Ocker Zeal - Interview with Daniel Boud of Boudist

July 2, 2008

Interview with Daniel Boud of Boudist

Began blogging: September, 2003
Based in: Sydney, Australia
Type: Photography blog
Traffic: 20,000 visits/month and 50,000 page views/month (my blog’s been declining in traffic in the past year. It used to be over double that.)

28-year-old photographer and blogger Daniel Boud from Sydney needs little introduction. Originally taking up photography as a hobby, his blog Boudist documented Sydney’s vibrant live music scene. Today Daniel is the chief staff photographer for the Australian version of Time Out Magazine.

The blogosphere must have looked pretty different in 2003. What inspired you to take it up?

I’ve always been a big nerd, reading a lot online. Blogging was booming but it was mainly personal blogs. I was enjoying reading about these bloggers’ lives and thought that I ought to join in the conversation and start blogging myself.

Commerce hadn’t caught up to the commercial potential of blogging yet. In 2003 there was no Myspace (but Friendster was the hottest kid on the block), no Gmail, no Wordpress.

My first post on Boudist was September 22 2003.

I’d been blogging a fair bit before that too, I wrote two different travel blogs in 2000 and 2001. Although i’d be too embarrassed to show anyone now.

When you first took up photoblogging I believe you were snapping on a consumer camera and just as a punter in the crowd?

I was using a 2 megapixel Canon Ixus V. In 2004 i upgraded to another point and shoot, the Canon s60.

I was going to gigs fairly regularly and would sometimes take some snapshots for mementos. For example, here’s The Vines at one of their very early gigs at the Hopetoun in February 2002. Or Monica and Darren from Gerling at the Judgement Bar in 2004.

Hehe, man looking at that makes me feel like I’ve aged! And you were running your blog alongside a full-time job?

I was working full-time as a web designer/producer and blogging was a handy personal project to practice my skills. Back then I used to redesign my template quite regularly and I used it to practice what I preached on ‘web standards’. I was an early adopter of using CSS for layout rather than tables.

So tell us about your first time shooting on a media pass? How did that come about for a hobbyist photographer?

The first gig I scored a media pass to was Kings of Leon at La Zona Rosa in Austin, March 12th 2005. I don’t know that off by heart, I just googled it.

That afternoon I bought my Canon Rebel XT and a 50mm 1.8 lens. I had a regular ticket to the Kings of Leon I’d bought online from Sydney and my camera in my backpack. On my way into the venue security stopped me, looked in my bag and said I couldn’t take the camera inside and I’d have to leave it in my car. I wasn’t driving and my place was way out of town so I said that wasn’t possible. I said I’d come all the way from Sydney for this and I was in town to take pictures at SXSW.

The security guard said he’d get his manager. I again pled my case to the head of security. He said I’d have to talk to the tour manager. After more waiting the tour manager came out, I again explained I’d come all the way from Australia for this, I just wanted to take some pictures, no I promised I wouldn’t be selling the pictures on Ebay or anything like that. To my surprise and relief he not only let me in with my camera but arranged to get me an official photo pass that let me in front of the barrier right in front of the stage.

I have a shocking memory but I still remember that night like it was yesterday.

In years previous I’d been at concerts like the Big Day Out, spent hours squeezing to the front row amongst throngs of sweaty, drunk and aggressive people, waiting to see my favourite bands. I’d notice moments before the band would start photographers would just waltz in effortlessly to the photo pit in front of me. I had no idea how you got to be in that position and thought I’d never find out. But thankfully I did.

Here’s some pictures from the 2005 Kings of Leon show then again in 2008.

After that Kings of Leon gig I continued to shoot the rest of SXSW and put my best shots up on my website and on Flickr. I got an email out of the blue from a photo editor at SPIN magazine asking if they could use three of the photos they’d seen of mine in SPIN magazine. I think they must’ve just googled and found me. Of course I said yes, they paid me and I was published in this great American music magazine I’d been raised on.

With Rolling Stone, that was the Australian version of the magazine. While at SXSW I saw a lot of Australian artists just hanging out together and thought it would be just the sort of thing Rolling Stone would run in their Random Notes section. So when I saw Ben Lee, Missy Higgins, Old Man River and Holly Throsby chatting away I interrupted and asked for a picture.

After I had the picture I asked around my friends if they knew anyone at Rolling Stone, I eventually got an email address and sent it in. They liked it and it ran in Random Notes.

