Dogmatic

For just over a year now, I have been taking live music photography. It has been quite an adventure and each and every gig I have shot has come with its own experience and story to tell. And for me, that is where the beauty and true majesty of photography truly lies. Bottom line, its ability to leave you with a story or an experience is what it is all about. And there have been many stories to tell.

Last year I was asked if I would like to be the tour photographer for Ace Frehley’s October fan meet & greet in Melbourne.

“Sure!” I excitedly said.

10 minutes later another email signalled its arrival in my inbox… “Would you be able to do the whole tour?”

I recall just staring at my screen in sheer disbelief for several shell-shocked seconds! I was staring at a chance in a lifetime and I sure as hell was not going to let this go… Opportunities like this only present themselves so often so I agreed to do the whole tour.

A few weeks later, the tour was postponed and I thought my opportunity had disappeared before it could even materialise.

When the tour was rescheduled, I was once again asked to take my seat as the photog and we were all systems go from this point!

I found myself counting down the days and using this time to prepare myself for every-possible-situation that could arise. I put a lot of thought into it and spent time and money on additional gear and peripherals so that I could be ready at all times.

Little did I know the catastrophe that would befall me throughout…

Read on dear readers…

DAY ONE: February 1, Perth, Western Australia

You quickly realize just how big this continent is when it takes over 4.5 hours to land in the city of Perth. Such a long ass flight. On landing, I texted my contact Luisa and told her where I would be waiting. Luisa, or Lui as she prefers to be called, would be the VIP co-ordinator for the tour and pretty much my touring partner for every show. She was flying in from Sydney. Our flights were only several minutes apart so I didn’t have too long to wait.

We then had a designated driver assigned to us who would be driving us to the hotel. We dropped our bags in our respective rooms, met downstairs at the lobby and then headed straight to Fremantle where the Metropolis venue is located. So much for doing any sorta sightseeing. All I got to see of Perth was from the windshield of our van.

Heading to Freo, our driver Pete was pulled over by the police for speeding. He was given a $300 fine but the cops reduced it to $150. Both Lui and I felt so bad for him so we offered to pay $50 each to make it easier for him. I know he was very grateful for that.

We arrived at the venue shortly after. Ace’s band were on-stage rehearsing some songs. There was still hours left before showtime so I set about to acclimatise with the venue and pretty much, just find my feet.

Ace arrived at the venue at around about 5.15 and proceeded to soundcheck with his band, going over the song ‘Talk To Me’ as they were teaching it to the new guitarist Todd. I watched them rehearse from the balcony section. It was quite a thrill seeing Ace on that stage. Unbeknownst to my colleagues on the tour, I have followed the man’s career since I was a mere 10 years old. But, I wasn’t to be star-struck in the slightest, there was much work to be done ahead.

Lui and I had to prepare for the VIP fans’ Meet & Greet with Ace Frehley at 5.30. Basically, 44 fans who each paid $450 to get to meet Ace, have two items signed and a photo by yours truly of them with their hero.

Ace showed up for the meet & greet a little later than expected (!) and generally, wasn’t in the best of moods. I felt this created a bit of a bad vibe as the promoter’s personnel tried to calm things down and appease the man to no avail. I think this made many of the fans a little on edge but once the meet & greet kicked into full-gear, things had settled down and everything was running as smooth as silk.

Thirty minutes later, 44 fans attended to, and about 500 photos later – the first meet & greet was over. I thanked Ace for his time and shook his hand. He seemed to be in a good mood now and was escorted away by his entourage.

An hour or so later it was about 7pm in Perth, 10pm in Melbourne. I needed to grab some dinner so Luisa and I headed down the streets of Fremantle for some sustenance.

Ace didn’t hit the stage till after 10 and indeed he and the band put in a great, great show. Albeit, one of the LOUDEST club gigs I’ve ever attended. One of the venue staff told me, he had been doing gigs for 14 years at this venue, no one ever came close to this volume. It was insane!

Show 1 was now over but I didn’t get back to my hotel room till 1.30am (Perth time) which is 4.30am Melbourne time. Phew!

Dumped the photos onto my Mac and then got some sleep before the flight back home for a couple of days…

DAY TWO & THREE: February 2 & 3, Travel Day and Day Off

Ugh! 4.5 hour flight back home for the next couple of days. Was great to be home and a chance to rest up a bit for the next dates…

DAY FOUR: February 4, Adelaide, South Australia

When it rains, it freaking fucking pours! Everything that could go wrong… DID! I felt like crawling into the fetal position and staying there forever by the end of the day. I was in pretty good spirits early but then I was at the mercy of cruel technology fuckups that left me rattled.

At the hotel, after marvelling at the really nice suite I was staying in, I proceeded to set up my Macbook when I was getting a ’service battery’ notification. A week after my warranty expires, my battery dies in this unibody Mac? Come on, you gotta be kidding me. Thinking I would hardly get to use the Mac, as was the case in Perth, I left my power-lead at home but had a fully charged Mac. Or so I thought. Battery was at zero when last night before I switched it off, it was fully charged. A fully charged unibody Mac gives you at least 6 hours use.

