Time can be an interesting thing. The time it takes to get a person in front of you for a project like this can feel like an eternity…but not nearly as long as the time it takes you to get the camera up to your eye as you see that person give you a genuine smile. It’s one of the things I’ve really struggled with when taking portraits of people and trying to capture a moment of genuine interaction. Those moments are so fleeting, that if you’ve got that camera away from your face because your talking to the person you’re taking a photo of, it can be gone by the time you get the camera up to take the shot…but if you’ve got a camera in front of your face the whole time, then you may never create that connection with the person that sparks their genuine reaction.
So for this project I tried something new, a remote trigger. The basic idea was that I would get the shot set up and then just get the person chatting, if I saw a moment, I would press the remote button in my hand and it would take the shot. There were a few challenges, one being that I had a tendency to stand taller than the camera, so a lot of the shots had people looking slightly above the line of the camera. It also meant I took A LOT of photos. I’m someone who is notorious for taking way too many photos at the best of times, but by the time I reached 40 people, I had taken over 1,700 photos, and when each of these photos is over 200mb, it’s fair to say my SD cards and hard-drives were filling up very quickly. But the aim was to capture genuine moments of happiness, and I definitely captured a lot more of these than ever before, so I will 100% use this approach again.
Human interaction
For my day job I do a lot of interviews for videos. These are usually with people who aren’t used to being in front of a camera, and so a lot of my job is actually just getting people relaxed and talking despite having lights, a camera and complete strangers in their face. I’ve always considered this one of my strengths, but I really noticed how rusty I had become over the COVID lockdowns. So I really wanted to use this project as a chance to reconnect with that ability to get people relaxed and talking. Fortunately, my super-power of not knowing much about anything, but a little bit about a lot of things, was enough to get me through, and I got some really lovely feedback from people who said they normally hate having their photo taken, but really enjoyed this.
Music to take portraits by
In my normal videography job, I’m doing everything I can to avoid any noise that might interfere with the edit of the video. So it was actually incredibly liberating to be able to play music in the background of each session. When I take portraits of musicians, I usually play music for those sessions, as it feels in keeping with the people I’m working with…but this was the first time I’ve done it for ‘normal people’, and it really helped ensure there weren’t any awkward silences, and helped set a relaxed vibe.
Although, when I asked Jane to play her uke and sing a song…we found out pretty quickly that ‘Ambient Scando electronica’ playing on a speaker in the room, really wasn’t helping.
But a big thanks to Nils Frahm, Jon Hopkins and Max Cooper for the tunes!
Happy accidents
At the end of each session I asked if they could flip the card with their number from one hand to the other, and I would just roll the dice with a single photo to capture what happened. Some of these photos were my favourites!
In a past life I worked as a Producer for a video production company. For the uninitiated, a Producer’s job is basically to take the Director’s vision and deliver it on budget and on time. So everything from who we were interviewing, to where the catering truck could park, to how much the Gaffer was going to cost was my remit. I remember working with a Director who, when I would try to talk him through the logistics of the day, would just say ‘Don’t worry, I trust you’…then wander off. I could never understand this. As a person who likes a certain amount of structure in their life, the thought of just wandering onto set and assuming that everything would be fine, was anathema to me.
But since then, and as I’ve had more projects where I’ve been the one doing the Directing, I’ve realised how much of your mental real-estate has to be focussed on the creative side of what you’re doing. It’s very hard to execute your ‘vision’ when you’re also worried about where to set up the urn for coffee. This is the reason so many great Directors, have an incredible Producer, doing all of the work with schedules and budgets, so that the Director can focus on the creative side of things.
It’s also why passion projects like this, where one person has to do all of the things, can be so hard.
The Budget
My ‘Director’s vision’ was to have a video camera rolling for each portrait session so that at the end I would have a little video I could show and then reveal the portrait. But as the Producer of the project, I knew that would mean either hiring a dedicated video camera, or shooting the video on my Fuji X-T4 and seeing if I could record the audio separately (I didn’t want to have a lapel mic on the person for the photo, so would have to hire a microphone and boom to get a nice clear recording of their voice). I would use a flash for the photos, so the room could be dark for that…but if I’m shooting video, then I would need to hire some video lights so that the video looked good…but then I would need the flash to be strong enough to overpower the video lights so that I could get the look I wanted for the photos. Plus, if I’m recording video, as well as photos, I would need to buy a new external hard-drive to store all of the files on. So I would basically need to hire a video camera, tripod, microphone, boom pole, external audio recorder, studio lights and purchase a new hard-drive…on a budget of zero dollars. Needless to say, the Producer convinced the Director that the video idea was not going to work.
The camera
I’ve been incredibly lucky over the last few years to be able to borrow a GFX camera from Fuji. The GFX is a Medium format camera, which basically means it has an enormous sensor that takes a very large photo. It is also eye-wateringly expensive. If I borrow the GFX body and two lenses, that can often be over $17K worth of gear. Does it make me a better photographer? No. Does it give me the confidence of a better photographer? Oh you best believe it! And when a large part of your job as a portrait photographer is convincing the person in front of the camera that you know what you’re doing, and you’re going to make them look good…sometimes, a little bit of unearned confidence is all you need.
So I was once again full of gratitude when Fuji were able to meet my budget of $0 for the camera hire.
In keeping with our traditional agreement, I have posted many photos on Insta where I have tagged Fuji and added them as a ‘collabarator’…they have not shared any of the photos.
The set-up
I wanted the background for each shot to be the same, so that when you looked at a gallery of the images, the point of difference was the person. But then that leads to the question, ‘so what’s the background?’ I have a wall in our kitchen that I’ve often used for photos, but it’s a pretty main thoroughfare for the house, and so I wasn’t keen on using that as it would mean the rest of the family was having to work around my photos for two days…and it would mean that the person I was taking photos of would have to be out in the open and potentially self-conscious as I tried to get them chatting and laughing. So I decided on using a collapsable background that I could set up in our front room…but then, what colour?! White would only really work if I had a 2 flash set up. Basically, my main flash was going to be on an angle to the person I was taking the photo of, which means the light from the flash wouldn’t be hitting the background evenly (as it’s not hitting from front on and spreading the light evenly), so I would then need to have a second flash on the white background to make sure it was an even white when the photo was taken. Given my $0 budget and lack of conviction that it would look good…I decided not to go with that option.
Black was another option…but if someone has black hair or a black top on, they can disappear into the background. The way around this is to have a second flash that sits behind them and creates some separation between them and the background…but again, I didn’t want to have to hire a second flash and trigger and stand…so I ruled this out.
The last option was the ‘cowards choice’, grey. The classic choice for the person who doesn’t want to choose between black and white. So I bought a grey background and used that for the first day of photos.
However, I soon realised that once I had set up my flash and got the lighting right for the people I was taking the photo of…the grey background had basically gone to black!
So for the other two shoot days, I purchased a white background, which ironically went back to the grey I had hoped for in the first place!
The setup with a grey background.The resulting shotThe setup with a white backgroundThe resulting shot
The People
One thing I have learnt from endurance events like marathons, Ironmans and Peaks Challenge, is that it’s no use only visualising for the finish of the event, or even for a hard time in the event, you need to visualise for all of the hard times in the event. So you have to mentally prepare for what you will do when you’re struggling at 28kms (‘You’ve done this before and you know you finish well, so just keep going’), and also at 33kms (‘Less than 10kms to go, that’s less than a before work run’, and also at 38kms (‘Less than a Parkrun to go!’)
