FieldNotes

Photography takes you to interesting places if you let it. Festival stages at midnight, harbours at dawn, backstage corridors that smell of coffee and nerves. This is where I write about those shoots: what the brief was, what the conditions were like, and what I came back with. No tutorials, no kit lists. Come along for the ride.

Firstlight

Before the Crowd

Most people arrive at Firstlight when it starts. I get there a few days before, when the stage rigging is still going up and the beach is quiet enough to hear the sea.

Festival

From the Pit

The connection between Firstlight and Latitude isn't obvious from the outside, but it's one of the things that makes both festivals interesting to work.

Landscape

Round the Corner

There's a version of photography that involves booking flights and explaining to airport security why you need three camera bags. I have a lot of respect for photographers who do that work. But some of the best frames I've taken were within twenty minutes of home, on a morning when the light was doing something I hadn't planned for.