Chagstock Festival - 21st and 22nd July 2017

I was first invited to photography Chagstock back in 2015.  I remember it being a cracking festival and thanks to great stage management and timing it made covering all the bands really easy.  I was unfortunately unable to cover it in 2016, but when I was asked to photograph Chagstock 2017 there was no way I was going to miss it.

I could go on and on about what a great festival it was this year, or how the crowd were amazing, or that band lineup was awesome, but I'm going to let the photos do the talking for me.  So enjoy this bumper gallery of some of my favourite images from Chagstock 2017.

Well, I hoped you liked that small selection of images from Chagstock 2017.  I'll be back in a few weeks time with an even bigger gallery of images from the Beautiful Days festival!

My Top 5 Bands of 2015

Every year I get the chance to photograph a stack load of bands.  It's hard work but it can also be great way to discover new music.  Most of the time I'll be familiar with the band, especially the headliners, but every now and again a band I haven't heard of blows me away.

This special blog post celebrates those bands.  These are the artists that I remember the most from 2015 either through their music, stage presence or combination of both!  

First up in my list is The Worried Men who were supporting Jefferson Starship at the Exeter Phoenix back in February.  Lead singer Jamie really owned the stage and put on a great show!  See my blog post of the gig here.

The Worried Men

Jumping forward to June and I was back at the Exeter Phoenix to shoot The Sherpas.  Cornish band Auction for the Promise Club were first on and their music really hit a note with me (excuse the pun!).  You can also see my blog post of the gig here.

Auction for the Promise Club

Covering festivals is a lot of work but when I shot Moriaty at Glas-Denbury in July I was blown away by the shear energy of the band.  Talk about putting on a show!  You can see lots more images from this festival by clicking here.

Moriaty

About a week later I was at another festival, Chagstock.  You can see all my images from Chagstock here, but the standout act for me was Gaz Brookfield.  I loved the lyrics of his songs and as soon as I got home picked up his live album. 

Gaz Brookfield

Finally, and more recently, I saw Beardyman perform at the Exeter Phoenix in November.  To say that Beardyman is a talent would be an understatement.  His ability to mix up comedy with all sorts of music genres was just a pleasure to experience.  You can see my blog post of the gig here.

Beardyman

If 2015 was anything to go by, 2016 should be a bumper year of discovering new music!

Finally, be sure to check out My Top 10 Images of 2015 blog post.

My Top 10 Images of 2015

As the end of 2015 approaches I like to take some time to look at all the images I took over the year.  Looking at my 2015 collection I realise that I've had a very productive year.  At the end of 2014 I wrote about my Favourite Images of 2014, a collection of my 5 personal favourites.  I soon came to the conclusion that narrowing 2015 down to 5 images would be impossible.  

So to celebrate 2015 I've selected 10 of my personal favourites.  This gallery of images are the photographs that I'm either very pleased with (artistically speaking) or strike some sort of personal chord.  An image should spark an emotional response and for me these images do just that.

I really hope you enjoyed my selection but if you want to know what my favourite bands were, please check out My Top 5 Bands of 2015 blog post.

See you all in 2016!

The Unplugged Blog is One Year Old!

A year ago today I started The Unplugged Blog as a quick way to talk about and share the images I had recently captured.  My first blog post shared some images from the Lewis Watson gig at the Exeter Phoenix - you can read it here.

One year and 24 blog posts later I've shared images from The South, The Boomtown Rats, Europe, Grandmaster Flash and UB40!  It's been a blast.

For those who read my blog on a regular basis you'll know that I like to share my images as soon as I can.  And while I will post images direct and live from a gig on my Twitter feed, you can't beat the quality of a fully processed image from the computer.  So when I get back from a gig the first thing I do is catalog and select my best images.  I will then normally select one or two of my best images from the shoot to share on my blog.  It's important to share some images while the gig is still fresh in everyone's mind!

So to celebrate The Unplugged Blog's first birthday I've collated a selection of some of my favorite images.  Not only are there images from previous blog posts but I've included some images from gigs before I'd even started the blog.  So have a good look through and you might see some images previously unshared!

I hope you enjoyed this selection of images, I certainly enjoyed taking them.  Remember to keep checking my Twitter feed and The Unplugged Blog for all the latest images!

See you next time!

Chagstock 2015

It had been a busy week for me and my energy levels were low.  Well, that was until I arrived at Chagstock last Friday evening!  As soon as I picked up my photo pass and got through the gate I could tell it was going to be great weekend full of festival fun.

I spent a lot of time wondering around the site and there was a really positive vibe about the place.   From the young to the old, everyone was just on a mission to have a good time.  Hopefully you can see this from this selection of some of my favourite people and crowd shots:

As with my last festival post I'm going to keep this post light on words and let the pictures do the talking when it comes to the music.  However, expect a full review from my friends over at MusicMuso really soon, so keep an eye out for it.  In the mean time, here are some images of the bands and artists that made it such a great festival:

Chagstock was amazing.  No doubt.  It was hard work (believe it or not), but very satisfying.  A great mix of amazing musicians and festival folk really made it a pleasure to shoot.  I've still got lots more photos to process so keep an eye on my Twitter feed and I'll let you know when I've posted them.

I'm away to catch up on some sleep but see you next time on the Unplugged Blog!