Pop Cop Photography Competition!

Hey everyone,
I'm back with another one of those short updates before I post any of those exciting photos that I was talking about in my previous entry.
Last year I decided to enter Pop Cop's annual music photography competition, now I'm not really one for putting my photos into competitions and that's mostly because I don't get the time to, however since I had a good spare bit of time at the end of last year I thought it would be fun to enter a couple of my photos. Luckily enough my photograph of Purson managed to get into their honourable mentions section which is pretty awesome considering last year I only took photos of less than a handful of gigs and didn't have many shots to choose from to enter!
Below is what my photo looks like featured on their website, if you want to check out the other lucky entries for the competition, go to Pop Cop's website at www.thepopcop.co.uk

I can't wait to get back into photographing more gigs again but seeing as it's taking some time to settle into my new home, it may take a while but I'll be back soon enough!
Nicola. x

2013 Music Photography Highlights!

Hey everyone,
Well it's that time again folks, the time of reflection upon 2013. It's been another good year for photographing gigs albeit a slightly smaller amount of work than last year due to having a busy personal life but hopefully that will change in the near future.
Let's start off with the first gig I photographed this year, the almighty Kerrang Tour 2013 at the 02 Academy in Glasgow, quite a big one and I was super happy I managed to get on the bill for this. I had the pleasure of photographing Fearless Vampire Killers once again who are always a great act to work with, aswell as Tonight Alive and Chiodos who I hadn't previously seen but I thoroughly enjoyed photographing both bands and although the lighting was a tad red and dark I still managed to get some great shots, my personal favourite being the one of Chiodos at the start of this post.

The next gig was later in April, I photographed the lovely Purson at King Tuts in Glasgow, they are a relatively new group from London and as I've been told the photos do the speaking for themselves with this one, especially the first one below of Rosie, another personal favourite of mine from the year. The band have so much emotion and passion when they perform and it really shows through when photographing them. The lighting for this gig again was mostly dark and red so it was a minor challenge but I'm still glad of the outcome, and the band liked the photos as they posted them on their social sites and my Flickr page somehow managed to achieve near 500 views on each photo in a day, so I was really happy!

In July, I had the opportunity of photographing Heaven's Basement at Ivory Blacks in Glasgow, and I was super excited for this gig as I'd been wanting to photograph the band since earlier in the year. The show was absolutely amazing, infact one of the best I've been to for a long time. Again, the lighting was fairly dark but nothing you wouldn't expect in a smaller venue, aside from that I was really pleased with the shots I managed to achieve. I'm also more than happy that the band's guitarist used one of the photos for his Facebook page, it's always great to see that the musicians themselves appreciate the photos!
These shots were all taken for Is This Music? Magazine accompanied with reviews of the show that I have written so feel free to check those out if you'd like to read more about the gigs.
To conclude my post, here's to another of year of photography ahead and I wish everyone all the best for 2014.
Nicola. x

Instagram.

Hey everyone,
Just another one of those short and sweet updates before I get into my end of the year summary post! Some of you will probably have already noticed that I've finally joined the iPhone pack...who would have thought it?!
Needless to say I've also jumped on the bandwagon and created an Instagram profile, I never realised how addicting it could be and so far I've posted a photo every day, if you want to check out my page the link is http://www.instagram.com/nicolasharkeyphoto and be sure to follow it for more updates.
Scroll left and right on the image below to see a quick view of my latest photos!



Nicola. x

Photobox Prints & New Frames.

Hi everyone,
Remember those frames that I have been repeatedly talking about since Christmas?...and I keep saying I'll eventually get photo prints for them?...well I finally managed to choose the shots that I wanted to be printed and sent them off to Photobox!

The photos that I've posted merely show what the frames and prints look like together and not on actual display, I never took any shots of what they look like in my room as I'm going to be moving house soon however when I eventually do move there will be an updated room tour post, so stay tuned! Anyway, I hadn't overly planned out which photos I wanted in any particular frame but I definitely knew of two that I wanted, which included a poster print of my current favourite live music photo of the guitarist from Heaven's Basement, really happy with that one and the other poster print was another one of my favourites, the 'Edward Scissorhands' mansion from a few blog posts previous. I absolutely love the way these two turned out with their frames.

