Two-Point To-Do List: Ella Eyre Live in Session

There were only two things that I had to do:  

1. Capture the images on the shot list that Nokia and the event organisers Mission had given me.
2. Not get in shot during the two songs that the film crew from La Blogothèque were filming.

I was shooting a special performance by Ella Eyre (an incredible young singer best known for her vocals on Rudimental's hit "Waiting All Night") for the first Nokia Lumia Live Session of 2014.  The Lumia Live Sessions set out each year to showcase incredible new artists in unique and memorable settings, and this first event of the year was to have Ella performing her set amongst the dodgems and vintage rides at Dingles Fairground Heritage Centre in Devon.  It was a fantastic location but Ella's voice outshone everything else - strong, soulful, and incredibly controlled - the small crowd were completely captivated despite the colourful flashing lights of the historic fairground attractions surrounding them.  She was backed by her live band playing semi-acoustically, before performing her encore sat on the bonnet of one of the bumper-cars with just her unplugged guitarist and no microphone.  I managed to keep track of the songs in her set and stayed frozen to the spot during the two songs that were being filmed by ground-breaking French music videographers La Blogothèque, lying on the floor at the front of the stage during one of them with a stage monitor blasting right into my ears.  I still managed to end up in the background of a couple of their shots though(although I'm blaming this on their slick editing), so don't get to fully tick that second box.  As for the first job on my list, well I managed to get the shots asked for during the gig - as well as a few nice backlit ones during the soundcheck when Ella sat in a dodgem car tweeting about the gig on her phone, absent mindedly singing pitch perfect into her microphone whilst a single spotlight shone through her impressive hair.  Check 'em out - I hope you dig.  

Spotlit

Lights, Dodgems, Action!

Vintage Fairground, Modern Neon

Dingles Fairground Heritage Centre

Performing "Waiting All Night"

The best seats in the house were far-and-away the dodgems.

Perhaps I should take stickers next time?

Merry-Go-Round

Keep your eyes and ears peeled for Ella Eyre this year.

Soundcheck - check.

To keep up to date with the Nokia Lumia Live Sessions of 2014 click here - each gig is by invitation and there are various ways to win tickets.  If this event was anything to go by then I'd say it'd be well worth keeping an ear to the ground.

Check out my images and the La Blogothèque video from the last event of 2013 (on a rainy beach in Cornwall) here.