Rock Concert Photography

Dusting Off Old Images

I've been getting my head around building flash web galleries via Lightroom 2.

I now have 3 galleries up and running via a page called latest images on my main website - Adare Images.

The latest one Rock of the Eighties is a small collection of 6 B/W and 1 colour print of rock concert photography that I took in the early 1980's. All of the images were taken at the Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool, UK which, for a few years, became a regular venue for rock music - and especially 'heavy metal'.

The two great passions in my life have always been music and photography. I got to be a slightly better photographer than musician - and so the opportunity to photograph truly great musicians has always been a labour of love for me. I still photograph live music today - and welcome every opportunity I get to do so. That time at the Royal Court theatre was extra special though. I was well known to the theatre management, and usually had freedom to go backstage and into the (empty) orchestra "pit" and lean on the stage at times! I met a large number of famous - if not legendary performers, too.

Extremely memorable was the visit to Liverpool by the Rock 'n Roll icon Carl Perkins (see Rock of the Eighties Web Gallery) who wrote "Blue Suede Shoes", but another singer - someone called Elvis Presley - went on to have a much bigger hit (and career) than his own. Mr Perkins and his management were extremely helpful to me - and I found myself shooting from every conceivable angle - including from behind the stage backcloth!

My most successful image of that period was probably the one of Bif Byford (above) vocalist with the British rock band Saxon. This shot appeared as full page spread in the 1983 Photography Year Book and also on television - including an appearance on Top of the Pops.

I have moved house about 8 times since I took those images - and the other many hundreds I shot at the Royal Court and somewhere along the way, the original negatives and transparencies got lost! All I have left are these 7 prints - from over 4 years of regular rock concert photography work.

So, let that be a lesson to you. Don't lose your originals! In this digital age it's important to backup your files at least once, and then to make sure that your storage facilities (most people prefer external hard drives to CD disks) are safe.

I hope you like the images and I'd welcome your comments. They haven't seen the light of day for a while!

Rock on!

How to Take Great Portrait Photographs

Wonderful Weekend Workshop

My "How to Take Great Portrait Photographs" workshop ran as scheduled, yesterday. We had 6 enthusiastic photographers participating (4 men and 2 women) and a beautiful model on which they could practice their new-found skills of portraiture.

It was a long and intensive day - peppered with plenty of coffee breaks and a lunch of sandwiches and cakes that I lovingly prepared myself early in the morning (actually, I bought the cakes - but I did butter all the bread and carefully craft all of the ham and cheese sandwiches!) but also very relaxed and greatly enjoyed by all.

I gave an hour's refresher course on the theory of portraiture photography - lenses; aperture; compositional rules - all that good stuff, which doesn't have to be boring or as much fun as root canal work - using examples of my own work. I followed this with an explanation of basic lighting theory - basically the differences between direct light, bounced light, reflected light and diffused light - using my assistant as the victim (sorry Sarah, I mean...model ) to show the affects of all those lighting techniques on the model's features.

After a quick lunch (with everyone now starting to get the buzz and chatting animatedly amongst each other) our beautiful model Allise had arrived, and I arranged a low key-lighting setup, with two lights and a black background, and recreated a "Rembrandt Lighting effect", which stunned a lot of people with how simple and beautiful it can be - and the shutters were clicking while everyone took turns to shoot Allise - using a remote transmitter to fire my lights while they roamed around the large studio.

After that, I took everyone outside to a yard next to my studio, where I demonstrated the use of apertures and fill-in flash with outdoor portraiture. You can see part of the unusual set that we used in one of the shots here! Many people thought that this was the best part of the day.

But the best was yet to come, as I arranged a high-key setup back in the studio, using a large Octagonal softbox, another large rectangular soft-box, two background lights and a hair light with a white background. I added a wind machine for good measure - you can see the result of one of my shots from that setup, above.

Seven hours after we started many of the group were still sitting and chatting about the day. And, I was very happy that everyone got what they came for - and more besides, from what I was told!

