Mumbling Metaphores and Genuine Gratitude [End - 2008]

I’m sat in the same place as I was this time last year, but everything has completely changed since then. January marked an official start of what I wanted to become, I had a vision, and although ideas and views change, that vision has never altered. It’s nearly impossible to sum up a year which has been just so eventful.

Personally, 2008 has proved to challenge me and every single person who I regard as family. There’s been times when you think I’ve let you down, and times when I have. I hope – that when you look back – I’ve made those close to me – proud. Through all the business jargon, that’s all I’ve ever pursued.

I regard everyones strength and optimism through this difficult year as an inspiration, those who can overcome, hide, diffuse (or whatever it is they do) have become the strongest people I think I’ll ever meet.

It seems we’ve drove through 2008, blindfolded, and arrived at a pit stop safely with nothing but a few scratches. Atleast for the next part of this road – we have a friggin’ Sat Nav.

Dani, you’ve become my world and everything that’s in it. Together we’ve somehow forged a wall and started to build things inside it. Our future won’t be spent driving blindfolded – this is a mere construction site, and very soon, we’ll build our little fortress from nothing but determination…and blood…and sweat…and tears, actually – we’ve giving it everything we’ve got.

“I Love You” isn’t the start of it.

With work, there’s been times when I’ve doubted myself, and enivitbly numerous occasions when people have doubted me, I’ve learnt to develop a determination that goes beyond obsession, accepting that most of the time, I am – infact, wrong.

This is not an obsession with photography, and certainly not a determination for media success, it’s simply the fact that I am literally 70% focused on where I see myself being (the other 30% is spent sleeping or drinking coffee).

I can’t begin to look at 2009, because it’s immediately going to throw us in the deep end. You won’t hear a lot from us during the first half of the year, we’re hoping to get our first place sorted by February/March and obviously we’re getting married in June, so, personally, it’s a massive year. From a business perspective – it’s equally as busy , there’s a lot going on from day one, right through the year, the scary thing is – it’s already planned out.

Over the last year, I’ve met some amazing people. I want to take the chance to say a “thank you” to everyone we’ve worked with and to the (over) 200 people we’ve photographed since starting as a business exactly a year today. I also want to say thank you to everyone who works with us on a regular basis. I’ve discovered a nutter, her name is Emily-Jane. I want to thank her for all her support over the last year, working with you has been a total pleasure.

I personally want to thank everyone for giving us a chance, thanks for your trust, your friendship and for even taking the time to read this. I’ll never stop being grateful for everyone who has supported us in building our future.

“Thank You” is a massive understatement.

Happy New Year!

Creative Shoot with SJ

For me, the winter is a quiet time and I always enjoy every minute of it after months of "shoot after shoot after shoot". This year, I decided to use this time abit more creatively and set up a shoot with one of my favourite models and obviously, Emily-Jane.

The day was always going to be abit hectic, we had a model coming from Derbyshire and our make up artist coming from around Leicester, which causes enough problems with logistics etc. Once Emily arrived at the studio, Emily stopped to grab a few munchies (too many to list here haha) and we set off to collect SJ from t'station in Birmingham.

First thing that made me giggle (to myself) was everyones accents. Even though Derbyshire or Leicester arn't too far north of Birmingham, I couldn't believe the difference in accents.

We arrived at the studio and began the mammoth task of figuring out what order to shoot everything in. We started with a few beauty shots of SJ. I love shooting in a beauty headshot style, I think it's amazing how removing somebodies make up and keeping hair out of shot can have such an impact, I suppose it shows a person at their purest physical state, which can only be a good thing in a portrait.
But what would be the point in having Emily around if we wern't doing any make up? Well, other than her constant supply of snacks, hilarious random statements about nothing and her posing direction skillz...not much. So I gave permission for Emily to go mad.

And she did! In all time best, creative style!


SJ did a fantastic job sitting still all day in our freeeezing studio whilst we ran round throwing things on her, whilst her partner somehow endured the mind numbingly boring task of... watching. Well done, both of you!
Just want to say a massive thank you to everyone involved in the shoot. I'm choosing which prints to order for our new studio as we speak! Thanks guys!

Sharon & Paul Pre-Wedding Shoot

So we'd had a morning of pre-wedding consultations at our local pub with a few couples looking to book us for next year, and by lunchtime, me and Dani got a bit peckish so we grabbed a bowl of cheesey chips from the bar.

