Returning to the newly renovated Espace 67 and Parc Jean Drapeau, Osheaga 2019 marked it’s 14th edition as one of Canada’s premiere musique and arts festival, and I also marked my 5th year as an official photographer, with 4 years prior to that as a media photographer. It is amazing seeing a festival grow…and grow… and grow. Adding on stages, getting greener, booking bigger talent (and a huge bunch of yet to be big talent). No surprise Osheaga attracts people from 60 different countries.
The Valley stage is where I called home for 3 days. And like most of the other photographers, I was also asked to get as many “ambiance” photos as possible, as everything that had ever been photographed(or almost) in the past was no longer usable. With the site revamp comes the need for a new visual / photo identity. I bounced between the photo pit and on stage covering the bands to walking the entire site. Who doesn’t like a good leg workout, eh?
Ambiance shots are really fun to do, but they require a constant creative eye looking around. There were 130,000 over the 3 days at Osheaga this year. You are looking at, between and around people constantly trying to find angles and interest. It is not just getting a straight on photo of a person smiling and flashing a peace sign at the camera. You need to think about what the promoter can use this image for, what is it’s purpose and what story is it telling. How the image will be used on social media impacts how the image will be cropped which impacts how much space you leave in your image, while still keeping the standard image formats (random free cropping is NOT a good thing to do in the long term).
Below are some of my fave images, images of some new artists I discovered, and just random images that tell the story of the day.
If you want to check out some photos of IleSoniq 2019, voici le lien.
