2013 - Looking Back

2012 threw in some unexpected surprises towards the end. The sort that make you reassess and count your blessings.

The arrival of 2013 found me sporting crutches and a plaster-cast but not only this, as a family we struggled though an event that would make us stronger, but at the time we couldn't see that. 

My priorities at the start of 2013 were a lot different from those of previous years. Resolutions weren't made this time, we entered 2013 with hope in our hearts and our fingers crossed that the Great British justice system would work it's magic, and to some extent it did. But that's another story for another day.

So 2013 was going to be a quiet year - my second to last photo shoot of 2012 was Crystal Castles at the Manchester Academy. If you remember less than a week later I broke my foot. Whilst feeling sorry for myself hobbling around on crutches I was asked if one of my images of Alice Glass could be used as the lead photo in Mix Mags Gigs 3 page, and yes it came with a cheque.




By mid February I was off crutches and back in the pit again, the up and coming Jake Bugg was in front of my lens, a nice little shoot with good lighting to get me back into the swing of things. 

March brought Johnny Marr and a Saturday night at the Ritz, and within a week of uploading my photos to Flickr I had a notification that one of Johnny Marr was on Flickr Explore. I wasn't exactly sure what Flickr explore was, but I pretty chuffed when I found out.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amandajwindowuk/8584554612/

A Saturday night at the Ritz was followed by a Saturday night in Leeds, this time for The Vaccines. The support act were 'Toy', a band I've gone on to shoot a couple of times now. My latter shoots haven't been as successful as the first. Their love of backlighting and strobes makes photography incredibly difficult, but the open air sunny event in Leeds and the forgiving weather enabled me to get some rare shots of Tom Dougall and the rest of the band. Here they are and more on Toy later.

Another outdoor event this year was Jodrell Bank. I covered the Sunday and @LewiePsMummy (aka Shirley) covered the Saturday.

I'd forgotten how long these days were carrying around a camera and heavy lens with a disabled hand, and it was this same disability that slowed me down somewhat this year. Manually focusing heavy glass on my DSLR was getting more and more difficult.

So I shot Johnny Marr, again, and New Order under the Lovell Telescope and a few weeks later back in Manchester I shot Peter Doherty and Toy again.

During the Summer I also did some freelance work for my local paper. Everyday people - hero's in their own right and each one a joy to work with. One shoot, back in my comfort zone of concert photography, was the Bootleg Beetles performing in Flixton. Funny how I wasn't ever a huge fan, but I knew the words to each and every song. 

I also shot my first Indian Wedding, or a Pakistani Wedding to be precise. It was  a huge honor and my assistant and I stayed on for the celebrations.

Suede were also on my bucket list, that one's ticked off now.

My hero, or should I say heroine from the 1980's Boy George was a darling to shoot and Editors were also ticked off the list.

By this stage my hand disability was becoming evident and shoots were becoming a struggle. The weight of the camera was getting too much for my bad arm and my good hand was now painful at the wrist. I later found out my 'good' wrist was damaged and I'm still having physio to build up the ligaments. I decided that it was about time to go AF - so all my MF lenses went on eBay along with hoards of other stuff.

There's a lot of work involved with manually focusing a lens. I'd learnt on MF (many years ago) and it's all I knew. You have to do everything yourself, there's an art to it and that art makes your pictures more interesting.

As 2013, 'the quiet year', drew in to a close, New Reviews had the annual interview with Carl Barat, this time accompanied by Gary Powell, Charlotte Davies from Hooting and Howling carried out the interview this time - another 1:30am start.

I met up with Shirley again the following night for another shoot with Toy. Shirley interviewed Panda from the band and reviewed Placebo.

I shot Toy again, in dismal red gels and strobes.

And just in case you missed it on Twitter and Facebook;

My image of Alejandra Diez from the band was featured on the insert of their new album 'Join the Dots'... 

...So much for a quiet year!