Sadly I did not do this for the 50 Shots of happiness project. While I had prepared myself for ‘How will I get people to relax and start chatting candidly?’…I did NOT prepare myself for ‘How will I create a form on my website to contact people about being part of this?’ or ‘What will I do when my form ends up in their spam?’ or ‘Wait, do I have to create an Excel spreadsheet with everyone’s session time, and contact details?! This is meant to be about creativity…NOT SPREADSHEETS!!’
Plus, as someone who had cancelled his Facebook account, and hadn’t really bounced back from the COVID lockdowns with a ‘I really must get out and reconnect with people’ vibe…finding 50 people who are willing to give up their time, and then be told what part of their time would suit my spreadsheet, and then actually arrive at that time to have a photo taken. Was a lot trickier than I had thought.
But thankfully, my social media angels in the form of Katie and Carol Nichols meant that I had a full day booked for Saturday…and a family Christmas event on the Sunday meant that I could also rope in some family members to be part of the project.
The outstanding sign my cousin Tim created for the room I was taking photos in.
In the end I took 40 photos, with the plan to take the last 10 before I turned 51.
The numbers
People really like having something to do with their hands in a photo. It’s weird, but if they’re just sitting somewhere, they rarely think ‘Wait, what should I be doing with my hands?’…but as soon as they’re in front of a camera, they start wondering ‘Should my hands be on my lap…no wait, just hanging by my side…no…maybe by my chin, but which hand?’ Suddenly, as a photographer, you have someone in front of you who looks like they’re using hands for the first time.
So one of the things I wanted for this project were some physical cards with the numbers 1-50 on them, so that each person had one to hold in one of the photos. I wanted the numbers to a nice linking theme, but not something that distracted from the person holding it. So with that concise brief I went to Daga at Figbird to create them for me. It’s fair to say, she nailed the brief!
Next episode
So that’s how I organised the ‘nuts and bolts’…but how did I go actually working with the people in order to get some photos of people looking genuinely happy? Well you’ll just have to read my next blog.
Music has been the one constant passion throughout my life. I loved it as a kid, obsessed over it as a teen, and appreciated it as an adult. I always dreamed of being a musician, but a complete lack of talent, and deep-seated knowledge that I would never come up with a band name that I actually liked, meant that I have always been ‘musically adjacent’. I’ve managed artists, done radio, made video clips, I have an Arts degree in Music Industry, and for the last few years taken photos. I think I’ve done just about everything that relates to music, but that doesn’t actually require me playing a note. Up until now, I would have traded it all for just one song in front of an adoring audience…but with my photos suddenly starting to grace album artwork, I think I’m actually finding my happy place.
Kumar from Psi Phi mid-solo at the 303 Bar
The thing I love about photographing musicians is that it negates one of my main weaknesses and plays to one of my main strengths. The weakness is that I’m not great at getting people to pose. Some photographers are great at getting people to do things that feel really unnatural, but make for a great photo (‘Put your hand here, chin there, neck long, etc’)…but I always feel awkward giving these directions, which makes the person I’m taking the photo of feel that I don’t know what I’m doing, and so they lack conviction in the pose, and lo and behold, the photo doesn’t work. But put them up on stage during a performance, and they will strike poses I could never have dreamed of asking them to strike…I just need to capture them.
Bodytype at the Brunswick Ballroom
The strength I have, is that being ‘musically adjacent’ for my entire life, has left me with a serviceable knowledge of a lot of bands and music styles…and if you want to get a musician comfortable with you…just name check a time you saw one of their favourite artists at a gig before they were famous, or some obscure album track that you love. I think that a lot of musicians actually prefer to talk about a band that they love, than their own music. I remember interviewing Paul Dempsey once and chatting comfortably about Belgian band dEUS for about 20 minutes, then seeing the fear in his eyes when I produced all of the Something For Kate singles I had in my collection and asking him about specific lyrics.
I also think that as I have become more comfortable thinking of myself as a ‘creative’, I have become more comfortable seeing myself as a peer, rather than an interloper. Better still, working with a band on multiple projects has let me feel like a collaborator as well. In particular, working with ZoJ has been amazing. I first saw them when I was working at an event where they were playing some songs as the evening’s entertainment. The room they were playing in looked amazing. But the floors were marble and the chairs were metal, and so any time someone moved their chair it screeched. There were also so many hard surfaces in the room that it echoed and bounced the sounds all around. And people talked through the whole performance. I could tell that they were pretty frustrated by the end of their set, and so I made sure I told them how good they sounded and that I’d send them the photos I took. They liked the photos, and so from there I took photos of them at an intimate show at the Recital Centre, for a show where they were doing a live score to an old movie (and so I took photos of them in white tops with the movie being projected onto them) and then for their album ‘Give Water to Birds’. Both Brian and Gelare are incredible artists, and so I feel incredibly lucky any time I work with them. Best of all, I’m always learning new ways to do things because they’re totally up for new ideas and approaches.
This last year I’ve been working with Melbourne Prog Rock exponents Psi Phi. I’ve been lucky enough to shoot photos and videos at their gigs, and best of all was able to document their album recording. They’re actually launching their new album in a few weeks, and if you buy the vinyl you’ll see my handiwork on the internal sleeve. If you look at the group photos and think ‘He should have used a flash for that shot’…rest assured, on a day with very tight timelines, I set up my flash, only to discover that I’d left the trigger for the flash at home. Good times…good times.
Just sitting there waiting, waiting, waiting to capture this response when the band know they’ve nailed it.
But working with musicians is also a constant reminder of how similar creative people are. I’ve sat in a room while the band listened to the amazing track they’ve just laid down, and all each band member can hear are the imperfections in their performance…while also praising everyone else’s efforts. I’ve seen moments on stage where all of the practice and rehearsal suddenly coalesces into something transcendent in front of an audience. And of course, I’ve seen them lugging gear out into the back of a family car, that will be driving them to their day job the next day so that they can sustain their creative dreams. As Gillian Welch sings in ‘Everything is free now’ “We’re gonna do it anyway. Even if it doesn’t pay.”
So here are my top tips for being a musically adjacent photographer:
Shoot the small gigs – Granted there won’t be incredible lighting rigs, or stages, or pyrotechnics…but you will be able to move around the space and get some really varied shots, and try some creative shots while the stakes are relatively low.
Danny Ross at the Wesley Anne…still one of my all time fave photos.
Take photos of the support act– The vast, VAST majority of musicians are working their arses off to make very little money, so if you can take a shot that they can use in future promo material…take it and share it.
Push it creatively – Obviously you need a few good safety shots…but make sure you’re trying something new whenever you can. I’ve tried dragging the shutter, shooting with a beer glass over part of the lens, and using my phone under the lens as a mirror…and they’ve all worked. I’ve even tried shooting on a zoom lens and zooming in as I take the shot, and that has not worked…ever…but that doesn’t matter, because I just delete and never tell anyon…ah, crap.
Tell the musician what you liked about their show – Have you ever sent someone a photo and not heard anything back from them? It sucks. Nothing hurts quite like putting your creative self out there, and then not hearing anything back. So if you’ve been in the room with a musician putting themselves out there on stage, let them know what you liked.
When I was about 19 I went to a comedy gig at the Prince Patrick hotel where Dave Taranto had explained that inside every stand-up comedian, was a lead singer looking to get out…and then allowed a variety of comedians to sing a song with a live band (Anthony Morgan’s version of ‘Too drunk to f$%#’ by the Dead Kennedys was particularly memorable)…so I think I’ll just keep waiting for a band to say ‘OK for our next song, and for no particular reason, we’re going to get that photographer up to sing along with us’…I’ll be ready to show them EXACTLY why I chose a musically adjacent life.
