Interview: Photographer and Senior Editor for Moshville Times – James Costin

Carrying on with my theme of looking at different parts of the music industry, I decided to look within Moshville Times at people who create memories and capture breathtaking moments for every person who appreciates their music. This could be from someone that attended the gig and was looking for a memory of seeing their favourite band to someone who wished that they could have been there. I am, of course, talking about the photographers who spend what little spare cash that they have in buying their equipment, resources and their spare time in making this happen for you.

For all the people that find photographers at gigs annoying, I urge you to read this interview and see it from their perspective whose sole aim and motivation is to provide you with that memory. Thank you, James for your time and I wish you every success as a photographer.

First of all, thank you for taking the time to answer these questions for our readers at Moshville Times. Can you tell us how your life as a photographer began?

I’ve been taking pictures of things for as long as I can remember. My late mother used to take loads of pictures of whenever we went on holiday and also family events. She actually owned one of the original Pentax film cameras complete with Flashgun which was a really incredible thing. I still can’t fully master it, the joys of analogue tech!

When I was about 10 years old I got my first point and click which was this really old Canon thing. I can’t even remember what make it was but I loved it. I would take it with me whenever we would go on holiday and also down to the local stations to do some trainspotting. I think I actually lost it when my Dad traded the car for a new one as I forgot to remove it from one of the backseat pockets.

When you started photography, what was your first interest before developing an interest in gig photography?

I was, and still am, a transport enthusiast so I first started by taking pictures of trains. After Sean introduced me to Iain and I started going to gigs, I started to capture little pictures on my phone and always looked at the people taking pics with photo passes with some envy as they were closer to the artists and doing something I wasn’t.

That changed one night when I went to see Insomnium and Omnium Gatherum in London. I was given a photopass and didn’t have a camera to hand. Thankfully, a friend who was with me had their camera with them so I used that to take some pictures. It was a point and click similar to the one I used to own so didn’t take amazing pictures but I was still there, 2 feet away from Markus Vanhala taking pictures of him. After that date, that was me hooked on taking photos at gigs and hankering after my own camera. 18 months later, I eventually got my hands on my current workhorse.

Now that you are a photographer by profession, what advice would you give to someone wishing to start becoming a photographer?

I wouldn’t say I’m a photographer by profession per se. I take pictures at concerts which I attend if there’s no other tog available or it’s a band I’m interested in photographing. I send more photographers to shows than I shoot myself and such know about both sides of the coin.

The advice I would give is to not call yourself a photographer because you have a smartphone with a camera and can take “nice” pictures. Proper photography is expensive and a constant learning curve. There is always some new technology being developed/released or some new way of either shooting or editing which is all the rage. The trick is cutting through all the crap and finding your own style amongst the sea of other “photographers”. Find your own style, don’t copy someone else’s and be prepared to invest a lot of time and money into learning the tricks of the trade. I was lucky in that I was kind of thrust into it by an old friend who helped me hone my skills and put me forward to shoot some crazy shows. If he had not have done that, I doubt I would be where I am today.

When making the decision on which photographer/reviewer to send to a show, what factors do you consider?

There are a lot of factors which I consider as the accreditation editor as well as photographer and senior editor. Firstly, I factor in turnaround time which I would probably say is what makes or breaks a lot of the applications. Someone can be a great writer, but if they can’t return stuff in an acceptable timeframe then that will limit what I am comfortable sending them to. The next thing I consider is quality of work. Whilst I endeavour to ensure everyone gets a fair shot at covering a range of events, if I’ve got a high profile gig then I’m more likely to send someone who is more experienced than someone who has just joined/done small shows.

Finally, I look at who has actually applied as in the person in general. Is the person someone I trust to do a good job and represent the site well? I have to answer that question and sometimes it’s difficult to answer. Thankfully I have only had to deal with complaints twice since I started sending folk for shows nearly 2 years ago which is not too bad. It is still 2 too many though, but at least now I know most of the crew and can judge who is best to go.

If someone was to take this seriously, what sort of budget would they have to set aside in your opinion and what is your most expensive piece of equipment?

