Thursday at Treefort 2019 The Crowds Loved Dancing, Music, Food And Stories

May 1, 2019

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#Treefort2019 was a wonderful event to photograph because it put to the test everything I’d learned about taking a nice picture, and I could see I wasn’t alone in that realization. I talked with professional photographers, weekend photographers, folks with iPhone and Android phones, and even a guy with a Mamiya RB67 film camera, and they all agreed that while it was challenging, it was a blast! Treefort was situated in downtown Boise, Idaho, and musicians came from nearby Portland and Seattle, where they frequently have music fests, and places even further, like Texas, New York, and even Scranton, Pennsylvania. From a photographers point of view, the objective was to get from one venue to the next, look for the best shots, dig the music, and then head on to the next venue. And that’s where it gets interesting. Some performers, artists, and speakers were bathed in colorful bright lights, and others were in rooms too dark to walk in. Some moved quickly on stage, and others never moved at all, and so the changing lighting, distance from the various stages and performers, as well as the dense crowds, made it especially cool if you could get the shot you were looking for. Most times I had no idea what shooting conditions would be like until I arrived at the venue, and I often only had a single minute to figure out my plan to get a good picture. And what makes a good picture? There are a lot of different answers to that question, but when I look through the lens, I’m looking for heart and soul and for something emotionally powerful that is only rarely captured in a picture because it’s so evasive and protected. It’s like listening to your favorite song on the radio and waiting for the part you love most. For other kinds of shots, I try to show everything that’s happening the whole time, but in a single frame. As they say, a picture can say a thousand words. So I ask you, the reader, the observer, and the interpreter of these pictures, what are your thousand words, and if you had only one photograph to tell people what’s most important in your life, what would your snapshot picture look like?