Meanwhile back in the working world we are getting ready to shoot Def Leppard, Motley Crue & Steel Panther at Wembley Arena tomorrow night. We’re also going to be shooting a lit stage portrait of a PR client so looking forward to a great night of rock and images. If you wanted to see one of our shoots of rock gods with serious hair check out the Speedlighters post on Whitesnake at The Hammersmith Odeon.

What was novel about this show was that it was a “made for 3D DVD” event – an unusual amount of heavy duty kit was in abundance including a sizeable crane camera which flew over the heads of the crowd no doubt infuriating all those in stage right seating. For my part and as photographer it was a very difficult evening having to share the pit with 25 photographers and a 3D camera operator and his minder. The camera was mounted on a rail system and manually propelled parallel to the stage pushing the photographers right back against the crowd barrier. It was a bit of a tussle. For the technical details of the shoot see the Speedlighters blog.

As a punter I would have been somewhat miffed about the staged nature of the show and the profusion of cameras but I suppose if no one will  pay for the music then the band have every right to exploit whatever revenue stream they can.

Its a solitary life being a photographer but the great thing about gigs is that you get to meet all sorts of photographers with diverse reasons for being there – most of them unpaid either working for one of the equipment suppliers as a favour or hoping to sell their images via agencies. (for a top high earner see Jeff Kravitz) I love the pre-show nervy banter and finding out what everyone is up to and how they making a living. The bouncers can also be fun – I asked the enormous Ghanaian security guard what I should do if the crowd came over the barriers and he said to stick close to his shoulder – when I asked what he was planning to do he said run for it. Maybe next time I should swap my rock and roll cowboy boots for trainers.