Spod at home

I dropped in to Spod's place a few weeks ago to take some snaps in his bedroom where he weaves his musical magic.

It was for a feature in Mess and Noise about artist's creative spaces.

Spod is playing two shows tomorrow (Sunday), an all ages afternoon gig and a night show at Oxford Art Factory. Details on his myspace.

I understand his backing band may be the rhythm section from a certain popular lupine act.

Time Out Sydney : Out Now

The first ever issue of Time Out Sydney is in newsagents now.

We're calling it the "zero issue" since it's a bit of a preview of what's to come for the regular edition and it was an opportunity for everyone involved to have a test run at how the mag gets put together.

That said, it's 96 pages filled with great content much like you'd find in the weekly. I did a little tally and there's over 80 of my photos in there too.

It's been quite a trial by fire for me. I'm familiar with shooting events, performances, bands and the like. But now i've had to expand my repetoire to food, chefs, galleries, interiors, drag queens and lots more.

Every day is different. For example on Tuesday i photographed Clive James in the morning, The Mess Hall at lunch and Neil Perry in the afternoon. A writer, a band and a chef; all from Sydney. It's demonstrative of the range of areas the magazine covers, always with a strong Sydney focus.

The images you see here are a taste of what i shot for the current issue. Most are different to what ended up in the mag.

In the woods with Midnight Juggernauts

I did a photo shoot with Midnight Juggernauts on Thursday night. These are a couple of offcuts, i'll post the proper shots later once they're approved.

The elements were stacked against us.

We were shooting at night in the pitch black of Centennial Park without a permit.

The band were only available for a short window of time between their soundcheck and when they were due on stage.

To top it off, it started pouring with rain while we were outdoors in the park with expensive lights.

Not ideal conditions, but the band are such gentleman and remained in jovial spirits which kept us going.

In the end none of the gear was damaged, the band made their show on time and the shots worked out fine.

All's well that ends well.

Winners are grinners

Here's some photos from the Aria Awards nominations announcement this morning at the Sydney Theatre in Walsh Bay.

There was 5 awards given out today (called the 'Artisan' awards) - the rest are given out at the main ceremony on October 28.

Above is Josh Pyke, who was awarded the Best Production Aria alongside Wayne Connolly.

A group shot of all the nominees present at the announcement.

The ever beaming Patience from The Grates, nominated for best music DVD.

Airbourne, ready to duke it out after being nominated for Best Rock Album and Breakthrough Artist - Album.

Ben King, representing Expatriate who were nominated for Breakthrough Artist - Album.

Cut Off Your Hands and teenagersintokyo

In my new tradition of posting photos weeks after they actually happened here's shots of Cut Off Your Hands and Teenagers in Tokyo (or teenagersintokyo) at Spectrum in Sydney earlier this month.

I'd seen Teenagers in Tokyo play ages ago and they've definitely improved with more confidence on stage plus extra songs to rival the rather excellent End it Tonight.

You'll know i'm already a big fan of Cut Off Your Hands and they impressed as usual.

The well traveled band is now back off to the UK, playing 14 dates there before going to New York for several CMJ shows then on to Iceland for the Airwaves festival.

Here's a couple of videos from each band.

Cut Off Your Hands - Still Fond

Teenagers in Tokyo - End It Tonight

Midnight Juggernauts conquer Sydney

A few weeks ago Midnight Juggernauts played two sold out shows at The Metro. They supported by Young and Restless and Damn Arms.

I took photos onstage and off - see them all in the gallery.

The juggernaut continues for for the band with a couple more Sydney shows before they jet off to America to support Justice on their US and Canadian tour plus play CMJ in New York. When they get home they hop on the festival circuit for Groovin' the Moo, Homebake, Meredith and Falls. Busy lads they are.

Photos in jmag

Here's a selection of photos i took for jmag a while ago that have just been published. It's the issue with Cybele's photo on the cover.

Above is Nik from Lost Valentinos in the Sydney Uni Law Library. He's got a law degree under his belt but has chosen the rock'n'roll path in life.

These are from a pub crawl with Janny from Rastawookie, Bertie Blackman, Dools and Bucky from Soft Tigers.

And finally we have Mia Dyson at Jacksons Rare Guitars in Annandale. The article was about her going guitar shopping.