Music Photography Blog

by Adam Elmakias

All Time Low UK Arena Tour Photos

You can either watch this video, or read the few paragraphs below – its the same information more or less. Your choice 🙂

All Time Low was headlining this tour with You Me At Six–so same size band billed the same–but the only difference is You Me At Six played last. They can’t exactly play at the same time, now can they!

My job for this tour is the same as every tour- shoot all day and provide content for the band/band members to post on their socials the next day. The main goal is for me to accurately depict the size of the band’s shows and show how nice their faces look. This was the biggest tour I had ever done. I loved it. Lots of people at concerts and lots of people to put in the photos.

Additionally as the crowd/capacities and sizes of the venues increase, so do the lighting and production packages of each band. I haven’t done a tour of this size before. I mean I have been on rather large tours before, with big bands, but I was usually touring with the smaller acts. It would have been cool to start touring with bands like Metallica and Slipknot or something, but I didn’t start with them, I didn’t grow with them–so in the end it wouldn’t be as rewarding. I like that personal connection of being part of the team and I feel it really helps my images as well.

So every day I photograph the show. By the end of the tour, my goal is to have enough images to properly represent everything that happened during the show. This means that some days I won’t get every shot, but cumulatively it will present the tour in its best light possible. I shoot some images from the photo pit, but my main advantage is the access I have and I need to make sure to utilize that every day. I can shoot backstage, onstage, side stage, from the audience and all of anything and everything. That is why the band has me there.

So every day on this tour I was up around 7:00 or 8:00 am, and then to bed at 2:00 or 3:00 am. They were long days. It wasn’t too bad for me however cause it was only a 5 show tour, and I am used to 5 weeks! So I was okay with it. I had a lot of shots to get every day and with the increased size in the venue, I needed to start shooting some remote cameras. I shot three different cameras almost every day, with one at front of the house and then another rigged up high somewhere. This allowed me to get all the shots I needed to get without having to run around the venue much. It’s important I am at the right place for the right time during the set, and if I am running to the back of the venue just to get one shot, it doesn’t quite work. I made this video recently showing how I shot the set from start to finish. In this particular video, I didn’t have a camera at the front of the house, so I did have to do some running! But you get the idea. I gotta stay fit somehow.

I also have some techniques for making sure I know when certain key parts of the set are coming up. Its pretty simple and just involves some paper and a pen. I basically draw out the timeline of each song as a literal line and make letter markings at different parts of each song. Each later stands for something different. C means crowd, or when the crowd is fully lit up. J means jump, P means pyro, etc etc. Its really whatever works for you. I just have to shoot the same thing every day–lighting stays the same, production stays the same–so I figure cancel out as much of the luck as possible and try to create good photo-taking situations to the best of my advantage.

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I usually get most of my editing done the night of the show right after it’s over–or at least download and store the images. This way I can wake up the next day and get right to work. However, because I was shooting so many images (almost 4,000) with remote cameras on this tour it just wasn’t possible most of the time. Anyway, enjoy the photos! let me know if you have any questions. Post them everywhere, print em out if you want and put em on your wall – just make sure to send me a picture afterward. This will be the last tour I am selling prints for – everything is changing.

2/6/2015 – London, UK – Electric Ballroom with Neck Deep
2/7/2015 – Cardiff, UK – Rehearsals with All Time Low
2/8/2015 – Cardiff, UK – Rehearsals with All Time Low
2/9/2015 – Cardiff, UK – Motorpoint Arena
2/10/2015 – Birmingham UK – Birmingham LG Arena
2/11/2015 – Off day in Manchester
2/12/2015 – Glasgow, UK – The SSE Hydro
2/13/2015 – Manchester, UK – Phones 4u Arena
2/14/2015 – London, UK – The O2 Arena