Scoffing away, saying "We best eat these quick because the next couple will be here in a few minutes". The pub was really quiet, just to set the scene, it's only about 11:30am and the pub is pratically empty, there's one or two people there too, including one couple sat on the next table to us.

We're still scoffing, and I mention to Dani; "I'll just erase the shots off camera from the last shoot" - at this point, the couple next to us say; "You're not Chris Barber by any chance?" - Embarrased, we shamefully admitted, "...yes" - it was our pre-wedding shoot couple...

Thankfully, Sharon and Paul found it funny and after discussing a few points about their wedding, we got out into the lovely winter sun and did their pre-wedding shoot.

We got some really nice shots! They are such a great couple, we had so much fun doing your shoot. I can't wait to shoot their wedding Christmas Eve!

Shooting Holly

You remember Holly right? We worked with her a couple of months ago, triggering her aspiration to become a model. This shoot was very different to her previous shoot, although we were re-armed with our make up artist - Emily "Bready" Jane (Great to have her back!)

Holly brought some great ideas to the studio which she's spent the last couple of months planning. The great thing about people bringing in ideas is that it gives me the time to plan exactly how I want to shoot it. This was one of those shoots when model/tog and make up all fitted together really well to create some great shots.

Holly did real great and we had alot of fun working with different ideas, although it was freeeezing in the studio. We'll be moving very soon to a brand new home studio - which is going to be a vast improvement, more news on that in the next month or two.

Just want to say thanks to Holly for choosing us to put such a great idea into action. I really hope you like your new photos!

A Day Away

Don't get me wrong. I love every aspect of my job, I love the variety, I love new challenges and I love the independance working for myself offers. However, we all need a day or two to rest every now and again, and seen as Virgin media decided to provide no internet for a day or two, I thought I should get out and enjoy a family day (me plus mum/dad and dog)

Armed with my new fetching wooley hat and camera (ofcourse) I got snapping in some great Winter light... which soon clouded over and turned to snow?? I even managed to get my favourite ever shot of a Mushroom. Yes, really.

Shoot for Timeout Magazine

I received a slightly frantic phone call last week from Timeout Magazine requesting a photographer to cover an article for them at short notice. After abit of rescheduling and jiggling about, I was able to say yes. Turns out, one of my favourite local photographers was meant to be covering it for them but he's away in New York from Saturday so he recommended me, which was my favourite "tap on the back" so far.

I really didn't know what to expect. I had been informed that it was a childrens choir, but I had no idea what age or exactly what the photos were for. But it's not my job to be nosey, I'm there to take pictures.

I arrived in Bourneville, welcomed by Laura who was really helpful and welcoming throughout the shoot. The small group from of around 9 children performed the Keymaster. Despite only having 4 days to prepare, and not having the certain elements of the performance available, they put on a great show.

These children are really talented and it's great to see people taking time to provide activities for youngsters.


Thanks to everyone who was there on the day for making me feel so welcome and I wish you all the best!

Nikki and Family Portrait Shoot

Going back a few weeks - Nikki contacted us requesting a portrait shoot for her mums birthday with her sisters.

A few weeks later and it's the day of the shoot. The clouds are brewing and the threat of rain has never looked more likely. I believe that family portrait shots shouldn't be posed in a studio - so outdoors was our only choice.

We arrived on location and the rain started, as though it was just waiting for us to get out the car. We started with a few mother and daughter shots in a relatively sheltered part of the park, but it was clear that the weather wasn't on our side.

But Nikki and family are a great bunch and were really co-operative with getting the shots they wanted. After a few shots in the rain, the girls seemed to forget it was pouring down and got on with the shoot, even braving a few without umbrellas.

There was the occasional bright spell, but the day was really dominated by a depressing drizzly cloud hanging over the park.

Thankfully, mum and girls saw the funny side of it all and we got some great shots. Amazingly, in some shots it actually looks warm/dry. I'm sure they'll back me up on this....It wasn't! It were bloody freezing!

Great photos though and that's all that matters :) Thanks guys, hope to see you all again sometime!

Pre-Wedding Shoot - Hana and Kaleem

Myself and Dani took ourselves off for our weekly outing to Birmingham, where we seem to based every weekend now for the last month. It's great because Dani's introduced me to trains. Prior to this, I have been a hardcore bus rider (I use buses). I'm still abit to weary off catching a train on my own, but hopefully, one day, I'll have the knowedge to catch trains without ending up in Tunisia (Honest - it'd happen to me).

