January was a strange month. Everything seemed to be either really really awesome or really really rubbish, there was no inbetween. Cat Power, Mayer Hawthorne, Ronan Keating and Grandmaster Flash.

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Gyroscope @ Challenge Stadium

Now that 2010 is finally here, thought it might be a good idea to do a retrospect over 2009 (mainly cause I didn’t find the time to post enough photos). If I had to sum up the year, I’d say it was the one where I found my feet again. I just needed to get away from the publication I’d contributed to since 06, and see what other opportunities were out there. Gamble paid off quite well, as I finished the year a regular contributor to The West Australian.

I think my Photo of the Year honours would have to go to the above photo, thought I still maintain it was nothing more than a lucky shot. Held the camera over my head, pressed the button, and prayed. Show of the Year might just have to go to Children Collide at Amplifier in April. They just ripped the hell out of the place and it was exhilarating to watch. Festival of the Year, as always, is Soundwave. It’s always the best photo-op of the whole year.

I photographed 85 acts in total over the year, which I think is a pretty ok effort considering I wasn’t really ‘working’ per se until June, and only did a couple of festivals. Not sure if that’s up or down from last year (I’ve never bothered to count before), but it’s a total I’m happy with.

So hop under the cut to check out every single one of those 85 acts, plus one of The Mess Hall at Amplifier for good luck. Here’s to Twenty Ten.

-ALLONS-Y!-

One Movement Festival, October 2009

Right, so obviously that ‘monthly wrapup’ idea didn’t quite go to plan. To be honest I took some pretty boring photos in September so I wasn’t exactly gagging to get them out into the world, and as for October and November, well, I was just busy. Going out and taking photos is a bit more productive than blogging about taking photos, y’know? Anyway, a quick photospam to get things up to date. I’ve left out six shows where I thought the photos were a bit unexciting. Oh, and one of those shows was Nickelback. The photos of The Chad were ok, but no one really needs to be subjected to that.

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August was a pretty busy month, my first full month working for The Wire, with a few other publications slotting in here and there. I was struck down by a pretty decent sized cold for a couple of weeks, but I soldiered on, and I think in some cases the cold&flu tablets and exhaustion worked in my favour!

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 So, it’s been months, what the bloody hell have I been up to?  Well, I started up Sunday Night Music Club to combat the fact I wasn’t really shooting that many shows, but now I AM back into the swing of things, poor old SNMC is tucked away for the next slow season.

I’m now lucky enough to be working for two regular clients, one web-based, and one print media. I also haven’t done a show for free since May, which is definitely a step in the right direction. Since I last did a proper update I’ve shot Tame Impala, Gyroscope, The Living End, Little Birdy, Tijuana Cartel, Bliss n Eso, Hilltop Hoods, The Butterfly Effect, and Doves. Getting the print media photos up is a bit of a vicious cycle. I can’t put them up anywhere until the paper’s out, which is a Thursday, so by the time I get around to actually getting them up, they’re a week old and ‘boring’, and I’m out shooting the next assignment. A ‘Month in Review’ type of post system might result in me, well, actually posting every now and again.

In non gig-shooty news, I got my tickets to The Academy Is… show the other day, and while I’m about ten years too old to  be really excited, I AM. Yay!

A few quick shots from a roll I picked up the other day. This one had been sitting in the camera for months before I finished it at an Eskimo Joe show a week or so ago, and I couldn’t even really remember what was on it! Turns out it was photos taken at the launch for Nathan Gaunt’s latest CD at the Fly By. They were all absolutely terrible, ridiculously overexposed, and I’ve got no real explaination for it. This is the first roll of ISO3200 I’ve actually SHOT at ISO3200 (I accidentally rated the last roll at ISO1600, and things were obviously a bit blown out), so I was expecting a little bit better. I suspect the meter had been changed from Spot to Center Weighted, but I don’t remember doing it, so I’ve got no idea how it happened.

Anyway.

