Professional Photographer- Creatve and Commercial Photography To Meet Your Needs

- Bands and Events

Concert And Live Gigs Photography

For me creative photography, my passion, is the chance to work with a client to produce what they need and want to help push them forward and truly succeed. A love of life and music is the name of the game for me and expressing this as well as others’ experience through their given pursuits, making my career worth while whilst letting them give back to the commu-nity and show their love of that pursuit and that it’s worth gettting out there to experience the world for their own eyes. I work within the industry primarily as a live gigs and concert photographer, using versatility and reliability to produce my work to a standard that meets the needs of the client. Throughout the past year, having started my full time career as a bands and events photographer, I’ve been pushing the limits; the amount of work I can do and the quality of work I produce by getting out as often as possible, pursuing my craft and knowledge through every opportunity I can get, utilising what I have learnt for hired gigs. This has led me to some of the best work of this past year including principal photographer spots at two

festivals (including south London’s Claygate festival featuring the likes of Rick Wakeman, Martin Turner and the UK’s number one tribute band four years running, ‘Hat’s Off To Led Zeppelin’). This experience, as well as 3 years experience prior, outside of the professional sphere, has enabled me to progress in the sort of gigs that are feasible for my level of expertise as a concert photographer, although, having fulfilled the needs of the various clients and contacts I have gained over the past year, I have stagnated in the work I am gaining, thus the time to expand the horizons of the business is due and it can’t have come at a better time with the

Hats Off To Led Zeppelin - Live in Concert at Claygate Festival

The Carnabys - Introduction at their album launch party - Live concert

release of the portfolio and website due in December 2016. This provides an opportunity for bands as my rates, currently reduced to an absolute rock bottom, will be set at £80 (+ travel expenses where required) until December rolls around when the overheads of the business will rise and with it the rates I charge go up, confirming a new base rate at £100-160 depend-ent on the shoot type; still not an excessive number altogether for the quality of work produced but an ample chance to establish a client base and experi-ence.

What I Offer - Concert Photography

As a Concert Photographer I aim to offer a reliable package, delivering a minimum image count of 8-12 images of a set standard, as well as working to the clients’ needs as per stylistic choice of both editing and shoot style; whether this be commercial or photojournalistic or far more unique (creative styles) where shooting and editing are defined by the aims of the images as per their use, or the genre(s) that define the band.

This creative versitility gives me the chance to pro-duce something truly unique for the client, selecting off the requirements of the band and shooting live in concert whilst still achieving those aims. This can be as simple as an image library for a website or so-cial media, images of the various band members for profiles and live shots for blogs etc straight through to images for album covers and inner sleeves, poster and promo work. The shoot is defined for you, by you, and decisions mediated through contact be-tween me and you prior to the shoot; constraigned (normally) only by the venue, lighting and perfor-mance on the day.

For a shoot to truly work for you all the elements have to come together and as a photographer I am a part of that process; adequate research and an understanding of music, the genre and musicians is key and having spent my life, since a young baby, around musicians, on tour, at festivals and cheering on from the sidelines at gigs this is an area I am confident within. This comes from luckily growing up with a lead singer and songwriter for a mum and a band manager for a dad, making young life interesting, but surrounded by music at all times.

Through this, as well as my own forays out to gigs and concerts as well as the work conducted during my time as a professional I bring with me a multi grenre understanding of the industry from both an audience perspective as well as the pitfalls met by

musicians through their various pursuits throughout the industry. This gives me a stronger insight into the target markets as well as knowing when and where to avoid potential issues, at least as far as my experi-ence has taught me. However nothing ever beats the knowledge of the band, label and manager in these aspects, however working together it’s amazing what can be achieved.A continued love of music and the sights and sounds it brings has enriched my life and given me a per-spective that many others never truly attain; sharing this knoledge and experience with others as well as getting it right for your fans and potential new audi-ences is a big deal for me, hopefully helping to get music back out there in a country struggling to keep up its number of venues.

Chris Goode of Kindred Spirit - Live in Concert - A hopeful session musician

Conrad Vingoe - Live Gig - Tallent Showcase,

Folking Around Kingston

DJ Julia - ‘Jules’ - Rap Artist - Live in Concert - Kingston Green Radio Fundraiser

Sample Shoots Hats Off To Led Zeppelin - Claygate Festival

A great shoot photographing the UK’s number 1 tribute band since 2013, a very active and vibrant band and, as the award states, very true to the original.

The brief for the festival was fairly simple, pro-motional concert photography, showcasing the moments of each concert as well as giving me the chance to make some sales to each of the artists after the gig for their own publicity. This was made easier by the concerts taking place on separate days over two weeks. The challenge with this one however was to be able to capture the intensity of the concert and musicians as well as hold true to the band they were covering, this being a bit of a challenge with the clash of old and new in the band’s on-stage persona and dress compared to that of the original. See what you think. A great night though and definitely a band worth recom-mending.