‘Are you able to take photos and video of Snoop Dogg tomorrow?’ As a public servant, this is a question I get asked a lot.
Snoop working on his words and verbs.
For context, some students at Warringa Park (a school for students with a disability) had recorded a song at their studio and invited Snoop Dogg to come to the studio and record a verse. In a move that I don’t think anyone expected, Snoop agreed and asked that the event not have any media, so that it could just be for the students and teachers. So, as the in-house creative team for the Department of Education, my team was asked to document the event. This was right up there with a request in 2011 to drive to Kerang to take photos of actual royalty, in the form of Prince William who was there to survey the flood damage.
Now admittedly, these requests are few and far between. But requests to ‘quickly grab a few shots at the launch’ or ‘get a photo of *insert senior person in organisation* at *insert event where person will be standing at lectern in front of very bright Powerpoint presentation*’ or the dreaded ‘Just grab a few photos for socials’ are everywhere now that we all have cameras that can also make phone calls in our pockets. So I thought it might be worth passing on some tips and tricks for taking photos at events like this…and yes, what to do if you get called up to take a photo of a legit superstar.
Clean that lens
I genuinely want to run a workshop called ‘How to take better photos with your phone’ and just say ‘Give the lens a quick wipe before you take a photo.’ Then thank everyone for their time and wish them well. It seems so simple, but if you’re ever wondering why your photos look ‘flat’ or ‘muddy’, have a quick look at the glass on the lens and see if there are any finger prints/sunscreen/sweat on them. If you’re anything like me, there will be…but they can be gone with a 2 second wipe. On the bikepacking trip I did earlier this year I made a conscious effort to wipe the lens each time I went to take a photo, and the results were glorious.
Tell a story
I know that this is tricky, especially if there isn’t a story that’s immediately apparent. But so many photos I see from events seem to say ‘A thing happened. Here’s proof’. This is great if your sole objective is ‘have proof we did something’. But if you’re looking to engage with an audience who has an entire social media feed of super interesting content. You’re going to have to work a little harder. If you’re taking photos at an annual event, you want something that makes people think ‘I have to go next year’. If it’s a one-off event, you want people to think ‘Wow, I wish I had been there!’, if it’s just to document something that happened (a visit by someone important/ a workshop/ a conference), then you want people to think ‘I wonder what it was like to be there’. It’s also worth remembering that 99% of your audience are people who would be attending your event, not presenting at it, so make sure you get photos of people enjoying/engaging with the event (no one at the events I’ve taken photos at has signed a consent form saying ‘it’s OK for Chris to use this on his own personal blog’, so I don’t have any examples to show…but rest assured, I take them at every event). In short, you want people to engage with the pictures and create a story in their minds.
Your Chief Financial Officer probably won’t be as good at posing as Snoop, so enjoy it while you can.Make sure you’re ready to capture moments like this.The lyrics to what Snoop was about to rap.The music teacher and Snoop’s entourage discuss production techniques, while he works on his flow.
People love stories, and our brains love finding connections, so try to take a few photos that tell a story and that allow people to make connections between.
In this picture you can see; Snoop Dogg is there, he’s at a school, and the kids are excited he’s there. Also, the number of people who made reference to what’s written on the board when they saw the photo was staggering. Why did they like it? Because they were able to make the connection between ‘teachers writing a message for students on a white board’ and that message including ‘fo shizzle’ which is something that Snoop would say. You let their mind make the connection, and they got a little dopamine hit for doing it. Everyone wins!!
Three’s a crowd
We’re all susceptible to a bit of FOMO. So when you’re taking a photo of something you want to make people say ‘Oh, I wish I was there!’, then frame the photo between people who are there. On a purely liminal level, it puts the viewer into a situation as if they were actually there (unless you’re right at the front in the VIP seats, you’re probably going to have people in front of you) and it makes for a more interesting shot. On a subliminal level it says ‘there were so many people at this thing, the photographer had to take the shot through a crowd of people. Why weren’t you there?!’ Best of all, if there aren’t heaps of people at the event, you only need 2 people to make it look like there were!
Unfortunately I don’t have consent forms to cover me using the photos I take at work events, so can’t show you an actual example…but it works just as well at music gigs.
Get to the part about Snoop Dogg!!
Ok, I’ve buried the lede long enough. What do you do if the stars align, the Gods smile upon you, and you’re suddenly called upon to take photos of someone BIG?
Have a plan
I am genuinely amazed at the number of times people assume that because you have a camera in your hands you know what should be happening. And believe me, if you say something like ‘I don’t know…just…you know…act natural’, you are in for a selection of the most awkward photos you’ve ever taken. So with Snoop, I had a series of questions I was ready to ask if the students got too nervous to talk, or if Snoop was looking like he needed some direction. I also had five shots in mind that I wanted to get, so I knew I could ask people to do those if there were any awkward lulls. For the record, both he and the students were so good, I needn’t have worried.
Snoop with the list of artists the students had on their ‘wishlist’.
Take a LOT of photos
We are not shooting on film, with just 12 exposures…and you have the rest of your life to delete the photos you don’t want. So take a lot of photos. I know professional photographers will sneer and call this a ‘spray and pray’ approach. But at the Prince William event I mentioned at the start of this blog, I missed a photo of one of our key staff shaking hands with the Prince. It still haunts me, and I would have happily deleted photos for hours rather than have to send him the email admitting I’d missed the shot.
At the Snoop shoot, I took over 500 photos in under an hour. I reckon there will be about 20 that I’m really happy with, and probably 3 that I’m stoked with. But every person there got a photo with Snoop where they both look good, and that’s worth its weight in gold.
Be confident…or at least fake it convincingly
If you look like you know what you’re doing and you’re happy to be there, you will get great responses from the people you’re taking photos of. If you look stressed or overwhelmed, people will ‘tighten up’ in front of the camera. Now this truly sucks, because internally you ARE going to be freaking out, and your mind will be running at 1,000 thoughts per second, and it would be GREAT if people knew that and all said ‘Oh you poor thing, this must be so stressful for you.’ But you know what doesn’t make a great photo…people looking at you with an ‘Oh you poor thing’ expression on their face. So take a deep breath, put on a big smile and get used to saying ‘That looks awesome! OK, just one more, looking here. Perfect!’
At the Snoop shoot I think I was a picture of positivity, but at the end I helpfully got a message from my watch saying ‘This has been a stressful period, make sure you balance this with some relaxation or meditation’. Not now, watch…not now.
But stress aside, this was a genuinely amazing experience. There was an amazing sense of joy and excitement in the room, and I like to think I captured some of that. So if you’re not afraid to take a photo, then put your hand up to take some photos for your work events…and if the opportunity to work with Snoop Dogg presents itself, then I highly recommend you take it!
I’m on holidays, so it’s time to compile my favourite photos from last year. It’s a wonderful time for me to reflect on the year that’s just past, reminisce about good times…and in the wake of COVID, say ‘Wait…was that last year? I thought that was two years ago…or 6 months in the future!’ As per usual these aren’t in any particular order other than ‘let’s not have all of the beach/band/black and white photos next to each other’. But if there’s a theme to this year’s selection it’s probably ‘trying something new’. Quite a few of these leapt out at me as I was going through my ‘4&5 star’ rated photos in Lightroom, because I remembered trying something new to achieve them. So if you’re on holiday, sit back and have a read…and if you’re back at work, pretend you’re doing research, either way, enjoy!
GoPro through sunglasses
Not how I expected this shot to work…but still happy.
