colour @ Enmore Theatre, 05.04.2011

A far cry from Alexisonfire, Dallas Green sold out the Enmore with his solo tour.

Good Charlotte @ Sydney Entertainment Centre, 09.04.2011

This is the first show I’ve ever turned up at and my name wasn’t on the list (which is pretty good going really).  Luckily a phone call and some sweet-talking was all it took to be led to the pit.  It was all quite rushed, but I got a few shots.

Disturbed @ Acer Arena, 25.04.2011

Yep, Disturbed are on the road again with a new album.  This turned out to be quite a high budget production, and I had no idea there was fire coming…  Luckily I was front and centre for it

Trivium @ Acer Arena, 25.04.2011

The three song rule was in force but I swear me and the other photogs were shooting Trivium for about half an hour.

As I Lay Dying @ Acer Arena, 25.04.2011

Opening the show for Acer Arena’s big night of metal.

Escape the Fate @ UNSW Roundhouse, 30.04.2011

Escape the Fate have quite a following, and let me tell you the kids in the crowd were NUTS.  Crap lights though, unfortunately.

Pierce the Vale @ UNSW Roundhouse, 30.04.2011

Supporting Escape the Fate, Pierce the Vale put on a much more upbeat and energetic performance in my opinion.

Funktacular

This was my first gig of 2011 and it was a blast! Stayed right ’til the end for this one, because sometimes you just can’t beat disco*.

*It’s true

Gear

Canon EOS 50D Body, Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L USM Lens

More Photos

Check out the full set including support act Roy Ayres here.

Well 2010 is nearly over, so I thought this was a good time to look back on the last few months and scan in some magazines that have used my photos. It’s been a whirlwind ride really: In less than six months I have shot 65 different bands in Sydney, from my first small gig in June for a website, to assignments like Metallica’s world tour for BLUNT magazine in September. I’m certainly in no position to complain that things haven’t moved fast enough!

The new ‘Tear Sheets’ page can be found here. Right now the publications on there are BLUNT magazine and Australian Guitar magazine, but I hope to add a few more titles soon

Who knows what the new year will hold, but I like to think it’s gonna rock. Hard.

“What’s up Sydney??!!”

‘Pop rock’ or not, I actually really like Paramore, so I was stoked when I got asked to cover their visit to Sydney in October. The band drew a, um.. ‘youthful’ clientele to the Sydney Entertainment Centre, with, as expected, the demographic mostly comprising 14 year old demi-clones of frontlady Hayley Williams. Also as expected, this was a huge production, so the lighting was great. In fact the main challenge was catching Hayley bombing around the stage. Another tricky factor was getting the shots in what was effectively a two song allowance, due to a massive curtain falling into the photo pit during the first number which had to be removed by the techies (at a rather leisurely pace I might add). That, and we also got pulled half way through the third song because the teeny-boppers got a bit too crazy. Too many fizzy drinks I expect.

Gear

Canon EOS 50D Body, Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L USM Lens

More Photos

Check out the full set including support from Relient K here.

“IIIIIIII’ve bin workin’ hard!”

This was my second time shooting The Snowdroppers, although on the previous occasion they were supporting Hell City Glamours at the Oxford Art Factory. This time it was a headline show, and they certainly drew an eclectic mix of punters! There was a great atmosphere at the Manning on this night, and I was flabbergasted by the number of photographers in the pit – more than most internationally acclaimed bands that I shoot! Undoubtedly there was plenty of anticipation surrounding this show.

The shooting conditions were okay (plenty of bright yellow light, which was fine), but due to the number of other shooters it was a case of choosing your spot and staying there. As a result I didn’t manage to get around the whole band as much as I would have liked. Three songs were up in no time, and that was that.

Gear

Canon EOS 50D Body, Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L USM Lens

More Photos

Check out the full set including support from The Beards here.

This could be anywhere in the world (but it’s not, it’s in Sydney)

I’ll never be able to choose a favourite band, but Torontonian post-hardcore-ers Alexisonfire are, to my surprise as much as anyone else’s, strong contenders. The band managed to sell out the UNSW Roundhouse, and that’s despite the somewhat non-transferrable Canadian subject matter of freezing winds and apocalyptic snowfall. The crowd was fairly young too, fully embracing AOF’s tendency to sing about ‘getting on a bit’ (“my youth is slipping away”, they say… “we are not the kids we used to be”, they moan). Honestly perhaps their last album should have been called Midlife Crisis.

Anyway what is this, a frickin’ album review? The facts are these: one of my favourite bands were lit by red and blue LEDs from the side of the stage for the first three songs. Difficult metering, dodgy white balance settings and saturated colour channels all round. Such a bummer! But hey, that’s the way it goes sometimes.

Gear

Canon EOS 50D Body, Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L USM Lens

More Photos

Check out the full set including support act Break Even here.