Iron Maiden’s 15th studio album is at last unleashed. Mid-week sales suggest it will be No.1 in the UK chart by the weekend. The photo in the artwork was taken in Ft Lauderdale back in May. My inspiration was from the classic scenes in Close Encounters.

I felt the band in sillhouette would have so much more impact than the usual casual band shot. I had heard the record and seen the album artwork so I had a feel of the vibe. It was the last shot to be done during an afternoon of promo pictures at TYE studios and I took a bit of a risk leaving it until the end. I wasn’t sure the bands attention span would hold and I was running way over time. The band are standing on 3 steel platforms in a black-out studio, backlit with 3 heads and a smoke machine. The image is in full colour, but shot with Tungsten film with daylight flash giving an overwhelming blue cast.

‘Nikon Rocks’. I will be doing a talk on music photography, touring with Iron maiden and of course Nikon cameras. This Tuesday at Focus, Birmingham NEC, on the Nikon stand @ 3pm.

Ed Force One has touched down in Ecuador. What a place! It is just beautiful and the fans are Maiden crazy. The plane was mobbed when it touched down and outside the bands hotel there is a massive crowd chanting Maiden. The show is tomorrow and will upload shots when I can.