I'm With The Band

I started my journey into photography at concerts.

Alongside my ticket and heavy eyeliner, my compact camera was the ESSENTIAL item when I went along to gigs. Starting off at shows at Tunnels and Moshulu I’d snap away for the duration of the show. When the music stopped and the lights went up, I’d start flicking through the events I’d just seen and decide what were my best shots in the car ride home. This was before the days of instagram - when the biggest things my photos were going to achieve was to sit in the “GIGS!” photo album I’d made on my MySpace page.

I was determined that I was going to be the next big thing in music photography and there was no stopping me.

For a few years I got in as much experience as I could get, and my photos were gaining interest online. I started getting press passes which meant I could take my DSLR into shows and shoot professional quality images. I shot my friends bands, then for webzines and eventually worked my way up to getting paid to shoot shows where my photos were actually printed in magazines. Mind blowing stuff!

When you get a press pass for a concert, you’re allowed to take photos for the first 3 songs of the show, no flash allowed. There’s SUCH an adrenaline rush knowing you have about 10 minutes to get the images that will define the show. As the years were cracking on and I started to shoot weddings, I realised this mad adrenaline rush that you got for 10 minutes at a concert lasted the whole day whilst shooting a wedding! And in the end, the photos would be making people much happier than getting a great shot of Paramore was ever going to.

I still love shooting live music, and jump at the chance when I get the opportunity to do it.

Here are some shots of Gulls live in Inverness earlier this year. Before the show we played about and took some promotional images on the streets around the venue. A tiny, sweaty corner in a pub was all these boys needed to make a giant racket! For the editing of these images I’ve kind of thrown it back to my beginnings with the vivid colours, lots of warmth and heavy on the contrast!