Colour

having now had the chance to go over my recent images I can begin to see a real passion developing for saturating colour. As well as also introducing a feeling of nostalgia to my images.

I am becoming more and more aware of the colour around me and also looking at the way old photographs dealt with colour especially holga cameras. I have resolved to buy myself an old holga camera and begin to experiment with the way those cameras see colour. The plan is to take one to Bestival in September when I will once again have some time on my hands to be able to shoot for myself without the pressure of news organizations demanding specific images of specific artists and acts.

I have also come into contact with a number of other photographers now who also have similar views and ideas on colour and nostalgia that I have and plan to collaborate with them or at least brainstorm and share ideas with them.

Camp bestival was very successful for me in a professional way as a number of very high profile bands and acts have come into contact with my work and want to see more from me. On a funny note I even have Mr Tumbles personal mobile phone number now...what parent of a young child in the UK wouldn't kill for that privilege!

As 2009 moves on towards the end of the summer now I have also resolved to move closer to where most of the festivals and action is with a move to Cornwall on the cards in the coming months for both me and my partner. This we both feel is a sensible move and somewhere we have been thinking of moving towards for a number of years. Lookout when the move happens for some very dramatic winter seascapes as the north Cornish coast is very dramatic.

Camp Bestival. Flags, Fun, Music & Sun

Well Camp Bestival seems like a distant memory now but one of those memories that truly become a cushion for old age. We arrived on site two days before the festival began and started to distribute the sofas , mirrors, dressing tables and chairs to all manor of strangely named sites within the grounds of Lulworth Castle. Our sofas were delivered to knitting tents sewing tents and placed around a campfire circled with flags. Pianos were placed underneath trees and within a circle of flags to be used by anyone who cared to stop and play. The work having been completed we were then free to roam around an empty site photographing all that is involved in setting up such a huge festival. Flags adorned every part of every field from the castle field to the magic meadow. As the last of the flags went up the sunshine appeared and the whole festival site looked like one giant medieval tournament field. We wandered for hours just marvelling at the spectacle.

Friday arrived and so did the festival goers along with their fancy dress costumes and so the festival began and the music started. We were treated to everything from Mr Tumble from CBBC to Chic with their amazing catalogue of disco tunes. Comedy came from the likes of Lee Mack and dancing from the English National Ballet. Amongst the places to eat was the famous River Cottage Cafe and places to relax included Dingly Dell and the spoken word tent. This was a very well organised festival and all who attended seemed chilled and relaxed including the security guards and police officers.

It has been absolutely impossible to represent the festival with one particular image and so i present to you my portfolio of images @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/lemonsplashphotography/sets/72157621740496663/ You will see a variety of styles used to convey the mood and atmosphere of the event. Some of my favorites are the Holga processed images as the festival had a very nostalgic feel to it. They convey to me the feel of childhood and what it should have been like. I hope you enjoy the set of images and if you haven't yet been to a festival maybe it will entice you to find out about one near you.

Camp Bestival Preview

Well its the night before LemonSplash Photography sets off for Camp Bestival based at Lulworth castle in Dorset. I will be arriving at the festival two whole days before those with tickets have access to the site. This means hopefully that I will get to take some very unusual photos of the event site totally devoid of festival goers. I'm hoping there will be a strong breeze to enable me to capture some very ethereal images of all the flags fluttering. The weather is very predictable for UK festivals, rain is forecast throughout the event...deep joy!! One of the reasons we are arriving so early is the fact that I am helping deliver 41 sofas to the event...yes I did just type 41 sofas to the event. These are to be used everywhere from VIP areas and dressing rooms to out in the festival site in the knitting tent and also in the bollywood tent. Expect to see images of sofas in very out of the ordinary places on my flickr portfolio site. My partner is hoping we keep a sofa back for our tent as we will be there for 5 days and nights. In return for this favour I have been given unprecedented access to the whole site and not just in front of the numerous stages at this event but also access to everything behind the scenes. Which is probably where I will spend most of my time away from the mud and huge crowds...I'm still washing mud off me from the NASS event two weeks ago!!

Lookout for our images of Camp Bestival on my flickr site and also at www.efestivals.co.uk

NASS in the Rain

Another festival over for 2009.

NASS bills itself as Europe's largest extreme sports festival. By day you are entertained by skateboarders, BMX, FMX, mountain bike trials, old skool slalom skating, inliners, streetboarders and just about anything else dangerous on two wheels. This year saw the introduction of the Goliath ramp. With an 8 metre drop in its not one for the faint hearted. Sadly this year NASS was blighted by the traditional British weather which meant most of the outdoor events were severely curtailed. I did find myself on top of the Goliath ramp at one point though perched on a ledge 25 feet in the air clinging onto my new 300mm F2.8 prime lens photographing the skaters as they came down the ramp. To say I was concerned about my £3.5 k investment was an understatement but I did manage to get some great close ups of the skaters as they popped up over the jump. The lens has some fantastic features and its no wonder it has become the lens of choice for most sports and action photographers.

This years music was kind of split into two genres over two days with dance/drum n bass the order of the day on the Friday and rock music on the Saturday. As you can see from the images here and on my flickr site the rain does nothing to dampen down festival goers when it comes to their music. Within hours the front of the stage was little more than a mud bath with the photographers pit not fairing much better either. I used my 24-105mm lens to photograph much of the acts but again decided to try out my new 300mm for some really close up shots of the vocalists. I even managed to hand hold the lens which was a huge bonus as I fear my monopod would simply have disappeared into the mud had I decided to use it.

The shots above are not what you would call "exhibition" standard shots but they do show what it is editors are looking for when it comes to photographing at these events. I was simply tasked by sportvision and littlepress to capture what was going on. I dont think too many shots will make it to press this year as NASS clashed with T in the Park which is Scotland's answer to Glastonbury or Reading I suppose. They will be used to promote the event next year though and hopefully NASS 2010 will be a sunny affair.

Next stop for LemonSplash Photography is a quite different festival....Camp Bestival in Dorset, lots of live music, stand up comedy, theatre and even a knitting tent. Watch this space and my flickr pages for images and a write up of the event.

Festival Season

This image was taken as Pendulum walked on stage...So very glad I was in the photographer's pit for this one. As you can see from the image this is the crush as thousands of fans push forward in unison to greet them. I always like to turn my camera on the crowd as headline bands take to the stage. They make such fantastic atmospheric shots and I hope give a feeling of the euphoria of the event.
As for the band....Drum and Bass meets hard techno rock and their set didn't disappoint the multitude of fans.
This year sees LemonSplash Photography covering festivals almost every weekend of the summer. We will be covering events as small as SeaSelsey through to medium sized festivals such as NASS and then onto some major players in the festival calender such as Camp Bestival and finishing off the season by returning to the Isle of Wight for the last big festival of the season, Bestival. Along the way I will be photographing fancy dress competitions, huge mega ramps for skateboarding, bmx and inline, angel gardens and strange acts at camp bestival through to surfers and Lily Allen live onstage as she closes Bestival in September.
At 45 you would think I would be taking it easy and winding back a bit but truth told this is something I should have done 20 years ago as its so much fun. hard work but fun non the less.
Lookout on my flickr site over the coming weeks for lots of festival images.
Add to all the festival work my usual wedding work and now arts and craft fairs where I sell my images directly to the public it makes for a thriving business which is much needed in these very difficult trading times.