How To Shoot A Festival

I watch a lot of YouTube videos about photography and this one from the Adventure & Art site by Ben Staley is worth the hour. It’s a master class on how to shoot a special event.

Why watch? Because Ben, who is a top-tier environmental portrait photographer, pulls off an amazing job using minimal equipment at an outdoor three-day event. In other words this photography is a high-wire act with no net. It’s amazing what he accomplishes in his photography.

Pay particular attention to how Ben gets a full-access pass (one of only two issued to photographers) to the Teleride bluegrass music festival. And watch how Ben, using very minimal equipment, talks his way into shooting some of the best black and white portraits of artists performing and posing I’ve ever seen.

Over my 50 years of shooting I shot a lot of black and images and talked my way into a lot of places where photography wasn’t allowed and Ben knows the secret of how to get into the places where the real photography happens.

You can do this too. And well maybe it won’t be a three-day music festival but there are lots of special events happening in our community every year and you could be the event photographer!

During my professional career I always found time to volunteer for charitable and non-profit events as their staff photographer. For example again this year I was one of several photographers for Oakville’s Art In My Garden event.

Laugh if you will (I’ll take no offence) but it got me out shooting for a day and the organizers and artists were very grateful for the images. In fact, several of the artists remembered me and my photos of them from the previous year of shooting and thanked me for my time and efforts. That was very gratifying.

So if you want to take your photography to the next level watch this video. Notice how Ben works himself into the event. And notice as well he’s not using a lot of gear to produce first-class work. Know that you could volunteer your photographic services just like I did. All you need to do is ask.

Here’s the link: Backstage Portraits at a Music Festival.