As music is very close to my heart, I was more than chuffed to be asked to shoot the wedding of Birmingham born Conductor, Paul Daniel CBE. The wedding took place in July at St Peter’s church in Little Aston. Here’s a few shots from the day.

And here’s a link to Paul conducting Nigel Kennedy at this years Proms

The latest band shoot with The Deafout for some promo imagery for their latest tunes. The band plumped for some Birmingham town centre stuff which I must admit, didn’t fancy too much as it had pretty much been done to death and would take some work finding some original takes. However, the band had some ideas they wanted to try and that always helps me when clients start thinking creatively. We did some stuff under the pretty illuminations by the Mailbox. Some jobs worth felt it neccessary to inform us that we needed permission to take photos here which wasn’t the case when I did a shoot a year or so back at the same place. Needless to say the man was duly ignored and we continued our shoot. We also took in a few parts around the Queensway, taking in the massive blue hotel thing which name escapes me right now. Anyway, another enjoyable little shoot, pity we didn’t get the sun. Checkout the band over on Myspace. www.myspace.com/thedeafout

Band shoot with Battle for Prague, yesterday afternoon down the delightful canal areas around Spaghetti Junction, Birmingham. This after discussion with the band and agreeing that it’s always good to try and avoid the cliche dereliction and musicians thing. Thing was, we left it a little late to think out some ideas beforehand, which is what I usually do. Still, the guys were happy to add their ideas to the mix and in the end, I think we achieved some good stuff. Saturday morning was taken up with a business advice workshop in the Black Country which I’ll get round to blogging about next.

So we were back at the Soundbar and I was keen to experiment with some live action. As the night is in the throws of getting established, we’re still lacking some lighting for the stage, although we may be able to utilise the disco lights they use on the weekend. Anyway, I decided to set up my strobist gear and have a play with a few lenses to see what I could get. To try and compensate for the lack of lighting, I gelled my strobe with a CTO to try and warm things up a tad. Kinda happy with the effects I was getting and will push this further next time by introducing a second strobe and gel that too - not sure on placing yet though. Overall, I was happiest with the wide angle stuff, which was a last minute decision after checking out some of Kevin Russ‘ live stuff (who I find very inspiring) with a wide angle.

The bands were really good on the night, but I’m not going start reviewing them here…that’s somebody elses job.

Here’s a great link to Birmingham’s top bod for all things online music related. I’ve thought this many a time and used to shy away from Myspace, but as there’s so many bands who use the site, it would be bonkers of me not to get a page there.

Read it kids and do what the man says… he really knows his onions.

New Music Strategies - 5 Myspace mistakes

The guys running Tuesday Night Live at The Soundbar in Birmingham are under no illusions that for the night to succeed, they need to work hard and stand out from the crowd. Birmingham’s current crop of bands and artists certainly gives the night a chance, but the trick comes in getting the bands to adhere to the community spirit of it all. The idea is simple - bands bring along at least ten paying punters (fans) which in turn provides a decent audience and pay for the bands - the promoters are pushing hard to bring in the student crowd (the university is 5 minutes walk away) and promote using all the usual online social networks.

(The Berettas - headlined the first night 19/3/08 - (C) 2008 Stuart Parker)

For a first night, this wasn’t too bad. A good range of bands and an inital healthy number of people. Problem was that once the first band had finished, their crowd left, likewise the second band. Maybe the night ethos needs to b drummed into the acts a little more. Maybe also add some decent drinks promotions and half decent lighting and the night should be on the right track.

The good thing about band promotional photography is that it allows me to get a little more creative than say with standard portrait work or interiors. It’s fast becoming my fave style of photography. Usually, the bands who are coming from a similar creative vibe, are happy to go along with the ideas so long as you convey what it is you’re actually trying to achieve. With The Deafout, from Birmingham, I wanted to get across their persona of working class lads who enjoy the rock n roll, band thing.. and so wanted a setting that mirrored that. I did a bit of recon on The Bizarre Cafe, a recommendation from one of the band members. kinda like a converted caravan, the cafe was a tad narrow but workable I thought… I ok’d it with the boss and let the band know we’d meet there at 8am next Sunday morning….Sunday morning??? Yes, another thing for the shoot was that I wanted the band in the “morning after” look.. Well, the band didn’t let me down and arrived fashionably late.. What the cafe goers thought of my brolly set up and constant clambering onto chairs, i’ll never know - but It didn’t bother me at all, I managed to focus on shooting the band. We did a few shots outside too, albeit in blustery conditions - even managed a few TtV efforts which came out pretty good. So thanks to the band for working with me, you can check them out their myspace page. They were very patient and we got on well. So watch out bands, if you want to work with me, be prepared to go that little extra… hopefully it will be worth the effort.

One of the online networky type things i’ve been following of late is Twitter. Basically, a mini blogging tool that can be updated via the web or mobile phone and users can keep up to date with anyone they wish to follow. I’m keen to explore how this tool can benefit the projects i’m starting to get involved with so as an experiment, I’ll be “tweeting” the events at Tuesday Night Live @ Soundbar, Birmingham, inbetween taking photos. I’ll try to convey the activities of the night, get some feedback from the bands and punters and generally provide a running commentary..Hopefully, we’ll get a few people who are interested, keeping track of the night as it unfolds and posting a few questions to the bands etc.
Twitter won’t be the best method of conveying the live music atmosphere, of course, already looking at some of the live mobile phone streaming services out there such as bambuser or qik, but that’s for another day.