This workshop will run again Next Month. See here for details.

Practical Photo Walks

Thinking Outside the Boxed-In

A friend came over to the house yesterday evening, to show me his new camera. He nearly didn't get there at all, because I put him off so vehemently when he first tried, in the morning.

It was very odd. I had woken up remembering something I'd said to a group when I was teaching Lightroom 2, a few days earlier: "When your Hard Drive crashes, you'll regret not using Lightroom's back-up on import option. It may not crash today, or even next year - but, trust me, it will crash eventually." I probably remembered it because it was, for me, such a bold (and not entirely factual) statement.

No sooner had I brushed my teeth, I began to wonder about my powers of clairvoyance. My hard drive had crashed!! Well, actually, the local profile directory had become corrupted, and I was left with a cleaned-out desktop: no emails, or addresses, no web browser bookmarks and dozens of files vanished into thin air! I was in the middle of a blue fit when my friend called and asked if I'd like to see his new G10 and some other amazing gizmos with which he was down-laden - they don't call him "Gadget Mike" for nothing!! I put him off and set about following the instructions I'd somehow managed to find and copy from the Microsoft website on how to fix my ailing computer. Two and a half long hours later - they worked and I sent Mike a text to tell him I was genius - and several years older than when he last called.

So, he brought the G10 over at the end of the day. When I say Mike is a friend - he is most definitely that - but he's also a photography student of mine, and my accountant. That makes our conversations interesting, if not a little complex: "You get manual focus by pressing this...so, am I on the 21% VAT rate or 13.5%...did I tell you about my new teaching idea...I've always wanted that spirit level thing that sits on the hot-shoe - no Mike, I can't take it...oh, thanks very much...etc."

I got to telling Mike that I was going to run some "Photo Walks", where I would teach a small group of photographers as we walked around a local Irish location (to start with Adare Village in County Limerick) but, I was stuck as to how to make them interesting.

In some ways, I was stuck inside my own "box" - thinking that nothing I did would be appealing, or have good value for money.

Mike, in his usual helpful and considerate manner was telling me that I'd already said a few things to him about the G10 (which I'd never held in my hand before today) that were worth a few of anybody's hard earned - and increasingly scarce - Euros. "What you need to do" he offered "is to tell them what it really is - not just a Photo Walk, but a Practical Photo Walk".

In that one sentence was all I needed to know about marketing and thinking outside the box. Tell it like it is. Give the customers what they want - or what they would buy.

See the right-hand column for the fruits of Mike's lateral thinking.

Reflecting on my Photography Business

Happy Birthday To Me!

It's my birthday today (all say "ahhh") and It's almost exactly a year since I made my first blog post. So, I thought it was an opportune moment to reflect briefly on where I was going with the blog, my photography business - and indeed my life (but I won't bore you by dwelling too much on that aspect here).

There's a been a bit of a hiatus (of nearly 2 months) since my last blog post and there's a reason for that - well several really. I wasn't sure of what else to say here - too many blogs are nothing more than free advertising space for a photographer's latest wedding shots (I don't do weddings, or else I might have joined in) - or just a place to deposit pointless, badly-written ramblings and not-so-great images. I set out to write something of interest and useful, in a lively and informative style - but I think I lost my way in that endeavour, so I gave up for a while.

I lost the muse really. Or perhaps I started to wonder if anyone was even reading my recalcitrant rantings. I don't suppose I'm alone with those thoughts either - there must be hundreds of thousands of bloggers out there putting font to screen in the vain hope that at least one person will see it and perhaps leave a comment.

So, I suppose blogging is about laying it down without worrying too much about whether your audience is there or not. Just doing it because you want to do it. I might try that!

Which brings me to my business. I opened a brand new photography studio and teaching facility in the middle of May 2009 and in the middle of a world recession. This is a bit different from doing something for the sake of it, and not worrying if the general public like or care about what you're doing. There was a large capital outlay - on the refurbishment and the equipment for the studio; there is monthly rent to find; advertising bills to pay; and food to put on the table.

