The Keys To The Future

It's an exciting time at the moment for Steve Gerrard Photography as we have just been given the keys to our new studio in the Custard Factory in the Digbeth area of Birmingham. We plan to use the space not to take photos (I always work on location) but as an office, a gallery and a comfortable place to meet clients. Up until now our office has been based at our home in Great Barr but it's time for us to move onto bigger and better things, as well as separating home and work life a little more. As you can see below the space has some work to be done before it looks how we envision it but we're looking forward to making it our own over the next few weeks. I'll be updating this blog as we go... We're looking for paint today.



This weekend I'm gonna be on the telly again which is always equally exciting and worrying. Luckily I've already seen the programme and it's nothing too embarrassing. It's called Mobile Act Unsigned and is on Channel 4 at 9:30 Sunday morning. The show follows the band Envy & Other Sins as they go through the process of recording their first album, along with promo videos, interviews and, of course, a photo shoot. Set your Sky+!

Here are some photos that I took a few days ago for a hairdressers in Walsall...

Rock & Royalty

Easter weekend is often a time for taking it easy and sitting in front of the TV with the family while deliberating on how best to eat a Cadbury's Creme Egg. The past few days, for me at least, have been quite the opposite. From photographing Velvet Revolver on Saturday to spending all day Easter Sunday shooting Amy & Imran's wedding. Then on to a family lifestyle shoot on Monday morning followed by Amy & Nigel coming to view their wedding pictures later that day. And then today I got to meet up with Niki Evans from X-Factor to do some photographs at her home in Tamworth. All in all it's been another hectic but extremely fun few days, and it looks set to continue...

Photographing a band like Velvet Revolver can be a surreal experience. Standing two or three feet in front of a rock icon like Slash is a real buzz and I feel privileged to have pictures of him in my portfolio. The band played superbly on Saturday too and it was great to hear "Patience" make it into the set. The venue was bustling with rock royalty that night too. From the ex-members of Guns N Roses and Stone Temple Pilots to the support acts which featured Meat Loaf's daughter, Pearl, Anthrax guitarist, Scott Ian and Robert Plant's son drumming for the first band of the night. Robert was even there to show some fatherly support. You can see a review of the gig and more photos on the Birmingham Live! site.



Sunday's wedding was one we'd been looking forward to for a while as it was the wedding of our friends Amy & Imran. The whole day was fantastic and great fun and the couple were easy to work with, helping us to capture some fantastic pictures for them. When we asked to borrow them for a few minutes in the evening they were well up for it and seemed to enjoy being photographed in a slightly more creative way. The video light came out and we went for a bit of drama to contrast with the smiles and laid-back vibe throughout the rest of the day. I'm sure they'll love the results. It was amazing to have Evelyne working a wedding with me again too. She'd missed the last few to look after Elliott but this week my parents were back from Spain and happy to have him for the day.

I didn't know what to expect when I met Niki Evans. I've never seen X-Factor so I never knew anything about her but we got on great and discovered we had a lot in common. She'd even been a regular at Edwards No.8 where I began my DJ career back in the 90's. We got some nice relaxed shots of her with her two dogs and it looks like I'll be doing more shots for her portfolio in the future.



Days off are hard to come by at the moment but we did manage to squeeze in a day to visit the Cotswolds with our good friends Emily & Stef and their little girl Imogen. It was truly fantastic to escape, even if it was only for a short time. While we were there we took some pictures of the three of them. Emily's a photographer but wanted to be on the other side of the lens for a change. Hopefully she'll like the pictures. We stopped in the small town of Tetbury for lunch, only to find out that Prince Charles and Camilla were there to open a shop. I had my long lens with me and managed to grab a shot of them. You just never know who you'll bump into while you're out with a camera...



I have to admit that keeping this blog up-to-date on a regular basis has been tricky due to lack of time but I'm determined to update it more regularly now. If I don't, please feel free to contact me by phone, text, email, Facebook, Myspace, Last.fm, Linked In or any of the countless other ways that people stay in touch these days! When's the last time you wrote a friend a letter?!

Weddings Rock!

Tuesday evenings aren't meant to be this manic! In the past 6 hours I have met Steve & Debbie at Weston Park (home of the V Festival and the site of their upcoming wedding), photographed a fancy French restaurant for Live 24-Seven magazine, shot 3 bands including the Futureheads at the Barfly and finally DJ'd a set of 90s alternative music. Talk about multi-tasking! Add to that working as roadie for the bands (well I lifted an amp to their car) and I'd say it's been a pretty full evening. Most of it was fun...

The gig tonight was pretty good actually. Futureheads don't normally play such intimate venues and, with their new material sounding better than anything they've done before, I'm looking forward to the new album. They were supported by a band who make a photographer's work somewhat more enjoyable thanks to half the band being extremely easy on the eye. Gundogs also have some great songs to back it up and I wouldn't be surprised if they went to the next level fairly soon. There's a review of the gig on Birmingham Live! where you can also find some photos of the Envy & Other Sins gig I shot on Friday night.




Saturday was Charlotte & Steve's wedding at Homme House in Herefordshire and it was a fantastic day and definitely the most rock & roll wedding I've covered yet. The groom played a 40 minute set with his band The Batemans which featured songs by Motorhead, Foo Fighters and even System Of A Down. The bride looked stunning in a gorgeous dress and I came home with loads of great pictures for the couple. Charlotte even brought a present for Elliott. She runs a company called Traces Of Rock which sells cool kids' clothes with a rock edge. Have a look at the website. Here's Elliott in one of her baby-grows...



