Aydin Rocks!
Just before Christmas I received an email from Los Angeles. It was from a band manager looking for a photographer to shoot some portraits of a guitarist called Aydin who is hoping to take the leap into the big time and a potential sponsorship with Fender Guitars.
Aydin came to the studio and, after a quick simple portrait against the white studio wall, we headed out into the streets of Digbeth. In just over an hour we got a great collection of varied images and Aydin was super-cool in front of the camera. Here’s just a few of the finished photos…
FAVOURITE!!!
A little bit of Oasis attitude 
Good luck with everything Aydin. Don’t forget me when you’re famous! 
Tony Iommi
As a Birmingham photographer and life-long music fan I was honoured to be invited to shoot a portrait of Black Sabbath guitarist, Tony Iommi. This man has played alongside Ozzy Osbourne for 40 years and is responsible for some of heavy metal’s all-time classics. “Paranoid” anyone?
No big productions, just a simple picture of a music legend…
Kelli Ali portraits
Last week I met up with Kelli Ali to shoot some portraits for Fused Magazine. Kelli used to be the singer in the Sneaker Pimps and sang on their mega-hit, Spin Spin Sugar. She is just about to release her own solo album.
Here are just a few from the shoot..
Young Fate - Band Shoot
I’m currently doing a special deal for local unsigned bands who need new press shots. Most of these bands don’t have much money to spend on photo shoots but, in many ways, they are the bands that need great photos the most so that they stand out from the gazillions of bands out there in MySpace-land.
Young Fate are a hip-hop/RnB outfit from near Telford and they came down to Birmingham to take me up on my offer. Over about an hour we went out around the streets of Digbeth and got a great varied collection of images for them to use on websites, flyers, posters, etc.
Here are a few of my favourites..
The Melvins
Some bands become legendary and sell out stadiums. Others may still be playing small clubs well into their career but are no less legendary in the eyes of their fans. One such band are The Melvins and I got to spend some time with them recently in Nottingham to get some new photos for Rock Sound magazine. The band were a huge influence on bands such as Nirvana, Tool and Soundgarden and continue to do their own thing. Frontman Buzz was in a band with Kurt Cobain before Nirvana even formed and makes for a great portrait subject wit his crazy “Sideshow Bob”-style hair. Here are my fave photos from our session..
In Flames & Gojira in Manchester
On Monday night I was up in Manchester to shoot metal bands In Flames and Gojira. I’m a massive Gojira fan so it was a pleasure to meet the guys from the band and I’m pleased to report they’re super-nice. Guitarist Christian even gave me a free Gojira shirt. The band took a few minutes for me to take some portraits of them. Here are some of my favourites…
I’m not such a big fan of In Flames but they were also great guys to hang out with and sorted me out with some beers. We also got some great photos of them before the gig..
This afternoon I’m off to Nottingham to meet with underground Legends, The Melvins. I’ll post photos here asap..
Slaves To Gravity
I just returned from photographing a gig for Rock Sound magazine featuring a great new band from London called Slaves To Gravity. After the gig I asked the band if I could take a few photos of them in the car park behind the venue and they were good enough to oblige. Here’s just one photo from the shoot..
Slaves To Gravity are all set to tour Japan and the US next and look set for big things. Check out their MySpace page for more.
Today has been a great day. Elliott was back in nursery so Evelyne spent the day in the studio helping me get some stuff organised (she’s more organised than me by far!). We also met Steve & Steph about shooting their wedding in New York in December. I look forward to every wedding but that’s gonna be something special. Can’t wait! We also FINALLY got a fridge and kettle in the studio so now I can make myself (and anyone else who visits) a cup of tea whenever I like. Bliss!
Today we also had another wedding confirmation for 2009 when James called to say he and Lorraine would like us to cover their wedding at Cotswold House in Gloucestershire. It looks like a great venue. James emailed to say “After seeing your work and meeting with you it really was the easiest decision we’ve had to make in all of the planning.” I have a feeling we’re gonna get on just fine
Poppy & The Jezebels
Oh, my job is so tough!
This week I had the pleasure of spending time in the company of Poppy & The Jezebels who needed new photos for the release of their new single “UFO” which comes out in August. The weather was against us a little but we managed to brave the elements as much as possible and came back with some super-cool pics.
I also popped along to the Glee Club on Wednesday night to catch one of my favourite bands, Idlewild. Last time I saw them they were opening for U2 but this week they played a really intimate set of acoustic numbers and rare b-sides and album tracks. Amazing gig which is reviewed on Birmingham Live along with my photos.
Steve on 4
This week I was asked to photograph the winning band from Channel 4’s Mobile Act Unsigned show. Envy & Other Sins won a million pound record contract and needed some images to use for promotional purposes. We spent a few hours with the band and tried to get a really good variety of shots for them. The whole thing was filmed for an upcoming programme on Channel 4 which looks at what’s happening with the band since winning the show. Here are a few of my faves from the day…
A Wet Weekend
Billy Connolly once said “There’s no such thing as bad weather, there’s just the wrong clothing”. That may be somewhat true but unfortunately, when it comes to photo shoots, the people in front of my camera don’t necessarily want to be wearing overcoats and wellies. Especially when you’re the bride!
This weekend was very wet and that meant certain challenges as I undertook a fashion shoot in the woods, two band shoots and a wedding but in the end we just got out there and had fun, trying to avoid the worst of the weather whenever we could. Here are some of the results…
Claire & Dave’s wedding in Warwick was great fun with a fantastic bunch of people. The bad weather wasn’t allowed to dampen people’s spirits one bit and we got some great pictures for them. They’re in Canada for their honeymoon now and we’ll show them a slideshow of their day when they return. After that I’ll be able to post my favourites here.