Though I still have plenty of photos from London to share, I decided my blog time would be better spent live blogging. Wednesday, Keri and I traveled for 17 hours on planes, trains, and automobiles to get from London to Atlanta. We did laundry, slept, re-packed, and left the next morning for JazzFest in New Orleans! I love vacations like these, but I will say the lack of sleep is finally catching up with me. I noticed it at about 2am last night at the Anders Osborne late night show at the Republic.
I've posted about JazzFest before, here and here. This year was no different. Keri and I joined some awesome friends down here at hit the stages yesterday with plans to hit them again today in about an hour. I have figured out a pretty good system in order to get good pics while also spending time with the group. I'll pick the shows I want to see and when the band hits their first few notes I'll walk straight up to the stage with my Canon 5d and 70-200mm lens, stay for 2 songs, then get out of there before security gets annoyed with all of the photographers crowding the stage. The trick is to walk with the lens in the air looking like I belong there making no eye contact with anyone- just focus on the spot at the stage you're aiming for. The lens in the air serves two purposes- one is to show the bouncers that you have the right equipment and the other is to somewhat block their view of my face and the fact that I have no credentials. The best one yesterday was going to see Bon Iver- the closing show for the day at one of the main stages. It was pretty slammed, but I was able to sneak past security using these tactics so easily that I almost blew my cover by stopping short before the stage. Instead, I had to go full throttle and get right up to the stage in one quick move, otherwise my cover would be blown. I snapped enough photos for 2 songs or so and go out of there before I was kicked out. I knew I didn't want to make myself known in case I wanted to get up there today. It all worked like a charm!
Bon Iver:
Slavic Soul Party:
Eric Lindell:
Chuck Leavell:
... and randomly saw a girl get engaged and run to tell her friends, so I naturally snapped a few shots and congratulated her. It was really sweet and I hope she emails me so I can send these to her!