So there I was, no power. I found a Mac store just around the corner from my hotel and bought a power adaptor. Back in business.

I had a couple of hours to kill so I went for a walk through Rundle Mall checking out all the sights.

Our driver picked us up in the afternoon and we got to the venue to set up for the Adelaide Meet & Greet. The room they had sanctioned for this role, was dark and dimly lit. This was going to be a tough shoot but I was going to use my Flash light to combat this. Of course, my Flash refused to work. Never, ever, ever had any problems with it before. I could not get it to fire.

Ok. Let’s get as much light as possible happening here and I’ll do the rest with my camera settings. Did some practice shots. All was ok.

In comes Ace. After a little bit of small talk, we are ready to roll.

One person at a time comes in to get their stuff signed and a photo with Ace.

Bang! Camera freezes. I get an error message on my screen. ‘Err01′ lens communication error. Huh? What the? Quickly reseting the camera gets me back in action but the error message was plaguing me. Never had this problem before and I did not bring my back-up camera with me. Foolish. The shoot was excruciating for me. I had broken out into a sickly cold sweat. When everyone was congratulating themselves at the end of the session, I felt like I was gonna pass out. I don’t know how I managed it, but I got everyone photographed.

Thankfully, Ace was in better spirits today, unlike Perth so that made things a little easier for everyone.

Back at my hotel room, I decided I would get to the venue just before Ace hit the stage. Got myself some dinner and then went through all the days Meet & Greet photos. The photos were taken between 5 and 6pm. I had them online and ready for the fans to download by 9pm! How’s that for service?

I had left instructions to be picked up from the hotel at 9.30pm. But there was no sign of my driver.

Foolishly I was under the impression that Ace would be hitting the stage at 10.30. Wrong! He was on at 9.30.

I finally got to the venue and the band was already half-way through their set.

I went into the photo-pit to take some shots. Camera started playing up again. This was beginning to get so painfully frustrating and the absolute last thing I needed to be happening to me. I struggled to get any sort of shot and then I noticed Ace looking down at me waving his finger for me to stop taking photos. Fuck! I didn’t want to be pissing him off. I got the hell out of the pit as soon as he signalled.

There was some levity tho after the show. Ace’s bassist came over to me and had a laugh. “Ha! Ha! You got told off!” I said to him, “Dude, please apologize to Ace for me. I didn’t mean to piss him off. I shouldn’t have come into the pit well after the first three songs!” He told me not to worry and wanted to pass on his email address to me so I could send through some shots.

With Macbook battery dying, lens playing up, Ace giving me the no-no … what more could possibly go wrong?

I hit the sack. Distraught. Depressed. And totally down.

But worst was yet to come… much, much worse…

DAY FIVE: February 5, Melbourne, Victoria

I was glad to be heading home. This would give me some time to get my camera gear somewhat sorted. Throughout the course of the flight, I sat there silently planning in my head, how I would attack the day ahead. There was going to be a ton to do in a very, very limited timeframe.

We travelled with the band today and I passed on my email details to the guys and some URL’s for them to check out the shots.

As soon as we landed in Melbourne, I was on the Skybus heading to the city and then another bus ride home. I had 2 hours to get my other camera and 50mm lens for the meet & greet at 5pm. I got home. Grabbed my 50mm. Hugged the cat. Grabbed my spare camera. Had a quick shower. Tested the 50mm on the 5d. Worked perfect. Nothing wrong with the camera – but my 24-105mm looks like it is cactus. Hugged the cat one more time and sped off in my car to the Palace. Literally breakneck speed and trying hard to concentrate to make sure I had everything under control. The stress levels were astronomical, but I work my best when under pressure so it was all like some sort of organised, synchronised chaos!

Today’s Meet & Greet was probably the best of the tour. It all went as smooth as silk and I felt that I got the best photos so far. The fans were super cool, genuinely excited and created a fun, cool vibe for Ace. I think he dug it too.

Once the session was over, I had a few hours to kill before the gig. I organised a couple of show passes for two of my friends and then I went to see if I could get someone to look at my troublesome lens. Maybe it just needed a clean and I would be good to go with it for tonight’s show. Wishful thinking, but I had nothing to lose.

My worst suspicions were confirmed. The lens was shot and would need to go into Canon for repair. Exactly 1 year and 1 week old. Do they actually design and engineer these things to go kaput after the warranty? The serviceman told me as it was an L series lens and only just out of warranty, he didn’t believe that Canon would charge me.

On the spur of the moment, I decided to buy a 70-200mm lens. I’ve had my eye on it for a while but even though I wasn’t in a position to afford the freaking thing – I bought it. I’m sure I’ll be regretting this later but the deed was done… and I bought a new lens.

I grabbed a quick bite and headed back to the venue.

Seeing as Melbourne is my home town, I wanted to shoot Ace right here at the Palace. One of my fave venues for sure!