On the beach at Warrnambool on a stinking hot day I was noticing how much better everything looked through my sunglasses. So I thought I’d put the GoPro behind my sunglasses lens and see how it looked. ‘Chaotic’ is probably the answer. The colours are all over the place, the light is baffling, and I have NO IDEA why there is that weird shadowing around the the arms. BUT, if I had achieved this result on purpose, I would have been super proud of myself, so the next best thing is to claim a mistake as a success…then hope that no-one asks me to replicate it!
Spontaneous surf selfie
A family that surfs together…
If there are two things I usually avoid, it’s selfies and spontaneity. So the fact that this is one of my favourite photos from last year, really does speak volumes. We were down at Sandy Point in late January and after dinner, made an impromptu decision to go for a surf. The sun was sitting low on the horizon, the light was incredible, the surf was great, and for one quick second we were all in the same place at the same time and I took this shot. If you’ve ever taken a photo of someone, you know how hard it can be to get a genuine smile…and if you’ve ever worked as a photographer, you’ll know how hard it is to get a photo where everyone looks happy at the same time. So as a photographer, this is a great keepsake…and as a parent, it’s everything!
When in Rone
Helen and Rone
I do genuinely think that this is an objectively good photo. It’s someone in a great outfit, striking a great pose, in a great setting. But for it to happen, visual artist RONE had to have created this incredible installation above Flinders Street Station, and I had to have taken the unusual step of booking Katie and I in for a social event (a trip into the city to see RONE’s work), and while we waited in the queue to be let in, Katie had to have started up a chat with Helen and her son and said that I would take a photo of her inside, and I would have to have a GFX100S in my hands because Fuji had loaned it to me for another project, and while we were walking the around the installation I would have to see Helen and compose this shot, and then with such a great subject, in such an aesthetically engaging environment and with a very expensive camera, I would have to not stuff up the photo. If any one of these elements hadn’t coalesced, this photo would never have happened. But they did…and I love it!
Trainspotting meets Bladerunner
Coburg station by night
From memory it was raining for most of November, and repeated trips past Coburg station in various forms of precipitation had left me with the thought that there were some good photo opportunities there. All it would require was; me leaving the comfort of the house on a rainy night, me taking the time to actually set up a good photo, and of course me being willing to be ‘that creepy guy taking photos of a train station at night’. Needless to say, the chances of this actually happening were very slim. So I was very proud of myself for actually heading out and taking the photos, and really happy with how they came out. But the real joy was posting it online and hearing from people who had worked on the redevelopment of the station, or had designed the lighting for the station, or were just proud Coburgers/Coburgians/Coburinians? You just never know what is going to connect with people…so get out there and take those shots!
Rock and/or Roll
Sophie from Body Type
One of my big photographic focuses for 2022 was to shoot more live gigs, with a view to getting proper accreditation to do it ‘for realz’. So when I saw that Body Type were playing at The Brunswick Ballroom, I pulled what strings I could (aka got in contact with Cecil the drummer, who I used to work with) and got myself on the door to take photos. Having shot photos of John Flanagan a few weeks earlier in the same venue, I was confident I could get a few good shots. And when Cecil told me ‘This could get pretty loose tonight!’, I knew I was in for a great night. Body Type are a freaking amazing live band, and there was a LOT of energy in the room. This photo is the one I keep coming back to. It’s definitely not one that jumps straight out at you, but I just love the pose. I had set myself up so I was shooting between to people (that’s why there is so much black around her…that’s actually the people right in front of me blocking out the rest of the picture), and I certainly didn’t plan for the lights to turn red just as she did this pose…but I’m very glad they did!
Black, white and live
John Flanagan live on stage
If I could spend the rest of my days taking photos like this, I would be incredibly happy. Obviously I love black and white shots, and I love taking photos of musicians…but in this case, I had also worked with the band in rehearsals and developed a rapport. Because of this I was able to be on stage to take the photo them as they performed…and so suddenly it wasn’t all just ‘up the nose of the lead singer’ shots, and I was able to bide my time and wait for the shot. John is a contemplative performer…and his decision to book the Brunswick Ballroom for the gig (and play with a 6 piece band!) was a big swing after two years of no live gigs as a result of COVID restrictions. So to not only see him in his element, in front of an appreciative crowd, but to also be able to capture it, was a real privilege.
Silhouettes and sunsets
Sue Johnson
One of my favourite jobs for the year was shooting some portraits of the wonderful Sue Johnson. Now clearly the vast majority of the photos were ones where you could actually see Sue…but this one, where we had headed to the slightly flooded grasslands of Coburg, was the one that as soon as I set up the shot, I knew was going to be a keeper! The late afternoon Winter sun just peeking through, the blue sky and the movement of her hand *chef’s kiss*!
Comfort zone
Phil
It’s probably a testament to my lack of skill as a videographer, that the whole time I was setting up for this video interview, my main thought was ‘This would make a great photo!’ I love taking photos of people in their homes (and to clarify, I love doing this when I am in their homes with them for the purpose of taking photos…not just lurking outside with a long lens!) I get to see the place with a fresh eye and see the things you miss when you’ve lived in a place for more than 3 months…and they get to sit in a space where they’re in control. I think there’s a fair bit of relief that the video interview was over in his face…and bemusement that a complete stranger was asking him to stare out a window. If there was a thought bubble it would say ‘If I just do this…then he will leave’. He was of course wrong…I overstayed my welcome by at least another 3 hours!
Maps and chats
Carol and Lyn
This one was taken as part of the same project as the photo of Phil, where I was trying to capture the essence of Carol’s relationship with her parents. One of Lyn’s favourite memories was a trip she and Carol took to Italy, so I looked to capture that idea of both planning for, and reminiscing about, that trip. I love the way the maps and travel books tell a story, and I’m so glad I used the vase with the Irises to frame Carol…but it’s the way the smiles look so relaxed, comfortable, and authentic that makes me the happiest.
Can I get a light check?
Lighting test
I had a very specific idea for a portrait I wanted to shoot, and had borrowed a friend’s light to shoot it. So I spent an hour or so doing a practice run, and roped my daughter and niece into posing for me. I cannot begin to describe how much this was exactly the light I was going for…and how far away I was when I took the actual shot with the actual people. So I’m keeping this photo as a reminder that I can get the light that I want…just not necessarily when I want it. Also, if this isn’t the album cover for their debut EP, I will be furious.
Splashdown
Post-ride swim
On this day Josh had ridden just over 200kms from Preston to Sandy Point…and this was him getting into the surf for a cool-down. On a metaphorical level, this was a teenager who loves exercise and the outdoors who had just come up for air after 2 years of lockdowns. To me this is a perfect portrait of relief and renewal.
Flinder’s Street Station
Flinder’s Street at dusk
I’ve lived in Melbourne all of my 47 years… but I reckon I’ve been in to the city to take photos 3 times in my life. If I’m staying in any other city I will religiously take my camera and get some photos. But for some reason I have a blind spot with my home city…probably because it’s always there, so there’s never any urgency to make a trip in. In December I was due to return the GFX I’d borrowed from Fuji, and so I thought it was probably high time I headed in to the CBD and get some photos. After about two hours of taking a series of photos that were very nearly good…but were just lacking something. I decided to just embrace my inner tourist and take a photo of the iconic Flinder’s Street Station. As soon as turned the corner of Swanston St I saw this incredible purple dusk sky. I rested the camera on a the edge of a bench so that I could drag the shutter a little and then waited for a tram to trundle through and give me a snapshot of Melbourne…this city loves me so much, it gave me two!
Thanks for indulging this trip down memory land. Now it’s time to relax, and make some plans for 2023!
