Camilla, Katie & Finley

A busy day today with three jobs all over town. I braved the rain to photograph Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall leading a charity dog walk in Green Park before travelling to east London for Katie Melua's performance at the O2 Arena. It was then back to Camden to meet some friends for a night at Koko, where Finley Quaye was headlining. He certainly lived up to his reputation by being a bit out it, but even during his ramshackle time on stage there were were still plenty of glimpses of the great talent and he was when he sang songs of his debut album 'Maverick A Strike'.

Black Kids & Foals Play iTunes Festival

Many of my best photos from this were unusable due to terrible lighting for both shows. I managed to pull a few out of the bunch that where the lighting was passable, but I really don't understand why when they give photographers three tracks without flash to photograph an act they can't provide at least one of them with reasonable lighting.
I hope things improve as I'm down to photograph a few of the iTunes Festival shows, all being hosted at Koko.

NME Awards Show: The Gutter Twins

Following on from the glamour and bright lights of the Brit Awards where I was helping out editing last night, The Gutter Twins, with their dark, atmospheric style proved to be a big contrast. Their NME gig at Koko, their UK debut, was amongst the worst light I'd seen for shooting. Of course, as is so often the case, after the first three alloted songs to shoot the lighting was vastly improved. I've little doubt these guys - Mark Lanegan of Screaming Trees/Queens Of The Stone Age and Greg Dulli from Afghan Whigs (photo below) - wanted to be photographed in dark, hazy light where it was very hard to make them out with the lens let alone capture a decent image. I just about had time to take three sneaky shots with a flash before the security spotted me. Still, the shots were at least usable.
I was a bit annoyed I didn't arrive earlier, as unbeknown to me the superb Ed Harcourt was supporting. I caught the end of his solo slot, and it looked like he was having technical problems.