sometimes more dreams come true

I had been dreaming of shooting an open air festival at some point. I didn't really know how to get a photo pass to any festival (except for Rocknight, which isn't an open air, haha)... So I was going to the Rocksound festival in Huttwil, Switzerland, with my friends anyway and since Ensiferum was playing there I decided I'd try and ask them if they could help me out with the pass and I'd give them photos in return. And against all my expectations I soon got a message from Markus where he said they'll organise it for me. Just like that. That's how I ended up shooting Ensiferum for the first time :) I also shot Korpiklaani, Eluveitie and Queensrÿche, which truly was a dream come true. Hey can you imagine. My first big festival ever and I get to shoot one of my all time favorites, Queensrÿche. I was already excited to be able to finally see and hear Geoff Tate live on stage! I once again couldn't believe how lucky I was.


The Kirder brothers don't play in Eluveitie any more, but I posted the pics here anyway since they were such great characters on stage. The amount of energy and charisma was damn amazing.


Btw, gotta love the red bass strings :)


Here I tried some rather bold post processing... I think it kinda works with him.


Ok and my beloved Ensiferum :) It was raining cats and dogs by the time they were playing and I only stayed in the pit for the first 1.5-2 songs instead of the usual 3 first. Markus and his tongue are an essential part of every Ensiferum show :)


And here's Korpiklaani. I had such a fun party with the guys the night before and they were fun on stage as well. Btw, the Eluveitie, Ensiferum and Korpiklaani gigs were outside and that's why the light is not very interesting.


And here we go... Queensrÿche... Geoff Tate sounded just great, just great. He was a dynamic performer with a lot of expression.


Oh how I loved that moment. I just wished it'd never end. Oh and the lovely Pamela Moore was there too and they played quite a few songs from the amazing Operation: Mindcrime I-album. Which was released 20 years ago, 1988.

P.S. I'm so happy Tate didn't wear those lovely leggins he wore in the 80s :DD
P.S.2. I ended up shooting on 3 festivals last summer, I hope next summer I'll shoot at least as many :)

have yourself a merry heavy christmas...

I shot the Raskasta Joulua-concert 20.12.08 in Tavastia, Helsinki. It was a good experience. There were a couple of problems though... There was no photopit so I had to shoot from the audience. Which was a pain in the ass since Tavastia was sold out and packed. So I was being pushed by people from all directions and taking in-focus pictures was a true challenge. In addition to that the girl in front of me kept on banging her head against my camera. *sigh* Not so bad for my camera, but the poor girl's head...

The pics I shot are going to the website of Dex Viihde, the company that organised the whole concert :) They will appear in the "Media"-section where diverse media can download pics if they need images.

I'm not unequivocally satisfied with the images, but that was what I could do at that time. So, here we go, enjoy :)