So I’d had my idea, and I’d done my rehearsal…but now it was time to bring it all together for the gig. So on a chilly Melbourne evening I headed along to the Brunswick Ballroom as John and his band were getting ready. There were so many questions running through my head: Was having access to the band going to make for better photos? Were they still going to talk to me after seeing the photos I took? What’s it like to stay up past 10.30pm on a weeknight?
There was only one way to answer these questions – with a blog!…written about 2 months after the gig…because life got really busy…and The National STILL haven’t called!
The gear
All the cameras and all the lenses
I was very selective with the gear that I took…in that I selected every bit of gear that I had, and took it. So this meant I carried:
X-T1 body
X-T4 body
16mm f1.4
10-24mm f4
35mm f1.4
50-140mm f2.8
56mm f1.2
I did ‘um’ and ‘ah’ about taking the 10-24mm and the 50-140mm …but my decision to take them was 100% vindicated by the 0 photos I took with the 10-24mm and the 2 photos I took with the 50-140mm. On the bright side, my shoulders were stoked with carrying the extra weight all night for no apparent reason. My big lesson from the night was that I should have just taken my prime lenses and shot on those. I would almost have said that I could have gone with just the 16mm and the 56mm…but three of my favourite shots from the night were taken on the 35mm. As Zack Arias says ‘There’s just a bit of magic in that lens!’
Backstage on the 35mmBetween glasses on the bar on the 35mm
The support
Now admittedly we all have busy schedules, and after 2 years of lockdowns, some of us are still trying to limit the amount of time we spend in crowds. But it is 100% worth your while to get there early enough to take photos of the support act. It’s a great trial run to see what is going to work when the main act comes on stage, and no up-and-coming muso is ever going to say ‘Nah, I’m good for photos’ if you send them the shots you took. In fact you may be the person they contact as their career starts to take off! Of course, John didn’t have an ‘up-and-comer’ as his support…he had the incredibly talented Maggie Rigby. So I was always going to have someone who was giving an incredible performance. But I’m still really happy with the shots I got…especially as some of them worked incredibly well with a single perfomer, but failed dismally when John and his band were on stage.
This mirror shot worked a treat with Maggie, but not with John and his bandMaggie Rigby never phones it in.
Shoot early, shoot often
I think a lot of people taking photos of gigs dream of taking iconic photos like the ones of Iggy, or Kurt, or Patti that they had seen growing up. And yes, these were all probably taken by someone who had two rolls of film that allowed them to take 24 photos for the night. And yes, ‘you should never spray and pray’, ‘you should always take the time to compose the shot and shoot it once’, and ‘it’s no good just filling up hard-drives with useless shots’. But if I need to shoot a whole lot of shots to get the one I’m after…then so be it. It’s not like I’m demanding that people look through all of my shots. No. I’m just taking multiple photos of a very similar shot, then cursing myself when I get home to find that I’ve taken over 550 photos…and no one even got married! Then I’m spending an inordinate time switching between two versions of the shot and saying ‘I really like the singer’s hair in this one…but the bass player’s eyes are open in this one…I think I’ll just keep them both!’ BUT, so much of what I’m trying to achieve with my photos is to capture a moment that encapsulates the energy of the performance…and sometimes, that moment is there and gone before you can even take the shot. This is one of my favourite shots from the gig, as it really captures John’s energy and committment. But I can tell you that the photos taken 1 second before and after, just don’t have the same energy. So if I have to delete 50 photos out of Lightroom just to get this one…then no amount of ‘photographer snobbery’ is going to stop me!
Hiring gear
My wide lens is the 10-24mm f4. For non-photographers, this means the lens goes from 10mm (which is very wide and great for photos of urban landscapes or sports like BMX and skating where you’re trying to get a lot into a shot) to 24mm (great for landscape shots and group photos), and at f4, it’s great in full-light, but starts to struggle in low-light. Most live venues are ‘low light’, and so if you’re trying to capture a moment with minimal blur you’re probably shooting about 1/125…and really ramping up the ISO. As a result, I only use this lens if I’m trying to capture the whole band on stage, and very rarely for action shots. I knew I had permission to get as close to the band as I liked, and I really wanted to get some up-close action shots…and so I fell down a rabbit-hole of YouTube videos on the 16mm f1.4 lens. In the end I decided that this lens was exactly what I needed. But at about $1,000, it would be insane to buy it just to take band photos. The smart and pragmatic thing to do would be to hire the lens for $50 every time I needed it. That way, I could do 20 gigs before I had incurred the same cost as buying it outright! It’s this kind of considered and emotionally constrained thinking that makes me such a great businessman. So I hired the lens for the night, loved it so much that I went out and bought one the next week.
Take that pragmatism!!!
*sigh*
Tell a story
John had given me access to the band before the gig, I’d spent time with them so they knew who I was, I could get as close to the band on stage as I wanted. So, how could I use all of this to not just take photos of the show…but tell the story of the night? The short answer was, ‘take the photos of the little moments’. In a social media landscape that rewards the big and flashy moment…it can be hard to take the time to capture the little moments, that make up the big story.
Before the showBackstageOut in the crowd
Post-script
Thankfully every photo that I take is perfect and needs absolutely no work in Lightroom…but if I were the sort of person who spends a LOT of time deciding on which black and white preset to use, then I would say I lent very heavily on Chris Orwig’s presets for these shots. His ‘BW strong v1’ and ‘Add snap’ presets are usually my ‘go-tos’…but for this show, some of his film simulations ‘Film Classic Warm Plus’ and ‘Film Cross processed’ really made the shots pop, and gave them an almost 70’s Rock vibe.
So was it worth it?
I honestly don’t think I could be happier with how it all went. I got to work with some incredible local musicians, and take a peek behind the curtain to see how it all works. I got to challenge myself creatively, and learn a hell of a lot that I would never have known if I hadn’t taken the risk. I captured some great photos on the night (click on the image below for the full shotlist):
and I got other gigs after shooting this one (again, click the image to see the gallery:
On a recent project for work I was interviewing teachers who had been working for 40, 50 and 55 years. One of the things that really stuck with me was a teacher saying that they got to the end of each year thinking they were getting the hang of it…but that they spent their entire careers with that feeling because they ‘Didn’t know what they didn’t know’. So at the end of each year they knew that they knew more…but that had shown them what they didn’t know and needed to learn. Shooting this rehearsal was VERY much the same thing for me! So having told you about the idea behind this project, let me take you through the rehearsal.
What I knew I knew
Shooting in low light environments is never fun. Admittedly, most venues where you shoot live music are low light environments…but they make up for this by at least having lights on the performers. Rehearsal studios on the other hand give exactly zero shits about the insane ISO levels you’re going to have to use to get your photos.
BRACE YOURSELF FOR A PARAGRAPH OF RANDOM COMBINATIONS OF NUMBERS, LETTERS AND PHOTO JARGON!
My wide angle is a 10-24mm f4 lens. I normally find that to make sure every shot of a moving musician isn’t blurry, my minumum frame rate is 1/125…but with f4, I was having to go to 1/30 and hope the IBIS did its job. I shot on all my lenses (50-140mm f2.8, 35mm f1.4 and 56mm f1.2), and when I went back through the photos, it was the 35mm and the 56mm that did the best work. But even then the ISO was often around 2,000 which saw me going to black and white quite a bit to hide the noise.
For the non-photographers reading this, a lens with a lower f number, means it lets in more light. In my case, the 56mm F1.2 lens, which is considered a ‘portait lens’, was the lens that let in the most light. I can’t say this often enough, the 56mm is amazing for low-light photography!
