Assignment 5 Tutor Feedback

I'm not quite sure why I cant copy the feedback text like I normally do but for whatever reason, my computer wont let me so I had to improvise.

I am thrilled with this feedback and will address some of the points made by my tutor within this feedback now that the main body of work is over.

I am delighted that my tutor felt this assignment is a good end to this module. I will admit, it has been difficult along the way but I do feel that I have progressed since last years other level 2 module. The last module was particularly difficult for me and I appeared to struggle with the jump from level 1 to level 2. Thankfully, my tutors for both level 2 modules have been fantastic in helping me along the way and offering me guidance to help me to progress through the course.

My tutor offered a lot of considerations regarding working as a music photographer in the future. But as much as I love music photography and this is definitely the genre I would work within, should I plan a career in photography, I don't have any plans to start a career yet. I have a young family and so its not something that I am thinking about anytime in the near future.
My tutor said that I didn't mention money in my submission notes. But this is a subject that I covered extensively in the previous exercise Develop a publishing plan and I didn't feel I needed to readdress this in my assignment submission. As stated in that exercise, most of the independent music websites are exactly what my tutor later goes on to suggest that I do; a blog or website set up by someone who loves music and wants to review gigs and cds and tell music news to other music lovers. But running a blog and covering all the gigs, music releases and news is difficult and possibly too much for a single person, so therefore they 'intern' or advertise for other people to help (or contribute) but obviously they don't make any money from it, so they cant pay their contributors but instead can get the free cds or free gig access in return for them contributing their time, reviews and photos, etc, to their site. Unless you actually work for a recognised publication(s), it's unlikely you will get paid for doing this. The other aspect is that they will expect full exclusivity and most sites I have worked with, or researched, ask that the photos can only go online on their site for the first two weeks and even after that MUST have their 'tag' on it connecting them back to their website. So this is why money isn't brought into the equation at this time and wont be until I get to the level where I can work for a recognised, big name website/publication.
But as with the next pointer from my tutor, the main fact is getting my name out there and I am always working at doing that when I produce photos of gigs. One of the bands in this submission extensively shared my photos from this gig and each one had my name watermarked on it so I had a lot of feedback from other fans and band members. This is something that I fully intend on continuing through social media such as Facebook and Instagram.
This brought my tutor to the fact that I had submitted prints to him for this assignment. My main reason for doing this is purely because the notes tell us to. When we first get our introductory email from our tutor, we are asked to send prints for each assignment from assignment 2 onwards, so I felt I needed to send them to him for this reason. But also, as I had submitted prints as a magazine mock up for assignment 3, I did want to show prints to show progression, had these photos been printed in a publication as opposed to in online format. I feel that there was definite progression and my tutor agreed that they were fine pictorially and technically so I took that as a successful choice. But I do not intend to submit prints for the final assessment of this assignment. I agree with my tutor when he says they are unnecessary. As I submit for assessment online, and with the changes made to the criteria for submitting digitally for assessment, I would much prefer the assessors to use the links to the websites as a submission because that was the brief of the assignment, to be used in an online publication, so I feel it important for them to see the images in the format they were intended.

Then my feedback goes on to explore more about social media and to be honest, these photos were shared on my Facebook account the following day from the gig so that is something that I do and I always share to the band pages too to try to get my name noticed. However, as I have already stated in the previously noted exercise and above, if you do officially contribute to an online website, you are not allowed to put them anywhere online until they have been on their site for at least two weeks, so it really depends on whether I continue to establish myself as me or whether I get experience working with a website. Either way, my name is getting out there in some shape or form.
I do follow a lot of people who do this for a living. Some are established and work for bands and established publications, others work for independent sites. Most of them are photographers I have mentioned within this learning log.  But starting my own music blog is something that I really don't have the time to do right about now. And not something that I want to do at this moment in time either. We have to remember that photography is just a hobby for me at the moment and I'm not sure I ever would pursue this type of career. But if I was to, then this is definitely the route I would go down.

The feedback then goes on to discuss a short video slideshow that I had attached to my tutors email. It was the first one I had ever attempted and so I am happy for the feedback, should I ever use one again.

