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..
Will the real Steven Gerrard please stand up?
Some people really should try harder… Received the following email this morning..
“Hello
How are you?
Are you Steven Gerrard who is form England?
I’m Claudio Tibobo
I’m 19 years old, I’m from Panama, I speak tree languages: Spanish, English and Ngöbe
so I hope this messege you receive. So I desire all goods things for you?
See you
if you want to call me, you can do it
my number is code+67********
Panama’s code.
or you can write in my email. I know that everyday you are busy since you pratice sport, I know that.
Bye, bye”
I’m thinking he may have me mixed up with another Steven Gerrard!
Becky & Paul - Superstar Couple!
I know, I know!! My blogging has slacked again. Things have been so busy, blah blah blah…
But here’s the thing… Next week sees the launch of the brand new, super-slick, all singing, all dancing Chris Garrett-designed, funkadelic Steve Gerrard Photography website. The blog will be a major part of the new design so I am going to be updating it all the time. I promise! No, really!
Just check back next week and see the new-look site for yourself.
In the meantime, I’ve been meaning to blog Becky & Paul’s wedding for a while. They were married last month and had their reception at The Belfry. Their wedding was fantastic for several reasons… It was relaxed, great fun, the weather was glorious, had super-friendly guests, the staff at The Belfry could not be any better, but mostly because Becky & Paul are like our dream couple. We got on with them so well and they went out of their way to help us get great images for them. I believe we succeeded…
The night before the wedding Becky managed to cut her hand on a glass and didn’t leave hospital until 4am. Here’s the damage…
Paul sees his bride for the first time…
A few shots outside the church before heading to The Belfry…
Work it!
Becky & Paul know I’m always trying to do something different with my ring shots so when we borrowed the rings Becky said, “I can’t wait to see what you do”. No pressure then…!!
Errr… that’s dripping water…
Did I mention the weather?
After dinner it was time to escape with the couple…
Yowser!
We love rule-breakers 
Becky you superstar!
First dance… and a shared moment with Dad…
And later we escaped again and used the inside of the venue, along with our video light…
Seriously guys, Evelyne and I had such a good day with you both. Thanks for having us there and we wish you every happiness for the future.
After the wedding I got a lovely email from Paul’s mother saying “A big thankyou Steve for all your time and patience throughout the day you are a true professional at what you do, I cannot wait to see the photos the day was perfect, thankyou once again Pauls mum x”
…followed shortly after from an email from the couple saying
“Just a quick email before we fly off to say thank you for all your hard work and effort on our special day. We are so grateful to you both and we have had so many people come to us saying how good you were, not just with your photography but also how you interacted with the guests. We are so impressed with the amount of time that you spent with us and cant wait to see the outcome, we know its going to be amazing. Numerous couples who get married withing the next few years have asked for your details, I hope you dont mind but I have passed them on!! Becky from the Belfry was also very impressed and informed Becky that she would be unofficially recommending you !!! result !! ”
Result indeed. Thanks guys.
Pre-wed Shoots & Fast Cars
What’s with this weather?! I’m supposed to have a pre-wed shoot with Emma & Dan in 2 hours but with the rain coming down like this it looks like we’ll have to reschedule. Grrrr….
Luckily we had no such problems for Claire & Andy’s pre-wed shoot and we headed out into the Digbeth backstreets where we almost spent more time chatting than we did shooting. They’re a great couple and I’m really looking forward to their wedding this weekend. Let’s hope the weather improves!
This weekend we had 2 weddings including Ory & Karim’s in London, which was great fun. Ory looked amazing and I can’t wait to start going through their images. Friday’s wedding was closer to home at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens with Simon & Olga. Another really great wedding and such a cool venue for photographs. Both these weddings will be blogged here asap but here are a few images from Olga & Simon’s pre-wed shoot. They brought along Simon’s daughter, Rachel who celebrated her 10th birthday on their wedding day..
Ok… I love this shot so much I just ordered it for the studio wall. Some people can’t work out what’s in the background. Can you?
Usually I find corporate jobs can be extremely dull. I don’t do too many for that very reason. Occasionally though they can be extremely undull (I doubt that’s a word!). Recently I was asked by the MD of Jaguar Cars to come to one of their track days in Gaydon to cover the event for them. It was a gloriously sunny day and I not only got to shoot some beautiful cars but I also got taken around the track in a brand new Jaguar XK at 150mph! Officially the fastest I have ever travelled on land. If anyone’s wondering what to get me for Christmas…
I recently set up a Facebook Page for Steve Gerrard Photography and we already have almost 200 people who have joined so thanks everyone. It’s a pretty cool way of keeping in touch with people. If you’d like to have a look CLICK HERE
Emma & Pete
More and more we’re booking weddings further afield than the Midlands, which is great. As much as we love living in Birmingham, it’s always good to have an excuse to escape. This year we’ve had weddings in London, Devon and in December we have a wedding in New York. Emma and Pete got in touch with us after quite a thorough search for a photographer and, as they live a couple of hours away in Newark, it was another excuse to escape and visit an area I’ve not visited much before.
They’re happy to spend time to make sure we get great photos for them and their pre-wed shoot was one of the most fun pre-wed shoots I’ve done. We started off exploring the streets of Newark while trying to dodge the rain…
We were on our way back to their house when I spotted this field with that great sky. Favourite!
Their wedding also took place in Newark and this time the sun was shining. Emma looked amazing. I mean, just look at that dress!! Pete scrubbed up pretty well too
On to the church…
Then we headed off on our own to get some portraits of the new Mr & Mrs Dowse..
Unfortunately this gorgeous building is also the cheesiest nightclub in Newark according to Pete. What a waste!
