Breaking Orbit + Supports @ Toff In Town Melbourne: July 11, 2015

Thank you again to Heavy Magazine for sending me to shoot 'Breaking Orbit + Supports' on July 11 in Melbourne.

I've never seen the support bands before, however I was highly impressed by both 'Black Sea Of Trees' and 'Gatherer' as they went about laying a platform for what was to become a beautifully clean and powerful performance from 'Breaking Orbit.'

The lighting was fantastic and made such a big difference to my shooting options, both for clarity and blending of different colours which ultimately provided a great variation to many of the images. Often you will attend pub gigs or venues of a small nature which tend to have very limited lighting options, I too thought that this venue would provide similar hurdles however it was far from that, offering me options for blue, magenta, purple and blue tones amongst most of the images.

Shoot complete, and it was a real pleasure to be able to stand there and work with such a great lighting setup, not to mention the charismatic nature of the bands which provided a lot of character in the images.

Blind Guardian + Supports @ Max Watts Melbourne: June 19, 2015

Well there I was, first shoot for Heavy Magazine and it was an international one, the highly acclaimed 'Blind Guardian' from Germany with their special brand of power metal.

With most live shows the industry standard suggests that we're only allowed in the photography pit for the first three songs, so you better know your camera, adjust to the lighting conditions and press that shutter as often as you can.

The energy was high after both 'Bane Of Winterstorm' and 'Divine Ascension' delivered punchy and powerful sets, paving the way for 'Blind Guardian' to enter the stage accompanied by their haunting intro music, then straight into what became a mesmerising two hour display of crunching operatic style metal which led the crowd into waving of fists, head banging and of course chorus like singing as is often the case at power metal gigs.

Job done, my first shoot for the publication and I had a great time... here's looking forward to many more opportunities.