The smaller shots were all random picks really, the two at the very start of this post are (left-right) a photo of Queen's View in Pitlochry and the 1920's-esque Grosvenor cinema in Glasgow. The combined oval shaped frame below was a harder task to choose photos for, I quite liked the thought of having another live music photo so I picked this one of Billy Talent's vocalist. The other shot is totally random because I couldn't think of anything better at the time haha, but I actually like the way it looked in the end.
Overall, I'm really happy with the prints and the way they all turned out, I would highly suggest to check out Photobox as they are a great company. The photos are all high quality and great colour, plus they arrived super quickly, so it's great if you're needing them quick for exhibitions etc. I'm definitely going to be ordering more soon as I don't have nearly enough live music shots printed so more of those will be on my list!

Let me know if you've framed any of your photos recently, I love looking at other photographer's work and being inspired! Hope my post has helped anyone that is looking to get their photos printed aswell.
Nicola. x

Heaven's Basement, Ivory Blacks Glasgow, Live Photos.

Hi everyone, I recently went along to photograph Heaven's Basement at Ivory Blacks in Glasgow at the start of July, and I'd actually wanted to photograph them since earlier in the year but sadly their gig clashed with another show I was covering at the time so I had to give it a miss however I'm glad I've finally managed to get around to seeing these guys live.
First things first, the gig was absolutely amazing and I'm already obsessing about wanting to see these guys again! If you're following me on Facebook/Twitter you'll already know that I've said their performance was the best I have seen in years so I was already half planning to go see them the next day after at their show in Aberdeen but I thought that might have seemed a little bit obsessive...haha, but next tour I'll be there again for sure! If anyone wants to read what I thought about the gig in full, I've written a review for Is This Music so check it out at this link, www.isthismusic.com/heavens-basement


Aside from the gig itself, photographing it was a little harder than I'd imagined, for starters it was a sold out show so the place was absolutely packed and secondly Ivory Blacks didn't actually have a proper photo pit, instead it was filled with all types of technical equipment however the right side of the pit was empty so...I luckily managed to squeeze myself inbetween the barrier and I had enough room to photograph from there, which to be honest worked out pretty well in the end although at one point the guitarist got a little too close with his guitar and I feared for my camera's life...it was almost a goner but thankfully it's still in one piece, haha!
The full set of photos are online at my Flickr page so make sure to check them out, http://www.flickr.com/nicolasharkeyphotography
Nicola. x

New Business Card Samples from Moo.

Hey everyone, after months of talking about new business cards I finally finished off the design and ordered the 10 free set from Moo.com last week and they actually arrived by that very weekend!
I'm extremely happy with them and the quality is unbelievable, especially in comparison to my previous set that were printed by another company who may have been a little cheaper but I would say it's definitely worth paying a little more if you're interested in setting a good example with appearance and aesthetics.
I also managed to choose the free sample pack, I'm not sure if that is always included with the 10 business cards as I actually clicked onto the sample pack first by mistake and never cleared the cart before ordering but hey...it was free aswell so I'm not too bothered, plus it gave me the chance to look at the other textures/designs/luxe business card options, which were all lovely aswell but I think I'm still happy with the classic matte look.





I decided to design the whole thing myself and chose large photos for the back to showcase my photography, I hadn't previously done this with my old set so I was super excited to try it out and I'm more than happy with the results. Each card has a different shot on the back and I didn't originally plan out exactly which 10 photos I wanted so I kind of just rolled with it at the time choosing a few favourites and some random ones for testing. Incase you're wondering the 'Moo.com' logo on the photos are only on the sample versions and aren't printed on the cards if you buy them which I think is pretty fair I would say.





Of course I'll be buying my first set of 50 very soon, and then I'll finally be able to hand them out instead of being super embarrassed about the old design I originally started out with, haha.
Let me know what you think about my new design and if you've updated your business card recently.
Nicola. x

Purson, King Tuts, Glasgow, Live Photos.

