Things have been a little busy in the past year. I have moved to Melbourne and also have spent most of my time shooting weddings. In amongst all that I have also been shooting the odd portrait which I will finally have a chance to blog now. One of my first Melbourne based editorial shoots was for Treadlie magazine, a magazine I regularly shot for while still n Brisbane. This shoot was hilarious! The subject was Sarah Ward and her alter-ego Yana Alana. In her days with travelling Circus Oz the whole team relied on their bicycles to get around and explore once they had reach each destination and thus Sarah (and Yana) had been asked to be featured in this issue of Treadlie. My job with this shoot was easy. As soon as my lens came up Yana came to life. As is the case with many editorial shoots, my favourite shots did not make the magazine so I thought I would blog them here.

Thanks also goes to Don from the Westgate Punt Ferry (a service transport bicycle riders across the river) for allowing us to shoot after the last patron had been dropped off.

You can listen to some of Big Freedia’s stuff through her website

Listen to Zanzibar-Chanel’s tracks here

For some this was a good excuse to don man-tights and singlets without being ridiculed (too much) by friends. At any other event I would never see one man high five another in celebration of the tightness of his pants. But at a Steel Panther show I guess this is ok.  Sydney band The Art (formerly The Follow) supported Steel Panther tonight.

BigSound hit Brisbane for its 11th consecutive year and this year it continued to attract an increasing number of international and national music industry delegates. With the Judith Wright Centre filled to the brim with delegate passes hitting capacity for the venue, the one question on most people’s minds were how would BigSound shape up next year, with 2013 definitely seeing the event grow too large for its current home. Long days of shooting BigSound were kicked off firstly by the conferences and namely Steve Earle’s keynote session at 10am on Wednesday. In the evening a selection of VIP parties prepared us for the night of ‘venue hopping’ to catch as many of the 120 acts taking stage as part of  BigSound Live.

BigSound highlights: the ‘spirit’ of BigSound that pumps through the Valley through the 3 days, surviving the 14 hour days spent almost entirely on my feet/ running across the valley visiting different venues, getting access to a one on one portrait session with Steve Earle, discovering Eden Mulholland and catching Violent Soho again, Kirin J Callinan’s Outpost instore set

BigSound lowlights: being ‘on the job’ so being unable to participate in the consumption of free alcohol (obviously the only reason the music industry comes together so willingly), Kirin J Callinan’s Outpost instore set almost being shutdown due to noise complaints at 6:30pm….yes 6:30pm!! and once finally knocking off from official duties the 30 minute wait in line and then a further 40 minute wait at the bar to get even one drink at the official BigSound afterparty.

BigSound questionable moments: Listening to a story that involved a certain Sony staff member bribing Brashs staff “back in the day” in order to “dodge the numbers” to give Simply Red and Melissa Etheridge chart success.

Steve Earle’s keynote address (above) and many delegates having to watch from the live feeds in the foyer (below) and the second viewing room upstairs.

Ben Lee’s keynote address wrapped up the conference on the last day. He played a new track for the audience, an ‘experimental’ piece as an ode to a hallucinogenic drug that induces the feeling of ‘pre-death’ and rebirth.

Dallas Frasca’s unique gig promo ‘pot plant’ littered around the Valley streets (above) and the Tempo Lunch served each day for the conference delegates.

The AU Review hosted a Beer Pong tournament at the delegate lunches. I am not sure who the overall winner ended up being, I should find out.

On the second night the OzTix VIP party took over Bakery Lane.

Eden Mulholland’s drummer Ricky takes the prize as the NICEST dude I met at BigSound. Shouting me a cider at their Rics showcase and overly excitedly posing for my lens anytime I passed by. Oh and he is a killer drummer to boot. 

Kirin J Callinan plays an instore performance in the window of the Outpost to a kerbside of onlookers. A 6:30pm performance was almost shut down due to noise complaints.

The Bakery Lane stage packed (above) and the Transistors from New Zealand (below).

The Belligerents (above) and the Violent Soho (below) tear up a packed Winn Lane stage.

Casey Donovan was showcased as part of the Virgin and Home 4 launch VIP party. The Home 4 CD is a compilation of Indigenous artists released each year by Virgin Australia.

Mosman Alder, one of my favourite local acts. Lead singer Valdis Valodze’s voice is forever hypnotising in both the live setting and also on continuous rotation on my ipod/ computer speakers.

Clare Bowditch played at the Alhambra stage and showcased many tracks from her new album.

Battleships play the Magic City stage (above). For those not familiar with the Brisbane venues, Magic City is traditionally an rnb/ hiphop club. Personally not being familiar with Battleships I rocked up to shoot what I, for some strange reason, presumed was going to be a hiphop act. I was obviously wrong.

Dubmarine (above and below) made for some great photos. My second favourite collection of photos from the festival behind the lead shot in this blog (a shot of Closure in Moscow guitarist).

The Ashton Shuffle crowd (above and below).

The Queensland Poetry Festival has come and gone again for another year. I have lost count how many consecutive years I have shot this festival. It is always a challenge trying to shoot poets in interesting ways, but I am always slightly pleased with the gallery I come up with. The poets, some spending a lot of the time reading for books, always have brief seconds of interesting expressions and I always like to give myself the challenge of capturing these.