There is no further assignment so I got a bit confused as to what I was meant to have completed by mid November but I have taken it to mean to get my blog and printed submissions ready and finalised. I have sent my tutor an email outlining my concerns and so I hope to hear back from him soon.

ASSIGNMENT 5: COVERING AN EVENT

Brief
The brief of this assignment was to plan and photograph an event, to produce a varied portfolio of images of a standard that could be published by an online music website.

The Event
I have selected to photograph the music event of American band Combichrist, with support from Protafield and Controlled Collapse, at the Bristol date of their August 2015 UK tour at The Fleece.

Undertaking the photography

The gig was to take place on a Wednesday evening at popular venue, The Fleece, in the centre of Bristol. The gig was one of only three UK dates on the tour and I was expecting it to be busy. My main pointers to focus on before arriving at the venue were to remember the variety of shots that I was hoping to get on my provisional shot list and to attempt to keep the shots as clear as possible, despite the difficult factors of the venue layout as well as the difficulties with low lighting and possible crowding of fans near the stage. My main priorities were to capture as many clear and diverse photographs of the bands as possible without too much interference and, if possible, try to capture the overall atmosphere of the gig with regards to the music and the audience.

After a delayed start, the photography went rather smoothly, following a few initial technical problems. The first band to take the stage were Polish band Controlled Collapse, followed by Welsh band Protafield and then American headliners Combichrist. I maintained a central position in front of the stage, not directly at the front but as close as my 50mm static lens would allow me. Movement was impossible due to the amount of people in the venue but I found that the front men did enough moving about around the stage to allow for the diverse shots I was hoping for. Unfortunately, the lens and the lighting snuffed out any shots I hoped for of the crowd but with the thought in mind that these photographs would hopefully be published onto an independent music website, the main focus was to photograph the bands themselves. However, I did venture to the back of the room once I was confident I had taken a sufficient amount of close up shots, to take a number of photographs of the stage from the back, attempting to capture some of the audience reactions to the band while they were on stage.

It was important for me to get the images processed and ready for distribution as early as possible following the gig, to make them more desirable to those websites who had no one covering that event and who would be interested in publishing them for the fans who hadn't made it to one of the three shows. I did most of the work the following day. I started by uploading all 484 photos that I had taken into one folder and then separating the different bands into separate folders. I added the initial metadata and then captioned the photos in each of the bands folders.

First selection

After sorting through my images and rejecting the images that were out of focus, had too much motion blurring, were blown out with light or far too dark, I was left with a comfortable 87 photos. I processed my favourite ones as my first selects then picked out a further selection of second selects. My main focus through the process of planning and executing the photography for this assignment was to aim to have the photos published on an independent music website so I had to make sure that the selected images would be suitable and clear enough for that purpose. The images I chose were all processed to be clear and sharp enough yet still representative of the event itself. 

Kuba Sawicki of Controlled Collapse

Wojciech Król of Controlled Collapse

Wojciech Król fo Controlled Collapse

Marek Smolski of Controlled Collapse

Paulina Lewek of Controlled Collapse

Jayce Lewis of Protafield

Jack Slade of Protafield

Jayce Lewis of Protafield

Nikki Trash of Protafield

Martin Thompson of Protafield

Jayce Lewis of Protafield

 Andy LaPlegua of Combichrist

Brent Ashley of Combichrist

Joe Letz of Combichrist

Brent Ashley of Combichrist

Andy LaPlegua of Combichrist

Eric13 of Combichrist

Andy LaPlegua of Combichrist

Second selection
Here are the second selection of images which I will also be emailing to the online independent music websites, should they require them.

