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FRIDAY FOTO WINNER! Round 2

04/11/2009
 
Rockarchive's Friday Foto competition is a little bit of fun for all music photographers of any standard. Basically follow us on Twitter or Facebook, any social site you can find us on, and await your instructions! Our team will announce each week that the contest is on, then send in your latest best photo you have taken with in the field of music, on Friday of that week a winner will be announced! This repeats itself each week until we have 8 Friday Foto winners, then we pick a winner of winners! The prize will be to have info featured here on a Rockarchive news article (like this page!!!) which will be linked to our newsletter that goes out to thousands of people all over the world! On top of that, the photographer will receive an A2 print of their winning photo! What could be better! The winner of winners of the 2nd Friday Foto Competition is...
 
Nick Pickles (winning image - Glasvegas, top middle.
 
A little bit about Nick, from Nick...
 
I didn't just start taking photos to get into gigs free, honest. That's why I did reviews.
 
As a teenager, for one reason or another I ended up working in the photo lab of my local boots. The overwhelming majority of the photos I saw were pretty uninspiring, but the odd shot caught my eye and I remember thinking it would be exciting to combine my love of music, especially live music, with photography. Then I went away to university and largely forgot about that idea, until I met a chap called Barney in my 3rd year. (I should point out I was studying law, a subject quite lacking in visual creativity) Barney is a fantastic photographer and a great guy, and I learnt a lot from him. I saw his music photos and, as a fan, saw the raw emotion and energy in prints that I saw on stage at gigs. Not realising quite how hard it was, I got a Sony compact for my 21st birthday and on I went! I'm not ashamed to say I've never shot film, as frankly I couldn't have afforded to screw up as often as I did when I was learning the ropes, but at 25 I think I've got time yet to go back to that!
 
That was 2005, and I got my first SLR in January 2006 and the first gig I covered with it (a Konica Minolta 5D, for information!) and in November 2007 I got my D200, which I think was the beginning of the journey which took me to the 'next level' of people starting to hear who I was. At the last count I contribute to three national agencies, and have shot several festivals over the past few years for the BBC.
 
I think it's important to remind myself that I'm not a photographer who goes to gigs. Camera or no camera I'd be at the gigs, so the main reason I got into music photography was that it offered me a chance to combine a passion with a hobby. My day job is running the marketing for a small IT company, which is exciting in a different way.
 
My future hopes? I nearly hung up my gear after Connect festival 2008, I felt like I'd reached an end of where I could take the photography and I was starting to question why I wanted to do it anymore. Then again, after 3 years without a real holiday, I think I might have been tired too!
 
Fortunately, a few weeks later, I was offered the chance to be the house photographer when the 02 Academy Leeds opened, and that's been a fantastic opportunity. Since then, the past year has been such a blur I've not really had chance to take stock on where I am - so I've no idea what happens next.
 
In the long term I want to be an MP, and I haven't quite figured out where the music photography fits into that - but I guess it comes back to why I do this, and if I can still look at a photo - mine or anyone's - of a gig, and be inspired by the power of music and art to move people in ways words cannot, I know I'll be alright.
 
All photos ©Nick Pickles (top left to bottom right) Radiohead, Glasvegas, The Killers, Oasis,  The Maccabees,  Maximo Park, Nine Inch Nails.
 
Tel. 07812150417
 
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