Nikon Owner Issue 20
The Pit and the Photographer by Tabatha Fireman
'first three songs, no flash'
As a child I always took pictures because I was fascinated with the idea of capturing moments. I had never really thought of photography as a career until I got into developing and printing my pictures at University. Then I started to understand how you could be creative from beginning to end, with everything from choosing which film to load into your camera to making decisions on developing times and drying techniques. It was then that I set out to document anything and everything that I was interested in.
At the time, I was based in Exmouth living in a thatched cottage right next to the sea, and the subject matter and the surroundings were absolutely awe-inspiring. I spent my time riding a custom-built motorcycle and travelling through Devon and Cornwall shooting bike conventions, boat-racing, surfing and music festivals.
Having discovered my love of photography, I went on to study a post-grad in photojournalism at Cardiff University, where under the guidance of Nikon user Daniel Meadows, I came to realise that it is actually possible to make a decent living by combining your favourite things - mine being photography and music.
My first concert shoot was The Prodigy, which was in Newport, Wales. Well, that definitely sealed my fate. One of my favourite bands, within arms-reach, performing for me - or so it seemed in the frame through my viewfinder. Sure, the flashing lights and the running around on stage did not make it the easiest picture-taking scenario, but the buzz was just incredible and indescribable!
So there it was, and it was real. I had my first set of live music pictures, shot on Kodak Tmax 3200 B/W neg. using my then F90 with 35-70mm …