Live music: Wednesday 13 gig at Koko

onona

onona

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I shoot lots of gigs but last night was a special show for me, as the headlining band, Wednesday 13, play a kind of horror punk that I'm really into (if you're unfamiliar with them, they're a lot like Alice Cooper). I love shooting gigs because I love music and I love shooting people, so rock stars posturing onstage is something I just really feed off and get inspired by, and this feeling is intensified when the band is very theatrical. I just love it.

The band members were all dolled up like ghouls, dressed like extras from Mad Max. Since the gig took place on Halloween, most of the audience was in costume, which really added to the atmosphere. It was great being down in the pit, feeling surrounded by an army of zombies and skeletons, watching this band strut their stuff.

Anyhoo, enough talk. Here are some of my favourite pics from the lot. You can see the whole set on my website (link in signature) if you want. Any thoughts or crits welcome.

1.

Wednesday 13 by onona, on Flickr

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Wednesday 13 by onona, on Flickr

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Wednesday 13 by onona, on Flickr

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Wednesday 13 by onona, on Flickr

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Wednesday 13 by onona, on Flickr
 
Download 2002, Murderdolls (his previous band) was the best gig of the festival for me. I miss those days. Oddly I asked someone yesterday if he was still around... looks like he is!

I really like the 3rd & 4th ones, the rest are good too!

These remind me of how I used to approach music photography, back when I did live work at least. I think of this as more live music portraiture, rather than shooting the gig, if you get what I mean?

Say from what I think was your first time shooting live music (I remember a forum post about it anyway) you took this, which is to me shot of the gig, rather than a portrait. So what I'm saying is, now you've got this spot on, maybe try to approach things with a wider view?
 
Yeah Murderdolls are great too! Although I prefer the punkier sound of this stuff myself. He's just a really talented guy. Backstage before the show I shot an interview with him too, and was really taken aback by what a nice, down to earth chap he is. Really intelligent, articulate and funny.

Interesting that you bring up the portraiture/gig angle (I'm amazed you remember my earlier thread, incidentally). Looking through all my shots from recent gigs, I have a tendency to shoot each member individually. Part of the reason for that is simply due to constraints - when you're in a photo pit, you don't generally have the space to move back and get the whole band in frame like I did that night at the Lexington, where there's no photo pit. But I don't necessarily think that constraint is the reason for it, I think I just feel drawn to each member individually. Occasionally I'll get a shot with a couple of band members, but the overwhelming majority of my shots are more portraiture styled. I'm shooting a gig again on Sunday at the O2 Academy in Islington - I think if there aren't too many other photographers in the pit, I'll try stepping back and getting some wider shots. I don't want to corner myself stylistically.

Thanks for the feedback!
 
I was hoping to get a bit more feedback... Perhaps I should be a little more direct: I currently shoot for a website but am considering branching into sending my portfolio to magazines. But I'm not sure if my photos are good enough yet. Does anyone have any views on that? Are these the sorts of pictures you could imagine in Kerrang or Metal Hammer? I'm my own worst critic so it's sometimes a little hard for me to gauge things.
 
onona said:
I was hoping to get a bit more feedback... Perhaps I should be a little more direct: I currently shoot for a website but am considering branching into sending my portfolio to magazines. But I'm not sure if my photos are good enough yet. Does anyone have any views on that? Are these the sorts of pictures you could imagine in Kerrang or Metal Hammer? I'm my own worst critic so it's sometimes a little hard for me to gauge things.
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Honestly? Look at the magazines and what they currently publish. That'll answer your question for you. Currently... no, but not because your photography is bad, but because it doesn't fit with the needs of editors.

They want those wider shots, tight crops like this are no use to an editor who needs a bit of room to crop it for their feature. They need room, room for text sometimes. They want atmosphere, they want something that happened. This is much harder than doing the above shots, for sure.