Anyhow,

We arrived at Snow Hill station (which is cold!!!) and walked down to Digbeth (Custard Factory) to meet todays clients, Hana and Kaleem, who we're shooting a wedding for in less than a month.

Thanks to my sophisticated army trained timing skills, we got there about an hour early, which, with our tummy's rumbling - was a good thing. We searched and searched but sadly Custard Factory dedicates itself to selling second hand things you never want on a Sunday, calling it "vintage" - apologies to vintage lovers out there - but I don't know why anybody would want to purchase a decaying, smoke smelling, colour faded, stuffed budgie in the middle of a credit crises and Christmas.

I'd like to add that eventually we found a little place that sold jacket potatoes, so we were happy.

We took Hana and Kaleem to a little old pub for a coffee and a chat about wedding arrangements, which seemed alittle silly seen as we only saw them last week - but still we confirmed ideas for photos and clarified arrangements for the day. And then it was out into the cold for a quick shoot.

And quick it was! We braved the cold Digbeth air for about an hour, pretending it was 30 degrees on an exotic carribean island.

Really looking forward to the big day! See you then

Chris

Sams Toddler Portrait

Sam and Mum popped down to see us on Tuesday to get some photos of baby Sam, who's grown loads since I last saw him last year.

After spending about an hour throwing things at me indoors and playing with our dog, Sam and I went out into the garden to play football. By this point, he got into the habbit of throwing things at me and I found myself battered from pegs, flower pots and small bricks after about an hour.

Needless to say we got some great photos! Following our shoot, I've been invited to go along to a nursery in Birmingham to discuss ideas to be there main residential photographer, which will be fantastic! Anyone who knows my work will know that I hate just putting people in front of white backdrops and shooting away, so I hope my fresh approach to their nursery photography will be enough to persuade them!

This weekend is looking like a very mixed bag at the moment (I love it when there's a variety in my work). Friday afternoon I'm in Birmingham picking up some new bits of kit (new lenses/accessories/back up cameras etc) before meeting a "haute couture" gown & dress designer to sketch up some ideas for a few creative photos coming up.

Friday night, I'm the main photographer at a models party in Birmingham (Why oh why can't I just live in Birmingham!). Saturday I'm in Bourneville shooting a childrens "choir" for Timeout Magazine (wow!) and Sunday I have a pre-wedding shoot with Hana and Kaleem before photographing their wedding in less than a month! Then in the afternoon we return back home to meet more potential wedding clients to discuss plans etc.

We've been very busy with wedding consultations and bookings at the moment. Our most recent clients met with us last night to discuss their wedding. They booked there and then which was great. They seem like a lovely couple and they're wedding venue looks stunning, Thanks Amanda & Gareth!

New Design

As you can probably observe, we have made a few changes to the blog. We've replaced it with a nice new header and a cleaner layout which should encourage to write more here.

I have plenty to write about just not much chance to actually write it here.

Going back a week or so, I met up with Tii in Birmingham for his second portrait shoot with us. We decided to try and make the most of everywhere around Birmingham and tried to get as many location shots as possible.

Highlights of the day included getting to the top of a lovely high multi-story car park which overlooked Digbeth and the Bullring. We got some great shots from there and a few shots playing around with light etc.


Tii's one of my favourite people to shoot with because he's open to ideas and has some great ideas of his own. Also - any client that buys the photographer lunch deserves a fantastic set of photos!

Cheers Tii!

Yesterday we spent an hour or so at our "wish" house. It's a house we've had our eye for the last month or so. It's in total need of work (basically demolishing and starting again), but it's a spacious house in a nice area so we're eager to snap it up. All the parents were down there yesterday seeing how much work needs to be done. It'll take a long time to develop, but I've fell in love with it. Bad news is - because I'm self employed, we have to wait till January/February till I have my first years worth of accounts. So we're not getting our hopes up till after Christmas!

Today we're in Birmingham meeting half booked wedding clients Hana and Kaleem before their wedding on December 20th. Very exciting :) Might do a spot of wedding shopping down there too! We seem to be in "Confetti" every weekend now, Dani knows it's the only shop she'll get me into because they give out free sweeties :D

Featured: Urbanitez Magazine

Received this through the post this morning.
Inside cover/page 2. Random but Nice.

We're Engaged!

We're home after a short break in Poole, Dorset. Which was lovely!
Before blogging about the whole holiday, I thought I'd summerise it with two simple words. "We're Engaged!"