Concert Photography, for the mainstay, is about making impact and defining a message or story dictated by the band or genre about the night or event through what the band is expressing or conveying at the time.

This shoot is a great one to explore this with, the images intended to be high impact shots to show the nature of concerts put on by south London’s Claygate festival, whilst showing unique and compelling aspects of the acts performing there.

These shots are great, a high energy band held strongly by both the way they define them-selves - stage presence - as well as being a trib-ute act giving a strong anchor for the images.

This raises an interesting quandary though with the band. Although sticking closely to the style and onstage glamour of the band, they have a very much more modern performance visually, as though the old act were brought into the 21th century; not a problem as you can see, but difficult conveying the authenticity of the sound through images.

Some great images here with a real intensity and impact; if this is something you really want from your images this is by far and away my favourite thing to capture. The power of live music on stage is always there, whether its in it’s subtleties or eccentricities but making the image work for you and getting the worth out of what you put on for others and how effective that message can be of-ten comes down to the work of the photographer beforehand and adequate communication within that to produce what an advertiser/marketing agent needs to get your work out there.

I can never replace the promotional work these people can collate but getting the right image(s) for your campigns/marketing to succeed is my job and understanding that from the get-go is the first step to getting images as you see here.

- I need to know what you want even if I can do - - a good job regardless -

As discussed previously a shoot can be viewed in many different ways. No matter the location there is almost no limit to the different styles you can photograph in - even given the limitations of the location itself - this is far more evident here, the styles varying greatly within the same peramiters, all saying something completely different about the night, yet all conveying the same basic message and ethos; the concert image, the band on stage.

The power of the image isn’t just in what you pho-tograph or how it looks; it’s often how you convey the message(s) and who you’re speaking to that counts the most.

Concert photography in the end comes down to the moment and the celebration of the energy, life and memory of that concert, event or gig. All of what can be achieved during that gig is wiped away without

that moment being defined. The true power of that concert image however doesn’t come down to what’s expected; a defining moment in a career, something so poignant that it can never be seen or experiened again (although this is something photographers love and strive for), but a moment that can be defined

anywhere, even if it’ll never be the same twice, the kowledge needs to lead to the thought that these gigs and this band are that good, that much fun and that the experience will always be worthwhile.

With all this in mind and what’s truly possible in the space of about 4-10 songs it doesn’t take away from the possibilities of that live set. The skill aside, there are some things that can never be achieved in the studio because that energy you get from 30-40 minutes of playing live is just that hard to replicate. Being a trained wildlife photographer I appreciate the beauty of the natural and the untempered raw reality of a live gig. Given a decent skill level it’s incredible what can be achieved. Below you can see one of those moments and the power, mood and drama instigated; honesty sells and live gigs are just that, regardless of how that artist chooses to convey that expression.

I always put my all into a gig is the point to remember; from looking out for the artist by not getting in the way and in keeping my time photographing as short as I can to get the job done, to pushing the photography and number of images to the limit of what is sensible. This is my passion and I’ll give you all I can for the time I have to offer.

Sample Shoots - The Carnabys _ Album Launch Party - Music Venue Trust

A fantastic gig photographing a great up-and-coming band, the Carnabys; their album launch party and the main press con-cert for the band’s work with the live music venue trust. The local band just having come off a host of tours, both the band themselves and with a host of other major league musicians from Bruce Springsteen, Kings of Leon, Lenny Kravitz to sup-port spots with Blondie, Im-agine Dragons, Patti Smith and Starsailor. Their sellout tours have encompassed them as one of the UK’s next generation of major league bands, defining their genre and playing ‘power-ful, explosive and energetic live shows’.This shoot wasn’t just to pro-mote their new album, ‘Too Much, Never Enough’, but also the fact that all the profits from their pre-sales of the album (managing to reach no. 24 in the itunes album charts in the first few days of its release) would go to help the ‘save live music’ initi-ative of the music venue trust.

A big move for the band and a major chance for publicity, photos going through to both the venue and the Music Venue Trust. One of my favourite shoots to date.

With the Carnabys and the Music Venue Trust I wanted to do something a bit differ-ent; the shots aimed to show off the venue, the band and music as a culture. This defined the shoot as a real chance to show off the energy, enjoyment and passion and you couldn’t really pick a better band to do this with.Here you see some of those captures fitting in with the image on the first page showing the love these guys have for what they do, the size of the venue and crowd aside.

