It was interesting to see Kele take to the stage without the rest of Bloc Party, and with myself being such a big fan of Bloc Party, it didn’t seem quite right. I’d been listening to Kele’s solo album for a few weeks prior to this gig so I knew most of the songs, but as the album had not been released, the crowd were very static and numb to start with. But part way through the set Kele broke into a three song medley featuring ‘Blue Light’, ‘Hunting For Witches’, and ‘One More Chance’, but all with a more upbeat and electronic mould. The crowd then started to liven up, before Kele broke into ‘Tenderoni’, which really got everyone going and the atmosphere became quite euphoric. Then just to seal his set, Kele finishes with a Bloc Party classic – Flux.

I personally enjoyed Kele’s set, but it does make me miss Bloc Party, and judging by the way Kele now refers to Bloc Party as his ‘old band’, I don’t think a reunion is likely.

I had also been asked to photograph fans who took part in a vox-pop, and I happened to bump into Mathew Horne (from Gavin & Stacey) whilst there, so Rob the journo had a talk with him and I grabbed a quick photo, and this photo ran in the magazine.

Mathew Horne

The published photograph and article.

Anyway, here are some photos of one awesome band!

Whilst we were out walking, I decided to get my nifty fifty out and have a little play with a technique called freelensing. I found it quite a precise technique as you are essentially working at f/0 so the tiniest movement can knock your subject out of focus quite dramatically. However, if you can use the technique well, the results can be very interesting.

Luke Roberts has quite a bit of information on the technique, and some visual ‘how to’ guides.

The photos below are a few of my favorites that I took, there are several that are out of focus but I think they work really well, I think its due to the aesthetic quality that can be achieved when freelensing.

Rick’s newest toy…

When the shoot was organised, I had been told that I had 20 minutes with the band, so I planned to do a variety of different set-ups with the band within the venue. When I arrived at the venue I soon found that one of my main ideas would not be possible, I was hoping to position the band around several flight cases and shoot towards the stage to capture some of the lighting from the stage set. However, that wasn’t possible as catering had set-up where I intended to shoot and there were no flight cases inside the venue.

So I had to think quite quickly regarding what I was going to do seen as my initial idea was not possible. In the end I went for something quite simple, I decided to have the band positioned in front of the stage and shoot towards the stage to capture the lighting. I then approached the lighting technician and asked if she was able to put the lights on whilst I was shooting, this was fine so she began to go through so many different light shows, In the end I settled for some nice blues and a little orange/yellow and asked her for as much light as possible so it would be easier to balance the lighting against my Bowens.

Once the lights were on, I set one light up, took a few test shots using several people from Faux, then called the band down from their dressing room. By the time they came down, it was five to four, and I had until 4pm to get the shots as the band had soundcheck. So it was all a little rushed, but I think I have some nice images, but there are several things that I would have done quite differently if I were to do the shoot again. I think I would have used another light and softbox so that the shadows cast would have been a lot softer. I would have also varied the band members poses quite a bit more and I would have also experimented with my composition a little more. Part way during the shoot, I did decide to turn my light off and shoot at ISO 3200 to intentionally create some noisy images, which when converted to black and white may create a similar look to that of film.

Here are some of the photos from the shoot…

Heres a few from the gig…

This is the finished article in Faux…

First we went to a location that is about a 2 minute drive from my house, it’s a little workshop outside of an abandoned cottage.

When we’d finished shooting at the first location, we headed to another location about 15 minutes from my house. I found this place back in the days when I used to urbex – exploring abandoned places. It is the ruins of a mansion that burnt down in the 1930′s, and after years of being left, trees have grown in and around the grounds of the mansion. It reminds me of Jumanji where the house becomes filled with trees and such. Some people who have been there feel quite uncomfortable in the ruins, but if anything, I find it quite a relaxing and tranquil place to be in.

This was the lighting set-up for pretty much all of those shots; you can’t really make it out in the photo, but there is a Bowens head to the right lighting the trees.

I’ll be posting a few on my flickr over the next few days with the view large option, so keep an eye out for them.

I only posted a few photographs on my Flickr, so I decided i’d post a blog with quite a few more photos from the show.

I think these next two photographs really show the scale of The Claw…

It was weird in terms of photographing it, photographers were allowed one song per artist, which is fine as there were 8 finalists who would be performing. We also had to shoot from one side of the stage, which really limited angles and compositions.

I arrived at Sheffield Arena and met with the other photographers to be escorted to the stage. When we got down to the stage we were greeted by a member of security, he happened to be one of the X Factors touring bouncers. He was in charge of sending photographers in and out of the pit.

First up was Jamie but the security guard said nothing about photographing him, so we waited. Then he wandered off backstage. Next to perform was Jedward, as the bouncer was not there, the other photographers and myself were not sure if we were allowed in the photo pit, so again we waited. As Jedward finished their performance, the bouncer came back, next up was Danyl, and the bouncer escorted us into the photo pit.