Politeness vs photography – If you’re one of those people who can walk up to a complete stranger in the street and just take a photo of them, then this next para isn’t for you. But if you’re someone with even a little humanity, it can be really hard to find that balance between getting the shot you want, and not encroaching on the space of the person you’re photographing. After all, if John had to choose between me getting a good shot, and one of his band members nailing their part…I’m quietly confident my artistic aspirations were going to come a distant second.
This is probably my favourite shot from the day
So I spent the first hour or so just getting wider shots or shooting on my zoom lens. Then as it got less weird to have someone in the room taking photos, I moved in closer and took some portraits.
Musicians are great to photograph – I have no confidence in my ability to get people to pose for a photo…but I do trust myself to capture a moment if they give me one, and musicians always give me one…no…wait…that came out wrong! Look, all I’m trying to say is that musicians give you shots like this:
What I didn’t know I didn’t know
Trombonists are hard to photograph – If you’re tight enough to get their face, then you’re going to lose the slide…but if you get all of the slide, then it’s a really wide shot. Plus if you get it on the wrong angle the bell covers their face. I guess I should just be happy that I’m not taking photos of the 76 trombones in the big parade.
It’s the notes that aren’t played that make good photos – I got into the habit of putting down the camera each time the band would stop playing. But that meant I missed a lot of the collaboration and discussion between the band members. At the end of the day, photos of people dressed casually, playing their instruments in a room with terrible lighting…are going to be, at best, poor versions of the photos I was hoping to get at the live show. So I had to make sure I got some of the shots that showed the process of the rehearsal as a document of the day.
The end result
I was super happy with the photos I got. I probably could have got up closer to the musicians and really taken advantage of the opportunity of being in the room with them…but at the same time, I was there to take photos at their rehearsal. They weren’t there to play instruments in my photoshoot. I also wish there wasn’t so much ISO noise in the photos, but outside of setting off a flash at regular intervals or bringing in a light, I don’t think I was going to avoid this.
Best of all, John was really happy with them…and the rest of the band all still spoke to me at the gig! Which gig? Well that’s what I’ll be talking about in the next post.
I think it’s fair to say that I’ve always been a vicarious musician. The harsh truth of not having any musical ability has not stopped me from occupying as many music adjacent roles as possible. I’ve done radio, driven DJ’s to gigs, managed perfomers, made video clips…I’ve even done a University degree in Music Industry. If the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame was to open a ‘Person who has done the most music related things without ever playing a note’ category, I would be in with a STRONG chance of being inducted. So why do I love working with musicians? Is it partially because I hope that some of their talent will rub off on me, and suddenly I’ll be playing to sold-out arenas? Yes, of course. But also, they act as a constant reminder that there is an alternative to the 9-5 world I inhabit. A world where you start work when other people are going to bed, a world where writing passionately about things that piss you off is seen as genius and not a potential HR issue, and of course a world where each time you finish part of your job, people are obliged to applaud.
But of course, it’s also a world where your livelihood is reliant on cramming as many people as possible into a confined space and getting them to yell and scream. Which is not ideal during a pandemic of an airborne virus. The sad reality is that musicians have been doing it incredibly tough over the last two years. Live gigs have only just started again in earnest, the 2c per track they get from streaming services isn’t really the same as selling a $10 CD at show, and Bo Burnham’s ‘Inside’ on Netflix showed that whether you’re a musician, videographer or stand-up comedian…he’s better at it than you. Plus the government made it PRETTY clear, that when it comes to showing support for people doing it tough, artists can pretty much get stuffed…they chose this lifestyle anyway!!
Backstage silhouettes
So I was keen to come up with a way to support local musicians. A quick review of my finances revealed that I could not bankroll a series of concerts…but I could take some photos of musicians, that they could then use to promote their shows. When I saw that local singer/songwriter John Flanagan was putting on a show where he was hiring the Brunswick Ballroom and putting together a 7-piece band, I knew that this was exactly the sort of endeavour I wanted to support.
Altruism?
Wow Chris! You sure are generous! Looking to help musicians, without getting anything for yourself!! Children should be studying you in school!!! Um, yeah…about that. This was definitely not pure altruism. Having been invited to shoot a few gigs for friends, I had to tried to get a photo pass to shoot the HoldSteady at the Croxton Hotel…and couldn’t even get a response from the promoter. In short, without a magazine or website saying ‘He’s shooting for us!’ I couldn’t even shoot the show for free! And without a decent portfolio of shots, I couldn’t really expect The National to call and say ‘Chris! These shots you took on your phone from the crowd have convinced us that YOU are the one we want documenting our next tour!!’
The crowd at The Hold Steady…shot on iPhoneI’m not bitter…but I have never spent a show saying ‘That would have been a great photo!’ as many times as I did at this gig.
So when I reached out to John to see if I could shoot his show, one of the first things I asked was whether I could have backstage access to get some shots before the show, and could I get some shots from on the stage? Basically, I wanted the chance to get shots that the audience couldn’t. I wanted to be able to tell the story of the show, and that meant shooting from both the audience’s perspective and from the band’s perspective…and did I dream of getting a shot of the band, with the lights flooding onto them and crowd mesmerised by the performance? Yes…yes I did.
Carrying two cameras and a camera bag meant walking across the stage was an exercise in ‘Don’t knock anything over…and don’t trip on a cable!’
Reaching out
I really should take a step back, because ‘when I reached out to John’ really does make it seem like this was easy. But rest assured that sending a DM via Instagram to someone you’ve never actually met and saying ‘can I come and take photos of you?’ is NOT easy. But I had a few things working in my favour; – while I had never met John…Katie (my wife) knew him, so I wasn’t going in totally cold. – one of my regular dog walks actually went right past his house, so if he said ‘no’, I could train our dog to crap on his lawn. – he’s a folk musician, and these really are the Canadians of the music world…so he would be too polite to say ‘no’. – I genuinely felt that this was mutually beneficial. I’ve done jobs where I’ve felt that I had got the better side of the deal…and I’ve done jobs where I felt like I had been exploited. This one felt like a happy medium where we were both going to benefit.
Thankfully John agreed. Not only did John agree to me shooting the gig, he also invited me along to a rehearsal the band were doing…and that will be the focus of the next blog.
Now I know that at the moment the idea of talking about photography at a live venue with a group of people all crammed in together in a non-ventilated space where they can yell and scream…may seem a tad far-fetched. Who knows, by the end of this year all pubs and band rooms may just have wisened old hipsters looking into the middle-distance and saying ‘Live music? We ain’t see no live music since…well shoot…not since Omicron!’ But I’m an optimist…and I think I’m also now at the stage where I have shot enough gigs to have learnt from my mistakes, but I’m still sufficiently new at the game to remember all of the things I wanted to know when I started. So I think it’s the perfect time to give some tips on shooting photos at live gigs.
Get out there
A remarkably important part of taking photos at live gigs…is actually being at those live gigs to take photos. So while I have waited remarkably patiently for The National to call and say ‘Chris, we want YOU to follow us around the world and take photos at our shows’, I have also hustled to find performers to take photos of. Now, admittedly, having the drummer from The Cat Empire as my brother-in-law has opened quite a few doors. But if you haven’t made the strategic decision to marry into the Hull-Browns…then that’s on you. But in all seriousness, I’m yet to come across a musician who has said ‘Nah, I’m all good for free photos that I could use on my numerous social channels, and I certainly don’t need a new shot that I can send to potential venues, and the venues I am playing at really hate it it when I bring along an extra person who buys a few drinks.’ This is a win-win for you and the artists, so see if you can find a friend/cousin/friend of your kid/local parent/open mic night participant who is doing a gig and get photographing!
