musopantz

As I continually attempt to blog at least once a week, I now present to you the first festival of the new year… Summadayze!

After taking a two-and-a-half week off taking photos - the previous show was Animal Collective at Club Capitol, an incredibly dark show because their lighting system had screwed up - it was time to get back into it for 2010. What better way to start by shooting a lively dance festival along the foreshore.

The Presets are playing on-stage… somewhere

Spanning both the Supreme Court Gardens and The Esplanade reserves along Riverside Drive, Summadayze has grown to be a huge dance festival and the first lively event to kick you in the pants after New Years. I’m not sure how traffic manages when they have to close off Barrack St. to join the two parks, but I must say it’s a huge trek to get from one side to the other!

Infected Mushroom - blinded by the lights of the crowd

After a crazy day of DJs, it was refreshing to see a few live bands in the mix. Absolute highlight of my night was Israeli electronic group Infected Mushroom who, coupled with the roaring of the crowd, put on a performance that completely blew me away. Guitarist Erez Netz (pictured) rips it up on the guitars while Amit Duvdevani shouts and incites the crowd with great raucous!

Kim from The Presets & Jo from Technotronic

Remember “Pump Up The Jam”? Technotronic are back! Well… not really. There were many punters keen to relive their “early-90s popular house” days and for about 30 minutes they did. That’s how long Technotronic’s set was, spanning a whole four songs including the aforementioned plus “Get Up! (Before The Night Is Over)” and two other songs that I’m sure were from their first album. The Presets put on an ‘alright’ show, but their evening slot just showed that the full Presets experience needed some trippy lighting.

Carl Cox headlined making you dance your pants off

It was a great way to start the year. I took it easy and wandered around soaking it in. I’d like to think that the photos from Summadayze really shows what I’m capable of. There are immediate favourite photos of the year from this set, especially the photo of the festival rides.

Check out the rest of the Summadayze photos in my Flickr photostream.

Camping grounds @ Southbound

I guess all that work will finally pay off! Before the Christmas break last year, I was approached by Sunset Events to be their official photographer for the Southbound Festival down in Busselton. My mate Daniel Wilkins, who normally does Sunset Events’ festival photos wasn’t going to be available for Southbound. I’d really like to say that I have no idea why I was chosen for the job, but that would be far from the truth!

I had taken photos at Sunset Events on many occasions for Drum Media and got along very well with their media co-ordinator. He was well aware of my work- something that I’m always oblivious to, which is why it was such a surprise to be asked to shoot Southbound! After a quick chat with him at a media event, I got the immediate impression that I was locked in for the job.

Art vs Science

The photography brief was quite simply put: “we need a lot of iconic shots”. No pressure, right? Was I up for the job? Of course I was and I was going to try bloody hard to get these “iconic” shots. I was scared shitless. I knew I could do it, but I never knew that THIS was what people wanted. As an aside, I never received any feedback from Virgin Mobile/V Festival about my photos for them last year… were those photos “iconic” enough? Nevertheless, the V Festival was great preparation for what was to come.

“This Stage” at Southbound

I was given an Access All Areas (AAA) pass to get those “iconic” photos. This was only the second time I’ve had one of these and the first time (I’m sure) was an accident. I got started at Friday 10am, right after I arrived with Devar and Kitta. I barely saw my camping friends all weekend but that didn’t bother me; it’s how I normally work anyway. The only times I would see them was in the photo pit or in the media room. Though, I bumped into many friends from every era of my life while walking through crowds. Most of them happy to be with me on my photographic journey.

Editors

I could not believe how much freedom I had. You always feel so constrained when taking photos in front of the stage - three songs, no flash, etc… It was such a relief to be able to shoot almost anything, anytime, anywhere. All of the best moments at concerts always happen in the last couple of songs. And I’m so very proud to capture these moments. I did lots of research from Falls Festival, Sunset Sounds and various sideshows from over east, making sure I could capture as many of these moments as I could.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

On the Sunday morning, the media co-ordinator came into to media room to see how we were going. I asked him if he wanted check the progress on some of my photos. I ended up showing him every single photo. He was completely blown away! A deep sense of self-worth welled inside of me. “You got it spot on, Anthony”, he said. I was ecstatic. He was overwhelmed. I had worked no different to how I normally handle festivals. Coupled with the AAA pass, there was so much stimulus to massage my imagination. I came away from the media room and wandered the festival grounds, thinking to myself, “This is where I want to be…”.

The Temper Trap

I even got a photo in the Sunday Times! They asked Sunset Events for a few photos. The photo is huge! My first newspaper photo! I got an encouraging comment on Facebook from a great Perth photographer when he spotted the photo. Pity the main article that went with the photo though. It had a good review of the festival on the same page though!

Wolfmother in The Sunday Times (photo by Kitta)

It has never slowed down for me. I can not believe that my photographic journey has always been on the rise. I’ve tried to tell myself to slow down but the inertia, my passion, has always driven me forward. I have been extremely lucky with the opportunities that have arisen. And with these opportunities, I’ve always stepped up and said “Yes”.

Yoga Health Centre

2010 will mark a new era for me. I can see big things headed my way.

You can view more photos from Southbound on my Flickr Southbound 2010 photo set. Sunset Events will be posting a web gallery of all the photos soon! In the meantime, you can read The Southbound Times mass e-mail.

One of my New Year’s Resolutions is to blog more. I want to get back in touch with my writing. In the meantime, enjoy this slideshow of the best photos from 2009.