Hahaha! A lot. And I mean, a LOT. You can opt for some cheaper equipment and some of that is very good but as with everything, you get what you pay for. Don’t discredit pre-owned second hand stuff as well. One of my lenses and my camera body, which is also the most expensive piece of equipment aside from my new editing rig, are second hand and run super well.

I can’t really specify an exact monetary amount, but I will say that you need to have at least two lenses, a decent camera body and a machine that can edit photos. I recently upgraded/crossgraded to a Mac Pro and a Dell Screen and the difference compared to my laptop is huge. Bear in mind I do video editing as well (actually what I’m doing whilst I type this) and thus you might not need something as powerful as the computer I’ve got. Make sure that you at least have a computer with a dedicated video card/chip and NOT an integrated one. Lightroom will chew that up and make mincemeat of it.

Is there a piece of equipment, and don’t say the camera, that you can’t do without?

My 18-200 lens. It’s my workhorse lens and is invaluable to what I do. It’s perfect for when I go plane spotting and also ideal for concerts where there’s a high stage and you want some closeup shots.

Can you run through what happens at the night of a gig? How long are you allowed to take pictures for?

Rings of Saturn (c) Bukavac Photography

Most of the time when I am photographing, I am often reviewing or interviewing at the show as well so I’ve either linked in with the tour manager/PR rep and/or security and gone over the basics of the show. The night before the gig, I charge my camera batteries and ensure that my SD cards are empty. I then take a few test shots to ensure proper working order. At the concert, I then pickup my photo pass from the front-desk if I’ve not got it already and then head into the venue. If there is a photo pit then I mount everything up and do a couple of test shots to check the working order of the camera and get a feel for the venue. For venues with no photo pit, I grab somewhere near the front often a side place with not many folk and again mount up.

Typically, for most shows, it is the first 3 songs that we are allowed to shoot. There’s only been 3 exceptions to that rule. Gojira, where it was 4,5 & 6; Ginger Wildheart where it was first 2 songs and Persephone where it was a “shoot as much as you want.” The latter of those is rare but it does sometimes happen.

What difficulties can you face when taking photographs at a gig?

Crowdsurfers is one of the big ones at shows with a pit. Some concerts I’ve been at have had loads of crowdsurfers and as a result it’s been a challenge to avoid them and also fellow togs. If there are a lot of togs, security sometimes splits the togs into teams and you shoot x songs from the pit. Without a pit, it’s mainly people getting into the frame and not seeing you with a camera trying to photograph. At tiny venues where it is packed, that can be an issue. I remember one occasion having to sit on a drum box on the right hand side of stage and shoot from there due to it being so busy.

Universally, and I know Katie will have mentioned this, is lighting. If you’re at a small venue which has a basic lighting rig, it can be challenging. Venues get reputations between togs for not having amazing lighting and there are a few ones which I’ll not name which I won’t shoot in again. The trick I’ve found to help with lighting is timing your shots and looking for patterns in the lights. If there’s no light tech then 90% of the time, the lights will follow a pattern so I grab most of the shots when the lighting is most favourable.

When the gig has finished and the photographer sends in their work, what is it you look for when reviewing the photographs?

Quality is the obvious answer. Are the shots composited well? Do they show different angles? Are they visually interesting? Those are all questions which I need to answer when I review photo sets. I personally like to tell a story when I photograph shows so most of the sets I submit to MT are of that style. I also look and see how quickly they submitted them and look at the tags. If the tags/names aren’t correct then I’ll inform the tog that it needs sorting. I have somewhat of an OCD on that front, I like things named correctly and in a certain format.

Do you have any pet peeves in the live environment?

The temperature in some venues. There are some venues which are roasting hot and if you’re in there for a long time, you can get quite sweaty and tired. I also think more venues should have either somewhere to sit down or a dedicated area with seats. It might just be me getting old, but I like to sit down sometimes at gigs and take in the whole atmosphere. The cost of drinks at some venues as well is daylight robbery. I understand venues have to cover costs, but £3.50 for a lemonade is pushing it!

After you have finished taking photographs at a gig, what is the next step to getting them ready for publication?

Editing! That is the next stage and the also the stage which can make or break a photograph. I personally try not to over-edit the photos and prefer to “fix” and then apply my signature touches. Editing can take a long time if you take a lot of photos so another tip is to not take too many photos. Take your time and take a better shot rather than “spraying and praying”.