It's supply and demand like any other business, give them what they need exactly how they need it and your chances increase dramatically. Path of least resistance. Leave the artistic stuff for when you're working with a band directly.

Its been a long time since I've done live music for mags, if anyone with more recent experience can see anything glaringly wrong, please chime in.

Oh, and stay with colour. They also don't want B&W.
 
That's very useful information, Adam, thanks a lot. I hadn't really considered stuff like cropping and whatnot, and wasn't thinking in terms of that when looking at magazines and comparing my work to it, as I was focusing only on quality in terms of sharpness, colour, etc, while overlooking these other factors. It's interesting how shooting for the web and shooting for magazines is so different. I do shoot a lot of crowd/atmosphere stuff for my editor currently, I just don't post those photos on Flickr, as I have a personal preference for the more portraity stuff. Having said that, I shot a gig the other night and got a lot of wider shots of multiple band members. Too bad it was at a venue with crappy lighting so I won't be adding them to my portfolio. Hopefully I'll get better shots this weekend shooting at Koko again.

Thanks again for the information and tips, that's really helpful.
 
I think they're excellent, crystal clear, nice vibrant colours, sharp and can definitely feel the energy. I do a agree though, a few wider/set should would be nice to mix things up a little.

Quick question; how did you get into shoot music for a website? It's something I'd like to get into myself for the experience!
 
Thanks Steve! To be honest, the way I got into this was a total stroke of luck. I'd shot about three gigs and really wanted to get more into it, when I came across someone on Facebook who runs a heavy metal site saying her photographer for a gig (NY hardcore band Agnostic Front) that week had bailed on her and she needed a replacement. I instantly messaged her with a link to some of my photos, which included photos of a metal show I'd shot a weekend or two previously, and she gave me the gig. Since then, I've been shooting for her a couple of times a week, and I've basically become her main photographer because I'm very reliable and turn around my shots very quickly. Websites really like fast turnarounds on shoots as it gives them an edge over everyone else if they publish the photos from a gig first - I was able to give my editor 45 processed shots of Wednesday 13 and about 40 of the opening band the following morning after the gig. Being fast like that is really appreciated.

My advice to you would be to keep your eyes out for people needing photographers. Facebook and other social media sites are definitely worth investigating. Shoot as many small gigs as you can (most small venues with local bands don't have a problem allowing cameras in), and build up a small portfolio that you can show to people. If you go to enough gigs, you'll probably get to know other photographers doing that kind of work and you can then hopefully find work through them too. It's actually a relatively small niche. Just be sure that your camera handles high ISO well and that you have at least one decent sharp, fast lens, preferably a short zoom for more versatility. It's one thing shooting for yourself, but when you're shooting for a website, you have to make sure you're going to get a lot of good shots, so you need gear that you can rely on, no matter what the lighting conditions are.
 
onona said:
Websites really like fast turnarounds on shoots as it gives them an edge over everyone else if they publish the photos from a gig first - I was able to give my editor 45 processed shots of Wednesday 13 and about 40 of the opening band the following morning after the gig. Being fast like that is really appreciated.
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Whilst that's cool for websites (and bravo for being quick, I'm still waiting 3 weeks later for a writer to finish writing something up right now) whenever I've been paid to do this, they want the images that night so they can get going on it early in the morning OR have it in the next days issue (had to do this a few times for a newspaper). And if you end up shooting for the wires, it's essentially to get them up straight after the gig. If I were shooting for wires and covered a festival, I'd try to shoot with a WFT and have an assistant uploading & key wording images as I'm shooting. Not too dissimilar from sports photography, I imagine.

Sounds insane and brutal... and it is. But this is what separates a pro from the casual new comer.
 
Yeah, but monthly magazines wouldn't require that, surely? I'd never shoot for a newspaper or wires as this isn't something I have any desire to do full time. It's currently something I do in my evenings, although I am booked to shoot some festivals next year, which I know is going to be really hard work.
 
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