The place was absolutely packed but thankfully my Access All Areas pass got me in through doors I never knew existed. Feels so good to flash a pass and be treated like a king!

Once in the venue, one of my guests couldn’t get in to the venue. I rushed back through the backstage area, got to the front of the venue and finally got him through the doors. I was then on the phone with the tour manager who arranged for my other guest not to have such a problem.

Back inside, I was getting ready to shoot the gig when I was informed that I would be needed outside in the alley to shoot a fan with Ace. Due to a lack of communication, he missed out on his photo op so we arranged for Ace to meet him in the alley. Totally cool of Ace and the promoter and my colleague Luisa, to arrange this.

Showtime was about to hit.

I proceeded to shoot the first song when all of a sudden my camera was telling me that my card was full. Huh? I only took about 40 shots. How could it be full? It usually fits something closer to 1,000!

I panicked. I reached in my bag and pulled out my other card. The card I had shot the afternoon’s Meet & Greet with. I put the card in, scrolled through the shots… THERE WERE NO MEET & GREET PHOTOS THERE. GONE! VANISHED! Over 50 people has paid close to $500 to have their shot taken with Ace… and for some reason or another – my camera seemed to have formatted the card.

I came close to being ill. In a panic, I packed my gear and headed out of the venue missing what was a classic gig in the process.

I quickly drove home in a panic. How could I have let this happen to me? How could I have let down the promoters and the fans like this? To say I was devastated is a severe understatement. I woke up my girlfriend in a rage of pain and tears.

I was hard to console at this point. I was ready, then and there to never shoot another photo again.

I had blown it.

DAY SIX: February 6, Melbourne, Victoria

With a welcome day off, my girlfriend and I rushed to an electronics store to buy a card-reader. With a card reader, I could run some data recovery software and see if I could get the missing photos back. Surely this would work!

Back home, we loaded the two cards into the reader… ran the scan – it found everything, BUT the photos that I had lost.

More tears.

Composing myself, it was time to let the promoter know what had happened.

I was preparing myself for the worst. I shut the door in my study, sat down on the floor and dialled.

“I’ve lost all the Melbourne Meet & Greet photos…”

I was ready to be given the ass then and there but he was cool to me and told me to not let it get me down and that basically, the fans would be refunded the photo portion of their ticket and that the show must go on.

I humbly apologised a million times over but deep down inside, I knew I had let down so many people.

Sitting back at my desk I looked at the card that was reporting ‘Card Full’. It was a 1gb card. OF COURSE IT WAS FULL! I used the wrong card. I had 3 cards with me on tour… NOT 2. I had the 16gb card and the 8gb card! The 8gb card was what I used for the Meet & Greet(!!!!!)

I scurried to my camera bag. There she was! The 8gb card. I loaded it into the camera… BANG(!) and there they all were. All the Melbourne photos. All of ‘em. None of them lost. Not a single one.

More tears!

I quickly called the promoter again… STOP THE PRESSES! WE’RE BACK IN BUSINESS! I had all the shots! I got ‘em!

Relief! Overwhelming euphoric relief! I had been so frazzled by the death of my lens that I just wasn’t thinking straight.

The rest of this day off was just spent on an amazing high. I set about to relax (if I am capable of such a thing) and enjoy the day.

Tomorrow… Sydney!

DAY SEVEN: February 7, Sydney, New South Wales

With the shitstorm I had endured over the past two days, I was determined to enjoy the remaining two days of the tour. I think there was no possible way any human being would suffer any more misfortune.

I paid my dues. Paid them hard.

The next two days were to be fun, smooth and a success for all.

My girlfriend was to fly up to Sydney with me too today. She booked a flight yesterday and it was great to have her along for moral support and the like. I flew on the same plane as Ace this morning. Cruisy flight and we got to Sydney a little after 12. Whilst Ace was quickly escorted off the plane and securely taken to his car, myself and the tour manager jumped in our van and headed to our hotel.

A quick hello to some of the boys from the band in the lobby, I then settled in for an hour or so before having to head down to the Enmore for the Sydney Meet & Greet. Hung around for a couple of hours as we got everything ready. It was another successful session with the fans getting to spend some time with Ace and getting their stuff signed. It was a nice room to shoot in and for the most part, I felt I got at least one good shot of everyone with their hero.

I’ve been shooting multiple shots of each person as they sit with Ace and so far, they’ve all turned out to be cool.

I decided not to go to tonight’s show so after my Meet & Greet duties, I caught up with Sam and we had a nice, quiet dinner in Enmore. (One of my fave parts of Sydney! Possibly ‘cos it reminds me of Melbourne so much!)

After dinner, we decided to have a mellow night back in our hotel room.

I went through today’s shots, did some minor editing and then uploaded them to the promoter’s server. My work for the day was done.

Tomorrow Sam heads back to Melbourne and I will be doing the last night of the tour.

Very much looking forward to heading back home on Tuesday and taking it all in!

Tomorrow, Brisbane… the final leg of the tour…