Exclusive James Zabiela B + W Shots

Its been a busy month for Pioneer with the launch of the new CDJ- 2000, which i must say are amazing

The CDJ-2000 brings a number of enhancements over its predecessor.For starters, it has a touch-sensitive area called the "Needle Pad," which lets users jump to a specific song point with the flick of a finger. Secondly, the turntables can now act as a MIDI controller for other devices, with all of its 35 buttons at the ready for musical manipulation. Lastly, it comes equipped with Pioneer's "Pro DJ Link," which lets you plug and external data source into one turntable, and access that data on any other CDJ-2000 turntable linked up to the system.

Dj James Zabiela has been a major part of the design and testing of the product, so I went round to his house to get some fly on the wall pics of him using the kit. Decided to go for a grainy Black and white feel, all round I think everybody is very happy with the results.

Space Closing Ibiza 2009

One of my fav jobs of the year, Space Closing for the Pioneer Pro DJ Calender 2010

Having been to Ibiza many times, this years closing party was the strangest as it RAINED!! From my point of view it did put a dampener (sorry for the pun) on the event, as my objective was to shoot the crowd during the day under a blue sky with the sun shining. Unfortunately most people were in rain macs all day so I held back on doing lots of crowd shots.

The music through out the event was amazing and the attendance was around 15,000! I again enjoyed using the 5D Mark II as throughout the night I shot HD film as well. The footage will be used for a film that will be shown on the DJ sounds website in the future.

I cant really put too many pics online yet as they have not been approved by the artists or Pioneer, but here are a few of my favs!!

I love the one of Steve Lawler playing to the whole Flight Arena, managed to get a really cool vantage point for this. Very Epic!!

Also there is a pic of all the Pioneer guys who are a pleasure to work with.

Florence + The Machine

After getting the album Lungs a month before this gig I was happy when I got the photopass. Florence + The Machine are having it right off and Florence Welch is in great demand in the music scene at the moment. Her soaring, epic vocals, quirky melodies and self-contained musical world have already won her the 2009 Critics Choice Award at the Brits. Some compare her to Kate Bush. You’ll also find touches of Tom Waits and Nick Cave in her dark visions, and if you heard a little of Bjork too, she’d find it a compliment.

The gig was at the Opera House in Bournemouth. The venue has just completed a £3.5 million restoration and refurbishment project. Built in 1895, the Victorian venue has entertained thousands of locals through the years. It looks amazing and will look forward to shooting down there again in the future, as they have loads of good gigs coming up!!

Natalie Imbruglia - London

Got a cool job in to shoot the lovely Natalie Imbruglia at one of her warm up shows before the launch of her new album Come to Life

The gig was at The Lexington in North London. It was nice to be at a gig with only 200 people. 

Oasis – Wembley Stadium

I got a photo pass through ilikemusic and could not wait to get down to Wembley. As a massive Oasis fan I was so looking forward to doing this job. Especially with Kasabian and The Enemy on the bill. Was great to see the band back at Wembley, I went back in 2001 when they last played there and that rocked.

Had a great shoot through out the evening and am very happy with the images especially of Oasis, Liam was on top form.  I have found out that the shots will be used on the Pretty Green website, which is Liam’s new clothing range. So really happy about that.

Paul Oakenfold and Lenny Kravitz @ Brixton Academy

I have not seen Paul Oakenfold for a long time. The last few years he has moved over to LA and has spent most of his time working on film scores, supporting some of the worlds biggest music artists (Madonna, U2 etc) and holding down a residency in Las Vegas. On this occasion he was supporting Lenny Karvitz at Brixton Academy. I was commissioned again from Pioneer to photograph Paul, as he was using all Pioneer equipment.

 I managed to get a pass to shoot him on the stage, which was great as I got some great shots of him using the kit. He was using DVDs as well as normal cads player and had a custom made booth, which had visual screens on the front.

 

 Then I stayed around and got some great pics of Lenny Kravitz for the site Ilikemusic. He rocked as soon as he came on stage. Was a great gig and the crowd was really up for it.

Global Underground - NU Breed Sultan

After the success of the Jim Rivers Nu Breed release in the spring, I was really happy that Global Underground commissioned me to photograph the follow up release with Canadian DJ Sultan providing the mix this time. As you can see from the pics he had a distinctive look and was great to photograph. The album is out on Global Underground and is released at the end of the summer.