Surely it looks so cool on Social Media, being one of those people with their #camera gear, on a mission to capture precious moments at events ... in case you have #ambitions in the field of #photography or even #eventphotography, you should read this.
As dedicated Metalhead since my late teens, you can believe me when I tell you where to find the most brutal Mosh Pit of all, where it’s all about sheer survival, because when you stumble and fall you’d surely be trampled to death, and you can call yourself lucky to escape only mildly bruised and equipment mainly intact ...
The photo pit: No place for the faint hearted, the shy, the polite.
In the #photopit at a #musicfestival it's about size, ”who has the biggest one ” (lense, camera) and of course physical height. The slightly challenged in this aspect, people like me around 1,60 m or even less, have to battle a huge disadvantage, considering that the average #festivalstage measures about 2m.
Sniper skills
Hence you need to develop sniper skills – training your body to stand perfectly still when you found the right position when spotting your mark, between shoulders, heads, hats and lenses of the taller colleagues, keep pointing at it – no-matter-what – and when the right moment comes, you stop breathing - as the slightest vibration might impair the result - and then you SHOOT …
Admittedly, there is some thrill in that.
For #eventphotographers there are even more challenges the public usually does not know about - only the first 2 or 3 songs are allowed to be captured, no flash allowed, EVER - hence it's a miracle sometimes you manage to get some nice photos after all.
And sometimes you simply don't - for example blinding lights from the back, a lot of fog effects - the result: Vague shadowy outlines - "gorillas-in-the-mist" motives.
I have many of those... and some actually do look cool.
(Edited/shortened version of an older blog post, read the full article HERE )