After getting back from the wedding at 1am you'd think maybe I'd get a lie in on Sunday morning but oh no! Instead I was over the other side of Birmingham to photograph an event for Aston Martin with probably my favourite cars on the planet. The same model currently driven by a certain Mr James Bond was just one of the cars I got to admire through the lens of my camera. Probably the closest I'll ever get to one too! The lovely Daniela from Aston Martin looked after us and it wasn't a bad way to spend a Sunday morning after all.



From there I went to meet Lyndsey and Simon whose wedding we're covering next month. We did their pre-wed shoot over near Brindley Place in Birmingham which was great fun despite the lack of really great locations. They're a very laid back, lovely couple and I'm looking forward to the big day in a few weeks time.



When I got home Elliott was wide awake and practicing his newly acquired kissing technique. He's also started pushing himself up on his arms. I had my camera out anyway so...



It's always nice when we meet a couple who are looking for a wedding photographer and there's an instant rapport. It was like that with Alex and Richard on Monday evening and I really hope they book us for their wedding next June. We got on so well I was with them for almost 2 hours chatting about everything from weddings to Peter Kay to Steven Gerrard (the footballer)'s wedding photos. Richard will even be at the Velvet Revolver gig I'm shooting in a couple of weeks.

Evelyne has been busy this week too. She's been redesigning our company branding, using new colours and trying to improve the look of our stationery. I have to admit she's done a great job and the new look will help re-launch the business when we finally move into the new studio.

Album of the week for me is the new one from Kathleen Edwards, Asking For Flowers. I've been listening to it repeatedly. I've yet to see her play live so I'm keeping my ear to the ground for UK dates.

Out In The Cold

I'm writing this blog from a freezing cold Barfly in Birmingham where I've been asked to DJ on Tuesday nights. It's a 90s night and gets full of students every week, most of whom come for the cheesy rubbish in the main room. Supposedly the most intelligent people of their generation who see nothing wrong with dancing to Backstreet Boys and Spice Girls. Luckily in the back room I get to reminisce to when I first started DJing alternative clubs and can play anything from Blur to Pearl Jam and Rage Against The Machine to PJ Harvey. Only trouble is it's SO cold in here. I'm not used to having to wrap up in hat and jacket to DJ!

I came here tonight straight from the Korn gig in Wolverhampton. I was there to photograph the gig but a mix-up with the guest list left me without a photo pass and therefore unable to shoot anything. It happens occasionally and it's very very frustrating. And there's nothing really I can do about it by the time I'm at the gig. I met up with Helen who was there to review the gig for Birmingham Live! Looks like it'll be the first gig on the site without any photos to accompany it!

There's been plenty of gigs in the past couple of weeks. Quite a variety too, from Sam Amidon playing a tiny bar in Coventry to Editors headlining their biggest show ever; Mayhem delivering a dramatic death metal set complete with pigs heads on stage to Megadeth going through the motions before a sea of hardcore fans. And I enjoyed every one. The new issues of Rock Sound and Terrorizer hit the streets with my photos of Prong and Bullet For My Valentine inside. Rock Sound even featured my review of the gig, although they did make a few changes this time. That's fine though. I don't pretend to be a reviewer.





At the other end of the photographic spectrum, last Monday I got to spend a few hours in the company of my favourite wedding photographer, Mr Jeff Ascough. Over 3 seminars we got to see a bit more of Jeff's approach to photography as well as how he uses Photoshop in his workflow and how he deals with celebrity clients. He's a big Radiohead fan and recently shot guitarist Ed O'Brien's wedding. As a music photographer, and Radiohead fan, that's the stuff of dreams. One day perhaps..

Jeff Ascough has just taken his first £15,000 booking for a wedding and we're also thinking about increasing our prices. Not
that much though! Not yet! 2007 is getting booked up fast and we've confirmed a few weddings for 2009 now. When we move into the studio (soon!) we can hopefully justify slightly higher fees as well as having a great space to welcome clients. I'm looking forward to it.

We have just shown Claire & Dave the photos from their wedding and, happily, they were made up with the results. Here are a few from their day...



Our next wedding is Charlotte & Steve's this weekend and I have a feeling it' going to be a really fun day.

Saturday morning I was awoken by messages from people saying they'd just seen me on TV. It was the programme following Envy & Other Sins after they won the Mobile Act Unsigned competition. The photo shoot we did featured in the programme with a quick interview with yours truly which wasn't too embarrassing. They even called me "top music photographer Steve Gerrard". If only that were true...

I have started getting a few enquiries recently from models looking for new portfolio images. It's not something I've done
much of yet but for those that are happy to go with my way of working it can be great fun and hopefully we come back with a
bunch of pictures which are different from the norm. Yesterday I spent a couple of hours with the stunning Anna-Maria. Here's a few photos from the shoot...



I want to wish all my friends who are headed for SxSW this week a safe and eventful trip. I'm sure they'll be bringing plenty of
stories back from Texas next week.

Lastly, there are some fantastic new albums around at the moment so I just want to recommend everyone check out the new releases from the Gutter Twins, Kathleen Edwards, Cat Power, Feist, Elbow, The Kills and, for those who like things a little more extreme, The Red Death and The Cavalera Conspiracy.