Second festival, and my fourth T in the Park. Still as mental as ever, 85,000 scottish folk on the booze - a very unique atmosphere!
It’s hard to describe T this year - my first time shooting Muse, Eminem’s first european gig for five years and being on stage with one of my favourite bands, Editors, all great experiences. There were some incredible moments, including a *huge* version of ‘God is a DJ’ by Faithless, Tom from editors running towards me screaming during ‘Smokers outside the hospital doors’ and another epic Mumford and Sons set, but something didnt feel quite right.
It was probably due to the rain that battered the site on Saturday, and a distinct lack of sleep, but I also wonder whether it was down to a lineup that lacked any real unique moments of greatness.
It was a buzz shooting Eminem, but it isnt my kind of music and the consensus seems to be it wasnt exactly a stellar performance. Many of the bands playing are doing the rounds, something affecting lots of festivals this year, and there wasnt much variety on the bigger stages.
T is still a great festival, with an incredibly passionate crowd and a great setting, but I think they need to rekindle the kind of variety that brought Brian Wilson and a whole host of acts who were ‘one offs’ to the various stages.
On the upside, Im incredibly happy with some of my shots (below) so I must be doing something right!
» Continue Reading…
Yes - it’s nearly that time of year again when I dig out the wellies and head off to various fields around the country to shoot a ton of bands and not an insignificant amount of drunk people in fancy dress.
I’ve been trying to put together a definitive portfolio over the past week, something I’ve somehow neglected to do before, and it’s been good to run through my archives and look at how my work has developed and improved over the past few years. I’m a great believer in making progress in whatever I do, and I need to work harder than ever this summer to move my photography on. I said back in 2008 if I didn’t feel I was going forward and developing that’s the time to hang my camera up, and after some great experiences last summer at V and Leeds (following a disappointing T in the Park and Glastonbury) I can’t wait to get cracking. I certainly feel more confident this year (especially after Evolution) than I have done before.
Anyway, I don’t think I’ve put this shot up before and it’s nice to know I have some so many unpublished shots in my archive that I’m still happy with.
roll on glastonbury!
so, T in the Park came and went, for another year. My third time of shooting the festival that I’ve come to love despite the fact that it is quite clearly mental.
a better line-up than Glastonbury (or in my opinion anyway) offered some new photo opportunities - I’ve been looking forward to shooting the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s for a while, plus seeing Blur after missing them at Glasto. And, although it didnt get confirmed until a few hours beforehand, I set off with a hope that I’d get clearance to shoot the Killers from side of stage.
i had a great time - it’s difficult not to working with the team at T, including Andy Stubbs as a photographer side-kick. but, on a photographic level, the overwhelming majority of my stuff just didnt cut the mustard. it’s strange to talk of form when essentially all i do is stand infront of a band and point a camera at them, but i feel very out of form at present. not capturing any of the energy or feeling of the acts, as my pretty lacking lady ga ga shots show. i’m not sure if it’s just fatigue of seeing so much live music in the past few years that very little excites me any more, but i’ve been left feeling pretty underwhelmed by alot of the acts i’ve seen this year - and it comes across in the photos.
i did manage to grab a few shots i like - some portraits of peter doherty, tv on the radio, and this shot of Damon Albarn that has a nice festival vibe to it. anyway, i’m not sure what to do really - i’ve got kendal calling coming up before V and Leeds, so it will be good to challenge myself in a very different environment, but otherwise i dont know if i should go to an art gallery, take photos of trees or just try and avoid imagery. given my usual absence of planning, i imagine whatever happens will be made up, but if you see my dubious talent lying in a field somewhere, please pick it up and return it - i’m lost without it.
For all that they’re not my favourite live band, this was still pretty cool. shooting the first threee from the front of the stage was a real buzz, althout the process wasn’t helped by some very on/off lighting.
