Thank you for the clarification, I was typing that response on my phone with a broken screen hence the spelling mistakes.

So I am correct, if a security person helds you against your will for photography reasons, then call the police & tell them you are being held against your will. I would also suggest when the police turn up you mention to the police officer that the security person is waisting police time by calling them.

a very simple procedure if this ever hapens to you.

if you are with held by secourity in a public place, note public place not private property call the p police & report you are beimn g witheld by persons unknown & feel in danger. the police have to respond as you reported a crime.

a security guard has no powers to touch you or hold you against your will. they can make a citizens arresy if you have commited a crime. but you must have commited a crime.

Love some of the prices quoted on those images... If only...

Oh here is a video from when they played Manchester in October, sounds not to good.. But shows you how difficult it is to shoot.
link

Access All Areas pass for the NME Awards Tour in Manchester last night. So on stage for headline act Crystal Castles, if you like The Cure you will love these.

Lead Singer Alice glass injured her ankle the night before in Glasgow, but wanted to carry on with the tour.

Tech details, this show has non stop smoke & strobe lights so manual focussing & fill in flash essential. Band would only allow photography from the left hand side of the stage, so no pit shooting...

Flash on manual mode 1/128
ISO 400
Shutter 1/80
Aperture f/4

thank you it was a pleasure

the price of manual 1.4 lenses isnt that far away from af 1.4 so sell them all & get an fa 50mm

yes you arr right about smaller festivals. my favourite shoot of the year is dot 2 dot festival, i do nottingham but they do them in manchester & bristol now. basicaly a load of gigs in various venues. fantastic grass roots events with loads of upcoming bands. shot mumford & sons there 2 years ago in front of maube 75 people, they will be headlining a few festivals this year, my guess will be leeds reading weekends.

just found out am shooting nme tour in manchester tonight so that should be fun...

Can only get permission for shooting large shows if you have an agency or publication behind you, even then that is no guarantee.

Standing in front of bands like The Stranglers is part & parcel of the job. They are actually easy compared to say Kasabian whose audience just love throwing booze & other liquids around The Stranglers audience tends to be little more mature shall we say, so don't really jump around much

If you are interested in doing this type of photography then the common route is shoot pub bands where camera access is relatively easy, get used to working in low light with no flash, get a portfolio, work for an online zine who can get you into shows. I worked for a festival publication so got to shoot lots of bands under lots of conditions, building up my portfolio on the way, then approach mags & agencies with your now even better portfolio.

Hopefully by the time you get to working with an agency you have a huge list of press company contacts, as this business is more about getting into the show than actually shooting. When you do get into the show be ready for the luxury of first three songs & no flash!!! Sometimes they may even give you just one song or in the case of Stevie Wonder at Glastonbury last year 90 seconds

Link to my portfolio is in my sig below, but hasn't been updated for nearly a year now...

ve never met anyone like this, curious yes but serious photographers, never.