Natasha Haws EP Launch and Stepping Stone Video

Today – I am really excited about seeing and photographing the super talented Natasha Haws EP launch at Sunderland Minster – which is a sell out. It will be a wonderful night.

Also I am so proud that the video I made ( with the help if some great people) for Natasha’s lead song on the EP Stepping Stone has over 2,000 views at the time of writing

See you there !

Collectors Club Photo Shoot Newcastle February 2012-3.jpg

Collectors Club Photo Shoot Newcastle February 2012-3.jpg, originally uploaded by david.wala.

Live Acoustic Fantasy Rainbow Location Video

A few weeks ago we filmed a live acoustic session with Fantasy Rainbow live by the seaside.

We really hit lucky with the weather, and the performance by Ollie and Sam was sublime.

There was a lot of ambient noise planes, jet skis, and motorbikes. We shot at sunset so we were chasing the last of the daylight so we only done two takes of each song. The performances were so good all the footage selected is from the first take of each song – a testament to the ability of these guys. If anyone knows how to get rid of the sound from that damn jet ski please get in touch.

I will never tire of hearing these songs.

These songs can be found on the Tiny Light’s record label bandcamp page .

This will always remind me summer to the North Sea coast in March 2012

Natasha Haws Stepping Stone Video

I was very pleased to get an opportunity to shoot the debut video of the local musical wunderkind* Natasha Haws, and only my second promo music video.
We discussed possible locations and style for the performance footage. Initially I was thinking of doing it in my studio where we could have complete control of the lighting and it would have been warm.The only place I was sure I did not want to film was on stepping stones. Eventually, we decided on shooting at the top of a fire escape in the center of Newcastle, on a cold and cloudy February day – it would have been great to have some sunshine but we are not in California. We filmed all afternoon, Natasha was super patient and we managed to get all the footage we needed. One of the highlights of the day was the improvisational skills used making a substitute guitar strap from some plastic fishing wire which was used on a previous photo shoot to tie balloons

The dancing was Natasha’s idea I had not filmed anything like that before. I did some research, and we done a some run throughs on the day of the shoot so we could all warm up. It took all day to get the footage we needed. On a separate note the video was filmed opposite ( on the other side of the river) the Music Box studios where the music was recorded – a nice piece of symmetry. The time and effort spent rehearsing was evident on the day – the dancers done a phenomenal job, and were an absolute pleasure to work with. The choreography and thought in matching the dance to the song works incredibly well.

The editing took hours and hours, special thanks to Natasha and Scott who came to my studio and helped out by selecting the dance footage ( without ever complaining about my coffee making skills).

Making a video is all about teamwork, I also must thank Daniel Robson, and Martin Emery for help on the shoot – they are always enthusiastic about getting the right results without ever complaining – thank you !

I know I made mistakes ( we all do), I am real fan of reflective writing and have made notes about everything that I done right and wrong – overall I am happy with the result, although I have to say I felt nervous about other people’s opinion. So far people have been very kind and positive about the video. Overall I hope we done this beautiful song justice – thank you Natasha.

The video is here:

We have also done a live session in my studio – here is Constant Fairytale

* I hope I am not being pretentious – I just seen an episode of Mad Men where Peggy Olsen is described the same way

Two Completely Different Gigs In One Amazing Night

Last night I was lucky enough to shoot the sell out Black Stone Cherry gig at Newcastle Academy, and the Ajimal single launch The Literary & Philosophical Society ( Lit and Phil).

I feel very lucky to be at both.

Personally it was so good to see Fran’s launch for the new Ajimal single and see so many people from Newcastle that I knew at the gig in the awesome Lit and Phil

I went from this:

Black Stone Cherry Newcastle Academy 19 March 2012

To This

Ajimal Newcastle Lit and Phil

It was a specialnight – I was also pleased to meet another exceptional talent from our region Nadine Shah – who was on before Ajimal.

We have an exciting music scene here in the north East of England

Never Play It Safe Safe – Symphonic Pictures Promo Shots – Spaghetti, Pancakes, Rats, Soup, and Other Shenanigans

Back in May 2011 it was a privilege to have Symphonic Pictures play their first gig at my Instamatic for the People exhibition opening. Therefore I was happy to be involved with doing the photography for their first set of press photographs.

When Johnny from the band contacted me with the idea/inspiration for the shots my first thoughts was that they would make an impact and I loved that they were not playing it safe.

It took a few weeks for the band to assemble props, to which I also contributed. We used a painted a background and tried to emulate the lighting of 1960s shoot by at times using just the modelling lights and other times flash. It was also an opportunity for me to shot with my medium format Mamiya RZ67 camera, and use some hard to find expired Agfa portrait film which I had saved for something special. The subdued colours also helped to give that retro feel to the images.

The shoot took 5 hours and we tried to pay attention to detail for each individual portrait. It was testament it was a relaxed atmosphere throughout and that we all committed to getting the exact images that we originally envisioned.

The images were then given to Paul Burgess Graphic Design to work his genius the lettering and finishing touches

I have to say it has been so amazing working with such a creative bunch of people.

Thank you

Weekend Update

I was reading an article recently about how music photographer’s should promote themselves. It made me realise that I should do more, although I do feel people will get sick of hearing the usual just shot this, done that etc. However if you do not promote yourself people will think that you have nothing going on.

Currently I am very busy with my photography I am shooting live gigs, doing promo videos, editing a five camera live video shoot that I directed, and doing album covers and press shots. I will be adding more information about these soon

This week I have photographed seven bands over three gigs. Some of the images are below:

So Many Wizards Head of Steam 8 March 2012

Brilliant Mind Head of Steam 8 March 2012

Symphonic Pictures Newcastle Academy 6 March 2012

You can see all my live shots on my Flickr site

I did have one disaster I shot a gig by Nero – who are DJ duo who stand at the top of a 7 metre plinth – and all you can see are there two heads above the parapet. Before the gig I tried without successa to get permission to get access to the balcony or stage so I could get some interesting shots. I have sent them to Newcastle Academy – but I doubt I will put them anywhere else. As ever I was prepared and knew what to expect and tookj my 70mm-200mm lens for the close up shots. I will learn from this and move on.

Here is one of the better images:

Nero Newcastle Academy 8 March 2012

They say you should end on a high. Back in January I done a video session with Tusk in my studio. I was pleased with the lighting and the black background, and the tight composition. I think they sound fantastic. We also done some photographs – here is one of them below:

Tusk at David Wala Photography studios. Newcastle upon Tyne January 2012

I am very proud of the video and the camera work of my team Daniel Robson, and Jill O’Donnell. I finally edited the first song this week.

Thank you for reading this – I will hopefully be updating with more things soon

This is what I call a weekend update

Howler In Session On Radio 1

http://www.bbc.co.uk/emp/external/player.swf

No self promotion in this post – just putting this up as these are one of the most exciting I have heard/seen for ages. This sounds amazing

Bridie Jackson and the Arbour Album Launch at Gateshead Sage Live Video

Back in January I filmed the Bridie Jackson and the Arbour gig to launch their debut album Bitter Lullabies. This was a sold out gig at Gateshead Sage

It was a real challenge there was four of us filming the gig with five cameras. This was first big live shoot that I have done, but I feel our research and preparation helped give us some excellent footage. We also came down early and filmed some of the soundcheck.

Some of the results can be found here:

For my first attempt at filming an entire gig I am happy with the results – but know I can keep improving.

As with any video shoot, it is the editing that can take up your time. However there is one advantage when I saw Bridie play at The Central Bar in Gateshead I know all the songs word for word.