Elleni Toumpas

Def Leppard – BEC

Elleni Toumpas — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:30:07 +0000

At the moment I am playing catch up with some of the gigs and jobs I shot towards the end of last year. In probably one of only a handful of Brisbane Entertainment Centre shows for 2011, in October I shot Def Leppard for Everguide.
Heart played in the support role for the night.

Foster the People – The Tivoli

Elleni Toumpas — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:44:34 +0000

Last night I shot the 2012 Big Day Out sideshow of Foster the People at The Tivoli in Brisbane for both Rave magazine and Everguide.

Local band Last Dinosaurs supported on the night.

Alpine – The Zoo, Brisbane

Elleni Toumpas — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 05:23:24 +0000

Things have been quiet on the gig front for the past few months as the end of my 2011 saw me shooting a tonne of band portraits, corporate events and weddings. This hasn’t left much time for shooting live music. However my 2012 kicked off a little differently with my first shoot back for the work year covering Alpine at The Zoo. Alpine are a band I had heard small snippets from during the year, but had fallen heavily for during the summer break. Their live show was going to make or break my appreciation for the band as their sound on record works but on stage could easily fall apart with bad mixes or a lackluster ’shoe gazing’ performance. Luckily, the show was anything but lackluster with both Lou and Phoebe combining an amazing, sultry and energetic energy with almost perfect renditions of their loved and lesser known tracks.

Of course I am not a writer, so just take a look at some of the photos from the night. More photos after the jump…

Finders Keepers Brisbane @ Old Museum

Elleni Toumpas — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 23:46:36 +0000

On Sunday I covered the Brisbane Finders Keepers markets. After visiting these markets a few times, it was great to have the opportunity to be commissioned to cover them on an official capacity. Spending almost three hours visiting all the stores across the three rooms to photograph all the details, it is fair to say there is something for everyone at these markets. Proudly I walked out with spending less money then I earnt on the day!!! Much to my partner’s disappointment.

Halloween in Australia

Elleni Toumpas — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 05:37:56 +0000

Throwing Halloween parties are a bit of a tradition of mine. Since moving out of home I have thrown five parties, and each year I am impressed with the level people go to in dressing up. I’ve never really celebrated Halloween before moving out of home (not that many people in Australia do) but for me it is always fun to get crafty with my housemates, decorating the house and then getting a little boozey. A tradition I started a few years ago also was also setting up a mini-studio at home. This year I wanted to play with a ring-flash look, and after buying a few coloured paper rolls earlier in the year I thought it was time to crack out the red.

The light set up for the portraits were a three light set up. A softbox umbrella on a strobe camera left (45 degrees to subject…) as the main light, the Ray Flash adapter on camera (set between 1/4 – 1/1 depending on the size of the group and thus proximity of camera to subject) as fill, then a strobe behind the subject bare with a reflector dish pointed to the backdrop.

I also played with the ring flash on its own to shoot more ‘social’ type photos. I like the look of it but I am waiting to find an Orbis Ring Flash adapter for next weekend to test it out before deciding between buying one of the adapters.

The Bloodpoets – Rave magazine cover

Elleni Toumpas — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 23:22:31 +0000

This week one of my photos is on the cover of Rave magazine. This was a pretty crazy shoot with the band urgently needing a press session and potential cover shot done during a very hectic time for me. Our only option where the whole band and I were available was a night shoot midweek. To keep the costs down, the band also decided on not hirign a studio but chose to shoot with my paper roll at home instead. Usually I can shoot these types of shots in my living room/ home studio, but as we wanted to play with flicking paint the Mrs and the housemates banished me to the backyard. This shoot happened during winter. Needless to say the band were troopers standing in the backyard at 10pm with wet, cold paint and no jumpers. I think it was worth it.

Before the paint set up we shot some other options and this appears along with their interview inside.

The Jezabels @ The Tivoli

Elleni Toumpas — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 00:48:42 +0000

On Friday I shot The Jezabels in the first of their two shows at Brisbane’s The Tivoli for Everguide and Rave magazine. For the first song the band performed behind a black semi-opaque curtain with each band member back-lit projecting shadows for the duration of the song. Once the curtain dropped photographing lead singer Hayley Mary was an easy task as she strutted around the stage hitting her notes by holding interesting angular poses.

BigSound Photo Highlights

Elleni Toumpas — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 23:34:46 +0000

So last week I was asked by Stephen Booth (along with fellow photographer Kristen Ashton) to help cover the BigSound conference for Q Music. It was an long, gruelling three days shooting the conferences, delegate lunches, VIP parties and then the all important live music showcases across 8 venues. Not only was I covering the event for BigSound, I was also asked to cover bands and supply photos for Mess and Noise, Everguide and Rave magazine.

The conferences took place at the Judith Wright Centre where delegates either chose to listen in to talks or meet up with other possible industry partners in meeting rooms or in the Judith Wright foyer.

Popping out for lunch down to the Tempo, the BigSound delegates were provided with more opportunity to chat and make connections.

The Valley was transformed during BigSound with shops coming on board to host small performances in their shop front. Kate Martin put on a chilling performance to a small crowd in Drobe on Ann St.

After 5PM the delegates were let loose onto the streets to a nightful of VIP parties, free booze and then music showcases.

Virgin Mobile, Warner, Gold Coast Music Industry and OzTix were part of a few key companies to host VIP nights over the two nights.

Once 8PM rolled around the all important showcases packed out 8 venues across the Valley. Highlights include Ric’s packed to the rafters to watch Oscar and Martin, an always entertaining and energetic set by both DZ Deathrays and the medics plus the chance for me to take in a whole set by my new favourite local act (and recently signed Dew Process act) Mosman Alder.

Living End @ The Tivoli

Elleni Toumpas — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 22:59:31 +0000

On Thursday The Living End kicked off their “The Ending is just the Beginning Repeating” tour in Brisbane. Even though close to everyone has seen these guys play at nearly every festival in the past, their first headline tour in 2 years was met with much excitement with many cities adding two shows to meet demand.

The Living End was supported by Hunting Grounds and King Cannons (who I unfortunately missed). More photos in the gallery below.

Inland Sea

Elleni Toumpas — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 01:00:00 +0000

In July local band Inland Sea and I hung out for half a day to shoot some new press shots for them. A shoot 6 months in the making (trying to find a common availability for 10 people in a band is a nightmare) we managed to shoot them before they headed out to play at the Red Deer fest. The first shot is probably my most favourite portrait all year so far. A concept that I came up with from the initial chat we had in December, there was a lot of pressure to pull it off. After a few frames a big juicy spider crawled up Steele’s shirt but even with those few frames we managed to nail the above pic.

Shooting 10 band members in a creative way was a bit of a challenge. As an experiment I also played with splicing the bands faces into a little black and white piece below.