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.

Cat Power @ the Astor Theatre 060110

January got off to a poor start with Cat Power. A bit of confusion about what we were and weren’t allowed to do, with whispers that if we were seen taking photos and/or were distracting we’d get in trouble, despite the fact we had photopasses. I don’t really understand that train of thought. If you don’t like having your photo taken, don’t allocate passes. Simple as that. I’d much rather not go to a show at all, than go and be more concerned about being in the talent’s line of sight than getting my shots. But anyway. On top of all that, the lighting was dull blue, and I walked out after three songs having no idea if there was anything decent on my memory card. Managed to grab a couple of nice poses, but the lighting stopped them being particularly good images.

Mayer Hawthorne @ the Funk Club 150110

I’d discovered Mayer Hawthorne’s music only days before, and had no idea he was touring, so it was a VERY pleasant surprise to be asked to cover the show. I’d never shot at the Funk Club before, and had only been there once, so I was going in pretty much blind and expecting the worst. And it was the worst. Alternating between split-second blazing flashes of light and ambient lighting so dull it was basically nothing, it was quite a challenge in timing that I majorly failed. Had to crank up the ISO and pray to the music photography gods. Got a couple of decent shots, but I had to just about fill up a card to get them. But that aside, it was an amazing show. A voice like butter, and so much charisma it was practically dripping off him. I was a bit tired, and pre-show I wasn’t sure if I was going to last the whole thing, but I stayed to the end cause there was just that sense of this being something SPECIAL. Like in 5 years time when he’s proper famous I’ll look back and say ‘I saw Mayer Hawthorne with a couple of hundred people at the Funk Club, I stood a metre away from him and I shot the whole show’. He’s that good, you guys.

Ronan Keating @ Sandalford Winery 160110

I’m a girl, and a child of the ’90s, so the soundtrack to my youth was one of boybands. I enjoyed the like of Backstreet Boys, 5ive, Nsync, Take That etc, but the band at the top of the pile for me was Boyzone. God knows why, there was next to no coverage about them in Australia and I can’t even remember where I first heard about them, but they were my FAVOURITE BAND IN THE WHOLE WORLD. For about two years. Tastes are fickle when you’re 14. So, to get the opportunity to photograph lead singer Ronan many years later was freakin unbelieveable, and while I may have appeared pretty cool and calm in the pit, inside I was a jittery teen. However the crazy fangirl brain was switched off once I realised the cross-lighting on the microphone was casting a big shadow over his mouth while he sang, so I had to concentrate and catch him in the few seconds where his face was far enough away from the mic to be free of shadows. Did fine, and got lost of nice photos, but the three songs just seemed to fly by. Handsome chap, brilliant lighting (apart from the cross-lighting issue), what more could I have wanted? Got to stay for the rest of the show, so was free to squee without having to maintain any level of professionalism.

Grandmaster Flash @ Capitol 220110

What’s better than photographing a guy with a laptop when you have no photopit? Everything. Everything in the world. Especially when he doesn’t start til midnight and you have work the next day.