Paulina Lewek of Controlled Collapse

Wojciech Król of Controlled Collapse

Jayce Lewis of Protafield

Martin Thompson of Protafield

Jayce Lewis of Protafield

Nikki Trash of Protafield

Nikki Trash of Protafield

Nikki Trash of Protafield

Jayce Lewis of Protafield

Martin Thompson of Protafield

Andy LaPlegua of Combichrist

Andy LaPlegua of Combichrist

Brent Ashley of Combichrist

Brent Ashley of Combichrist

Eric13 of Combichrist

Eric13 of Combichrist

Brent Ashley of Combichrist

Joe Letz of Combichrist

Combichrist - Final song

Publishing Images
I managed to have the images ready to email to possible online publications by the following day and decided to work down my list of rock and metal music websites from my planning stages. I selected six images I felt were good enough to attach to the email for the sites to get an idea of the style of my images. I didn't want to email all the sites at once incase, best case scenario, more than one replied wanting to use them and then I would have to let down all but one. But in the end this is pretty much what I had to do because as the days went by, I was worried that I would have to wait too long for each to reply and then it would've been months later that my images were published and sites would've been less likely to use them. I emailed the first site on August 13th and had a reply the following day declining on the grounds that it wasn't really the type of band they would cover, even though they had before.
So I emailed the next two sites the same day. And heard nothing in return. The next day I emailed another two sites, then another two the day after that and so on until I had emailed them all. Three sites out of them all, not including the first I have mentioned, replied saying they would publish them if I could write a review of the gig too. I wasn't happy to do that and by this point the gig was a few weeks gone so I couldn't remember a lot about it to be able to, so they were a no. But then Indulge-Sound replied and said that they were happy to publish them on their site, as they were, without a review. The email from them asked me to send the high resolution photographs over so I sent the first and second selects plus a couple more and they picked the ones they wanted to use. The images were online two days later.

You can find my images at Indulge-Sound.com at the following links;

Controlled Collapse photos can be found at: http://indulge-sound.com/2015/09/07/photos-controlled-collapse-the-fleece-bristol-12th-august-2015/

Protafield photos can be found at: http://indulge-sound.com/2015/09/07/photos-protafield-the-fleece-bristol-12th-august-2015/

Combichrist photos can be found at:  http://indulge-sound.com/2015/09/07/photos-combichrist-the-fleece-bristol-12th-august-2015/

Conclusion

I am pleased with how smoothly this assignment went, despite the earlier panic about not having an upcoming gig to photograph. I think that my earlier experience of shooting events for publishing on online music publications has really helped me with this assignment as I know the kind of images I was hoping to get that wold hopefully be desirable to these kind of sites. The final images have met the brief, as they have actually been published online and I am truly happy with the outcome.

However, there will always be my own slight criticisms towards my own work. The fact that I don't have to best equipment always plays on my mind and I feel it can come through in my images due to the need for high ISO settings and bright lenses. But then the equipment would be fine in a bigger venue with the space in front of stage, like when you're in the photo pit, as well as lots more light than you get in a smaller venue. So it really is a catch 22 situation.

Working to the tight deadlines wasn't really an issue as I always like to upload and process my images as soon as I can anyway but it did get me thinking about professional photographers. I know at festivals they have press rooms for the photographers to go and upload their images throughout the day between bands to meet the magazine deadlines. I cant imagine that being an easy factor for them, but deadlines are something that most photographers, of all genres, have to deal with and so it's good to get the practice in now.

Exercise: Develop a publishing plan

Selling my photos is not something that I am comfortable doing at this stage and I'm not sure I ever will want to. It's not why I take photos, it's not why I started this photography degree and it's not something that I am comfortable doing.
By way of undertaking this exercise, I wanted to write down the general processes for photographers like me who want their images published on a music website in the rock and metal genre.

A few years ago, I interned as a photographer for a music website so I am familiar with the processes. At the time, I was in level 1 of this degree pathway and really wanted to get my gig photos seen. A lot of these independent music sites are always looking for contributors whether it be writing articles, reviewing bands or reviewing/photographing bands. I was lucky enough, after sending a small portfolio in, to be selected to intern for one.
Unfortunately, interning took up a lot of time that I already didn't have much of. Even though I was interning as a photographer, every intern was required to post news articles on a weekly basis, set to a certain template and I found I was doing more of this than actually photographing gigs. Eventually, due to this, I had to give it up, which was crushing to me but necessary at the time as I didn't feel like I was doing any photography.
But the word intern is key here. These independent sites don't have budgets or payrolls but they need people to contribute or "work" for them without paying them anything. The norm is that you contribute to the sites and in return they will arrange passes to get you free access to the gigs you are reviewing/photographing or give you loads of free CDs for you to review, normally before they are on sale.