The composer at a Darebin City Brass show my daughter was playing at.My son’s piano teacher at the end of year concert
Spot focus
Ok…this is going to get a bit technical, but I promise the payoff is worth it! If you’ve ever been at a gig, or a kids concert, or anywhere where the person on stage is in the spotlight and taken a photo of it on your phone…you’ve probably ended up with a photo where that person is very bright, and the background behind them is kinda murky. This is because your phone (and you camera will do the same), has taken in all of the light from what is in the photo and found a place where on average everything has the right amount of light. So the person in the very bright spotlight and the background which is very dark…have been evened out. The dark bits are a bit lighter and the bright bits are a bit darker. In a normal daylight shot, this is great…and you will say ‘Thanks phone/camera for doing all of that thinking for me!’ But in a darkened room with with a performer in the spotlight you will be saying ‘Stuping phone/camera! That looks like balls!!’ Fortunately the answer is pretty straight forward. You can tell your camera to just focus on one part of the photo and get that bit exposed correctly…and then base everything else off of that. So in the case of someone in a spotlight, you set your ‘metering mode’ to ‘spot’ and that will make sure that the very bright person is exposed correctly and everything else will become dark. There are other modes you can choose that will vary from camera to camera…but basically the options will be for your camera to see the whole image and balance out the exposure, or take a section of the image (usally the middle of the image) and balance the rest of the picture based on that, or take a specific part of the picture and balance the rest of the image based on that.
Maggie Rigby from The MaesGale Paridjanian from Turin Brakes
A really good example is this shot I took of Danny Ross at the Wesley Anne. It was early evening the and the setting sun was coming through a gap in the curtains and hitting the stage. It was so bright, it was even brighter than the lights in the venue, which made taking photos REALLY tricky.
As you can see, that bright light is so bright it blows out whatever it touches
But then also gave some opportunities that I could never hope to replicate without a LOT of time.
But exposing just for that light, suddenly gives you some arty ‘light and shadow’
Get wide, get tight, get outside!
This is my advice for pretty much every photography job…but it’s particularly true for live music, DON’T SETTLE FOR MULTIPLE VERSIONS OF THE SAME SHOT! Absolutely get the standard photos from as close as you can, and if there are multiple people in the band, make sure you have a good standard shot of each of them. But then…get creative!
Go in as tight as you can
Danny Ross
Get as wide as you dare
Lisa Mitchell and band
Take photos of their shoes
Chuck Taylors: Rock n roll since forever
Shoot from the back of the room
Danny Ross at the Corner Hotel
Shoot from outside the venue
Outside looking in on a gig at the 303 Bar
I can safely say that they will not all be good shots…but I can also guarantee that one of these shots will be your favourite shot from the gig, because you made it happen!
Signage
I once presented at a conference and there was a screen outside the room with my name on it…I took a photo of it. Why? Because in one image it showed that I had been at conference, and I had presented…and no-one had escorted me off the premises saying ‘Sir, you have no place being here’. I think most performers want the same validation.
It’s time to move away from ‘auto’
The ‘auto’ settings on your camera are a far better photographer than I will ever be. They can do calculations that will result in the best combination of f-stop, shutter speed and ISO in milliseconds. BUT they are not set-up to provide the best shot in a darkened room, with a subject who keeps on moving and who has something sitting just in front of their face. In fact, leaving your settings to auto will almost certainly lead to a slightly blurry photo of the performer (as they were moving when you took the shot), but that doesn’t matter, because the autofocus will have focused on the microphone instead of the singer
So you’re going to have to get comfortable manually setting some of your parameters.
Shutter speed – If you have a guitarist/singer then you’re probably looking at a minimum of 1/125. If they’re just sitting on a stool and singing you could probably go lower, if you’re trying to capture the drummer, you will have to go higher…and if you’re capturing a punk band, I wish you the best of luck.
f-stop – If your shutter is only staying open for 1/125 of second, then you’re going to have to let your aperture do a LOT of the heavy lifting in terms of letting light in. So go the lowest you can go. I have a beautiful 56mm f1.2 portrait lens that is hands down my favourite lens at a live gig as it just lets so much light in. Whereas my wide angle is only f4 and that needs a steady-hand, or a LOT of noise-reduction in post.
ISO – Modern cameras are remarkably good at taking great photos at ISO levels that would have been considered laughable in the past. So don’t be afraid to let it get as high as 5,000. There’s a reason a lot of my live music photos are black and white, and that’s becuase it’s easier to hide noise reduction (a setting in Lightroom that ‘smoothes out’ the crunchiness of a shot with high ISO). If you’re in a venue with a lot of different lights, then I would leave the ISO on auto, because if a bright light suddenly comes on just before you take the shot, the camera will adjust before you’ve even pressed the button…you probably wont.
Focus – If you have your camera on autofocus, then it will focus on the thing closest to the camera in the auto-focus zone. So if the performer has a microphone in front of their face, and you’re focussing on their face…then it’s going to focus on the microphone. So be brave and try a bit of manual focus!
Ollie Knights from Turin Brakes
Drummers are people too
Look, I get it. When your choice is between the charasmatic lead singer, striking a rock-star pose, with the lights shining on them at the front of the stage…and the person at the back of the stage, moving frenetically, with no lighting and a car-crash of cymbals and drums surrounding them. You’re going to take the photo of the lead-singer everytime! Just try to get a least one decent shot of the drummer…and the bass player (they’ll be hiding next to a speaker somewhere).
Drummer with Lee Rosser
Something in the way
Part of the joy of any live gig is the people around you. You very rarely get an unencumbered view of a performance, so don’t be afraid to capture this with your photos. Get down a bit lower and shoot between people’s heads.
The man in the hat
Or ‘dirty up’ a clean picture by shooting through something (in this case it was an ornate hand rail that was about 3cms in front of the lens…but with the focal length set for the stage, actually created some nice shadows and deliniation between the performers)
Managing to get Will and Ryan into a shot of the Danny Ross Trio
Next level stupidity
Looking for something a bit different? Then why not hold your phone under your lens to create a mirror effect?
Lisa Mitchell x 2
Or take a photo through another lens?
Shantilly Clad at The Wesley Anne
Or zoom your lens while taking your photo
I know this didn’t work…but I gave it a go!
If they work, then you’re a creative genius…and if they don’t…the internet never has to see your mistakes (unless you publish them in a blog…as above!)
No flash photography
The standard rules for taking photos at a gig if you’re actually there on business is ‘First three songs, and no flash’. I will never understand why you can only take photos for the first three songs, as I think it’s like the venue selling a recording of the gig, but only including all of the between song banter and tuning of guitars…you know, all of the stuff that happens BEFORE the band actually hits its straps?! But the ‘no flash’ thing makes perfect sense. No one wants to see their favourite singer stagger off stage having been blinded by some muppet unleashing a flash in their face…and no unseasoned performer wants a constant visual reminder that someone is capturing everything that they’re doing. Also, if you’re shooting on your phone, just remember that the flash is designed for people about a meter away…so if you’re 15 rows back pinging of shots of a band…you’re really just taking stunning portraits of the backs of the heads of the few rows in front of of you.