The intimacy as per size of the location and stage was a problem for this shoot, the location being rammed from wall to wall, you really have to sell

rather than work with size as nothing beats a de-cent depth of field. The shoot benefitted massively

though with the venue being a local hangout for the guys and somewhere they first started playing, helping convey the points mentioned and despite

being a challenge the gig ended up being the most enjoyable event of the year for both the music and

working as a professional.

The hard part about this shoot wasn’t making an image that worked or dictated the points that were necessary but show-ing off a style that is dictated almost entirely by self and self-expression. Indi bands are great, so much character, but selling this for how much they are worth is a challenge.The Carnabys are right up there in self-expression, giving their all and doing what’s popular because it’s who they are and how they show this. Great fun to shoot, very hard to make work and sell.

The challenge here was a hard one to meet as you can see from the shots on this page, not a problem, but rather how you view it. I’ve attempted to pursue the expression and pre-define editing styles with lighting choice and framing in cam-era and in the moment - one of my favourite ways to work, although this does make most shots very organic in structure; another reason why I can’t stress enough how important it is to pre-define the parameters of what’s needed and the target audiences.

A great example of contrast here showing that shots have to work together when in vol-ume. In this case the image here doesn’t exactly fit with the other shots in image style, however when combined with accenting text as here sud-denly the series comes to life; an accenting image defining the style and adding to the other shots as a comparable definition.

The definition of ‘Cool’ is something I often try to

define in shoots, especially with rock and indie music, not something that has to

define me as a photographer or a person but a definitive

part of culture and music, especially when working to

a target market and trying to ‘sell’ an artist, a moment

or an experience. A defined term and label that can make

or break a band’s success - even if not always applicable

to success.

I always prefer to approach this from an ‘indie’ perspective, re-gardless of the band or genre. What is ‘Cool’ about this person, their work or their performance, what defines them; rather than attempting to fit predefined expectations. Here you can see some examples from the shoot, looking into character, sound, vibrancy and skill. The appearance that defines you on stage is not my decision and may well never be, however how this is conveyed and seen outside the theatre of the stage often is, even if I never choose which images are selected or how they are used; discussion in respect to this is wise but often impossible to dictate shots to on the night, although attempting to sit within defined areas such as genre, previous work, style and taste are something always considered. The power an image has in definaing a band, sound, moment is immense and is often why so much thought has to be put into images and image selection. My aim however is to be able to pull some-thing definitive off within these re-spects under any circumstances or at any gig location. How good this can be is defined by how much help that place can give me in oportunities and style through decor and lighting as well as how much thought the band or managment put into their shows. I can’t be perfect but I can try hard to produce work to the best possible out-comes for the night; solid thought into venue choice when hiring is however worth remember-ing.

At the end of the day the best part about a concert has to be the drama; the enjoyment

and expression given by the musicians. It’s one of the main reasons so many people are ob-

sessed with the famous and although I’ll never subscribe to the same ideas and thoughts of a

tabloid magazine or empathise with the parazzi, I get it.

The power of music is to excite, enlighten and give something more back to life and to do this

through the expression of the artists and the people behind them.

My photography is strongly inspired by expres-sion and a love of the artform. As mentioned before I’ve grown up around music and mu-

sicians and it has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I honestly don’t know what I’d do without it. I feel partially responsi-ble as a photographer to share that love with others and show people why it’s such an im-

portant part of my life. Music is crucial through-out modern culture; helping shape and define who we are in our lives today; from excess and

riches down through to those with little to spare who need that something in their lives.

Sample Shoots

- Kaleb Mckane Album Launch and Artist Release

A great night and the launch gig for the artist’s solo career, Kaleb Mckane, a long-standing member of the ‘Never the Bride’ line-up as their lead guitarist and an excellent performer and exquisite rock guitarist, making his debut here as a lead singer starting out on his own path with his own band.

The venue was a great one for photographs, having a very edgy look due to a huge ventilation and extraction set-up on the ceiling, great for photos with a grungy theme. However with style, genre and song choices of the band there were a variety of issues with the shoot, a number of which are listed over the next few pages. As a result this shoot works as a perfect run-through of a shoot from start to end, defining the pitfalls faced within concert photography and how work, practice and experience come together to produce an end product. A great way to see the inner workings of my mind as a photographer during a shoot and how I personally combat those issues.

Part of the problem with this shoot and one of the biggest issues when shooting a band is making the shots fit them, their style and their genre. Above you can see two shots that work to their genre of music; however not the angles I would have chosen by preference.

Below you can see two shots that conform to the norm of my shooting preference, exaggerated angles to enhance impact, bold colour choices accenting the performer’s appearance and dramatic scenery. Here however this just doesn’t work. The decor and lighting reminding rather strongly of metal and industrial metal, fitting the bassist in the image well with his choice of clothing but far from the modern classic rock that the band sits within. The images above far more befitting of the genre of choice.