I know some of you may already know (or guessed!) but I finally broke the question to Dani on fireworks night on a quiet beach near Poole. It's something we've both wanted for a verrry long time and it's so great to finally tell people and start planning for our big day, which we're hoping will be Summer next year!

I could go on about why I want this to happen so much but I really don't wanna get soppy or sound like I'm engaged for the sake of going against what everyone thinks, so that's all.

Anyroad, we went on holiday....

First day in Poole was spent....in Poole. We took a look around a few of the shops, Dani spent the ENTIRE day (or atleast it seemed like it) in Lush and some other beauty shop spending all the money we haven't got.

Second day was my turn to choose where we spent the day. As you'd expect, I chose Monkey World.

We drove through a tank/military training ground to get there, as you'd expect from a holiday with me. Having a huge roaring tank pulling up behind you on the way to see monkeys was a little bit odd, but we soon found a short cut and parked up ready for a day of monkeeeeyys!

We got in and I found myself in the souvenir shop before we even got into the actual park. Once I was dragged away (without purchasing the monkey mask I so dearly wanted) we walked around a few empty monkey enclosures, but saw plenty of Robins and Crows, not as good as monkeys but still...


Eventually we came to the orangutan enclosure, which actually contain orangutan and not pigeons, which was great. The youngest of the three orangutan even took the time to have a quick chinwag with Dani. The picture below shows Dani looking into the mirror. :P

On the evening, we went down to the small local beach to do abit of proposing etc etc.
On the evening of Wednesday 5th November, me and Dani were engaged :)

We started the morning early to go to the island of Brownsea. Which sounds like diarrhoea, but it's actually a dead pleasent place with red squirrels and lots of bits of wildlife and stuff. We jumped on a boat which took us to the remote island, Dani took the chance to show off her new ring.

It's also currently inhabbited by the BBC for Autumnwatch, which finished the day we visited. I tried my very best to get a (good) photo of a red squirrle, but frankly, I hadn't the patience to sit and pretend to be a tree/nut/pile of leaves etc, so focused on getting a photo of a pheasant. Hmm.

All in all, it was a time I'll always remember, mainly because the fruit machines there never paid out and I lost about £60 on fruit machines and fulfilling my addiction to grabber games. I'll also remember it for other things, like proposing to Dani n that.

Tune out now to avoid abit of cheese,
Dani you are everything to me, I can't wait to spend my life with you.
I Love You.

Shoot It Loud: Launched!

So after much time, thought and planning, I've decided to go ahead with launching a new online blog committed to bringing the forefront of Birmingham's live pop acts into pictures and words.

Shoot It Now is simply a blog and online store, which is strongly affiliated with Chris Barber Media. It's going to take around a year before we build the reputation and material to make it a success, but by covering everyone from The Killers to Cliff Richard in the next 6 months, I really do think they'll be something for everyone.
The blog is based across numerous websites, including the main Chris Barber Media website, which now means that fans have the chance to purchase prints of their favourite artists.
I've been extremely fortunate to be offered passes for these, frankly HUGE gigs, and I'd like to take a sec to thank all the publications that have offered and provided passes for the gigs over the next year.
Stay tuned to the Shoot It Loud myspace for details on upcoming gigs, if you're gonna be at one of the gigs we're covering - give us a shout - we'd love to hear from you.
We'd also like to hear from photographers, reviewers and the average gig goer so we can get you involved.

You're all welcome to check it out, although I'd recommend going back to the site in about 6 months time, when we've kickstarted everything!

www.myspace.com/chrisbarbermedia
www.shootitloud.com

Someone said to me....

The other day, someone said "Chris-you've done really well for yourself - your so lucky!" Which is possibly the funniest compliment I've ever heard. Luck isn't waking up every cold winter morning and working from 5am till 9pm. I'm not taking it seriously, but hey, next time say something nice lol.

Moving on, I'm shooting Guillemots next month! For those who don't know, I'm a massive fan of their music and it's been very frustrating seeing them three times in the last year or so and not taking one photograph. So when I got the thumbs up from the publication I work with - I was well chuffed. I come back from my break on November 7th and shoot Guillemots on the evening. That's not a complaint - more of an extended Holiday.

This weekend saw Avay and Allbright infront of my lens. The Allbright lads came down and got a few promo shots for their upcoming album and promo material for tours with Army of Freshmen and Weatus. I introduced them to my local Chip Shop, Dan somehow seemed to think that Dudleys chips were better, but he's wrong.

