Alex Lake picks best of the fans’ live shots

A few weeks ago, we asked readers of the Keane Weekly Newsletter (which you can sign up for by clicking ‘Newsletter’ on the left) to send in their best live shots of Keane taken at one of the band’s 2006 shows. We were sent literally hundreds, of a very impressive quality. So, to judge the contest we thought we should get the opinion of a professional photographer – and who better than Alex Lake, who’s taken some of the most famous pictures of Keane.

So, without further ado, over to Alex…

Hi All,
There were some blinding shots for me to look through so congratulations to everyone who sent in pictures and exploded my inbox. It’s been dead tricky working out who to pick as all the photos had a great deal of merit but the winners are…

WINNER
London Astoria, June 9 2006, by Kerry Heary

Congratulations! I chose this shot as the winner for a number of reasons. It has a great atmosphere to it with the light pouring from behind Tom. It’s a timeless image. The composition is bang on – I love the way he is framed by Rich’s kit and the hanging stage set, the way his mic stage is parallel with his leg etc. all make for a beautifully composed image – something that is very hard to achieve in the chaos of a gig environment. It’s good that you captured him in sharp detail despite the movement but the main reason I love this shot is that you’ve totally captured ‘Tom’ in that it’s a silhouette of him but the body language is all there – it’s not about ‘the whites of his eyes’ – he’s instantly recognisable and that’s a real achievement. Well done.

RUNNER-UP 1
Milan Rolling Stone, May 18 2006, by Roberto Maestrini

I chose this shot as it’s always good to see images of the entire band live. Depending on the size of the stage or the positioning of you/everything else, it’s not always easy to get a good shot of the whole of Keane but I feel you’ve done it here. With the angle of the lights it’s a very epic image with all three band members in distinctive poses and again a really strong composition.

RUNNER-UP 2
San Francisco Great American Music Hall,  June 20 2006,  by Myra Yapching

I love this shot of Rich. You’ve used the lighting and his movement to your advantage. It’s a great shot of him and I love the colours.  It’s good to see that and that he’s not been lit up with a flash. What you lost in detail you’ve gained in atmosphere! A nice arty one.

Big thanks to Alex for taking the time to judge the contest and congratulations to Kelly, who’s won a signed copy of ‘Under The Iron Sea’.

We’ll be posting up some more of the best entries over the next few days, before announcing the winner of the album review contest next week.