Photo of the Day - Noir by Airealism

A tender moment during Airealism's visually beautiful show Noir. Click image to view full size.

Plans for the Festival

Not long now.

Once it all begins, this blog will feature the following on a daily basis:

• A photo of the day - either from a performance shoot; or from my daily photographic expedition to the Royal Mile (other shots will be on my Flickr site or my photography website)
  
• Breaking news / gossip / word-of-mouth tips etc
  
• And from the 8th to the 31st inclusive, reviews of the shows I'll be seeing

Bookmark or subscribe now and join me in another wild, unpredicatble and fantastic Festival experience.

Bring an umbrella.

Photography offer

I spend almost as much time photographing shows and performers as I do watching them. I tend to get some of my best shots at this time of year, thanks to the willing nature and attitude of most acts.

As a way of saying thanks, I always offer a few free slots to performers and acts at this time of year. I've got a rapidly-filling schedule of appointments, but still a few windows available.

So, if you're a performer looking for test shots, after some stage photography for your website or publicity material, or just love having your photo taken, get in touch below:

www.fourtheye.co.uk
info@fourtheye.co.uk

Photographing the Fringe on the Royal Mile

Being a photographer, one of my favourite locations during the Edinburgh Festival is the Royal Mile.

A fascinating enough place at the best of times - with its narrow alleys, historic sites and cobbled streets - it truly comes alive every August.

That's when the Fringe acts and street performers make the place their own, and the space between Parliament Square and the Tron Kirk is packed with colour, spectactle and noise (and photographers).

It is impossible to walk this section of the Mile without having dozens of flyers thrust into your hands by enthusiastically desperate performers; or to find yourself watching one of the many free performances on the temporary stages erected there. In fact, you can quite easily spend a few hours here without spending any cash at all and end up seeing excerpts from shows that would otherwise have cost you the price of a ticket.

The street performers are usually impressive as well: understandably, as the Fringe draws the cream of the crop to Edinburgh every year. Although their routines are often formulaic, they always contain feats that impress and entertain. I remember seeing the English Gents, for example - two bowler hatted acrobats that ended up being asked to join La Clique as a result of their quite outstanding street show.

From a photographic perspective, the Royal Mile is a goldmine. Artists and acts are constantly trying to outdo each other in terms of costumes or original ways to promote their acts (you will always come across a group lying down on the ground pretending to be dead, for example). And, being performers on a promotional mission, they are always happy to play up for the camera, resulting in shots that you'd be struggling to get otherwise. And of course, there are always the extremely photogenic opera singing Redman sisters...

The one exception to this rule are the living statue type mime artists, who will often expect (and in some cases demand) money for the privilege of taking their picture. Worst offender of all tends to be the 'Most Pierced Woman in the World', a notorious Edinburgh resident, who can often be seen hounding people for a somewhat unreasonable £5 photo fee. I'd advise you to avoid these - there's plenty more material out there on offer from performers only too delighted to pose for you for free.

With the explosion of digital photography over recent years, you may feel that photographers outnumber the performers at times, but if you're wanting to capture something unique, colourful and memorable, head to the Royal Mile with your camera ready and you'll not be disappointed.

Me, I'll be there every single day - even when it's raining.

Shameless plug

I love the Edinburgh Festival and I love photography, so here's my annual plug / request for willing subjects:

http://www.edinburghfestivaljobs.com/jobs/app/job/228/free-portrait-promo-photography-at-keith-d/

Tiger Lillies - Seven Deadly Sins *****

The Tiger Lillies are an acquired taste. A punk vaudeville burlesque freakshow. Right up my street, then.

In this show, the Lillies perform songs based on the seven deadly sins, the three musicians aided and abetted by the voluptuous Ophelia Bitz, burlesque star extraordinaire. Martyn Jacques falsettos his way through sick & twisted odes and ditties, including the classic "Kicking A Baby Down The Stairs", as Ms Bitz twists and cavorts, eating fire, stuffing her face or toying with a dildo...

You're either going to love this kind of thing, or hate it. The Tiger Lillies are that kind of 'all or nothing' group - indeed, after one of their slower piano-led pieces, Jacques berates one of the noisier sections of the audience: "if you're going to talk through my songs, just fucking leave". I'm right with him on that - these are songs that deserve to be heard, and the whole chaotic spectacle is an experience that demands attention.

The gay Punch & Jud(y)e sideshow that peppers the performance is a bit unnecessary, but it certainly adds to the whole freakish circus nature of the show, which, like La Clique, is perfectly suited for the burlesque interior of the Spiegeltent in which it is performed.

And so it (officially) begins...

That's it - I'm on holiday now for 2 weeks...54 shows...late nights...food snatched from vans whenever I can...drinking in the open air (weather permitting)...

...I may not survive.

Last day at work yesterday, and managed to do everything I needed done in the morning. So headed up the High Street again, to take advantage of the dry weather. Treated to performances by Drum Cat and Mudslide who were both very impressive. Then headed to the hotel where the Unreal Edinburgh photo exhibition was launching and had a few wines and a mingle with fellow Flickrites.

Then passed through the High Street once more (witnessing a quite amazing African contortionist en route) then home again via the Grassmarket (which lived up to its usual reputation - i.e. there was a big fight in the street between pissed-up stag-do members - sad).