Avay was our shoot on Sunday. The whole shoot was abit last minute but she came along with some great stuff and totally knew what she was doing infront of camera, which made my job alot more enjoyable for a Sunday shoot. We started in the studio and progressed onto two outdoor locations which was where I learnt an important thing about myself.

I love Autumn.

As a kid - I really couldn't care less that the leaves were turning red (I remember getting in trouble at school for throwing red leaves at the other kids and pretending they were fireballs...or something?) Anywho - whilst looking through the viewfinder, I see all these funky colours in the background, which just set off the whole photograph. I'm thinking of taking a little journey up there on my own tomorrow to get some nice autumn photographs.

I'll leave you with an example of how I like to work when I'm on a shoot. Most photographers choose step ladders or specially adapted tripods to get ariel high angled shots. I choose tree climbing. Once climbed, I could not get down and was forced to preform an unmanly collapse from the tree whilst pretending I hadn't crushed my ankle on impact. I haven't been feeling too well recently either - I'm not going to go on about it though, I've been accused of man flu far too many times to mention anything again. right, I'm off to a wedding consultation with Vicky and groom to be and then a busy day shooting The Hoosiers tomorrow, if you're going - Come say Hi!

Big Bad Blog

So it's been a bloomin long time since I last update me blog.
Everythings changing here at Chris Barber Media HQ, a total new direction to our work in order to seperate us from competition and expand our services.
For starters, me and my beautiful lady are getting our first house together at the start of next year. Which means it'll probably actually happen around mid-2009. Alot of our time and finances are being thrown at that at the moment, which has sadly meant less shoots. But the shoots we have done have been very much focused and it's been nice to offer a more individual approach to each shoot. With the previous 10 shoots a week, everything became abit "run of the mill" - which isn't my idea of a good time.
So I'll update you from way back to last month which saw Jennifer and Steves wedding. This great couple were treated to some fantastic weather throughout the whole day and made me and Dani feel more than welcome so a massive "Thank You" to you both and your families. We're sending their photos (hopefully) by this weekend, I hope you like them guys!


Going back abit further, me and my family attended a massive family reunion with some people I haven't seen in around a decade and people my Dad hasn't ever met, which was great. I thought I'd upload a few nutty pictures from the night. I appear to be mid-head banging quite fiercly, I can assure you that this is just an average expression of mine. Photoshop it to your hearts content...

This last month has also welcomed our new make up artist - Sophie! We've only had two shoots together so far but the results from both Helens and Mandis shoots are fantastic! Helen came to the studio in a suit, she came straight from an interview in town. She left loooking like the photo below. Notice the expression similarity between the photo of me and Dani (above) and Helen's below...


This weekend also marks the end to the production of the calendar I've been working on for like the last 2 months. It's a bit of a weight off my shoulders if I'm honest, but the photos look good and I'm looking forward to seeing the final product on sale around the Midlands within the next few weeks. Photos from that should be coming soon!
Incase you haven't noticed, I shot "Last Shadow Puppets" last week in Wolverhampton, some of the best shots are online now. Thanks to everyone whos gave such a positive responce to the photos, I look forward to seeing you at more gigs in the future. Our next gig will probably be the Hoosiers (in Wolverhampton again) and then Goldfrapp - which I'm hugely honoured to be photographing, IF the passes get sorted. Big if.
Right then, I'm off to go and shoot those "Allbright" lads at the studio followed by a wedding consultation and an interview at a tanning salon in Birmingham tomorrow. More info on that soon, I'll do my best to keep this better updated from now on. For more frequent updates, follow me on Twitter. www.twitter.com/chrisbarbermedi

