Category Archives:  Live Music

Grinderman @ The Palace

Meredith Music Festival 2010

The 20th anniversary of the Meredith Music Festival heralded some great performances from ‘oldies but goodies’ such as Custard, The Dirty Three and Neil Finn alongside newcomers Kimbra, kyü and El Guincho.

These are the three custom settings I pre-programme when shooting where the available light can range from full sunshine to dark in a matter of minutes. I’ll often adjust these slightly depending on the conditions but find these a good place to start.

  • Bright Sunshine – f8, 1/250th, ISO 100
  • Shade – f5.6, 1/120th, ISO 400
  • Dark – f2.8, 1/100th, ISO 1250

Most of the time I use two cameras, one with a 70-200mm zoom lens and the other with a 16-35mm and switch between the two depending on the type of shot that presents. For a shallow depth of field effect I’ll use a 50mm f1.4 or (as I was fortunate to borrow for the Dirty Three set) a 85mm f1.2 lens with its crazy halo effect when shooting into the light.

Most of the shots get some sort of curves/saturation/dodging/weaving treatment in Adobe Lightroom to help make them stand out or focus attention on certain aspects of the composition. Turning a shot black and white while adding extra contrast helps if the original wasn’t colourful or dramatic enough.

I was able to get few backstage band shots during the weekend including one of Custard who turned out to be more than happy to be photographed, especially since it was only their second gig in a decade.

It’s always interesting seeing different interpretations of the festival from other photographers perspectives and worth checking out Kristy Millikin’s festival photos and also the review from Mess and Noise along with photos by Leah Robertson.

Gun Street Girls – Bakehouse Studios

The Gun Street Girls, having recently finished off a new batch of recordings took some time out at Bakehouse studios for some photos.

Although predominantly a rehearsal studio, there is an amazing space upstairs complete with a Chinatown/Wild West bar that makes for a nice backdrop.

It was a conscious effect to not make the leader singer, Dave Larkin too prominent in every photo so I took a mixture of shots with each member in different positions to keep things as equal as possible.

A mixture of  ‘looking at/not looking at the camera’ posing was used, since it’s often hard to tell until later which method works best for the group.

The band were keen to check out what different clothing/hat combos worked best, this photo was taken as an off-the-cuff shot to show Dave his hat in the camera LCD screen. It ended up coming out as a nice natural portrait shot, something I’m always keen to capture.

Most of these shots were taken using the Canon 50mm 1.4 lens as I was able to get far back enough to include everyone in shot and the shallow depth of field helps the photos ‘pop’ out a bit more. Post production was done with Lightroom, using a number of the presets like ‘bleached bypass’ and ‘aged photo’ as a starting point, as they seemed to suit the surrounds.

Save Live Australia’s Music (S.L.A.M.) Rally

Thousands of live music supporters marched to the steps of Parliament House in Melbourne today protesting against liquor licensing laws that have impacted on the operation of many live music venues around the state. Here is my footage and stills captured on the day with the Canon 7D.

Fortunately, with a recent Live Music Accord being brokered behind the scenes just prior to the rally it looks like common sense will prevail. More information can be found on the SLAM website.

Meredith Music Festival 2009

For the first time in a few years the weather played nice and afforded everyone the opportunity for a pleasant Meredith experience. The festivities were of course helped along by the likes of Jarvis Cocker, Eddie Current Suppression Ring, Tumbleweed and many more.

Ladyhawke @ The Forum