A couple of weekends ago i was part of the crew from Blue Murder Studios photographing the Vodafone MTV Australia Awards for MTV.

It’s a good gig to get because it’s much better access than the usual red carpet and media room frenzy. I thankfully managed to avoid both those places.

It means getting to shoot the actual show, which few photographers are allowed to do.

Because it’s made for TV the production values are high, lots of light, pyrotechnics and showmanship. On the flipside, because it’s all designed for TV it’s often hard to shoot. There’s no photo pit as such, that’s filled with tracks for the video cameras. So i’m glued to one spot at an awkward angle, dodging video crews and explosions.

Kaiser Chiefs performed Never Miss a Beat amidst the pyrotechnics.

The Fray got all ballady.

Jessica Mauboy appeared to be rather Beyonce inspired for her performance.

Shooting the awards also meant i’m probably one of the few people to shoot The Killers live in recent memory. They don’t allow press photographers in to their shows and photographers are banned from shooting them at festival appearances too.

Wolfmother debuted their new single Back Round to close the show.

See more performance photos from the MTV Australia Awards.

More shots of the presenters and backstage.