Coffee, Buses, Plans and Photographs

Just about sums up the last couple of weeks. I simply haven't had a chance to update this blog as I've been working on location for the last 2 or 3 weeks solid and I can never seem to connect to a wireless in old factories or weird old houses.
But I'm finally back at home and enjoying some time to recoup and edit before launching our new project next week. It's already been plastered around the new website etc but we're launching "Shoot It Loud" very soon which is a new music blog and shop. More about that later.
So since the last blog I've been shooting weddings, bands and the occasional glamour model. I even went from shooting with monkeys at Dudley Zoo to shooting one of birminghams most promising glamour models within the space of an hour - although let me insist that the two shoots were completely seperate...
We're very near to completion with the calendar with just one more girl left to shoot. It's taken us everywhere from monkey enclosures to the not-so-cobbled streets of Black Country Museum and should be ready for purchase sometime next month.
Also working on a few more calendars up in Derby over the next few weeks for a magazine and a few fashion outlets, which i'm looking forward to.
Working everyday for the last two weeks has finally taken it's physical toll on me, I've had some severe Man-Flu the last few days - although it's not really flu, just a tad under the weather, I've been advised by Dani to take it easy for abit so I'm just kicking back for the next few days to regain some energy and eat some proper food. Rustlers 60 second burgers are nice once - but living off 60 second food for two weeks is not fun.
So back to Shoot It Loud - our new online music publication. It'll work as a blog system and can be accessed at shootitloud.com (when it's ready) - it'll link between the new Chris Barber Media website so you can purchase prints from the gig online. The reason I've set this up is for two reasons.
First of all, when I'm at gigs, I always have someone ask for more information about where they can view the photos from the set. Usually I work as part of other publications which is great, I can just refer to the publications website and they can view them there. But I want somewhere to host my music portfolio seperate from Chris Barber Media, which is currently in a fairly awkward hybrid of Music, Lifestyle, Wedding and Model Portfolios....lol. So hopefully the launch of Shoot It Loud will help to seperate my varied portfolio. Also - I've had alot of people contact me after the gig requesting prints from the night. Most of the time this is of the band, however, I've had requests to purchase photos of themselves at a gig (I try and get a few shots of the crowd at each gig) so Shoot It Loud will take a similar stance to succesful nightlife photography website - Tilllate, with emphasis on photos of the crowd as well as the band playing.
Below is the current planned gigs for the next year or so. As I said, most of my work is done for other publications, but this work will still be uploaded to Shoot It Live.

Spinto Band
Last Shadow Puppets
Towers of London
Foals
the Courteeners
The Hoosiers
The Fillers
Weatus/Frontline
Katie Melua
McFly
Ida Maria
Pigeon Detectives
The Script
The Fratellis
Stereophonics
The Enemy
Jason Donavon
Boyzone (Yep..)
The Killers

All the above are scheduled to go ahead within the next year, some of which starting from this Friday, so keep your eyes peeled and if you see me at a show - give me a wave. I'm usually eating Smarties Cookies or something :)

Chris!

Everythings about to become easy...

Well atleast that's the plan. We've been working away to try and launch a totally different approach to our shoots which aim to support clients through each step of the shoot and help us appeal to more potential clients through Winter 2008.
We're hoping to launch this October 1st, but there's a million things that could go wrong so that's not an official date. Everythings gone abit quiet on the blogs as I haven't had any time to sit down and write this and I can't see it getting any better, our schedule is packed for a while now with shoots or other hard graft.
Worked on possibly the biggest team shoot ever the other day at the agency, the team included,
Photographer, 3 models, film crew, agency manager and assistant manager, make up, hair, location manager, assistant, and a few "extras" models to assist the main models. It was a crazy day but we seemed to manage and the location was fantastic. We even got a bit lucky and we were allowed to shoot in a sweet shop. Although - it could have been better if I knew we were going in there as the lighting sucked, but still - great shots all the same.
Anyway, I've started using "Twitter" which is far easier than writing lengthy blogs every time something happens, feel free to take a look - www.twitter.com/chrisbarbermedi (Yes, without the "a")(?) It's alot easier for me as I don't always have access to the internet when im out on a shoot but I can still update it from my phone so keep an eye out there.
Look forward to unvieling our new system very soon!

Chris

Artfest Incident

Just a quick update following my promise to contact The Levellers concerning the way I was spoke to whilst photographic their gig on Sunday. It seems alot of you are interested in what the heck is happening/happened.
I've been in touch with a few of the photographers who happened to be nearby at the time and helped me to understand the situation far better than I did at first.
Just to briefly overview what happened, I was taking pictures on stage left when one of the technical crew chose to start shouting all sorts of obscenities at me (I couldn't understand a most of what he said, just the odd word. His gestures and the odd words I heard suggested that he wasn't in the best of moods).
So I speak to a few of the other guys who were around the time, and (although I'm unsure how) I seem to think I may have stood infront of him whilst he was pressing buttons and twiddling his knobs and what not.
It all happened VERY quickly - we're talking in a 10 second time frame. I remember him waving his arms around and some freaky veins popping out his throat the moment I turned around. I immediately reacted to what I believed to be "Can you please just step aside" (Add unessential expletives) and continued shooting with another photographer towards the front end of the stage, about three metres from the techi's "cove".
So following this, and the opinions from other photographers who saw what happened, I understand that I was in the way of the techi (in some shape or form), so therefore, I raise my hands and apologize for that (just like I said and did at the gig when he rudely waved and whistled me away).
However, this was in no way reason for him to act and speak to me the way he did, the sheer unprofessional-ism and almost laughable approach to those who publicize and review everything he and the band work for.
This unprofessional-ism was not denied when I later wrote to The Levellers record label, OFT Recordings, who replied,