Hey everyone,
It seems that I haven't posted on here for a couple of months, but I assure you I've been working away all the same. Recently I photographed a band called Purson at King Tuts in Glasgow, they were supporting an American group called Astra. Both bands are heavily inspired by the 1970's and psychedelia, which to be honest is totally different to the groups I usually photograph so it was a lot of fun. You may recognise the singer of Purson from some of my older photos, Rosalie was previously in a band called Ipso Facto who I have photographed back in 2009 just before they broke up so it was good to finally check out her new band and from what I have heard so far I am already fairly impressed, as were most of the crowd at the gig.

There's a few more shots over on my Flickr page so make sure to check them out aswell, http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicolasharkeyphotography, and as always stay tuned for more updates.
Thanks,
Nicola. x

Kerrang Tour 2013, 02 Academy Glasgow, Live Photos.

Hey everyone,
Finally back with some live music shots for you all. I recently went along to photograph and review the Kerrang Tour 2013, it's infact my first gig of the year and it feels good to be photographing music again. It was an awesome show but if you want to check out what I had to say about it, go and have a read of my photoreview for Is This Music at, http://www.isthismusic.com/kerrang-tour (coming soon)
Onto the show's layout etc...firstly I must admit that the lighting was pretty horrible, most of the time it was red and many music photographers will agree with me that 99% of the time that's a bad thing and also means most of the photos go in the bin...however I was actually pleased with most of the red shots for once, and some of them have become my new favourites!

I've already posted a couple of the photos on Tumblr and it's fairly easy to see that Tonight Alive have the biggest fanbase, one of the shots of their singer has already managed to reach 151 notes, which is totally crazy considering I don't have many people added on my account over there, haha. Anyway, there's a few more than what I've posted on here so if you'd like to check out the whole set from the night, go over to my Flickr page, http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicolasharkeyphotography, hopefully it won't be long before I'm photographing another gig again, and I'll be back with a blog post for you all very soon! I'll leave you now with one of my favourite shots of Chiodos from the Kerrang Tour.
Thanks,
Nicola. x

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year for 2013!

Hey everyone, I hope you are all having an awesome holiday! Even though it's still a couple of days before Christmas, I thought I would post this now...at the end of every year I create a video to summarize my photography, and I have finally managed to finish 2012's video. I hope you all enjoy watching it, go check it out!

Also, I want to say a massive thanks to everyone that views my blog regularly, the numbers on my stats keep getting bigger and bigger and it means a lot that you're all viewing my work every day!
Thanks again,
Nicola. x

A Recap Of 2012.

It's that time of the year again everyone, we have reached christmas and it will officially be 2013 in a few days time...crazy isn't it?! So I thought it was only right to make a blog post recap with my photography of 2012, I love looking through and reading other photographer's recap posts, so I hope you enjoy mine aswell (it will be a long one so sit back and relax with a cup of tea).

Starting off 2012, I photographed All Time Low at the 02 Academy in January. It was my first shoot at a larger venue so the amount of energy and buzz I received from the crowd and the band was incredible, everyone was really into the music and it was such an extraordinary experience...the whole time I was photographing during the first three songs I wasn't even managing to stand still due to the crowd bouncing up and down behind me, it was literally crazy!...Overall, I have to say that All Time Low have definitely been one of my favourite bands to photograph this year.

Next, I photographed Panic At The Disco, only a few days after at the Barrowlands in Glasgow. I must admit, it's not one of my favourite venues for shooting due to the weird scaffolding in the photo pit that I guess is either holding the stage together or railings back for the crowd, not sure but it's definitely a hard place to get moving in! However aside from that it was a pretty fun gig to shoot. The band are great entertainers so it made for some awesome photos.

For a long time I have wanted to go to a Mystery Jets gig, so finally in April I managed to photograph them at their Electric Circus show in Edinburgh, which is also one of my favourite venues in the capital. Once again, another great show to shoot and I definitely loved the Southern vibe they were supporting. I was also pretty happy that I managed to get a direct eye contact photo with their drummer Kapil, those type of candid moments are normally quite hard to catch at a show.

At the start of June, I went along to the 02 ABC2 in Glasgow to photograph Fearless Vampire Killers who were supporting William Control, I'd never actually seen FVK before so I was totally blown away by how incredible they were live. I also took a couple of shots of WC himself, and I thought his set was absolutely amazing, I had previously seen WiL before when he was with his band Aiden however I hadn't seen him perform as William Control, so it was really good to see the contrast of both groups.