So this is not "if you build it - who cares if they come" - it's "When you build it you'd better make damn sure that they come!"

The teaching work is picking up - and have a very enthusiastic core band of students who take every opportunity they can to pass their kind thoughts about my teaching skills - word-of-mouth is by far the best marketing tool, and it works very here in Ireland (just be sure it's good things they are saying!) I've even been doing other kinds of marketing: like sending out posters and brochures to advertising agencies; businesses, magazines and PR companies, and also running some events without payment. I was heavily involved in Scott Kelby's World Wide PhotoWalk which took up at least 2 weeks of my time, with one thing and another, for no payment but the feedback from the participants and the interest in my own work and photography teaching was payment enough. Self promotion is one of the keys to success.

What I'm learning, though, is that I can't be a Jack-of-all-trades and there's not enough time in my day to be a photographer, a teacher, a marketing manager, an accountant, a chef (I have to eat) and a blogger. Something has to go!

But, I have to find the work before I can do it. Catch 22. (I think it's Catch 22 - I definitely have no time to READ BOOKS).

Yesterday, a young woman who was looking to do a photography course with me (she was highly recommended to me by word of mouth) came to the studio. She has a background in marketing. She is currently unemployed and doesn't have enough money to pay for the course. I need a marketing manager and don;t have enough money to pay for one. A business arrangement made in heaven - or sent by the Gods. Anyway it wasn't long before I found her a place on my next course - on Saturday - and she agreed to work one day a week for free for a while.

I'll keep you posted - the urge to blog again has suddenly resurfaced!

(Thanks to G. for the wonderful Birthday cake!)

Scott Kelby & NAPP World PhotoWalk 2009 (Ireland)

Adare Here We Come!

Scott Kelby - the world's best selling author of digital imaging books, and President of the American National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) has announced the second annual world-wide Photo-Walk to be held on Saturday July 18th 2009. The event is to launch his upcoming new book: The Digital Photography Book, Vol. 3.

Basically, groups of photographers (up to 50 people per walk) will gather together in desiginated locations and spend 2 hours or so, walking, chatting and snapping. Usually the walks end at a bar or restaurant where walkers will share their images - presumably by swapping cameras!

Registration is free to all participants - and there is no charge to join any of the walks. Last year’s PhotoWalk was a huge success with more than 6000 participants in 241 cities in 43 countries. There are prizes to win - the walk leader will award a copy of Scott Kelby's new book to the best photo taken on each walk - and there is a grand prize, for the best photo taken on all of the walks, wordwide. This is also a fun social event where photographers get together to shoot photos and connect with other photographers.

As a NAPP Guru Award winner, I have been asked to lead a walk in Ireland.

I have chosen Adare Village in County Limerick. It is one of Ireland’s oldest, and “prettiest” villages. A two-hour circular walk around the village, and along the river will take in some very special scenery including a medieval castle, a 17th century manor house (now a famous hotel – Bill Clinton stayed there and Tiger Woods played on the golf course); rows of quaint thatched cottages; two ancient churches; a ruined monastery and a walk along the River Maigue, made famous by poets and writers – not to mention several authentic Irish pubs!

The walk starts at 5pm, when the light will still be strong, but not too high in the sky. As we near the end of the walk, the shadows will have lengthened adding colour and shape to the already majestic buildings that we will visit along the short, but very scenic circular route.

We will end our walk at the very authentic Irish “Pat Collins Bar”, where the larger-than-life landlord serves the best Guinness in Town and, if you’re hungry (and why wouldn’t you be?) there is a wide array of mouth-watering dishes on the menu, to enjoy while we review the photographic fruits of our walk.

If you are interested in participating, go to the PhotoWalk home page to sign up and to search for a walk in your area.

If you would like to join my walk please go to my walk page - by clicking here. Three of my recent shots of Adare Village are above. Hope to see you on the walk!

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