"Hi Chris,

Sorry to hear about this. Usually, we hear only positive things about the crew.

I have passed on your message to the tour manager and agent."

As much I really just wanna let this go now, I look forward to their response.

Artsfest 08 Rant...

I found myself at the mainstage photo pit at Artsfest this Sunday, looking forward to an evening of live music entertainment. This is by no means a review or overview of the event but instead a few thoughts based on last night.
I'd like to start by saying a massive thank you to the great crowd who were all very up for it and most of the bands who put on a great show.
However, why on earth was half the crowd in the photo pit? Whoever was in charge of designating photo passes on Sunday has alot to answer for. The pit was filled with people who really shouldn't have been there, making my job (and other photographers who were working for local press) extremely difficult.
I constantly found myself having to work around 15 year olds holding their mobile phones in the way of each shot. Most "photographers" I spoke to were not there on behalf of a magazine or press. For this I blame a Flickr group that sent in atleast 20 "photographers" to shoot the event, with no intention of the photos being used for press. Surely, the pit could and should have been reserved for photographers whos photos will be used commercially to promote the event. At times, I was tempted to just leave the pit and shoot from the crowd as I would have had more room to move.
The proof is in the pudding - I walked straight up to security and asked where and if I can get a photo pass, within 5 minutes I had full access backstage to the whole event with no evidence of working for local press, hence why there was SO many amateur photographers in the pit, and, even worse... people who just got in there to watch! I saw one girl just leaning up against the stage with no sense or purpose. I spoke to a handful of the headlining bands after their sets, and every band seemed frustrated and frankly pissed off with the sheer amount of photographers. I quote one band saying "It's like being at a f***ing Canon convention" - I'm sorry but in future, please allow the photographers who ARE there to shoot for local press and magazines to be prioritised over amateur photographers.
Second part of this rant is to The Levellers, or more so - your ignorant and rude technical crew on stage. Throughout the day, the photographers had been allowed on stage to shoot the band. This obviously goes back to my previous rant about photographers access and who security and admin had been allowing into the photo pit. During The Levellers set, I, along with every other photographer that night, spent two minutes getting a few shots from behind the band looking over the crowd. I was stood on the very far left hand side of the stage, far away from any action and creating absolutely no disturbance to The Levellers performance, when I was greeted by the grunting technical total twat who introduced himself with "OI F***ING S**T, F*** OFF". Hit by the sheer rudeness, I moved straight of his way and continued to shoot, along with two other photographers who were on stage at the time (Nothing was said to them). Out of his way, he then whistled and told me to leave the stage. I'd like to add that I was IN NO WAY disrupting or disturbing him or The Levellers from their performance and I was a good 3 metres from him when this happened. As a polite, respectful person, I left the stage at his command and even apologised for any inconvenience. At this point he shrugged me away and threw his hand in a "Just leave" gesture.
Never have I had to put up with such total rudeness from someone who was clearly just having a bad night. 20 minutes later I was back down at the pit and I could still see him shaking his head in disapproval of something else.
So, thanks to you, The Levellers set was totally hindered. In future, I'd like you to remember that some of the photographers that night were there to review you and actually publicise and promote the band you work for. Thankfully, The Levellers put on an entertaining show, as I said, this isn't a review, just an opinion on a poorly operated (from a press point of view) and ignorant technical crew that work with the Levellers.
I look forward to reviewing this, I'll make sure the technical crew get a copy.

Fool.

Shooting The Prime Minister.

My day was totally turned upside down yesterday. I was scheduled for a portfolio shoot at 10:30am at the agency. I was almost there and in the space of 10 minutes my commute went from boring to super exciting as I found myself face to face with Gordon Brown.
10 minutes is a total exaggeration, I waited amongst the other paps for over an hour or so before the PM arrived. I got a great spot after fighting my way through the other photographers. There was atleast twice the amount of armed police as there was people who came to see what was happening, even the press didn't seem to excited when the PM arrived. I always thought it was a joke when they say that security talk into there watches, but it appears to be true...

