During my trip to New York this summer I got to photograph the Uniondale date of the Vans Warped Tour. Getting my pass wasn't as easy this year as it was actually quite hard finding someone who would let me take photos for them despite the fact that I was sorting the pass out myself. Eventually Rock Industry said they would be happy to have the photos which was a relief.
Steve Prue was shooting again this year and drove us down there. I love shooting with Steve, he's so laid back and easy going which is a big help to me as it stops me stressing out and keeps the day fun.
We shot together last year and this year we decided we were going to try and shoot as many bands as possible because if we weren't shooting we'd only be sat around. This meant lots of moving between stages.
The main challenge I find shooting Warped is because your outside you have to constantly switch between settings if the bands are in the shade and then if they move out in the direct sunlight.
The bands we shot were Alesana, Alkaline Trio, Anarbor, Andrew WK, Attack Attack, Automatic Loveletter, BMTH, Enter Shikari, ETID, Eyes Set To Kill, Four Year Strong, Motion City Soundtrack, Parkway Drive, Sum 41, The All-American Rejects, The Casualties and The Dillinger Escape Plan.
Highlights of the day were ETID who were so full on and energetic despite it being 11:45am and Dillinger Escape Plan who I've been dying to shoot for ages. Shooting them as them climbed up and threw themselves of everything they could was as easy as gig photography will ever get. Automatic Loveletter were really cool, Juliet Simms is stunning and her getting in amongst the crowd on the barrier are some of my favourite photos of the day. Bands getting in amongst the crowd seemed to be the thing to do as I managed to get photos of Automatic Loveletter, DEP and Enter Shikari all doing it. It really was the most intense and full on music photography I've done. We shot 17 bands in all on one day. It would have been 18 but Pretty Reckless had banned photographers because one person took some photos of Taylor he shouldn't have a week or so before so they kicked everyone out. It's a shame as I was quite looking forward to her band and it's sort of put me off them really. Even though I don't really like the band that much, I was really pleased with my BMTH photos. The band photograph really well and probably my favourite photo of the day is a shot of Ollie with the sun shining through.
I tried to shoot more crowd shots with photos of security carrying down crowd surfers, kids in the pit or just general shots of people on the barriers. I just wanted to try and give a better sense of everything that's going on.
Shooting one day really re-enforced the fact that I want to do more than one date, so that I could cover more bands over a longer period of time. Hopefully this would make this even more relaxed and allow me to spend more time shooting crowds and fans. I've thought a lot about the things I'd like to do if I ever got onto the tour for the whole thing. I got to say a brief hello and have a little chat with Tiff who is the pit reporter/official photographer for Warped. She does a great job and she does so much (videos, photos and blogs).
I really have to say a big thank you to Steve Prue for being my partner in crime and putting up with the bands I wanted to shoot, for driving and for making a big effort to make sure I had a good trip. Hopefully one day I'll be able to return the favour if he ever visits the UK.
This is a selection of photos but there are so many more to see in the collection on Flickr.
Steve Prue was shooting again this year and drove us down there. I love shooting with Steve, he's so laid back and easy going which is a big help to me as it stops me stressing out and keeps the day fun.
We shot together last year and this year we decided we were going to try and shoot as many bands as possible because if we weren't shooting we'd only be sat around. This meant lots of moving between stages.
The main challenge I find shooting Warped is because your outside you have to constantly switch between settings if the bands are in the shade and then if they move out in the direct sunlight.
The bands we shot were Alesana, Alkaline Trio, Anarbor, Andrew WK, Attack Attack, Automatic Loveletter, BMTH, Enter Shikari, ETID, Eyes Set To Kill, Four Year Strong, Motion City Soundtrack, Parkway Drive, Sum 41, The All-American Rejects, The Casualties and The Dillinger Escape Plan.
Highlights of the day were ETID who were so full on and energetic despite it being 11:45am and Dillinger Escape Plan who I've been dying to shoot for ages. Shooting them as them climbed up and threw themselves of everything they could was as easy as gig photography will ever get. Automatic Loveletter were really cool, Juliet Simms is stunning and her getting in amongst the crowd on the barrier are some of my favourite photos of the day. Bands getting in amongst the crowd seemed to be the thing to do as I managed to get photos of Automatic Loveletter, DEP and Enter Shikari all doing it. It really was the most intense and full on music photography I've done. We shot 17 bands in all on one day. It would have been 18 but Pretty Reckless had banned photographers because one person took some photos of Taylor he shouldn't have a week or so before so they kicked everyone out. It's a shame as I was quite looking forward to her band and it's sort of put me off them really. Even though I don't really like the band that much, I was really pleased with my BMTH photos. The band photograph really well and probably my favourite photo of the day is a shot of Ollie with the sun shining through.
I tried to shoot more crowd shots with photos of security carrying down crowd surfers, kids in the pit or just general shots of people on the barriers. I just wanted to try and give a better sense of everything that's going on.
Shooting one day really re-enforced the fact that I want to do more than one date, so that I could cover more bands over a longer period of time. Hopefully this would make this even more relaxed and allow me to spend more time shooting crowds and fans. I've thought a lot about the things I'd like to do if I ever got onto the tour for the whole thing. I got to say a brief hello and have a little chat with Tiff who is the pit reporter/official photographer for Warped. She does a great job and she does so much (videos, photos and blogs).
I really have to say a big thank you to Steve Prue for being my partner in crime and putting up with the bands I wanted to shoot, for driving and for making a big effort to make sure I had a good trip. Hopefully one day I'll be able to return the favour if he ever visits the UK.
This is a selection of photos but there are so many more to see in the collection on Flickr.
The photos from the day can all be seen here.
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