ALL TIME LOW PRINTS

shipping from Europeshipping from USA 

Neck Deep at The Electric Ballroom in London
Neck Deep at The Electric Ballroom in London
Neck Deep at The Electric Ballroom in London
Neck Deep at The Electric Ballroom in London
Alex Gaskarth of All Time Low at rehearsals
Alex at rehearsals
Rian Dawson at rehearsals
Rian Dawson at rehearsals
All Time Low rehearsals
All Time Low rehearsals
Tom Begley, nice guy
Zack of All Time Low at rehearsals with his baby
Zack at rehearsals with his baby
Hanging with Rian, keep up the good work, man
All Time Low rehearsals
All Time Low rehearsals
Rian Dawson and his kit
All Time Low tech talks about pyro
All Time Low tech talks about pyro
PYRO TESTS YAY
Alex of All Time Low having a moment with his baby
Alex having a moment with his baby
Zack hanging
Alex Gaskarth of All Time Low by Adam Elmakias
Alex from above
My gear, and my pass
Out to eat!
Alex in an empty venue
Jack in the empty venue
Alex Gaskarth of All Time Low by Adam Elmakias
Alex with some nice blues
Jack looking fly
Rian Dawson checking out his machine thing
Jalex sleeping
Rian always warms up for an hour before the set
Swag lord reporting for duty
Jack Barkat of All Time Low by Adam Elmakias
Jack of All Time Low live
Zack jamming
Just going for a stroll
Pyro blasts
Rian Dawson of All Time Low
Rian Dawson of All Time Low smiles for 84 days
Rian’s view of the fireworks
Pyro from the front of the house
All the lights are so pretty!
Alex at soundcheck
Soundcheck with All Time Low
Soundcheck with All Time Low
Rian of All Time Low
Standard sexual tension, I had to crop out Alex’s face cause it was too wild
Ay ballet
Solo time with Alex Gaskarth
Full house from up high
Crowd from above
All Time Low packed venue
FIRE FIRE FIRE
Alex after the set
Me after the set
Aftershow drinks on the bus
Portrait of Alex Gaskarth of All Time Low by Adam Elmakias
Alex Portrait
Alex Gaskarth and Jack Barakat of All Time Low by Adam Elmakias
Best friends Alex and Jack
All Time Low by Adam Elmakias
All Time Low
Teamwork
Right before going to stage
All Time Low live in Glasgow
All Time Low live in Glasgow
I am not quite sure about this one but I think I like it
Alex Gaskarth of All Time Low
Alex All Time Low
So many people
Rian Dawson of All Time Low
Rian Dawson of All Time Low
These are my clothes
Josh of You Me At Six and Alex of All Time Low
Josh of You Me At Six and Alex of All Time Low
Giles and Tom
photo by Andy Laing
photo by Andy Laing
This is how I shoot with my monopod! Photo by Andy Laing
photo by Andy Laing
photo by Andy Laing
Alex and Jack do shoes
Outside hang.
Rian Dawson
Rian Dawson
Rian and Zack working out in a semi-truck, I really like these photos
Rian and Zack working out in a semi-truck
Rian and Zack working out in a semi-truck
Alex before the set
Lots of people!
Phone lights on
Clap time
Crowd shot Manchester
he is giving me his favorite finger
Karma
Rian’s view
hot crossed buns
BLUES
YELLOWs
Alex with Lee of Bring Me The Horizon
Alex with Lee of Bring Me The Horizon
Vegan of Bring Me The Horizon and Jack of All Time Low
Matt of You Me At Six and Matt of Bring Me The Horizon
Matt of You Me At Six and Matt of Bring Me The Horizon
Swag goddess ay
Dan of You Me At Six and Jack of All Time Low
Dan of You Me At Six and Jack of All Time Low
LANGUAGE
Alex giving a nice speech
Tim and Eric is really nasty
LOTS OF PEOPLE
Acoustic from above
Alex Gaskarth at the Game Of Thrones
Alex x Game Of Thrones
Jack at the Game Of Thrones
Jack x Game Of Thrones
Rian at the Game Of Thrones
Rian x Game Of Thrones
All Time Low at the Game Of Thrones
All Time Low x Game Of Thrones
ME
Jack excited about the venue size
All Time Low soundcheck at O2 Arena in London
All Time Low soundcheck at O2 Arena in London
Jack of All Time Low
Jack of All Time Low
Giles and Tom
Tom and Giles
Portrait of Jack Barakat of All Time Low
Jack portrait
Portrait of Jack Barakat of All Time Low
Squares
Portrait of Jack Barakat of All Time Low
Fits right in
Pyro never gets old
Extra pyro for London!
From above
Happy Joy
Quite the jump
From the back of the venue
Same shot different light
Black and white crowd
Full band
Alex Gaskarth of All Time Low
Alex telling the crowd to hold up their phones
Cell phones out
Another view
Rian Dawson of All Time Low
Rian of All Time Low
All Time Low at The O2 Arena in London
All Time Low at The O2 Arena in London
Cheeky touch
Full stage shot
Finale
Ready to shower
You Me At Six and All Time Low
You Me At Six and All Time Low
Walk The Moon – Jack Barakat
Alex Selfie