Holy Crap! where did 2016 go?

Well, we're here, it's 2017.. welcome to the future! Hope everyone had an amazing new years and didn't wake up to hung over! 2016 was a fantastic year (for me anyways.. seems like a lot of people had a really rough 2016.. and thats unfortunate), but with some travelling, fun photography opportunities, some new friends gained and some big life changes things have been pretty good. 2017 is a year I really want to push photography and get things moving in the right direction so this post is here to start 2017 off right!

New Years is also my birthday, which almost everyone forgets haha but thats not a big deal. This year I decided I didn't want to go out and do the "usual" .. hit a club or bar or someones house and get wasted, wake up feeling horrible for the next 3 days, I wanted to do something that I wanted to do. For those of you who know me, you know that I'm into concerts and that I love to photograph concerts, even though I can't ever seem to get in to photograph them anymore because i'm not affiliated with a media outlet and you pretty much have to be to get into them these days. This New Years London Ontario, Canada (30 mins from my home town) was putting on a "rockin' New Years " in Victoria Park at the band shell. This years headliner .... FINGER ELEVEN! now, I'm not a huge Finger Eleven fan.. but they have a hand full of songs that I like.. and let me tell you, after this performance I'm a fan! WOW! These guys have so much energy and from the first note of a song, right to the end, they are flawless... every song sounds like like what you hear on the radio/CD. With kids and parents on the big Ice Rink behind us, my camera in my hands front row, Finger Eleven on stage and a big fireworks display off the top of the London Life building behind us.. this New Years/ Birthday was fantastic! I couldn't think of a better way ringing in the new year then doing what I love, photographing a concert, outdoors in winter lol.. it was a little cold but hey.. we're Canadian!

OH!! Ps. ... before anyone points it out... Yes, there are no "full band shot " .. this is simply because I figured I wouldn't be able to get close to the stage as they were expecting 12,000 people so I had an idea of where I was going to shoot from, which would require a long lens, so thats what I had. When I showed up there was absolutely no one at the front lol.... so I went to the front and decided I was just going to shoot single portraits... then of course, some other crap happened like a camera guy in the cage area stood right in front of me and the crowd was so thick I couldn't move around so ... you get to see lots of images of the one guitarist and the singer.. everyone else was hidden from view. I tend to shoot the action people.. the bass player just stands there in the back so there was much of him .. the other guitarist moves around but I couldn't get shots because he was blocked by the singer, a large sub, and the annoying camera man...

- Shutter Click.

© Kevin Vyse Photography All Rights Reserved 2017 FINGER ELEVEN — © Kevin Vyse Photography
All Rights Reserved 2017

FINGER ELEVEN

"When he woke his, body was covered in coke fizz ".

SLOAN!!!! SLOOOOAAANNN!!! was being chanted by the crowd in Victoria Park - London Ontario and when they took to the stage the crowd went wild. Playing many different songs of many albums, Canadian Icon rock band SLOAN put on an amazing show despite the -4ºC weather and the bit of snow. Once the band started to play, it was like the cold didn't matter, no one cared, people were singing along, jumping around and dancing having a great time.

Ivory Hours is another Canadian band from London Ontario who is now getting national attention. This energetic band with an original poppy sound came out to open for Sloan and were a fan favourite as many people knew their lyrics and the band mates names, constantly yelling out " LOVE YOU! " "PLAY " so and so song... also chanting for an encore at the end of their set.

Once Sloan hit the 30 min before midnight mark, the countdown clock popped up on a screen behind the band on stage. They filled the 30 mins with a few hit songs including " Money City Maniacs " complete with the siren, which told everyone what song was about to be played and made the crowd lose their minds. At the 29 second mark everyone started counting down, when 1 second hit, the fireworks went off on top of the London Life building. Sloan's lead singer and bass player disappeared off the stage and their guitar tech jumped on bass as the band started to play AULD LANG SYNE ( the New Years Song ). We could hear the lead singer singing but no one knew where from until the band pointed out he was behind the crowd on the ice rink skating around with a wireless mic singing... how Canadian is that?, EH! What a great way to ring in the new year. Happy 2016 to all! - Shutter Click.

Oh PS. I didn't think I would be able to get as close to the stage as I did, seeing as how I read that last year there was 10,000 people attending the event, so my lens of choice was my 70-200. This lens is quite long and with me being so close my images had to be individual members. If I would have backed up to get everyone the crowd was so dense that it would have just been band members heads so I stayed where I was and did the best I could with what I had.

© Kevin Vyse Photography All Rights Reserved 2015 SLOAN — © Kevin Vyse Photography
All Rights Reserved 2015

SLOAN

IVORY HOURS

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