So this is why I wont be selling my photographs but I will attempt to contact some websites following the gig to see if any are interested in publishing my photos. Most of the music sites I follow are still looking for contributors and so these might be the ones to contact first. But there is no harm in trying them all. They should all have an email to contact them or some even have contributor sections showing you who to contact and the email to do that. It would be unrealistic for me to contact more high profile music magazines as they have their own teams of paid photographers so it is better to search for independent sites who are looking for people to contribute.

Some of the sites I will try are:

• The Alt-Entertainer
• Planet Mosh
• RAMzine
• Indulge-Sound
• Get Your Rock Out
• Reflections of Darkness
• Hit The Floor/MOSH
• Bristol Live Magazine

Exercise: A written plan

Is it feasible?
My tutor has suggested that I cover a gig again as the event for this assignment. Considering my time frame between assignments, I really have to work to something local and without too much access difficulty. I need to cover a small event, but not unknown. As I said, from having my notes for the final assignment date to the deadline is only six weeks so my first point is to look for any bigger band gigs throughout August, possibly in the first few days of September.
The course notes state we should attempt to publish our results so ideally, I want a slightly bigger band that would be more desirable for music related websites to publish as the smaller local bands will have a significantly smaller fanbase.
Luckily, I have found a gig in Bristol, in a familiar venue, for a well known band called Combichrist, with support from bands Protafield and Controlled Collapse. So this is what I am aiming to cover for my event. Most higher profile bands will usually tour around October time so I am lucky to have found this gig and hopefully be able to gain access and cover it.

Permissions and access
I have photographed quite a few bands at this venue before. Each time I have emailed the venue beforehand and they have responded to confirm that DSLR cameras are allowed into the venue. In preparation for this event, with the band being slightly more well known, I once again emailed the venue, The Fleece, to ask if there would be any problems with me bringing along my DSLR camera to the gig. I had a response from the Fleece saying that I needed to contact the event promoter. They were also kind enough to CC in his email address for me.

email correspondence with The Fleece for event access

I then emailed the promoter, explaining who I was and what I was hoping to do and then asking if I could take my camera along. I had a reply granting me access with my DSLR camera so I now have to required permission to take my camera along and shoot the gig.

email correspondence with the event promoter for event access

Site Reconnaissance
The Fleece is a difficult venue to shoot in and I know this because I have photographed a few bands there on different occasions. The floor to ceiling pillars all around the venue cause problems viewing the stage depending on where you are stood. There is no photo pit so you have to take shots from the crowd, which is increasingly difficult with the pillars and if its overly crowded. If I were to stand directly at the front, I would be leaning on the stage and the artists would be directly above me as there in no space between the crowd and the stage. My best bet is to stand in the centre of the venue if possible, to get a head on view of the stage between the two most forefront pillars, and then, depending on how busy it is, move around to get side views as well. I really cant guess beforehand how busy it will be but as it's a more well known band within the music genre and they only have three UK gigs on this tour, I would assume it will be full. So this will limit movement around the venue but also limit my view of the stage. All I can do is aim for a spot where I can get the best overall view of the stage and judge the rest when I get in there.
I am also weary of the lighting inside these smaller venues and as with any gig, I cant foresee what kind of lighting set up they will use. I will check at the time for lighting sequences and am planning on taking my brightest lens, a f1.8 50mm, to cover myself as much as I can and try to get as many shots as I can, to give myself more choice when making my final selections.

Provisional shots
To be clear, I have only been granted access to take my camera to the event and I will have no backstage access or any access to sound checks to photograph any behind the scenes shots at all. All my shots will be of the actual show itself.
I do have a few shots that I know I need to get to make them more desirable to publishers.

• Photos of each individual bands performances, not just the headliner
• diverse shots of each front man of each band
• close up shots of faces. any distinctive face wear or make up?
• possibly shots of the band members interacting with the crowd, if at all
• shots of all other bands members 
• crowd reaction shots /overall atmosphere of the gig

All the above shots need to be captured in as much variety as possible to capture different expressions and poses. I need to be able to get images as clear as possible without movement blur. I am very aware that I don't have a selection of lenses to work with and I only have a basic entry level Canon 1000D but I need to work with what I have, as best I can. 

