Photography for Musicians – Published in Forte Magazine

Working in the rock photography business means you are regularly challenged by the scores of music fans with cameras – whether it be directly when you’re trying to work around them at a gig, or via bands who don’t yet understand the difference between fan-shot images, and professional, marketable ones.  You know, I’ve even met management representatives who don’t understand the difference.

Late last year I wrote a two-page spread for Forte magazine in a contribution to their “Essential Young Musician’s Guide” series. Forte is the music street press for the Geelong and western Victoria region.  They’ve only just recently made the issue available online, so I can now reproduce it for your enjoyment.

Key points I covered included:

• The band photos used in the bio, and CD artwork, can be a deal breaker. They need to be professionally shot.
• Presenting amateurish photography is almost as much a backward step as presenting amateurish demos on Myspace.
• Effective live gig photography is not easy, and requires a real knowledge of light as much as an understanding of stagecraft.
• A Myspace page is not enough. Whilst it has it’s purpose, you need a professional web presence.
• Find a photographer with creative vision that aligns or compliments your own.
• Ask questions about experience, charging, contractual rights, numbers of images, gear and recommendations

Attached is the article itself. If you have an interest in hiring a photographer (hopefully me!) or you’re dabbling in the idea of rock photography yourself, then do yourself a favour and add this to your reading material.

The Essential Young Musicians Guide – Part 4 (Forte Magazine, Nov 20, 2008)

Apologies for the typos throughout. I can’t do everything myself, as much as I would like to, so typesetting fell into the hands of the publication itself. 

What do you think?

Just for a bit of fun, and to find out who’s reading this far into my article, here is my initial suggestion for an advertisement I took out in the same magazine, and following is their final proof supposedly based on mine. Quite a bit different.  Tell me which one you like best, or none if you think they’re both rubbish.

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Photo Challenge – Introductions

Welcome to the first of what I hope to be many Rock Portrait Photography Challenges.

My idea is to present each of my photographer friends with a regular challenge to create one image in a particular theme. Nothing ground-breaking about this idea, but each of us has very different points of view, artistic visions, experience, skill sets and countries of origin, and can therefore present images that cover the gamut of the photographer spectrum – from basic enthusiast to experienced professional.  As site owner, I get to be the reviewer – for now (until one of the others regularly writes more than I do, and by default becomes head reviewer).

I intend to review these images from the point of view of you – the uninformed viewer.  I may, or may not present the point of view of the photographer as well.  We’ll see how I feel.

You see, whenever I look at images online, or in a gallery, I generally have no idea how or why it was created, so I make up my own view. Whether my conclusions are right or wrong are irrelevant. In fact, it’s my opinion that this is what art is all about. Art is just a word to describe the result of one person creating something (usually not particularly practical) that another person can interpret in an entirely different manner.

The four contributors at this time are:

1. Ken Warmington
   Ken is the most experienced of us all.  He’s an Australianised Canadian who has been shooting since before birth, uses Nikon exclusively, is particularly interested in black and white and HDR (high dynamic range) images and knows too damn much about photography.
2. Mat Ward
   Mat is a miserable Yorkshireman doing his very best to cheer up in the warm Aussie sun.  Well, he’s not as miserable as he seems, and he proves it by occasionally wearing orange t-shirts and funny hats.  Mat is learning the ropes with a Canon EOS 450D or something, and spends a lot of time trying to make the camera capture his world the way his very unusual mind sees it.
3. Joepi Paloma
   Joepi is the only cosmopolitan of us still living overseas, and she takes full advantage of her Manila home to go scuba diving in some of the very best locations in the world every weekend (grrrr!!!).  Joepi has recently purchased a 400D which is put to good use above water whilst her Canon A620 in it’s housing goes nuts in the depths of the tropics.  Joepi clearly has too much time on her hands as she is easily the most prolific photographer of us all.  She’s also a Nudibranch fanatic!  If you don’t know what that is you have two choices – either giggle uninformatively under your breath or go look it up in Wikipedia for the correct definition.
4. Stephen McGrath
   That’s me, of course. I’m the only real Aussie, although I tell everyone I’m Irish whenever Paddy comes over here to hand the Aussies a drubbing in International Rules football. I once tried telling an Irish girl that I was Irish and nearly got bonked over the head with a mouldy potato.  ( I did say “of Irish descent”).  Anyway, I use Canon gear – a 30D and 350D – and try to shoot in natural light (I hate flash), capturing candid moments.  Ken is my mentor, but we also work very well together due to our complimentary and very different points of view about everything.

Hopefully this challenge will kick off some excellent discussions, learning experiences and, at the very least, inspire the more busy of us to take photos more often.  And if we get enthusiastic enough, we may even start a podcast!  But let’s not get too excited…

Venting my spleen

I can’t listen to band photographers griping about current state of affairs without saying my piece.

Photo credit: Josefina Takes a Picture by carlosluis

Recently I’ve been reading a spate of emails from professional band photographers complaining that “amateurs with point-and-shoots” are being allowed into the pits, and that record companies, bands and management firms are expecting images for free.

As much as I love shooting live bands more than anything, it’s pretty obvious that this is not a career path capable of paying the mortgage. So, I do it for fun and the occasional remuneration. My genuine photography income comes from bread and butter stuff like portraiture and corporate events. Those things need photographers that know what they are doing. Amateurs cannot yet service that demand. They can service the need for live band images.

My annoyance at these photographers who can’t see the forest for the trees led me to respond as such. I thought I’d share. [Read more]

Taste – Toorak Lion, 4th Jan 2008

Does anybody remember Taste?

It was the mid-70s, and Aussie rock was exciting! Taste was dubbed Australia’s answer to Queen, and after two albums really looked like taking the next step. Their sound was sophisticated with big harmonies, and they didn’t present banal lyrics about parties & girls like so many others did at the time. Something went wrong, and after “Tickle Your Fancy” and “A Little Romance” coloured the radio waves, Taste disappeared. Their drummer, Virgil Donati, went on to be one of rock’s most respected and well-known drummers, whilst the other three band members continued their own musical paths separately, but quite successfully in their own right.

Today, 30 years on, Taste has reformed with a young gun on drums to replace Virgil, and an awesome album that blows away much of what we are fed on rock radio these days. “Rock Is Dead” is a must-own, and Taste as a live band today more than lives up to the legacy of their history.

Click to view the rest of Taste’s photo gallery