Author Archives: MarkT

Well I’ve been doing this now for about 5 weeks and lots of things have happened in that time. I would like to think that I have now developed a style, a friend commented yesterday that they could recognise one of my gig images just by looking at it.

I’ve met some fantastic people and bands along the way. I now sit with the bands and drink with them, the majority of them are just really friendly people who play in bands, there’s not much of a barrier between yourselves and them. I have found myself gravitating towards the support bands, who haven’t necessarily had that many gig photographs taken. One band I loved were Hip Parade, a band from Glasgow, you couldn’t meet more pleasant upbeat people. I have to say the moob cards have been a godsend.

Last weeks gig was strange. The band are called “The View” and are becoming a quite a big thing in England. They are currently at no 16 in the UK singles chart and played Jools Hollands show on the weekend. Things had started to get a bit out of hand before The View even hit the stage. The bands manager was not happy with the barriers, he wasn’t happy with the beer throwing, I don’t think he was too happy that he was missing Coronation Street and he was not happy with me using any images outside of the venues site. Their manager told me categorically that if I used any images that I would need his “express permission”, anyway he didn’t make me sign a disclaimer so the images are mine! I usually leg it out of the pit after 3 songs, this wasn’t going to happen, I was penned in by about 6 bouncers, so I spent the next half hour picking off a few more shots and getting pretty good at dodging what I hoped was spent alcohol.

This hobby is starting to pay some dividends. I was on the guest list for
the cooper Temple Clause in Manchester last night and I got to sit with the band and have a beer, these guys are one of my favorite bands so it seemed a little surreal. Quite bizarrely I am taking photos of an evening with Darren Gough and I have negotiated a swanky meal for two with the wife out of it. I’ll also be photographing the remaining members of T-Rex in a couple of weeks, which I have been told will be paid work. I’ve also had images credited in online local magazines and also another printed magazine to promote the venue (and hopefully keep the night going). I’m also in talks with someone who runs a magazine, hopefully this will give inroads to other venues.

I have to say I am now hankering for more lenses, but these 2.8 and below lenses are not cheap in the least. I’m hoping that any paid work will simply pay for better lenses. It’s still a great hobby, and I don’t think I will progress any further than that, I’m just having fun and I think that’s as much as you can ask.

The image above is from the view set, check out the rest of my images at www.chimpola.com

I don’t blog enough, I know. These days I seem to be short on ideas and inspiration, something that Chris seems to have spades of these days.

Anyhoo, when I do see something that I enjoy I’m sure to jump on here which leads me to this. B3ta is a must (if you’re not offended easily) for really good photoshop type malarkeys. They also run a newsletter which sometimes throws up the odd photographic gem.

Slinkachu has been taking little people on a tour of London and photographing them. I love this type of stuff, I would go for ideas over technical abilities anywhere. Check it out here Little people project

I often wondered why my photograph taken in the museum at Leeds generated so many hits with little promotion, then I received an email a couple of days ago. The email asked for my photos that had been on interestingness to be posted to a pool, which got me thinking.

When I got home I checked the calendar in flickr and there it was on the 1st of March. I’m well chuffed, though I wish I had known at the time – I could have really hammed it up!. Maybe the flickr system could automatically add a tag to your photos or send a mail telling you that you have been featured.