Next up was Combichrist's show at the Arches in Glasgow later in June, as you may already know I never managed to hang around and catch their set that night...however I did manage to photograph a couple of the support bands so it was all good. Xavia were the first act and then Surgyn who are from my hometown in Dundee! They both put on equally amazing sets.

A band I have always wanted to photograph since I heard their music for the first time in 2003 were Billy Talent. I luckily managed to photograph them at The Liquid Room in Edinburgh, the show was part of the Rock n' Roll Damnation tour in August. The lighting was absolutely incredible and perfect for photographing the band, the shots I photographed at this show are actually among my all time favourites that I have ever taken.

A few days later I photographed Fearless Vampire Killers again, this time the gig was at King Tuts in Glasgow and was also a part of the Rock n' Roll Damnation tour. I had the whole photo pit to myself at this show, which rarely happens these days so it was pretty good to be able to move freely without feeling like you might bump into anyone whether it may be crew or photographers. Once again the band's set was amazing, and I can imagine that these guys are going to be huge very soon!

In October I went along to photograph Young Guns at the 02 ABC in Glasgow, which was part of the Vans Off The Wall Music Night tour. I only managed to photograph two songs as there were too many crowdsurfers by the third and the security had to tell us to leave, therefore I never got as much shots as I would have liked, but safety has to come first in the pit! However, Young Guns put on an awesome show so I was more than chuffed by the end of the night.

The last band I photographed of 2012 were the wonderful Billy Talent, I had the amazing opportunity of photographing the group again at their 02 ABC show in Glasgow on the Rock Sound Riot tour. I deeply love this band so it was really incredible to take some shots of them again when they came back to Scotland. I look forward to seeing them the next time they visit here. It was a fun gig to shoot, and I brought my new equipment with me, and I'm really happy with the results.

So here's to 2013...I can't wait to take more photos with my new camera set-up! I definitely want to try out some new ideas and generally get a little bit more creative with my work, whether it be in music photography or even landscape shots...2013 is the year to be creative I say!
Nicola. x

Billy Talent, 02 ABC Glasgow, Live Photos.

Hey everyone, a couple of weeks ago I photographed Billy Talent at one of their shows again, this time around it was at their 02 ABC Glasgow gig. The show was actually a part of the Rock Sound Riot Tour 2012, so I think Don Broco and Awolnation were both supporting, but by the time I arrived in Glasgow I only managed to catch Awolnation's set before Billy Talent came on.
I brought my new kit with me so it was actually the first time I had used this newer setup for photographing a gig, and even though I had already tested out the settings on a couple of location shoots, I was still a little bit worried of how it would work out especially when I'm so used to my old kit, however I had tried out all of the possible settings well before the show and luckily everything worked out fine!

So onto photo pit time, photographer's were offered the opportunity of shooting with flash for Billy Talent's set, which is completely amazing and not something that often happens at gigs and as many photographer's know it's always good to be able to use flash as a back-up plan. However, consequently in the end I didn't even need to use it, so it was all good either way. After the three songs I photographed were over, I watched Billy Talent's whole set and it was absolutely amazing! They put on a hell of an awesome show, and I encourage anyone who has the opportunity to see these guys to go and check them out. It was without a doubt, one of the best concerts I have seen for a long time. If anyone would like to view the entire photo set of the show then go over to my Flickr page, www.flickr.com/photos/nicolasharkeyphotography
Thanks to Dara for the photo pass for this gig!

Nicola. x

Young Guns, 02 ABC Glasgow, Live Photos.