Danyl

After one song we were escorted out. Next up was Lucie, we waited for a signal… nothing. So we presumed we would be shooting her later on in the show, anyway near to the end of Lucie’s performance of ‘Sweet Child of mine’ (after the bouncer had finished dancing) we were escorted by the bouncer into the pit, so we thought we would be shooting the next song. I snapped a few pictures of Lucie on stage but she never turned around so all I got was her back, she then came off the stage and ran through the crowd to a stage in the middle of the arena. Brilliant, we’d been sent into the pit and she’s ran away. I climbed up onto the stage barrier and took a few shots over the top of the crowd; there not exactly the photos of Lucie I was hoping for.

Lucie

We then got escorted out of the pit whilst Lucie performed in the middle of the arena. After her performance Jamie was up again, but no sign to enter the pit. Then Olly was up, no sign. Then Lloyd was up and we got the signal so we entered the pit.

Lloyd

After Lloyd had finished his song, he went off and the presenter came on stage. Talked for about five minutes and then all of a sudden ghost busters began to bellow through the speakers and several of the finalists arose from within the stage. Then a big ghost began to inflate on the stage, rising up towards the arena roof. Load screams began to erupt behind me, so I turned round and Jedward were flying very shakily across the arena, and flew towards the stage where they began to ‘ghost bust’ the giant ghost with their water pistols; the whole performance was a little too cringey.

Once again though, we weren’t allowed in the pit and the bouncer was no where to be seen. After Jedwards performance, it was the interval.

As the show began again, the presenter came on stage and Olly, no signal, Danyl, no signal. The presenter came on stage again and then introduced Stacey, we then got the signal to enter the pit.

Stacey

When were were out of the pit, the bouncer asked us who we had not photographed, so we said Joe, Jamie, Olly, Lucie and Jedward, he then said that it was not going to be possible to photograph anyone else as Joe was up after Stacey had finished her performance. Brilliant, we were supposed to be allowed to photograph each of the finalists and we are only being able to photograph 4 of them.

Joe then came on stage to perform so we entered the pit.

Joe

Joe’s sex face…

However, even though the whole night was pretty pointless, I did get to give the Canon 70-200 f2.8 IS a go at a gig for the first time. What an awesome lens, I managed to produce some of the sharpest images I’ve ever shot, even when shooting at ISO 3200 and the image quality is not quite as good as at ISO 1600 etc…

As I was traveling down on my own for the first time, I planned my trip to a slightly exaggerated extent, but from doing so, I happened to come across a really handy iphone app that plans your tube journeys for you. Its called tubemap and it is completely free. For anyone who is visiting London but is a little unsure when it comes to traveling via the tubes, I would strongly recommend downloading this app.

When I got to London, I got myself on the tube from Kings Cross and made my way through London. When I reached my destination, it was a brisk walk to the NME offices, which were around a 10 minute walk from the Tube Station.

I then had my meeting with the NME photo team and they were happy to have me on board, and then they asked me what I was doing that night; I happened to be free, so I was asked to shoot Jamie T at Sheffield Academy for the magazine. So after my meeting, I grabbed some lunch and headed back to Kings Cross, got the train back to Newark, drove back home and then I got all of my camera gear ready for the gig later on.

At this point I was ridiculously happy. Since I first shot a gig (Bloc Party’s secret gig at Leeds Cockpit, I blagged a photo pass when I got there) I’ve always wanted to shoot for NME Magazine. I’ve been reading the magazine since I was in my last year at primary school, so to have only been shooting live music for little over two years and now to be in the position where I am shooting for one of the worlds best known music publications made me feel amazingly happy and also proud of myself; a mixed feeling I hadn’t felt for a long time.

As with most gigs for NME; they had organised one songs stage access. So I had my three songs in the photo pit shooting alongside the brilliant Gary Wolstenholme, who is always a pleasure to shoot alongside. Then I had the last song on stage shooting Jamie T, I was hoping to be able to get up behind some of the amps and alongside the drummer to vary the images a little, but the tour manager placed me in a spot and asked that I stay in that position throughout the song, which is fair enough if your on stage with a musician.

So as you’ve probably gathered by now, these are a few of the other photographs from the gig that night.

These images below are probably my personal favorites from the gig.

Here is the tear sheet from the magazine.

I am hoping to be shooting for the magazine again shortly. I’m also hoping I may be helping cover some festivals this year. I’ve not been to Glasto yet so that would be a huge bonus if I were to be able to go to Glasto, but also to cover the festival for NME.

For my coursework at college, I decided to shoot a roll of film over the course of one night. I bought a roll of Provia 100 as i’d never shot it before, I wanted to see how well it faired when shooting long exposures, and also to see how accurate the colour was.

One night in December, we had a quite a lot of fog covering the village I live in, so I decided to go out and shoot that night, I went out at around 10pm and shot through until around 1:30am. My intentions were to shoot the whole roll of film that night and try to create a series of images which show Saxilby by night.

Here are my final images.