Share the love
If you’re taking photos at a gig and you see another photographer…just remember, they’re not the enemy or the competition! Realistically they are the only other person in the room who is facing the same challenges as you, and most likely the only other person you can learn anything from. So don’t be afraid to strike up a conversation, and like their photos on Instagram the next day. If you’re feeling really generous, why not grab a quick photo of them in action and send it through to them. Just as chef’s are less likely to be invited around for dinner (as people feel increased pressure to make an amazing meal), I can pretty much guaranteed that most photographers have very few photos of them in action (in fact I think the only photo I have of me in action, is me giving a photographer friend the finger while taking photos at a wedding!)
How to deal with pesky onlookers telling you how to do photography.
At the Corner Hotel gig I got chatting to one of the other photographers (the remarkably awesome Samantha Meuleman ) and during the next music shot grabbed this shot of her.
Sam in action
Is it the greatest photo? No. Was ‘here’s a photo I took of you while you were at work!’ an awkward conversation starter? Yes. But do I have any regrets? No!
So there you go…some of the lessons I’ve learned on my journey so far. If you’ve got any tips you’d like to throw my way, I’m always keen to hear them.
Back in the early 2000s I was working as a Producer for a video production company called Tribal. Our boss (the inimitable Sharon Maloney) was looking to build a stable of young directors and so we were doing quite a few video clips. Back in those days there was no real way to make money off a video clip (the world of monetised YouTube channels was but a twinkle in some tech entrepreneurs eyes), but everyone needed a video clip to play on Rage or Video Hits. So most record companies viewed them as a necessary evil, but not one that they were willing to throw a lot of money at. It was therefore fertile ground for new Directors to try their creative wares, on a very limited budget. Thanks to the drummer of the The Cat Empire being my brother-in-law Will, I knew that the band were pitching for a production company to do the video clip for their latest single ‘Days like these’. Our Director Mike Metzner pitched a treatment with a ‘City of God‘ feel, and the band loved it, and so suddenly we were on our way to make a video with The Cat Empire!
Location, location, location.
Unsurprisingly, the budget didn’t stretch to us flying to Brazil to capture that ‘City of God’ ambience…but Mike had found an amazing location near the wheat silos in Collingwood. Nowadays these are the location for multimillion dollar apartments, but back then it was a derelict wasteland full of loose concrete and tall grass. As is tradition on high-budget film projects, the Director, Producer and Art Department spent a day in full-Summer heat moving blocks of concrete, whipper-snippering long grass and desperately pretending that this was exactly how they thought their career in the arts was going to play out. But by the end of the day we had a space that was never going to pass an occupational health and safety review, but could definitely pass as a South American slum. Best of all, we had managed to track down the owner of the land and got permission to film there.
Bare feet was a ‘courageous decision’
Shooting on film
My kids delight in referring to any story I tell as being ‘from the olden days’. But the more I think about this part of the Cat Empire clip, the more I start to think they may be right, because we actually shot this on film! I can still remember the first DOP who shot an entire video on Digital and thinking he was some sort of sorceror (shout out to Ben Allan!) Because up until then, we shot pretty much everything that had to look nice on film. If we were shooting a TV commercial (TVC) we would estimate how many rolls of film we would need (each roll of film was 400ft and would give you about 11 minutes of footage…and in typing this, I’m suddenly wondering if that’s where the term ‘footage’ comes from!) Then you would order if from the Kodak factory in Coburg, and pick it up the night before the shoot. Sometimes when you were filming the TVC you might have used 300ft of film, but know that the next take might need more than the remaining 100ft, so the 300ft of used film would be marked up and set aside to be taken to a place in Elsternwick that would convert the film to a digital file, and then that digital file would be used for editing and colour grading. BUT, it also meant that we had 100ft of film that we got to take back to the office and store in a fridge. We had shot about 6 TVC’s that year and so from memory, we shot all of this video on what was in the fridge! We also shot on Super-8 and then also worked in some Mini-DV footage shot by the band. The final touch were some acetate stains that were created by two finished artists (Dom and Rich, who became known as ‘the stains department’) that were filmed and added in as a layer in post.
Max Davis, superstar DOP…I’m guessing that’s Darrel Stokes in the red t-shirt…and probably Jack Kenealley’s hand on the dolly.Mike Metzner – Director, visionary…man who moved a LOT of concrete to make this happen
Highlights of the day
Cameos – At some stage the idea of everyone playing football (soccer) was changed to playing football (AFL) and so we got to see my father-in-law James rock up in full whites as the Umpire, and Melbourne jazz luminary Steve Sedegreen as ‘guy appalled by umpire’s decision’.
Location joys – While cleaning up the location on the days leading up to the shoot we had found the name of the person who was securing the site, and from him had found the owner…who after some cajoling and $200 cash heading his way, had agreed to let us shoot there. Then about half-way through the day, a car pulled into the site and asked what was going on. I explained that we were shooting a video clip, and that we had permission from the owner, so it was all above board. He looked at me and said ‘That’s odd…because I’m the owner, and this is the first I’ve heard about it!’ Seeing that there was suddenly every chance that the entire clip was going to be over before it really began, I frantically began explaining that they were a great local up and coming band, and that we wouldn’t do any damage, and that ‘Gosh, isn’t this a funny situation for two wonderful men to find themselves in’. I think he saw the panic in my eyes and took pity and gave us permission to keep on filming.
The whole day was probably worth it to see the wardrobe lady’s face when she saw the sunglasses Harry had chosen for the day.
Surreptitious – At one stage while we were resetting for the next shot I walked past Andy Baldwin’s panel van, and found most of the band having a few cheeky beers in the back. I have no idea what I was worried about, but with all of the impotent power of a pool-lifegaurd asking teenagers not to sit on the lane ropes, I said ‘C’mon guys, you can drink after we’ve finished…and if you are going to drink, can you at least be a bit more surreptitious about it?!’ To my complete surprise they all stopped drinking and looked at me, and I thought ‘My God! I actually got a group of musicians to stop drinking and see my point of view! I clearly command a lot more authority than I had realised!’ Then I heard one of them say ‘Surreptitious. That’s a good word!’. Then they all laughed and continued drinking their beers.
Pizza – We had arrived early in the morning to get set-up, then worked through a stinking hot day in the full sun, and finally wrapped in the early evening. One of my final duties was to order and collect about 20 pizzas from a place on Brunswick St. When I returned the crew were packing away the last of the gear, there were band-members and breakdancers and friends and family all sitting in the rubble of an abandoned lot as the shadows grew longer across the scene. The footy was still being kicked, we had managed to get everything shot, and I sat down to eat some pizza and left-over watermelon…it was one of the best days I’ve had on set. Best of all, thanks to the insane talents of everyone involved, the clip itself came together incredibly well.
All good things come to an end
One of the downsides to working with a song you like on a video project is that you get to hear it again, and again and again. In fact, if the person editing it doesn’t have headphones, you will get to hear two seconds of the song continually repeated as they try to make an edit work…it’s the best! But one thing I will never tire of, is seeing The Cat Empire perform live. I’ve been lucky enough to have followed them from their beginnings as the Jazz Cat, through to self-financing their first album, through to international fame. I will still happily put one of their shows at The Forum as one of the top 5 live gigs I’ve ever seen (the other four are; Gil Scott Heron, Morphine, Beck, and Rage Against the Machine…never let it be said I am anything but a middle-aged white man). So it’s a little sad to hear that the band will be playing the final shows as the current line-up at the end of the year. At the same time, to have survived and thrived in the music industry for over 20 years is a genuinely amazing feat, and to be able to retire on their own terms reflects the integrity that’s kept them together this whole time. So thanks to The Cat Empire for letting me be a small part of your journey, but most of all, thanks for providing such an incredible reminder of just how important live music is!
Harry, full-noise at Fed Square.Felix and Olly at the Zoo