I nurtured the relationships I developed at these magazines and continued to do other things for them, like shooting the Big Day Out for SPIN in 2006 and 2007 and Homebake for Rolling Stone this year.

Was it becoming difficult to juggle your freelance photography work with updating the blog and working full-time?

After SXSW I began shooting quite a lot for Sydney street press. Firstly with the short lived “CAT magazine” and then a bit for Brag but mainly Drum Media. I would shoot gigs, but also social photos. I started working quite regularly with Martin Novosel from Boundary Sounds who’d just started a new indie night called Purple Sneakers. I also began to do band portraits and press photos, not just the live photography.

My full-time day job had quite regular Monday to Friday 9-5 hours, and nearly everything I was photographing happened at night and on weekends. So I was lucky that the two things could co-exist.

Most of the photography paid peanuts so I still needed to work full-time doing web design.

How did your current job as Time Out Sydney’s chief photographer, which you’ve described to me as your “dream job”, come about?

Oddly enough, you could draw the start back to 2005 when I met and photographed the now Editor of Time Out Sydney at Purple Sneakers when he was out on the town with his girlfriend.

We kept in touch and some months later they asked me to be their wedding photographer. I’d never photographed a wedding and was very reluctant, but they were insistent and wore me down till I said yes.

We lost contact after that but out of the blue I got a call mid last year sounding me out for this secret project that was to become Time Out Sydney. After a series of meetings with various people involved they formally offered me the job late last year.

Would you say your blog was instrumental to getting you where you are today?

If it wasn’t for publishing my work online I wouldn’t have persevered with photography. It gave me an outlet for my work and an audience who encouraged me and made me want to do better.

To this day I still don’t have a professional portfolio website, just the blog. In a lot of ways that’s worked to my advantage because it puts a personality to me. I’lI seem more approachable and passionate than an anonymous photographer with a faceless portfolio.

If I find myself unemployed though, a proper portfolio site is on the to do list.

Any advice to other bloggers in how to leverage their blog to bag jobs/gigs?

I never blogged in order to get work. I’ve never advertised my services for hire or put the hard sell on anyone. I just used the site to publish work I wanted to share with people. So the idea of calculatingly “leveraging your blog” for work seems a little distasteful and could smack of desperation. And nobody is attracted to that.

So my advice is simply to blog about what you’re passionate about. If you do that, your enthusiasm for the subject will shine through. It will keep you motivated and will be more interesting to readers.

You don’t have any formal training (besides the ACP lighting short course). Do you think a lot of photography can be learned just through practice and experimentation?

I think practice and experimentation are incredibly important. And we’re lucky to live in a time where we can get advice and learn from people online, on websites like Flickr, blogs like Strobist, Digital Photography School or dozens of other sites out there.

Do you need to have a natural eye for it?

A ‘natural eye’ isn’t as important as a ‘curious eye’. A desire to always seek out a good picture and improve all the time.

What is a key ingredient of a good rock photo?

Emotion. Such as Johnny Cash giving the finger or Paul Simonen from The Clash smashing his bass. It’s why i love shooting bands like Young and Restless much more than boring shoegazers.

Which photographers, photobloggers or flickrers have been a big influence?

Some include:

I’ll be kicking myself when I think of others later.

What words of advice would you give to other aspiring rocktographers in Australia?

Have fun. It’s no way to make a living, but it’s the best spot in the house if you’re into live music.

You’re in a bit of a power couple what with your girlfriend Cybele Malinowski also an accomplished photographer. Is she a big influence on your work? Is there any element of competitiveness between you two? ;)

I’m impressed and humbled by her everyday. She’s especially good at the conceptual and studio side of things that I sometimes struggle with.

I guess there’s some competiveness, but while we’re both so busy working there’s no time to dwell on it.

Who have been some of your favourite subjects to photographs?

Oddly I tend to forget and move on from pictures very soon after I take them. I always have my mind on the next subject rather than dwelling on past ones.

That said, it’s been a thrill to photograph live some of my teen idols like U2, Pearl Jam, Iggy Pop, Jarvis Cocker, Smashing Pumpkins, Rage Against the Machine and Crowded House. Long live the 90’s.

And shooting for Time Out has meant I’ve been able to get portraits of people like Henry Rollins, Cate Blanchett, Michael C. Hall, Jason Schwartzmann and the Bondi Caveman.

Your favourite photo ever?

That’s my favourite photo today. I couldn’t name a favourite of all time.

4 months ago