FYF Fest From The Photo Pit

FKA TWIGS

FKA TWIGS at FYF Fest 2015 photo: Lauren Ratkowski

Festival season is always exciting and challenging as a concert photographer. Festivals usually mean long days, incredible artists and tons of planning. FYF Fest in downtown Los Angeles was the end to my festival season. The festival itself was two days and packed an interesting array of artists on four stages.

First things first- Concert Guide Live writer Kaylee Johnston and I arrived at the festival and went to pick up our credentials. This process is usually pretty standard-we show them our I.D.’s and they give us our passes and line up schedule. This time I was handed a contract. As a young photographer, I’m always looking out for ways to protect my creative rights. But after reading their terms a few times, I understood that it was only to stop me from being able to sell the photos I would be creating at the festival. With the rights to my photos still with me, we moved forward.

The first day of the festival was about mapping the place out and planning our attack for which artists we’d like to cover. The first day was light in terms of shooting. I started with Canadian band Alvvays on the main stage, then jumped over to Denver indie pop rockers Tennis. Both bands played in the afternoon, allowing me to shoot in natural light. Sounds silly, but at this festival I realized how much I prefer to shoot concerts either indoors or at night. Natural sunlight is great and does make things easier technically, but I feel as if it doesn’t give the same WOW factor to the photos.

As night fell, we closed out day one with dance band !!!. Their energetic set was a sharp contrast to the laid back music of Alvvays and Tennis, but this is why we love festivals! We would have ended with headliner Kanye West, who replaced Frank Ocean, however a no photo policy was requested from the artist.

Kaylee and I began day two early, but were set back when the first two bands I planned to shoot also had requested no photos. I arrived to the photo pit to cover Mac Demarco early. Based off all the fans I had seen during the day, I knew there was going to be a large crowd and tons of interested photographers. The photo pit ended up being pretty full, but we were all still able to move around freely and photograph from different angles.

Three Oh See’s were up next on our list. I jumped into the pit and immediately noticed that the stage was set on a dried out lawn, which only means one thing if the crowd is active-dust. Once the band hit the stage, the mini dust storm began. Between the bands intense strobe lighting and the dust floating in the air, I was only able to snag a few decent photos. Feeling slightly defeated, I began planning for my next artist of the night.

I arrived about 15 minutes before Solange was due to hit the stage. I’d been looking forward to her set all day and figured there would be a lot of interested photographers. We were blocked from entering the pit, but were let in 5 minutes before she hit the stage. There were probably about 15 of us waiting initially. As soon as I finished wiping down my lens, I looked behind me to realize that there were now double the photographers in the pit. After some sound issues, Solange hit the stage with her incredible soul. Unfortunately there was no possible way to move around the pit to try and get more dynamic photos, but Solange is luckily not a still standing performer. I was a little worried when the lighting for her first song was all blue LED’s-one of three of my least favorite lighting conditions. But the lighting changed for the remaining songs I shot and her red outfit provided a sharp contrast against the dark background.

Following Solange was another artist I’d been looking forward to shooting for a long time-FKA Twigs. Her music is extremely original and her stage presence is made to match. Again, the photo pit was incredibly packed. But arriving early always pays off. Despite being stuck in the same spot again, I had a great angle. My only worry was the fog machines. I’ve realized that too much fog during a concert typically makes it harder to get a sharp focus in photos. The haze from the fog gives off a soft appearance and no amount of post editing can solve my problem. However, the fog actually worked in my favor for a number of shots and diffused the lighting making FKA Twigs, in a red custom kimono, stand out.

Covering FYF was one of the larger festivals I’ve covered, but it was a blast. I love that with every show or artist I shoot, I not only walk away with great photos, but I always know that I have learned something new!