V Festival

Glorious sunshine and heavy schedule shooting big, commercial artists was the order of the weekend at V.
Artists such Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Lily Allen, Pixie Lott and Dizzee Rascal have been getting big amounts of media attention with their antics on and off the stage, so in terms of potential photo sales this was a cracker. Add bands as huge as The Killers into the mix and it leaves little time to do much other than run around from one stage to the hour shooting, editing and knocking back the odd beer. There wasn't even time watch England winning the Ashes unfortunately, but hey, if I'm not going to be seeing that, a festival is about as good a place to be.
The downsides to the weekend were Oasis pulling out, missing out on shooting Amy Winehouse playing with The Specials (although only one photographer was present for this as she only appeared for the encore when we were all shooting someone else) and Lady Gaga ridiculous 90seconds of photographing per song rule.
Overall, for a festival I wouldn't pay to go - the commercial feel to the festival means it pales in comparison to gatherings like Glastonbury and Bestival - it was well organised and good fun.













www.samirhussein.com

VV Brown's Visuals

I've spent the past couple of nights photographing the Turning Point Festival taking place at the Roundhouse. Several hot artists of the moment were involved, including Tinchy Stryde, currently at number one in the UK singles chart and The Noisettes, who are hard to escape whenever you turn the radio on.
The main act last night was VV Brown, pop's latest style queen. Now, her back drop for the most part featured her name in bright colours, like this:

That looked pretty good.
However, her visuals also featured some video footage and bizarrely that footage happened to include my good self photographing her as she performed. Those that know me will recognise me below in action behind VV as the Roundhouse audience look on.

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Updates. I'm back!

Right, I haven't been blogging for the past two months, mainly through being really busy and losing my rhythm. From now on, because of my workload I'm not going to try to blog after every job, instead write more in depth once or twice a week with the highlights of the jobs I've been working on.
Also you'll notice I've included my twitter feed at the top of the blog, so you follow what I'm doing on a daily basis, both photographically and personally.
Finally, February and March has been very pleasing months for quality of pictures, so I'm post my highlights below.

Fashion Week proved to work out really well for me in February.












February was a very busy month and along with Fashion Week included the Brit Awards.





Big name stars to have walked the red carpet over the past few months have included Julia Roberts, looking very unglamorous in a black suit, and Jennifer Aniston.



Familiar faces also featured as I shot Peter (as he now wants to be called) Doherty in concert and Amy Winehouse appearing at court.



Glamour came in the form of a Moet party with appearances from Scarlett Johansson and Eva Herzigova, whose picture below I would rate amongst the best I've taken this year.





I also joined Spandau Ballet on HMS Belfast as they announced their comeback.


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Prince Charles & Camilla Visit Mosque Plus Film Awards

This proved to be a very welcoming trip to the Dawoodi Bohra Mosque in Northolt, where I was served tea, given food and granted access inside the Mosque to photograph Prince Charles and Camilla's visit. It made for some interesting photos too.







Later that day I covered the London Critics' Circle Film Awards at the Dorchester Hotel on Park Lane. Not one of the better know awards ceremonies, but there were a few names worth shooting including Dev Patel, the lead in international hit move, Slumdog Millionnaire and Dame Judi Dench (both below)




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Chaka Khan Plays Shepherds Bush Empire

Fantastic soul diva to shoot - she put so much emotion effort into her vocals, which make for great shots.






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Snow! And The Kooks' Secret Gig

Today we experienced London's heaviest snowfall since the early 90s causing the city to grind to a standstill. I was suffering from a bad cold, but forced myself up to Primrose Hill to get some snaps, and found seemingly half of London were tobogganing down the slopes. I also spotted Lily Allen and got a frame or two as she enjoyed the snow, but unfortunately the paps had already been following her all day and no doubt blitzed all pics which would make the papers.






Later that night, still feeling terrible, I headed for the Hawley Arms where The Kooks' front man was performing a secret gig. I was hoping he'd have his new girlfriend, Micsha Barton, in tow, but she turned out to be in the States.



www.samirhussein.com