This year the Arts Queensland Poet in Residence a.rawlings gave a breath taking multimedia poetry performance piece that saw real time collaborations via twitter and a skype call from Berlin.

Splendour has come and gone for another year and this year I returned to shooting it as a pit photographer (previous years I have assisted Dan Boud in the FasterLouder studios backstage). I was equal parts nervous and excited to be shooting it this year. Nervous, as it had been a while since I shot a major festival and excited as I was sharing the responsibilities with one of my favourite local (Melbourne) photographers Leah Robertson (Mess and Noise star photographer). I was photographing with Leah for The Sound Alliance (FasterLouder, Mess+Noise and In The Mix) and being the first time that they had paid photographers for coverage, I was even more nervous about covering the festival as best I could.

In three days I managed to cover 35 artists, with the final list including Jack White, At The Drive In, Bloc Party, Lana Del Rey, The Shins, Gossip, The Kooks, Metric, Yuksek, Explosions in the Sky, Azealia Banks, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Band of Skulls, Missy Higgins, Kimbra, Wolfmother, Fun, Tame Impala, 360, Muscles, Ladyhawke, Father John Misty, Ball Park Music, Angus Stone, Shihad, Lanie Lane, Kate Miller-Heidke, Bertie Blackman, Nina Las Vegas, Howler, Emma Louise, DZ Deathrays, The Medics, Pond and Chet Faker.

To view the final gallery with Leah and my photos side by side visit the website www.fasterlouder.com.au.

My recap of the festival and bands I shot follows. To be fair I should warn you that there are a LOT of photos. Make sure you check them out when are you are connected to a decent internet connection.

On Friday I headed down to the Workers Club to shoot King Cannons for Mess and Noise’s 17th lunch box gig. The lunch box series is a string of free gigs that Mess and Noise host at, you guessed it, lunch time. This was the first of the series held at the Workers Club, with a pretty good turn out. 
This was the second time I had shot at the Workers Club, and I definitely found it much easier during the day due to natural light teaming in from the side door and windows. It created a nice side light to grab some interesting crowd shots.

Last Thursday I was photographed the Brisbane Fete de la Musique for the Brisbane City Council. For those unfamiliar with the Fete de la Musique concept, it is a live music event that runs all around the world on the same day. Started in 1982 (the year I was born!) by the French Government, this international event is now hosted in more then 110 countries around the world.

I started my coverage on this foggy morning on the river at the University of Queensland  with a Queensland Conservatorium clarinet player Kathy Williams-Devries. Catching the CityCat to Southbank, Kathy played for the morning commuters.

After disembarking at Southbank I quickly headed up to the State Library to photograph three school choirs and ensembles performing on the Knowledge Walk. St Peter Chanel’s choir above was the main set I photographed.

Back into Southbank I photographed the first out of two sets on my schedule for That Trombone Guy.

And then I was back over the road at The Edge to photograph an acoustic guitar performance by young musician Arnie Tecson.

I LOVE photographing performances in spaces that aren’t traditionally meant to host music. I guess the whole day was perfect for that kind of thing. But Andrew Veivers’ Spanish guitar set in the Queensland Art Gallery would have to rate as the most inspiring location to photograph during the whole day. Not only being able to witness two art forms meld together, but seeing the older generation congregate around to watch this engaging performer.

After the Queensland Art Gallery the Mystery Crew performed at the infamous West End Lizard for a post-lunchtime crowd. This was my last set on the south of the river.

Heading into the City for the rest of the evening, I firstly photographed The Cairos play an instore set at Rockinghorse Records.

With time to kill before my next set I stopped in to Brew coffee shop for a quick few snaps.

Then into the Queen Street Mall for a few songs by the Stormchasers.

Flanelette played a heavy rock set which seemed hilariously out of place in this park opposite the Roma Street firestation. It was amusing watching traffic pass by and stop at the traffic lights to briefly watch these guys perform.

Into the heart of the city again I photographed the Fortitude Valley Stompers, a marching band performing from King George Square to Queen Street Mall.

The last set for the day was another by That Trombone Guy. He played a peculiar set on the Hermes Balcony to the after-work commuters heading home. It was a perfect way to end the day. 

Last month I photographed Kimbra at The Tivoli in Brisbane. From a photographer’s perspective she was amazing to shoot. An eccentric outfit, great lighting and a real expressive performer. Selecting only a few to showcase was really hard. Here are some shots.

I photographed Melbourne Record Store Day quite a while ago for Mess and Noise but with moving to Melbourne blogging them has slipped a little low in my to do list. Better late then never here are my photos. I photographed these the first weekend I moved down here so it was great to use this as an excuse to explore areas of Melbourne I hadn’t yet seen. I visited stores in Fitzroy (Polyester Records Fitzroy, Poison City Records), the city (Basement Discs, Missing Link and Polyester Records City store) plus also Woolly Bully in North Melbourne.

Darren Hanlon played a dj set in the Polyester Records Fitzroy store with cupcakes donated by Sticky Fingers Bakery (they suspiciously look like nipples though :s ).