Come Together this sunday

This sunday I will be shooting the more punkrock Come Together day. I have sort of worked out what bands I'll be shooting:

12:30pm – Short Stack
1:00pm – Acid Eyeliner
2:15 - Ash Phoenix (Faster Louder Stage)

2:30 - In Fiction
3:00pm – Sky Bombers
3:30pm – Calling All Cars

3:45 - Ben Ely's Radio 5 (Faster Louder Stage)
4:00pm – MM9
4:30PM – Trial Kennedy

5:15pm - Witch Hats (Faster Louder Stage)
5:30pm – The Getaway Plan
6:05pm – Straight Arrows (Faster Louder Stage)

6:40pm – Mammal
7:15pm – The Hot Lies
7:55pm – Birds of Tokyo
8:40pm – Gyroscope
9:35pm – The Living End

It's not my final decision. I'm still trying to decide whether I should shoot the majority of the bands that are playing on The Faster Louder Stage, with me being the Faster Louder photographer and all.

I hate it when this happens

I don't mind two or three days of shooting gigs, but can I do it four days in a row?

I haven't seen End of Fashion since november 2006. My friends know the story of me getting pulled out of the media pit 15 seconds into shooting End of Fashion. Ever since I have tried to shoot them again.
The next night is Wolf & Cub. They are without a doubt the coolest band around. I'm not even as cool as them.
The next night is The Vandas. Another band I haven't seen in years that I absolutley love and they are much much cooler than me.
The next night is my friends The Stray Assembley with Grand Fatal.
I don't want to miss out on a single show, but I do get tired and not as good a photographer when I'm constantly shooting shows.
Think I should do it?

Fifty Sixx @ Annandale Hotel

Welcome to the new and improved LTTL photo blog. Well, it's just a new layout, which looks similiar to Craig Nye's but that was an accident I swear. The layout really works well for putting larger images in my posts. I hope so at least.

This blog is the new home for most of my recent band photos. I may add a few to MySpace but not as much as this blog. It's just so much better having the photos in one place. Of course they will still be published by the sites that send me to the gigs, but I don't have to be approved to add them here.
The most recent show I shot was Fifty Sixx and friends @ Annandale Hotel on May 31. After feeling the burden of my 24-70 which weighs up to 1kg I decided that I'll just bring my 50mm f/1.8. I hardly use this lens and it's amazing for its cheap price. It's good to know that to take good photos you don't always have to spend $2000. Though the photos may have a lot of detail in them the 50 has a 3 second delay time before it takes a single photo, my 24-70 doesn't delay at all. And the bokeh on the 50 is not as creamy as the 24-70. Yes, that's right I spent $1800 on a lens that gives a good background blur!
This time I was given a photo brief detailing just what photos my superiors at Faster Louder HQ were looking for. So, I took photos of pretty much everything - even soundcheck! I wanted to do 200% because these photos may just get me into Come Together.

My favourite band of the night was The Paper and the Plane. You can expect me to go to more of their shows. Mere Theory were the first band that I photographed so they are special. I really need to buy their new album because I only have their first two eps with the old vocalist Ryan.

Want to see an old photo of them I took back in 2004? I once vowed never to show the photos because they are so horrible.

Closure in Moscow were great too. I probably took the best photos of them because they were so active or because the singer reminded me of Pete Wood from The Hot Lies.

I've seen Fifty Sixx a lot of times and they always put on an interesting show. I think last time I got a photo of one of the guitarists with a moose. They sound like a good band to party with because they seem to drink a lot.

There was a free sampler cd that was been given out at the merch table and at the end of the show with a few tracks from each of the bands that played on the tour. I've been to a lot of gigs but have never seen anything like that. It was quite a clever idea. I certainly don't have enough money to buy every ep or album from every band that plays at a show. And after listening to the sampler cd I feel like going out and buying more music by the bands, especially Paper and the Plane.

Here are some photos:

THE PAPER AND THE PLANE

CLOSURE IN MOSCOW

MERE THEORY

FIFTY SIXX

You can see the full gallery of 56 photos (yes, I'm so lame I added exactly 56 photos for my Fifty Sixx gallery) at fasterlouder.com.au

You like? If so add a comment and information about how I can pick my Come Together photopass up. ;)

Bands can use the photos if they give credit. More photos or larger ones will cost you though.

Death Cab For Cutie

I've been giving their new album Narrow Stairs a few spins and am slowly getting into it. Nothing can ever come near the brilliance that was Transatlanticism though. Plans was ok too.
In a few months they'll be at Enmore Theatre.
I've tried my best not to obsess over shooting gigs but it's going to be hard to act professional at this show.
Can I just obsess over one more show?

Latest gigs: Mere Theory @ Annandale Hotel, Come Together @ Luna Park, End of Fashion @ Annandale Hotel, Wolf & Cub @ Annandale Hotel, The Black Keys @ Manning Bar, Grand Fatal @ The Sando, The Mars Volta @ Horden Pavillion and Death Cab For Cutie @ Enmore Theatre.

Oh yeah, I said some things about a few bands that I have known that may have offended some people. I'm sorry I was frustrated. It was a frustration that had been building for over two years. But I shouldn't have published it online.

Some news

I missed out on shooting Gyroscope. No confirmation and I felt a bit ill. A bit of a downer because I've been trying to photograph these guys for two years and they are one of my favourite Australian bands.
Not all is bad however because an Arts Centre in my town (well, a 313 media training building) want to display some of my photographs on canvasses. I'll have a couple near the stairs and outside the classrooms and up to 8 in the recording studio. So, now I'm on an assignment to take the best photos possible to be displayed. One of the prints will be a silouette of Geoff Rickly of Thursday fame in the crowd at Soundwave '08.

Stay tuned for some more photos, either samples of the prints or more gig photos.

Playing the waitin' game

I was quite suprised at the amount of attention my A7X photos got. I suppose it makes sense that a band that had a soldout show in Horden Pavillion would have some fans.

I'm still waiting for my confirmation to shoot Gyroscope. It's only at The Metro but this is one band I've been dying to shoot since the last time I shot them in July 2006.
I already have a backup show planned to go to. This one is at Spectrum. The band is a great local indie band called The Retreat. I need to get out of the house so this will be the first show I've paid to get into for awhile.

Splendour in the Grass

It's one the biggest festivals that the indie kids won't stop talking about. I had to turn down an offer to shoot it and naturally I asked for Come Together instead.
I don't really want to travel 9/10/12/20 hrs or however long it takes to get there.
I'm still quite suprised that I was asked. I think I might apply for The Big Day Out next year.
Okay, maybe Taste of Chaos in October.