Local Photographer Stephen Corran shares his Eurovision pictures and experience
Can you tell us about yourself and what your art form is?
My name is Stephen Corran (my social media pages are under the name PicsByCorraste) and I’m a photographer. I practice many types of photography including Landscape, Wildlife, Sports and public events but at the moment, I am mainly photographing music events and gigs for a number of promoters at the Villa Marina and Gaiety Theatre as I just love live music and the theatre. When I’m not officially photographing gigs, I spend most of my spare weekend evenings watching many of the great local bands. I’m also kind of the unofficial/official photographer at the Curraghs Wildlife Park and also photograph the competitions for Manx Powerlifting.
What has been the latest project you’ve been working on? Tell us about the experience?
Well I’ve not really been working on a project as such, but some of my recent work included photographing Boyzlife at the Villa Marina, a fun little photoshoot with talented local band Ocean’s Avenue and photographing the Ben Portsmouth - This is Elvis show who has also since hired me to photograph some shows for him in the UK in September. I also managed to secure floor tickets to the first live semi-final of Eurovision in Liverpool, which I of course decided to document. That was an amazing experience! Having watched the finals for a number of years, when it was announced it was to be hosted in the UK, my brother in-law and I decided we had to try and get tickets and luckily we were successful. The event was so well organised and there was a great atmosphere, plus I love Liverpool. Being at the live show in person put a whole new perspective on it for us and we are now considering the possibility of going to Sweden for next year’s show. It was also interesting to see how it was all put together for the live show and it was like a well oiled machine and so slick and what the acts and celebs are up to when the cameras and lights aren’t on them. We were lucky enough to have Bucks Fizz and Rita Ora at the first Semi-Final which was a nice surprise. The great thing about the floor tickets was that because of the layout, you weren’t too far away from the acts or the stage as the acts were all sat behind us and the stage with runway in front of us so we has a great view of the whole show as you’ll see if you have a look at the photos on my Facebook page @PicsByCorraste which were all taken with my phone camera.
How do people get intouch with you?
People can check out my work via my social media pages on Facebook @PicsByCorraste or on Instagram @PicsByCorraste @MusicPicsByCorraste or @SteveCorranWildlife and if they have any queries, they can contact me on there.
Do you have any advice people wanting to start photography as a hobby don’t know where to start? Sounds like a cliche but practice practice practice! When I started 5 or so years ago I only used my phone camera to start with (which is still sometimes a good option depending on the circumstances). Don’t get caught up thinking you need expensive gear to take a great photo. Sure it helps, but it’s not essential. Finally, there are a huge amount of free resources out there on the likes of Youtube to teach the basics. Find a photographer whose work and style you like, and watch their videos and read their articles to learn their tips and advice on shooting and editing. Then as I said…Practice Practice Practice!