Today, it's raining again...

Another damp day at the Festival

Despite it having rained solid for 48 hours now, I still made a rather wet trip up to the High Street at lunchtime to snap off a few shots of bedraggled performers. Not quite sure how was most dedicated / daft - me or them.

And this evening, did another photoshoot for Kayla Kavanagh, a young Irish singer and multi-instrumentalist who blends traditional folk with electronic music in a pretty effective way. Her looped effects and vocoded vocals were pretty impressive and I enjoyed taking the shots and watching her perform.

Only one day left at work now...

Week Zero, Day Two

Another day at the Festival (with boring work bits in between)...

Wandered up the High Street after work, but it was all rather quiet - it looks like its busiest time is lunchtime / early afternoon, so will take that into account for future trips. Sadly, it's pishing down today, so it will have to go unvisited...

Popped into the hotel where one of my photos is being shown as part of an exhibition and chatted to Max, the organiser - great to see it printed professionally and looking forward to the launch night on Friday.

Then I went and took performance shots of The 'American', the Coloured and Me, a play taking place as part of the free festival. Enjoyed this a lot, both the experience of taking performance shots and the show itself. It's a funny and moving well-acted piece about stereotypes and racial issues, and is well worth an hour of your time.

Sadly, the weather has scuppered any festival-related plans I had today. At least I'll get a chance to remind myself what my house looks like, I suppose...

Well and truly started

Even though I was at work yesterday, it really felt like the first day of my full-on festival period.

Went up to the Royal Mile at lunchtime and took over 300 shots of the performers and artists there - including the ever-photogenic Two Sopranos (one of whom is pictured to the right).

Then, after work, I went to the Tracey Emin - 20 Years exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. I didn't really know a huge amount about Ms Emin prior to seeing this, but it was a truly fascinating retrospective of her work to date. Using media ranging from video to tapestry (and with the infamous 'My Bed' installation an undisputed highlight), the exhibition was moving, harrowing, narcissistic, revealing, disturbing, confessional and compelling all at once.

Learning of her troubled childhood and traumatic life experiences (via a self-narrated video piece entitled 'My C.V. 1963-1997') put her provocative and arresting work into context and made me view her in a completely different light than previous. Emin deserves to be called an artist in the truest sense of the word, and as my friend observed, it will be fascinating to watch how her work evolves - and I'll definitely be making a point of seeking it out in future.

After the exhibition, I collected the final two tickets for the shows I have booked...then the call of the Spiegel Garden was too strong to resist. It's slightly smaller than last year, but the atmosphere is the same - whilst sitting outside drinking beer and watching people enjoying themselves, it didn't take a huge leap of faith to imagine you were in 1920s Berlin or similar.

Then, after a couple of drinks there, we moved on to Bristo Square, beside the Udderbelly tent where the likes of the Caesar Twins, Gerry Sadowitz and the Jim Rose Circus are all appearing. A couple more drinks and we spent the rest of the evening pretending to be invisible...

I shouldn't be greedy I suppose...

The festival has started...kind of unofficially - with a lot of preview shows beginning today and this weekend.

The hum of it all is beginning to be audible now in the town and I get the feeling I get every year - that there's stuff happening 'out there' that I'm missing.

I'm not off work until the 10th August, but I wish I was off now...still, I'll take a half-day tomorrow to wander up the High Street (where the performers are already descending); and it's the Festival Cavalcade on Sunday. Then, next week, I've got every lunch blocked out and plan to spend them up the Royal Mile; as well as going to see the Tracey Emin exhibition and a couple of shows I'm doing photography for - not to mention the exhibition one of my own shots is featuring in.

So, I suppose I shouldn't really complain...

But it's happening. Already. Without me.

Going ahead

The photo exhibition, featuring one of my photos, is going ahead at the Edinburgh SAS Radisson hotel in the High Street.

Which is nice.

The Two Sopranos

Multi-talented opera singing duo The Two Sopranos have appeared on some Fringe publicity material of late.

Looking at their website, I was not only interested to see they are returning to this year's Festival, but that half of the photos on their site are uncreditted ones I've taken of them over the past couple of years (well, they are a little bit photogenic...)

I'll have to have harsh words with them when I see them again.....

Photo opportunities

I put a message on the Fringe website forum offering my photography services free of charge to anyone that wished them.

This has already borne some fruit, and I've now got an invite to take photos at a performance of an Irish 'electro-folk' singer and to take publicity shots of a 'struggling actor' for his portfolio.

Of course, I'm really hoping that last year's Dracula troupe read my offer and get in touch...

I've always wanted to appear at the festival...

Got a comment on this photo on Flickr yesterday from someone organising an exhibition running as part of the festival at the Radisson hotel on the High Street.

Apparently - although there is always a risk these kind of things don't come to pass - my shot is one of 50 that will be exhibited in hotel, and the print will be available for purchase.

This will be nice if it happens...

One month and counting

Only one month until this year's Edinburgh Festival kicks off...

So far, I have two weeks off work and tickets to over 50 shows.

Everything from physical theatre, vaudeville shows, modern dance, Japanese drama, Shakespeare in a circus tent, Will Self at the Book Festival...and much, much more.

This blog is intended as a place for me to blog events, show reviews, the best of the photos I take - and to give my daily hangover a mark out of 10...

Bring it on...