I photographed Nocturnal Wonderland last weekend, a two-day festival in Southern California. The only other time I have really shot an Electronic festival was when I went to Ultra Fest in Miami with Tiësto. Other than that, it’s all new to me.
I had no idea what I was shooting or who I was shooting most of the time. Nor did I really know how to photograph them. But that is okay, I made a ton of mistakes and learned a lot- and even managed to get away with some images I enjoy. The major differences between this and what I usually shoot are… there is usually only one subject, sometimes two or three, they don’t move very much (with the exception of hand/ arm movements), and the lights make or break just about every image.
My friend from high school, Alex, does sound on one of the stages. These first images are him and other people getting ready for festival, and then it slowly moves into the images I shot during the fest. I am going to keep this blog mostly images. So without further ado, I give you crazy electric music festival.
The following images are the stages at Nocturnal Wonderland before they fill up with all the kids.
Handmade owl art piece.
Fire art piece, originally used for Burning Man
Big ass baby art piece.
A friend of mine who used to tour manage Hey Monday was playing there with his act, The Beat Kids. It is always easier to photograph an artist when you actually know them.
Man, I had to look up all these people’s names, I’m just learning. I got Crizzly on lock, cause it’s a bad ass name.
You have to cut me some slack here, I shot all of these images of Alesso blind, some with the 17-40 and some with the 70-200, it is harder than you think! I didn’t have access to every area so I had to make the side stage work as best as I could.
Day 2
I had a blast and I hope to go back for another one next month, it all depends on my tour schedule. I will be out with Pierce The Veil for a bit on the Collide With The Sky tour, just not quite sure when yet. Hope everyone is well! Apologies for my absence, gonna be going strong here for awhile now hopefully.
