Foo Fighters live at Channel V 2005

The best part about being a photographer is getting paid to go to things that you’d do for free. It’s a privilege to be able to do this for a job and with times likes these at the moment I’m even more grateful for everything I have been able to do.

My favorite band in the world is the Foo Fighters, after growing up in the 90’s with Nirvana and what they did to our childhood and our growing pains, we were all destined to love Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters.

So having the opportunity to photography my favorite band in 2005 as they played for Channel V out the front of Fox Studios was a dream come true.

Normally when shooting bands you only get to shoot the first 3 songs, then you are asked to get the hell out of there. But this time we were only allowed to shoot the first song, so lucky I had two cameras one with a wide angle lens and one with a 70-200 zoom. It was no time to be shy on the trigger.

Halfway through the first song (which I can’t remember) Dave stopped and started talking to the crowd that was packed in and security thought that was the end of the first song and started to push us photographers out of the way. They obviously didn’t know any Foo songs, so in the chaos we were screaming that it’s only halfway in and to let us keep shooting. I don’t think they believed us and kept pushing, then as only Dave can just belted out the rest of the song and we were allowed to stay.

Then we were told to get the hell out.

Straight from the front row to the car park, where we belong.

It was definitely one of the best days of my life and career and I thank my younger self for picking up a camera all those years ago.

Til next time!

Chris

Lilli Pilli and new beginings

As the Corona Virus makes its way through our City’s and hometowns, I’m doing my best to beat cabin fever like everyone else.
So now is the time to dig through the archives and share some of my pictures and stories behind them.
Back in late 2016 I tore my right ACL which required a knee reconstruction.
Only 3 years earlier I tore my left ACL so I knew what to expect the second time round.
The main thing I missed during my recovery period with my first surgery was not being able to take pictures.


Photography is a massive part of my life and it’s the glue that keeps everything together. So being a little more prepared this time round I thought buying myself a drone will fill the void.
I only had to be able to walk from the car to a good location, fire the thing up and I could get my picture taking fix.
So a pretty good idea I thought, so once I had the thing in my hand it was time to take it for some flights. With my now surgically enhanced knee, a couple of feet of tape wrapped around it and some Panadol a new world was waiting.
One of my very first flights was near my home in the South of Sydney, a beautiful little suburb named Lilli Pilli.
Still getting used to the controls I was playing it as safe as possible and not flying it to far from the take off spot.


So through the trees and snapping away, I could see via the remotes screen a little set of stairs. From my vantage point you couldn’t see the stairs at all so it really highlighted the point of a drone in seeing the world from a different point of view.
It looked like a scene out of a children’s book, just perfect in every way.


So I fired away and took my shots, it’s still one of my favourite shoots and it means a little bit more as I know without my knee injury it’s a series of pictures that I wouldn’t have normally taken.
And it was also the kickstart I needed to begin my new lifelong project of Ocean Photography. So even tho the surgery sucked big time, I’m glad of my newfound path.

Til next time!

Chris

No Fans, no trophy, NBL Grand Final game 3

Only a week before I shot what was the greatest game of basketball I have ever seen. Kings v Melbourne Semi, with the Kings down by 18 points with 5 minutes to play. They came back and won in the dying seconds and it was just a privilege to be there. https://chasinglight.photo.blog/2020/03/07/sydney-kings-v-melbourne-united-semi-final-game-3/

Fast forward a week or so later and with the Corona Virus in it’s early days, the NBL decided to play both game 2 and 3 without fans. So Sydney host game 3, it’s 1-1 and still a best of 5 series at this point.

No fans, just a small handful of workers and family are in the building. The great Rodney O, the in game announcer did a awesome job as always of hyping up the crowd. This game tho just had no crowd to hype up.

It felt more like a pre season game, a trial match then a series on the line game 3 Grand Final. It was a grand Final yes, but without a crowd and so much uncertainty about whether the game or series will be played out it just felt odd.

For myself and many of the players and coaches who dreamed to be apart of a NBL Grand Final series one day, although it was still cool to be apart of and no doubt will go down in history. It was a hollow feeling all round.

The NBL eventually cancelled games 4 and 5 after Perth won this one making it 2-1 Perth. So seeing Perth were up they were awarded the Grand Final winners. It must have felt odd to hear you are the winner or loser of a Grand Final series via a team meeting, 3 days after you played game 3 and 2 days before the scheduled game 4.

None of us knew it at the time, but this game ended up a series decider. It certainly didn’t feel like it sitting on the cold timber floor and I’m sure the players didn’t think it was as they played their collective hearts out.

I feel for everyone involved, but it’s great to see basketball back to where it should be in Australia, and the League with all the players, coaches and the greater staff involved in the game should all be proud of their achievements. Although it was a shame for the season to end like this, the best is yet to come in Australian Basketball.

Onwards and upwards from here anyway. The right calls were made by many during this crazy time, and I’ll be the first one there when the new season rolls around anyway!

Til next time!

Chris