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 :)

sometimes dreams come true

Last February I got to shoot my first huge gig in a stadium. Nightwish was playing and the Hallenstadion in Zurich was sold out. That meant that while being in the photo pit, there were 13 000 people celebrating Nightwish behind me and Nightwish playing in front of me. Something to make a young, inexperienced photographer humble ;) I didn't wet my pants, but it was an awesome feeling. The energy was amazing. The trouble was that our space was strictly limited between two basses so it wasn't too much. And there was this one guy who kept on pushing me aside :P What an asshole. The other ones were really nice and polite, the way I'm used to, acting according to the unwritten rules of photo pit manners. We also only had two songs instead of the normal three first ones, which fortunately were quite long songs ;)

What I really enjoyed was the great lighting. There was really enough of the light (except on Tuomas) and it was beautiful anyway.


I think I managed to capture a couple of really nice situations which still makes me very happy. Considering I'm still rather a beginner, the results looks actually quite nice. I was also still quite ill that evening, I had been ill all week, but hey how could I have missed an opportunity like this.

After the gig I was invited to the after party and yeah, I had a great time with the people ;) Ewo with his Ville Vallaton-drinks was really funny. I went to him to say hi and before he said hi back he gave me a glass, made me a Ville Vallaton and then shook hands with me :D

I want to thank my friends Maarit and Jarkki again for making that evening possible through their contacts and Marco for organizing the passes for me. See you some time soon :)

Cheers,
Ilona