Happy Days.......



In July 2012 i was asked to cover the 'Happy Days' Festival in south west London for the Splashlight magazine, this was the third job of the day, first job was second shooter at a Wedding in Stokenchurch to help out a friend of mine, followed by a Jubilee Party near Gerrards Cross, then onto the festival itself.

The saving grace of the day was the fact that Level 42 were playing that night, along with Billy Ocean on the line up.

Iv'e been a big Level 42 fan since they first started and their music has been a soundtrack to my life so i was really pleased to get to see them and photograph them before they went on stage and during the show.

Technically it was the usual thing, many different coloured lights, on and off all the time-a photograph nightmare!

I started by underexposing my shots as the camera was trying to read all the dark tones and overexposing everything, Mark King (top image) had a great blue backlight on him sometimes and was lit by warm tones from the front, Billy Oceans's lighting was all over the shop and he was moving around quite a bit, in and out of the lights so i just crossed my fingers and kept shooting.

There are so many things to think of when shooting live music, Firstly-composition, with someone moving around the stage you have to choose the moment to shoot so you can get the subject against a good background and without a microphone stand in front of their face.

Secondly, expression- getting the shot at the right moment is crucial-capturing the look on the performers face is in my view paramount, as their expression really conveys the emotion they are feeling while performing.

Thirdly, timeing- pressing the shutter at the right time sounds easy but when you have a performer who really moves about it can get very tricky so you have to almost pre-visualise the next move by listening to the music which sounds a bit obvious but when your shooting a concert you tend not to notice the music too much as you are concentrating on all of the above!

Last, but definately not least.....EARPLUGS!

Usually the Photographer is right at the front, between stage and audience and the speakers can be only a few feet away so earplugs are a must otherwise you will have ringing in your ears the rest of of the night!