Exercise: Research and analyse web slideshows

To undertake this exercise, I initially looked at the sites listed in the course and then extended to a Google search on magazine sites with slideshows. The sites with the better slideshows on, that I looked at, are listed as references below.

All the sites that I looked at had manual slideshows as opposed to having them run automatically.

Essentially, I found that the different sites all presented their slideshows in the same way. They mostly have one larger image with arrows to navigate between photographs. These arrows can be placed in various positions on the page; either side of the main image, above/underneath the image or even off the the right side of the page away from the image. Each site offers a small caption under each picture explaining the details of who or where the photo was taken and when, along with the photo credit to the photographer.

The slideshows are all similar in that they feature one large image per page, however each site has a different format for the remaining collection of photos. Some don't show them at all, so the viewer sees the photos in a set sequence, then the viewer purely focuses on the image and doesn't know what image will come next. Most slideshows will at least show a counter of what number the photo is over how many there are in the collection. Another site had the image and it's caption, but above the image was a line of selectable numbers, which corresponded to the other photos in the collection, which highlighted the number of the photo that you were on but also allowed you to hover over the numbers. This then flashed up a thumbnail size image of the image corresponding to that number. Lastly, foodandwine.com  had a similar set up to the example above except instead of numbers, they had the rest of the images in the collection lined up under the larger image. This then allowed you to select which image you wanted and highlighted the photo of the page you were on.

In each of these examples, some slideshows offered more choice to the viewer than others. Uk.reuters.com had the larger image with just the navigational arrows and this offered the least choice to the viewer. Similarly, the slideshows at nytimes.com and news.nationalgeographic.com had the same set up with a slightly different page layout but yet, I had to view each image in the order the designer set them out so that they were in a sequence. But I found this allowed me to be more focused on each image without being distracted to choose different ones. Telegraph.co.uk had the numbers above the photo gives the viewer the option to not only see the thumbnail version of each image without navigating through them all, but you can also select each photo, so it gives the viewer the choice to just load up the pages/photos that they want to view. This is the same as the foodandwine.com site with each image shown underneath.

I think viewer choice is a good thing depending on what the slideshow is representing. On foodandwine.com, each slideshow was showing a different group of foods/drinks. I chose the salsa slideshow, showing a number of different salsas, one recipe per page. In this respect, the viewer was able to look at the thumbnail versions to the one they found they liked the look of the most and then they can click on to load the one they want the recipe for or just look through them all to choose the nicest one. The same choice is offered on telegraph.co.uk. The viewer can choose which images they want to load, although I don't see how it is really necessary in the instance of showing the week in photos, unless of course there is content that some may find disturbing and viewer discretion has been advised.

If a photographer has a specific sequence they want the images to be seen in or, as on nytimes.com, the images were of an event, then I don't think that viewer choice is necessary here and therefore a slideshow as on uk.reuters.com, nytimes.com and news.nationalgeographic.com, with a larger image with/without navigational arrows (depending on whether the site wants an auto or manual navigation, is sufficient.

One failing that I encountered were adverts. Most of my example sites had a slightly smaller image with room for a small, square-shaped advert on the the side, above/below the navigational arrows. The advert was obviously there but not too distracting, although it would be better without it with a full page image instead. Uk.reuters.com has that. Nice full page image to focus on. But to fit the adverts in, it actually includes them into the slideshow, so that every 6th photo is an advert that you have to wait 4 seconds to skip it. This is very distracting and off-putting to the viewer.

If I was conducting a slideshow for one of these sites I would choose to include what most have done. A larger photograph with the caption and navigational buttons off to the side, with space underneath for a small advert, without it being too distracting and without it having to be included in the slideshow itself. I also would not include the option for viewers to view the smaller versions of the remaining photos. I would keep them in a set sequence that the viewer had to navigate through so that they saw each photo individually and couldn't skip through any.

