Music Portrait Contest - Ben Ely of Regurgitator

Might be a little too late for this one, but I'll post anyway. Entry for  @jasonrussell's Music Portrait Contest, details here.

Photography came to me as a random "Yeah, sure, I reckon I could do that. Why not?" Next thing I knew, I had a camera and I was photographing what I naturally enjoyed anyway, live music.

This shot was taken of Ben Ely, frontman for Brisbane (Australia) rock band Regurgitator, who have been about since 1993, touring the world over, and releasing 10 albums. The photo was taken during their Australian tour at Adelaide's The Governor Hindmarsh. I was lucky enough to be on the door as a photographer, and both Ben and Quan were such absolute professionals that they not only work the audience, but work the photographers as well. They help us make them look good.



In the shot above, I got a lucky break on a strobe that illuminated him at the exact right moment. I don't typically edit rock shots to remove flares or highlights much, and chose to leave the purple side of his face as is. If I were an art student, I could make something up about the 'dichotomy of man' displayed on his face or something.

Sadly, all my originals are on my external drives, which aren't recognised by my computer, so I can't provide any of the relevant stats at present. Shot with a Nikon d800, pretty sure it was shot with me 50mm f/1.8.