The Photographer’s Guide to the Festival

The other week, I had the opportunity to photograph Buku Music + Arts Festival 2016. It was very different from what I thought and I think I walked away with some tips that could save you a broken back, a lot of steps, and tons of stress.

So Buku is a festival that features a combination of EDM, rap, and even some alternative-pop kind of stuff. It’s interesting to say the least. I just want to deviate and clarify some things that I did not believe going into the music festival:

1.  Music festival girls are real.

Yeah, they are. I always saw pictures online and heard things about them, but never really believed it. Well, I have seen and now I believe.

2.  Drugs are a thing, but not to the extent that most people think.

I saw a few people smoke some stuff, but that was it. What they did before showing up to Buku is none of my business though, so I do not know in that regard.

(Yeah, that’s it. That is all I have to say on those matters. Now, back to the real topic.)

So, there are a lot of things that I want to cover and I believe that an appropriate title to this list would be “The Buku Photographer’s Guide to the Festival.”

Here it is: The Buku Photographer’s Guide to the Festival

1. Bring a small towel and a small microfiber cleaning cloth.

These things will save your life. There are so many people trying to get to places, it’s inevitable that you will have something cover your front element. It’s an easy and quick practice (if your towels are in an accessible place). Use the towel to soak up most of whatever is on the front of your lens then buff it nice and clean with the microfiber cloth. When I was at the A$AP Ferg stage, he took it upon himself to throw water all over the crowd, but most of it landed all over the photographers at the foot of the stage… including me. I was screwed. I was panicking. I didn’t know what to do, but one of the photographers I met earlier that day had a microfiber cloth, so I used my shirt as a towel and completed the process stated above with the borrowed microfiber cloth. It’s how I got the shot above of Ferg bowing to the crowd. So, thank you Javi. You da real MVP.

2.   Whatever memory you think is sufficient, double it.

This is not necessary and I don’t want you to go out and spend all of your money on memory cards. Let me clarify by stating an actual number of gigabytes that you should have: 128. That’s right, Only 128. I went to the festival with only 40 gigabytes thinking that it would be enough. “Just be careful with your shots,” they said. “It’ll be fun,” they said. Let me tell you the truth. You have very little time in the pit to get the shot you want. Things happen sporadically and unpredictably. You are going to just take a bunch of frames because you do not have the opportunity to just stand there and hope that the shot you have in mind just falls into place. If you’re a professional and have gone to hundreds of festivals then, by all means, stand there and get the shot you want. My thought process is to take bracket the scene, take a bunch of photos, and choose the one I like best. Henri Cartier-Bresson did it. Erik Kim does it. Don’t think that to be professional you have to do it all in one frame. Take a lot of photographs of the scene and make sure you have the memory to back it up. With my files running an average of about 35 megabytes a frame, You could easily get 3,600 frames. I was reaching my 1,100 limit even with deleting images in my spare time (and this is not fun). So for me, 128 would be enough. You may differ. Cater to your own shooting style and be happy.

3.   Backpacks. Backpacks. Backpacks. Backpacks. Backpacks. Backpacks. Backpa- you get it.

Live by them ladies and gentlemen. Sure, a shoulder back would be nimble, fast, quick and easy to get to, but after the first three hours, your back will FEEL IT (yes, I am so passionate about this, it deserved an all-caps bold styling). Besides, backpacks are more configurable and you can fit a lot more in them. I used a 5.11 backpack, but anything will do. Here’s a quick tip: if you have a camera bag with removable padding, you can put the padding in your backpack to make it a camera bag.

4.  When you want a picture, just ask. They want you to take their picture.

There is one thing that I loved about the festival: the people. There are just so many different kinds of people there! So many opportunities, you have to take them! I found that even when the moment was too short to ask, when people saw a camera, they were ready anyway. There are a couple of things you should remember though. 1. Remember to double check your exposure settings. There was times where I threw the shot because of bad exposure. Don’t let this happen to you. 2. Bracket the scene. Take more than one picture. Take it from different angles. Have them stand a certain way. Have them do other things. If you only take one, you may find that you’re not happy with it and you could’ve had  a better chance for a keeper if you just took multiple exposures.

5.  Get to the photo pit early for big performances.

The crowd is crazy. Some guy almost punched me in the face because I was trying to squeeze my way past him to get to the photo pit. Get there early, keep you face looking good, and keep the crowd from hating photographers.

Thanks for reading my opinionated (and late) article on shooting Buku, or any music festival for that matter. Here are a couple more shots from the festival. 

The Fly Don’t Bother Me

A couple of weeks ago, I went to The Fly. It’s a park that sits on part of the crescent portion of the Mississippi River as it cradles Uptown New Orleans. I have been to The Fly a handful of times. A couple of times to play soccer in high school, once to play soccer with two friends on a cold, wet day, once for a birthday picnic, and most recently for a romantic sunset picnic date. Rumor has it, The Fly got its name because it is shaped like a fly when you look at it from above. I try to sneak a peek at it every time I’m in an airplane. Now that I think of it, I’ll check Google Earth and see if it’s true… Okay, turns out it’s a myth. It looks more like a human liver than a Fly. The origin of its name shall continue to be shrouded in mystery.

A Kenzie in her natural habitat.

While I was there, I was far less interested in what the place looked like from a bird’s eye view and far more interested in everything else around me.  McKenzie, my girlfriend, got me a sandwich from Whole Foods that sang the most beautiful taste bud ballad: roast beef on focaccia with goat cheese spread, chipotle mayo, and sun-dried tomatoes. All good things must come to an end though, and before I knew it, the sandwich was gone. All that was left for me to do was sprawl out on the blanket in the grass and contemplate the mysteries of the universe while the brick of food that was protruding from my gut digested.

Spotted!

I did that for about 47 seconds and figured out all I needed to about the universe (could there actually be a multiverse with an infinite number of universes???) and decided to start snapping some shots with my Nikon D3300. It had been about three months since I actually took any pictures. Kind of embarrassing for me. Probably a travesty to you photo-fiends. I used the standard AF-5 NIKKOR 18-55mm lens. Remember, I’m an amateur guys. Also, I’m in college. My girlfriend buys my food half the time. I say it’s for gender equality. In reality it’s for checking account inequality. I can’t afford or justify buying a fancy schmancy lens.

There were a ridiculous amount of people at the park that evening. In New Orleans, when there’s that many people in one place, it is safe to assume there is either a music festival or a crawfish boil (or a combination of the two) taking place somewhere nearby. Not in this case. It was all the Tulane kids soaking in the first Spring-y feeling evening of the year. Plus, midterms had just ended and the cool crowd had to get their smoke and frisbee on.

Despite the crowd, there wasn’t a ton of commotion. I think people were just happy to be there. I would argue it was the most beautiful day of the year up to that point, but then again, I’m not usually the one that watches sunsets teary-eyed on a regular basis. Who knows the amount of emotion I have been missing out on!

It was one of those times I was really glad I brought my camera but the pictures I took just don’t do the grandeur of the imagery any justice. I tried my best. I don’t know much about cameras, but I poked some buttons and spun some wheels, and took a few pictures.

Have you ever just seen a color and it was so beautiful it made you want to fall right on your butt? The river was that kind of blue, fall-on-your-butt blue. My photography skills aren’t good enough to capture that color just yet, but I’ve got the still frames in my mind. One day I’ll develop them, but for now I’ll just keep them stored in my memory.

-ZL