What piece of software do you use to edit your photographs?

Adobe Lightroom with the Google Nix collection is my preferred method. I edit on an upgraded Mac Pro 3,1 now but used to edit on a windows laptop. As I said before, the difference has been night and day. I’m not suggesting everyone go out and buy a Mac Pro, but if you do video editing and photo editing and prefer to use Final Cut then I would recommend it.

Have you had the opportunity to exhibit your pieces of work to the public and if so, how did that feel and how did the event go?

I personally haven’t and am not sure how I’d feel about that. I would maybe do it but I’d be super picky over what images I chose and where it was.

With the public looking at your photographs, what thoughts or emotions would you like them to take away from your pictures?

I would like them to take away the atmosphere of the concert and get a feeling of how it was like there. As I mentioned earlier, I like to tell a story through photos and thus I would like for people to get the story of the concert through my photos.

What would you say is the proudest moment of your career?

That is tough and I’m going to break the rules and give three occasions. The first was getting to photograph Behemoth at Bloodstock 2016. I still remember photographing them and the thrill of having pyro go off so close to me. The second would be photographing Killswitch Engage and Bullet for My Valentine. Teenage me was having a field day and it was a super fun show. The third would be the week in which I photographed Devin Townsend and Gojira in the space of about 3 days. That again was an incredible experience and one I won’t forget in a hurry.

Possibly impossible to answer but would you have a photograph that you are extremely proud of? Do you archive your own pictures?

I keep an archive of all the images since I started as Bukavac Photography in 2016 on a portable hard drive. I’ll be moving that onto an 8TB hard drive on the mac pro once I get one and keep the archives there. To pick one picture would be hard, but I would probably have to pick either the one of Orion from Behemoth on the mainstage at Bloodstock or the one I captured of Aaron Stechauner formerly of Rings of Saturn at Rebellion. The latter is one I ended up captioning in my archive as “good lord, what am I doing?”

Do you have some photographers that are your influences and have admired their work?

Very much so. I am influenced heavily by Mark from Amplified Gig photography and he’s given me quite a few tips as well on improving my shots. Steve from Down the Barrel is an immense photographer and all round lovely guy as well and I’d also have to give a shout out to Will Tudor. As much as him and I didn’t see eye to eye at points, I have to give credit to him for teaching my most of what I know and giving the kick up the arse I needed to start properly shooting shows.

In terms of teaming up to shoot shows when I’m doing the review/interview, Katie has never let me down when I’ve done London and coincidentally is how I met her. She mentioned that in her interview which I advise you to read as well.

What would you say you would have to do to enhance your skills to reach that of your peers? 

At the moment, I would probably say I need to work on my low-light stuff and that would be achieved by upgrading my camera body. I’m currently deciding between either a Nikon D500 or the Z6 mirrorless. It’ll come down to money at the end of the day but I’m leaning more towards the D500 at the moment due to its lens compatibility with my current lenses and the fact I do long-range aviation photography as well. For aviation photography, the focus is on focal length primarily as planes can be a long way away.

Do you have a favourite place to shoot your photographs?

For aviation, it’s at the end of Manchester Airport runway 23R up a slight bank about a 2 minute walk away from Shadowmoss tram stop. In terms of trains, the southern end of platforms 3&4 at Preston is a perfect place to get some shots. Gig wise, I loved shooting at the ABC in Glasgow and the staff at Rebellion in Manchester are really nice.

What motivates you to keep taking photographs?

I think it is the fact that I get to something not many people can and also the fact I am capturing the performances of some of my favourite artists. That to me, is what photography is about. Capturing events which can turn into memories of some of the best times in life.

Thank you for your time in answering these questions for Moshville Times. If there was a person or a gig past or present that you wish you would have had the opportunity to take photographs, what would it be?

Crumbs. In terms of classic people, I would have loved to have photographed Ronnie James Dio. I can just imagine the photopit for one of those shows being filled with folk singing along to the classic tracks. In terms of a concert, I would have loved to shoot one of the Big 4 shows. I have a soft spot for Slayer and Metallica so I would love to shoot them at some point.

Catch more of James’ work here

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