It’s often hard at shoots like this when you see something you love and want nothing more than to capture it within the imagery. However at shoots we often sacrifice aspects of the image to fulfill the brief; this shoot is a great example of that, the whole of the ceiling being almost unusable for the images.

A lovely example here of a shot going right; mood drama and the ‘coolness aspect’ all coming together as one. I love black and white photography and it really allows a pho-tographer to account for those moments when everything is right other than the lighting. Although b&w is an artform unto itself it can be a real lifesaver when photographing at a live concert like this. Black and White always adds some-thing to an image, normally a sense of class or ruggedness, perfect for this shot.

Kaleb is an excellent guitarist and when struggling for something to photograph at a gig during the al-lotted time, looking to the skill sets of the musicians is often one of the safest ways for me to capitalise on images. Skill, and comfort within that skill, shine through on stage and nothing beats a good guitar face when someone’s concentrat-ing, Kaleb’s got the luck of having one that still looks cool when he’s pulling it off - people’s expressions when per-forming, especially during solos is one of my favourite things to capture as expression and drama really sells, and it’s great fun to photograph someone when they’re going mental on stage!

The Kaleb Mckane gig was a great chance to test out some ideas and re-ally push what I could do. Like the Carnabys the venue wasn’t huge, seat-ing about 100 people at the most; once again though some nice lighting and wonderful decor, although this wasn’t entirely helpful for the style and genre of the band - I did have a worrying tendency to go towards a ‘Kerrang!- esque style, especially with the large ventilation network on the ceiling and cool colour palette of the lighting.

The big challenge here was to follow through with the genre the artist defines, a very much classic rock meets modern era kind of style, great fun to shoot but difficult under the circumstances. Being a very much font-man led band however my focus remained almost solely with Kaleb himself, being both the lead singer and lead guitarist, making the kinds of shots here much more definitive than usual. This left me sticking much more to close-ups to avoid including the confusing background, featuring small portions of the back-ground such as the concentric circles from the ventilation system as seen on the first page, utilising items and objects included more as accents to help define the genre or personality rather than major features to the image. One of the main objectives was to hold true to the power of the frontman through each of the imag-es and stress this through every opportunity be it through masculinity, sexuality, skill or just the power, ‘coolness’ or mood by any other term.

One of the most helpful parts of the shoot was the definition of the gig itself as both a launch gig for the artist as well as the new album - in turn helping to give some defi-nition and structure to the shots and shooting style. This gave me the chance to help define the artist on the night, having only the main cover photo of the artist as a solo act to go on - an ultra-modern ‘rock look’ portrait, very minimalist and closely featuring a sturdy and sexual nature to the image as its defining points - as well as the title of the new album ‘Talking to God’ hopefully expressed nicely here through the last two images, despite the theme ‘Rock God’ / ‘Guitar Legend’ being a recurring feature of the images from the night.

Although you’ll find the style being rather exploratory throughout the shoot the imag-es still work together, aimed to be a definitive documentation of the night as well as potential publicity photos to help with the launch of the artist.

The biggest thing here being the close-ups and solo artist shots - the main band imag-

es and wide shots didn’t get much atten-tion, however this doesn’t mean they were missed out entirely having had more than 40 shots sent through to the managment

after the shoot.The images in this respect were explored

at the start of the shoot, which, as you can probably see from the images here were exhausted fairly quickly as mainly docu-

mentary evidence of the night itself rather than sturdy images for image libraries, and promotion due to the nature of the venue

and lighting choices as discussed earlier. This doesn’t mean that shots like these

were ignored for the rest of the shoot but rather sidelined for those that would be more important and more useful to the

band.

With live shoots like these, as mentioned previously, I aim to produce a minimum of

8-12 images for each shoot, regardless of shoot direction. The aim for me at a shoot, or at least how I regiment myself through-

out the process is by minimum defined aims, be this the requirements of the

booker or by my own standard; generally aimed to be a shot of each artist looking

their best, showing some defining aspect of them on the night, a ‘cool’ image/’concert

image’, crowd interaction, interaction with the photographer, a ‘band image’ as well as significant moments of the concert itself or

the on-stage performance by the artists.

The thing to remember is that I’m capable of doing my own thing and have a regi-

mented way of approaching the shoot but making me aware of what’s needed before-

hand, be it style or specified images, helps the process through and improves the

resulting portfolio.

All images © Peter Samuels 2015-2016All image rights belong to the photographer and respected artists photographed

- usage of these images without prior payment or permission from respective parties will be subject to legal action with respect to removal and potential payment for damages.

Document produced October 2016 - rates and shoot requirements may change at a later date to the above mentionned, contact the photographer below for details or in regards to potential work / shoots.

rp-photography-solutions@hotmail.comrp-photography-solutions.co.uk

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