Check out the table plan - hand-made by our blushing bride…
And what an amazing venue for the reception…
Later in the day we decided to grab a few more photos of the couple…
Great couple, great venue, great weather…. Thanks for a GREAT day guys. The album will be stunning.
V Festival 2008
This weekend has been fantastic and depressing in almost equal amounts.
I spent the weekend at the V Festival where I was photographing on behalf of the festival promoters. The first day I was there by myself, running around in the rain trying to catch as many bands as possible. Nobody was allowed to photograph Girls Aloud apart from their own photographer, which was a shame. I wonder what they have to hide?!
Here are some of my favourite images from Saturday…
Amy Winehouse, One Republic and Lenny Kravitz.
I’m used to shooting girls in white dresses but this was a little different..
Kings Of Leon (one of my fave bands of the weekend) and The Zutons.
And headliners, The Verve.
The low point on Saturday was having to walk for an hour in heavy rain to get back to my car. Thoroughly depressing! And then after I parked my car on our driveway it was broken into and my iPod and SatNav were stolen. Not good at all!
Luckily Sunday was a major improvement as the weather improved and I was joined by Evelyne and Elliott for the day. It was Elliott’s first ever concert so I made sure the first band we saw was a good one - The Hold Steady. Here he is getting into the festival spirit.
The Hold Steady, Estelle, The Kooks and Lostprophets.
As you can see, by Sunday the bad weather had left its mark…
The Script played on the day their album went to Number 1 in the charts.
And here’s the lovely Duffy on stage…
And here she is getting fondled by my son!
Elliott also hung out with Maximo Park backstage.
The Pigeon Detectives and the ladies’ favourite, Stereophonics.
Here’s a good story…. When I was still enjoying my previous life as an international DJ I played in Chamonix in France at a club called Deluded. I was in Chamonix for two days and while I was there I met a girl called Evelyne. I’m now married to her and we have a son and another baby due next year. The two guys who booked me to play the club, Livesey and Graham, were at the festival this weekend and here they are with the “fruit of Deluded” 
Thanks guys. My life would be very different if you hadn’t invited me to play your club!
And finally…. mega-headliners Muse closed the festival in fine style.
Letter Of The Week
I just got a message from Kerrang! magazine telling me they’re giving me Letter Of the Week after I sent them the following little message on MySpace…
“Occasionally, Kerrang!, you really do give me hope.
Firstly, you sacrifice potential sales of your magazine in order to put a band you truly believe in on the cover (The Gaslight Anthem) and at the very same time you introduce me to a band who make me feel like taking on the world.
The Gaslight Anthem’s new album is an album that will live with me for life and never sound tired. It’s empowering stuff and every song on the album already feels like a close friend. I can’t wait to catch them live.
I’ve bought K! since Issue 1 (I still have it too) and I’ll continue to buy it for as long as you keep proving you still love the music you feature. Respect.”
Letter Of The Week also bagged me £50 worth of CDs from Play.com which was a nice surprise. Result.
That’s put me in a good mood ready for the weekend ahead where I’ll be shooting the V Festival which is just 25 minutes from our house. The weather’s not looking great but I’ll be photographing Muse, The Verve, Kings Of Leon, Lenny Kravitz, Alanis Morrisette, Amy Whinehouse, Stereophonics… and not forgetting Girls Aloud! If the weather’s not too severe Evelyne and Elliott will be joining me on Sunday so it’ll be Elliott’s first ever concert. He even has a VIP pass!
Last night I met up with local metalheads Benediction who needed new photos doing for a 2-page feature in Terrorizer Magazine. We went out into the backstreets of Digbeth and got some typically mean n’ moody images for them. Terrorizer loved the results!
This week I also photographed a great Canadian band called Birds Of Wales. It was a shame that hardly anyone showed up to see them but I really enjoyed the gig which is reviewed HERE. After the gig we took the band to Island Bar for a few drinks before sending them off into the Birmingham night. Here’s a clip for their song, Cinderella.
And here are a couple of photos from the gig.
Tonight I have a pre-wed shoot with Dean & Helen whose wedding I’m covering next month. Luckily the weather is great but it all looks set to change just in time for tomorrow’s festival. Typical!
I’ll post photos from the V Festival here asap…
The Big Picture Interview
The supercool people who look after The Big Picture website recently asked me to answer a few questions about my music photography and the interview is now up on their site. CLICK HERE to read the full interview.
Trash The Dress on TV
Attention all brides!!
You may have heard of the mostly-American phenomenon called Trash The Dress where brides book a post-wedding photo shoot with the intention of creating some stunning images which may or may not damage the wedding dress (usually the dress just needs cleaning afterwards). “What a waste” people say, “to put a beautiful dress in the cupboard never to be seen again”.
Now a UK television company is looking for girls who have married in 2008 and want to trash the dress live on TV. If you’d like to get involved in the show please email anoushka.chengadoo@itvplc.com including a photo from your wedding, the date you got married, a contact number and any ideas you have for the Trash The Dress photo session.
If you’d rather do a session without the eyes of the world on you, feel free to email me to chat about your ideas.
Wendy Dawn Thompson and Paul & Becky’s pre-wed
It’s a long way from shooting rock bands when photographing somebody like Wendy Dawn Thompson. Wendy is a mezzo soprano opera singer from New Zealand and was looking for some new press shots, so we headed out on a sunny Tuesday afternoon and came back with some great, relaxed portraits. We got on really well and I even learned a little more about the world of opera!
Here are a few of my favourites…
This weekend is the wedding of Paul and Becky at The Belfry and I’m really looking forward to covering their day for them. They’re such a cool couple and Becky is sure to make a gorgeous bride. Here are some photos from their pre-wed shoot…
See you tomorrow guys….