Saying that, I do think that the slideshow on foodandwine.com was very effective as it was the only site with this exact feature to be able to see all the images without hovering over the numbers etc, and it works very well for this type of content. The others were all so similar. I really liked the full page layout on uk.reuters.com but the mid slideshow adverts let it down. I would say that I think the news.nationalgeographic.com and the nytimes.com slideshows were the best ones.


References:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/theweekinpictures/11858449/The-week-in-pictures-September-11-2015.html?frame=3436855

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2015/09/12/t-magazine/scenes-from-givenchys-raucous-afterparty/s/12tmag-altgivenchy-slide-XWUL.html

http://www.foodandwine.com/slideshows/salsa/

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/09/150911-september-11-pictures-gallery-rememberance/#/01sept11gallery.ngsversion.1441978939877.jpg

http://uk.reuters.com/news/picture/photos-of-the-week?articleId=UKRTSIOT

Exercise: Analyse an essay on photography

The exercise is to analyse the essay The Vertigo of Displacement by David A.Bailey and Stuart Hall.
We all know by now that I seriously have trouble reading these texts so it took a few reads to be able to acknowledge anything other than fancy words and complicated sentences. But I tried my best and made notes to attempt to get some kind of answer down.

The central argument of this essay is the development of black photography and how there is now no need for representation of an identity for black photographers.

The discussion is set within a larger socio/political framework but there doesn't seem to be a lot of information given to justify this. The text explains a lot about the struggles of the black photographers and their acceptance and mentions many movements and campaigns, however I didn't see much evidence of it being set within a larger socio/political framework as it constantly refers to black photographers in Britain.

The argument refers back to the 1980's a lot throughout and consistently refers to Britain. We see a discussion about the GLC (Greater London Council) as well as discussing English Society and Englishness and being black and British. I think that if the argument was meant to be set within a larger socio/political framework then a wider view all round could've been addressed, for the socio/political side but also incorporating related movements in other countries.

Do I think that photographers of black subjects should be black themselves? No. Not at all. I don't think the colour or gender or race of a photographer will have any impact on the subject they are photographing at all. Any photographer, whether white or black, would have their own outlook on the subject and each different photographer would have a different perspective. But with racism still such a huge issue in today's society, I don't think that this segregation would benefit at all.

Amy Barwell

Amy Barwell is a world renowned music photographer whose work I have come across on a few occasions. Her portraiture work is particularly remarkable, really capturing the character and persona of her subjects. Similarly, her music photography also captures the subjects just as beautifully, really seeing their characters while they are performing.
A large proportion of her work is black and white, with the odd exception (looking at her website) and also very high contrast. I think that this adds a lot of definition to her work, making it a lot more dynamic and distinctive.
I love how her music photography shows her subjects more like on stage portraits and her work is definitely something to be admired.
Barwell definitely has her own style and is very comfortable with her workspace. This can only inspire me to find my own style and to work comfortably within it to create such striking work. I'm not normally a fan of high contrast portraiture but you cannot deny that Barwell has an incredible talent and judging by the number of celebrity subjects she has photographed, I am not the only one who thinks so.

You can see Amy Barwell's work at her website http://www.musicphotographer.co.uk/music/

Emma Louise

Emma Louise Webb is a UK based photographer who primarily undertakes live photography. Webb is actually a friend of mine who I met through social media and I have been following her photography for a while. Webb's photography is much like my own. She likes to photograph the artists while performing, capturing the on stage persona of each artist and the energy they put into their performances.

Butcher Babies ©Emma Louise *

Webb is also a writer/photographer for Indulge-Sound, a music website specialising in coverage of bands.
I love how Webb's work is so natural. She photographs what she sees and is so much like me in this respect. She photographs the gigs because she loves to do it and thats where a lot of my inspiration for Webb comes from. Her images are always so vibrant and full of devotion from the artist she is photographing as well as from her photographers perspective. Webb is a great photographer who I'm sure will be photographing gigs for years to come.

See more of Emma Louise's work at her website http://www.emmalouisephotography.co.uk/ or on her Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/emzlouisephotography

*image courtesy of Emma Louise Webb

Ochi

Ochi is Bristol based photographer Ollie Coghill. I originally met Coghill while he was drumming in a band and have followed his photography ever since. Coghill's website boasts a range of photography genre's from street photography to live photography to fashion photography, emphasising Coghill's photographical diversity.

