2018
This first full year as a concert photographer for Shoot Me Again has been so awesome. No less than 239 galleries are up on the Shoot Me Again website! Besides, I shot some more shows for my personal account, the picture galleries figuring on my website! In total I guess I’ve got over 250 galleries, some bands I got to shoot 2 or 3 times.
In 2017 I got to shoot mostly smaller venues and “smaller” shows, but this year I got the chance so shoot plenty of large venues like Lotto Arena, Poppodium 013, Palladium or 02 Shepherds’s Bush Empire! I’ve photographed shows in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and England! In February it was so awesome to be able to shoot one of my all-time favourite bands Hell Is For Heroes 3 nights in a row! I had seen them several times, mainly in London, but they were so damn good in February! Around that time I also got to shoot my other all-time favourite BoySetsFire 3 times!
At the end of the year there was this one band I really wanted to shoot because of their energy and message: Fever 333. I loved their music instantly. How awesome it was to be able to shoot their gig in support of Bring Me The Horizon, although I wasn’t allowed to move around freely in the photo pit. I love my pics! To see and photograph Nathan Gray solo, I had to go to a church and to enter a cave, both locations you wouldn’t immediately call concert locations, but it was awesome, just like his first solo show in Cologne. Goosebumps and so intense, so glad I could be there!
In Summer I got the chance to shoot festivals like Jera On Air, Sjock Festival, Lokerse Feesten and Ieperfest, which was really amazing as so many great bands play these festivals. Besides, the light is usually better. Later in the year there was also Groezrock Indoor & The Sound of Revolution.
Besides regular shares of my pictures by bands or band members (for instance Lacuna Coil, Employed To Serve, Spoil Engine and many more), A picture of me was used for a tour poster of one of my favourite artists: Nathan Gray!
One thing I really didn’t and still don’t appreciate is the “violent dancing” at hardcore shows. I really don’t mind a moshpit and people doing their thing in the space given by the other people in the tent or venue, but if you start punching and kicking everyone you see intentionally, than you’re just an asshole. Some people just want to watch their favourite band without having to check every two seconds if someone is going to kick or punch them. Also jumping from the stage into the crowd like a karate kid might badly injure people who didn’t see you coming. You can have your ‘fun’, but be aware of all people and show some respect.
As a photographer it is even harder because you have to watch what’s happening on the stage and deal with the low light conditions, which requires quite some focus and anticipation, you are busy trying to capture the best of the concert. If people start to jump on you, you need to protect your expensive camera as well. I’m very happy that I could photograph several times from a photo pit.
2018, you were awesome!
These are my 9 pics that got most likes on my Instagram account:
2019
Some of the bands I really hope to shoot for the first time in 2019 include: Refused, Architects, INVSN, Parkway Drive, Ghost, Mike Shinoda, The Hives, While She Sleeps, Halestorm, Papa Roach, Slipknot, and Rammstein. Maybe not in the scope of Shoot Me Again, but I’d also love to shoot artists like Dido, P!nk, Florence & the Machine, and many more.
Besides the concerts I will also continue my project ‘The Power of Music’. If you want to be involved, send me an e-mail! Furthermore I’ve got some other ideas for personal projects.
Thank you:
Thank you very much to everyone who helped me in one or other way to shoot this many concerts by setting up the gigs or by providing me with a photopass: labels, PR agencies, venues, bands, concert organizers, light and sound technicians, roadies, …
Special thanks to everyone at Shoot Me Again! Without you, I wouldn’t have come this far!
Last but not least very, very special thanks to my wife An for your endless support and for allowing me to fully engage in this concert photography adventure! Love you!