I expected them to be grainy (obviously), but I did get a bit ‘Woah!’ when I picked up the prints. Looks like it was snowing inside the venue. I’ve only got one roll of ISO3200 left, and somehow I don’t think I”ll be restocking. The grain does add some character to some shots, but in these days of ultra-low digital noise it just looks WEIRD.

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Out of all the bands I’ve had the pleasure of photographing over the last few years, one stands out on the top of the pile. Gyroscope. They’ve been around for what seems like forever on the local scene, but thanks to their latest CD ‘Breed Obsession’ they’re finally starting to crack into the consciousness of mainstream Australia.

It wasn’t until the second or third time I’d photographed them that I got really hooked. And it wasn’t for the music. They’re a savagely energetic band, and it’s pretty much impossible to walk away from one of their shows without good photos. I did grow to love the music in time, mainly for the fact I was attending just about every show I could get access to, and it was bound to stick with me eventually! They’re the nicest of guys, and an absolute pleasure to work with, be it live shoots or press shoots.

This particular song is one of my favourites, not just of Gyroscope’s but out of all songs ever. It’s from ‘Are You Involved?’ the album that came out just before I started getting into them. For some reason it’s the album I’ve always related to most, and sort of claimed ownership of. This song is an out-and-out anthem, and while I obviously enjoy the song itself, I also love the reaction it gets from the crowds, and the inevitable epic singalong. It’s passion, it’s aggression, it’s power.

Enjoy.

 

They’re one of the bands that gets featured regularly on my blogs, and for good reason. Without question, I’d count Sugar Army as one of the most exciting bands in Perth at the moment. Their jagged, angular indie rock is precise, catchy, and gets better and better very time you hear it.

It wasn’t always the case. I saw them for the first time in late 2006, and found them slightly awkward and unengaging. Over the years frontman Pat has evolved from a shuffling shoegazer to a commanding presence, clutching the microphone stand like a weapon, as opposed the safety blanket of the early days.

This particular song (with its very long title) has been getting a bit of airplay on Triple J, and is from their EP ‘Where Do You Hide Your Toys?’ I’ve always loved this one in particular as it sucks you in right from the get-go.

Oh, and it has cowbell. There can never be too much cowbell.

Enjoy

And I’m back! I didn’t think that in this day and age it would take over a month to restore an internet connection, but no mind. I’m back in the land of high-speed internet and I’m oh so very happy about it.

A bit has been going on while I was away. Knew I needed to make a decision in regards to photos, doing sporatic gigs was very unsatisfying, so it was time to either stop altogether, or get back into the swing of things properly. As luck would have it, I got offered some regular ongoing work by a national ticketing agency, taking photos at their Perth shows. And as they put on heaps of shows, there’s no shortage of work. I stick to mainly the indie/rock gigs, and over the last few weeks I’ve shot the West Coast Blues and Roots Festival, Children Collide, Okkervil River, and The Grates. So it’s definitely work AND play, and I’m quite happy with how things are travelling at the moment. On top of that, I’ve done one live shoot for Triple J’s national magazine ‘JMag’, with another one lined up in about two weeks.

I’ve also currently got photos in two exhibitions around town, three photos in the WAMi ‘Kiss My Camera’ showcase at the WA Museum, and one at the Photographers In Perth curated ‘Fables and Nocturnes’ show, at Behind the Monkey on Beaufort St. I’ll put some photos up once I get a chance to pop along to them with a camera. Fables and Nocturnes runs til May 30th, and Kiss My Camera until June 28, so plenty of time to get along.

Tonight will see the return of Sunday Night Music Club, it’s pretty hard to upload songs when you’re more or less on dialup speed! Because I didn’t get around to doing my ‘WAMi Week Music Club’ due to lack of internets, tonight’s will most definitely have a local flavour.

And in completely non-photographic news, I recently bought MarioKart on Wii, so if anyone wants to play online and absolutely belt me (I’m not really very good) email me with your friend code.