In regards to Coghill's live photography, he is able to grasp the genre of the music and the energy and atmosphere of the gig so perfectly in his images. When looking at his work, I almost feel like I can 'feel the sweat' as the intensity of the performances are so clear.

Hundreth ©Ochi uk*

I would describe some of the gigs that Coghill has covered as 'brutal' as you can sense that the music is loud and the bands performances are aggressive and passionate, making for a powerful atmosphere overall. He is always able to photograph the 'hardness' of the gig so well and he not only shows the passion of the performance from the artists but also the passion of the crowd as well. Coghill is always right in the brunt of the action, documenting the interaction between the artists and their fans and one can only commend his commitment.

Even with the other genres that Coghill undertakes, you can see he works hard and puts all he has into his work. Even on his personal social media sites, he always appears to have a camera with him, wherever or whatever he is doing and that emphasises that he truly loves what he does.

See more of Ochi's photography at his website http://www.ochiuk.co.uk/#/ or on his Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/OchiUK/timeline

*image courtesy of Ollie Coghill / Ochi photo

Danielle Tunstall

Danielle Tunstall is another photographer that I have found through social media. Tunstall's work is primarily portraiture, but with a unique twist! Tunstall is a horror photographer. I assume her work is made through a number of factors including props as well as graphic design, creating some alternative and occasionally terrifying and gruesome images. Whatever the processes, her work is outstanding and distinctive.

©Danielle Tunstall Photography*

I am always in awe as to how Tunstall creates such masterpieces. Her style and technique really stands out. Her creativity in creating some of the images she does is outstanding. Her passion to devise these images is clear through her work as each piece looks as though it has taken hours to construct, and her attention to detail is inspiring.

Tunstall also creates a lots of star wars/stormtrooper pieces as well as lego based work. These are usually up for auction or to purchase on her website shop or Ebay UK page. Not all the work she produces are horror themed and I have actually purchased some of her work before.

You can see more of Danielle Tunstall's photography at her website http://www.danielletunstall.com/ or on her Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/danielletunstall/timeline

*image courtesy of Danielle Tunstall

Fiaz Farrelly

Looking through Farrelly's website, I am in awe of the amount of great photographs that Farrelly has taken. Yet, his talent is not confined to one specific genre. I initially followed Farrelly as I saw a lot of his music photography shots on social media and since following him, I have seen just how broad his photographical range is.
His website boasts documentary images, mostly in preparation of events or the artists before performances. Portraiture including musicians and band promotional shots. Street Photography, Live photography, landscape shots and even weddings! This guy can do it all. And he can do it well.

His live work is truly inspiring as he excels at capturing the artists passion and enthusiasm as well well as their on stage personas as well as being creative in the process.

John Tardy of Obituary at Bloodstock, 2014 ©Fiaz Farrelly * 

I also love how, throughout Farrelly's portfolio of images on his website, he has no preference to colour or black and white photography, he just uses whichever works for him. I love black and white photography and tend to use it more for documentary photography, much like Farrelly. I also prefer more candid and natural photography and this is something that Farrelly does well in his documentary work. I know Farrelly gets to undertake band tours and festivals and so has backstage access, as do a lot of photographers, but I love how he captures this style of photography too, showing the artists quietly backstage as a contrast to their energetic on stage personas. This is an area that I would love to be able to work within in the future and am inspired to not only engage more with the artists while they are performing and really capture their energy but also to work hard and put in as much passion into my own work as that of the people I am photographing.

For more information on the work of Fiaz Farrelly, you can visit his website at http://www.fiazfarrelly.com/cover

*image courtesy of Fiaz Farrelly

Callum Broom

As with many of the photographers whose work I love, I found the work of Melbourne based music photographer Callum Broom on his social media site, but only recently. Following his work on Instagram initially, I found a lot of his work was music based, but not restricted to rock music like other photographers I follow.
Broom photographs a lot of artist shots during their performances as well as artist and audience interaction shots, which (as I have said before) I really love.