Hey everyone,
A couple of weekends ago I went along to photograph Young Guns at their Vans 'Off The Wall' tour show at the 02 ABC in Glasgow. This time the review is going to be compiled as a photoreview for Is This Music, which is basically centered around the photos with a quick few words about the bands set, so it will look a little different to my normal live reviews. If you want to check it out, it will be online soon at, http://www.isthismusic.com
Otherwise if you want a quick lowdown about the gig read on now...I arrived at the venue later on so I was roughly there about the time We Are The In Crowd were starting and I watched their full set and it was pretty good, which is surprising because I used to think they were way too similar to Paramore but I quite enjoyed their set. So when I went to photograph Young Guns, around their second song crowdsurfers were going crazy so the security told us to leave the pit and I missed the third song to photograph but luckily I managed to get enough shots in the first two. I then stayed afterwards and watched Young Guns entire set and I was really impressed, they are amazing live! If you get the chance to see them then I advise you to GO! I would definitely go back and see them again!
If anyone is interested in looking at the whole photo set, all shots are on my Flickr page at, http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicolasharkeyphotography

Nicola. x

Fearless Vampire Killers, King Tuts Glasgow, Live Photos.

Hey everyone,
Another super quick blog post with a few photos of Fearless Vampire Killers, at their headline King Tuts show in Glasgow for the Rock n' Roll Damnation Fest. Once again, as well as photographing the gig, I also reviewed the band's set for Is This Music Magazine, so if you want to check it out the link is, http://www.isthismusic.com/fearless-vampire-killers
Not sure if anyone has noticed yet, but I have new lens!! I tried it for the first time at the Billy Talent gig and also this one, and I really like it. It takes much sharper photos, and definitely looks a lot more wide-angle than all of my previous super close shots, which is always a plus as it's incredibly hard trying to focus on band members with a close lens...try it, then you'll know what I'm talking about. Sadly I never managed to get any photos of FVK's drummer this time around, but it was literally impossible with the amount of smoke that was constantly taking over the stage! King Tuts...get it sorted, and add some lighting on the front too :)
Anyway, hope you all enjoy the photos, and there's a few more on my Flickr account aswell, http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicolasharkeyphotography
Nicola. x

Billy Talent, The Liquid Room Edinburgh, Live Photos.

Hey everyone,
It's time for another one of those quick blog posts!
I had the amazing opportunity of photographing one of my favourite bands again a few weeks ago, and this time around it was Billy Talent! The show was at The Liquid Room in Edinburgh, which is such a lovely little intimate venue! Once again, as well as photographing the gig, I also reviewed the band's performance so if you want to check that out, go over to Is This Music's website for more info... http://www.isthismusic.com/billy-talent-2


...as you can probably tell, the lighting was absolutely amazing, a photographer's dream. It's ashame that
all gigs don't have such good lighting as it would definitely make editing photos a much easier task.
Anyway, I hope you all enjoy looking at the photos and reading the review!
There will be another post soon for a gig I photographed a few days after the Billy Talent show, so as you could imagine, I have been fairly busy with the both and everything else in everyday life, but they will be online soon, so keep watching :) and if you want to have a look at the rest of the Billy Talent photos, go to my Flickr page at, http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicolasharkeyphotography

Nicola. x

Surgyn, The Arches Glasgow, Live Photos.

Back with photos of Surgyn at The Arches in Glasgow, supporting Combichrist.
These guys are actually from Dundee, my hometown...but I hadn't actually heard of them before this show...I think I need to get out more haha or maybe stop travelling elsewhere for gigs!
However, if you haven't heard of Surgyn, go check out their music! It's good to see local acts on tour with bands like Combichrist.

If you want to view the full set you know what to do, my Flickr page has all of the photos from the show http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicolasharkeyphotography Have a look, I'm actually starting to make use of my pro account now!
Hopefully I'll have even more photos soon :)
Nicola. x

Xavia, The Arches Glasgow, Live Photos.

Another quick blog post with some photos of local acts who were supporting Combichrist at The Arches in Glasgow. Firstly to fill you in, I never managed to actually get photos of Combichrist in the end as I had to leave early and missed their set...kinda gutted about that however I did get photos of two of their support bands.
So this group were the first support of the night and are called Xavia, I believe they are from Glasgow. If you haven't heard of them already you should check out their music on their website, they're pretty good.

Lighting was actually great for The Arches, never shot a gig at this venue before so I was quite surprised...although they need to tone down on the strobe lighting...it's impossible to take photos in, timing is key! Anyway, if you want to view the full set from this show, go to my Flickr page at, http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicolasharkeyphotography
I'll have another post soon with photos of Surgyn, stay tuned.
Nicola. x