Prior to his arrival, I got a few shots of the ICC, and just spent some time zoomed in and scanning around the building when I noticed two guys standing on the roof looking straight at me with a telescope....and a sniper (Y) - At that point I thought I should just start minding my own business lol. So after getting in the way of Jacqui Smith (Home Secretary) and throwing my lens in other politicians faces, Gordon Brown arrived, about 2 hours of waiting came down to about 6 seconds of him leaving the car and going inside. Enjoyed every second of it though, was good fun.

Rain...

Can I just say...

The floods and closed roads out of my town are not putting me in good spirits for tomorrows calendar shoots.

Lets all put our faith in miracles. Again.

Home from Wales

Wales is an amazing place filled with rolling hills for miles, breath-taking waterfalls and sheep. I was lucky enough to take a break from work to go and spend this week there with my partner and her mum and dad.
The first night saw an amazing sunset which was a short walk from our caravan (down a huge hill ofcourse). As soon as we unpacked, we were down there making the most of any sunshine as Wales is not famous for it's Mediterranean climate and never will be.
I took a few cheesey shots of Dani and a few of her parents for the wall. For the first time in ages, I've been able to almost disconnect myself from work and relax abit, even whilst receiving texts from the occasional person "I WANT TO BOOK A SHOOT" (repeat x1090827) - all of which have been ignored untill I have just sat down at my desk.
We woke up on the first day and took a walk to nearby town, New Quay, not NewQuay.

This place is your typical sea side town with a lovely little harbour, colourful houses and lots of seaside souvenir/food shops, oh and ofcourse, atleast a 100 chip shops. But! Anyone who knows me will know I'm quite proud of where I've grown up etc and the entire chip shop gave me the funniest look when I started pointing at the salt and vinegar bottles, getting all excited like a child that can't hold their bladder. "Dani Dani Dani!!!" I shouted whilst trying to speak to her with a hot chip and a fork in my mouth. I noticed that "Halesowen" (my home town) is actually a supplier and manaufacturer of the Salt and vinegar bottles you get in Chip Shops! Seeing "Halesowen" on anything in such a little town in Wales was great, I shared the story with the guy that served us but he just gave a pittyful smile and carried on serving the freaked out customers next to us. I even took a photo (You can't see it's halesowen - you'll just have to believe me on that one)
On an unrelated note.. here's my special lady doing her impression of a shark. I was impressed.
Second full day, the rain started, only a drizzle, so we took a journey up the single most windiest, single laned, most narrow road in Wales and possible the world. It's bad news when your going up a road with decent size plants growing out of the middle of it. Well done SatNav.
Anyway we ended up at a Honey Farm, which was nice because we got to look at lots of bees...and stuff like that. I make it sound dead naff, but it was dead interesting and fairly busy considering it was set in the middle of nowhere. As the day went by, the weather got worse as we parked up at some town (I couldn't spell or pronounce the name - It was something like.... Abrywlvn haha no it wasn't really, I just know it started with "Ab" like every Welsh town).
We got out the car and walked to the end of the road, we both got soaked within 5 minutes of leaving the car and decided it was probably best to retreat to the caravan.
After pestering Dani like a child I got my own way and we went to the amusements. Where I spent my years wages on fruit machines (winning nothing) and 20p on a grabber machine (Which I won a strange duck/teddy thing for Dani. It wears sunglasses and looks like a spy?) I think that evening we also went "Crabbing" which actually invovles catching shrimp?? Eitherway, I filled the bucket with lots of crabs which sort of attacked the few shrimp Dani caught, but they were all eventually set free in a merry little rock pool near the sea :)
On the last day (I've totally got all these days mixed up so far I think, oops lol), we took a drive to a town I virtually grew up with as a child, with regular family holidays to Tenby atleast 3 -4 times a year, you'd think I'd be sick of the place. But no - I dragged Dani along (for the second time) as we drove about an hour and a half in the rain to go and have a walk round the town. As soon as we stepped into the town - the sun came out! However, the town seemed alot bigger when I was little and it didnt really take us too long to get round there, as lovely as the place is, it hasn't changed much, but that still gave us a good excuse to buy some chips and sit by the sea. If you've never been to Tenby - go there - it's a nice little place.