Justin Timberlake ©Callum Broom Photography *

The shot above is so simple yet really captured the artist engaging with the crowd. A lot of Brooms images really grasp the energy of the show and the passion of the artist on stage through their movements and facial expressions.
As I have said, this is something I would truly love to be able to capture in such a standard as some of these photographers, especially interaction with the crowd. I think that as it is such a spur of the moment act, you have to be quick or very skilled to be able to capture it well, something that Broom has. This inspires me to be a little more patient with the shots that I take and really take in the atmosphere of the show the attempt to focus more on the show as a whole and not just the artists performing.

I have also seen Broom post the occasional landscape shot or shots of himself at various locations and it is really lovely to see. They not only announce to his followers that he is at the remarkable sites but also that he wants to share the experience with his us. I see them, much like with Joo's landscape shots, as an artistic postcard.

To see more of Callum Broom's work, you can visit his webite at http://www.chasinglight.com.au or on his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/CallumBroomPhotography

*image courtesy of Callum Broom

Johnny Joo

I absolutely love the work of American photographer Johnny Joo. Living in South Wales, we have an abundance of castle ruins in my local area and I like nothing better than wandering around, taking in the history and photographing them.

I stumbled across the work of Joo on Facebook and was immediately drawn to his images. Joo primarily photographs abandoned and decaying buildings being reclaimed by nature but he also posts a lot of landscape images too, which he captures on his urban exploration adventures. I actually gained permission and used one of Joo's images as inspiration for an assignment on my Photography 2: Landscape course last year. You can find that assignment write up here.

I am fascinated by Joo's technique of photographing these locations and the buildings he encounters as I cant imagine it being an easy task, and one a lot of photographers would not attempt to get.

The abandoned Pontiac Siverdome ©Johnny Joo Photography *

Joo's images are always colourful which contrasts the fact that most of the subjects are crumbling and decaying and I love how Joo always focuses on the emptiness of his subjects while still capturing the essence of the original use of the structures.

Following Joo on Instagram and Facebook gives me daily inspiration. Not only from the fabulous photographs he regularly posts but also his passion for what he does. As I said, it cant be easy to capture such great images while navigating around structures that could collapse at any minute and, as with most urban explorers, while attempting to not get caught but without people like Joo, we would not have such exceptional images of these beautiful places.

Find out more about Johnny Joo on his website at http://architecturalafterlife.com/ or at his Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/JohnnyJooPhotography?fref=ts

*image courtesy of Johnny Joo

Mark Latham

Mark Latham is a photographer whose gig photography is amazing. Not only does Latham shoot tours but he also does plenty of gigs, festivals and also band promo shots which I've seen to be used in music magazines.

From following him on social media, one thing I can say about Latham is that he is always busy. But his photos never slip, they are always on point. His website is full of recent work and gig coverage with numerous bands at numerous locations. But his website also shows what a talented gig photographer he is.

Latham's work is always bright and bold, full of energy, much like the shows that he is photographing and this is where I really find inspiration from Latham. I love how he takes the time to not only photograph the crowd, but to also find a shot that emphasises the atmosphere of the gig and the enjoyment of the crowd themselves.

Trivium at Bloodstock 2015 ©Mark Latham Photography *

Latham captures the chemistry on stage amazingly, whether it be between the band members themselves or the artists interaction with the crowd but I also love how Latham will nearly always do shots from the back of the crowd towards the stage. This really captures the energy of the show from the crowds perspective and gives an insight into the atmosphere of the event in the venue, whether it be a large outdoor festival or a small intimate indoor gig.

I find inspiration from Latham from his ability to capture the entire ambience of the gig, through the artists, the interaction with the crowd and with the crowds reactions to the band themselves. I have tried to capture images from the back of the crowd, and it's not easy to get the kind of final image that Latham gets. But then I don't have the best equipment and lenses for it. I captured this image from a recent shoot from the back of the room.

Combichrist at Bristol - © AlCallow Photography

Nowhere near Latham's standard but it's something I will definitely continue to practice. I also would like to remember to try to capture shots of the crowd too but again, that depends on where you are stood to be able to shoot well.

For more information about Mark Latham and to see his work, you can visit his website http://www.marklatham.co.uk/ or his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MarkLathamPhotography

*image courtesy of Mark Latham