Here are a few snapshots from my three days at the Vancouver Folk Festival. Let me first tell you about this special event that I look forward to every year. Like most outdoor events in Vancouver it's kept pretty small. Jericho Park, which I explore every week now that I'm in the neighbourhood, is only a few acres square but in that area they manage to pack seven stages: one large stage with space for a few hundred lying wherever they want, and a number of smaller stages spread around the park.

Although it's officially the "folk" music festival, their definition tends to be inclusive. If your music is at all ethno-cultural, even if it's fully electronic such as the Brazilian DJ I saw on the last day (DJ Dolores), then it comes under the 'folk' umbrella. I'm not complaining; if you're there for traditional instruments, there's probably another six stages for you. There's even space for a former martial arts movie star. :)

The smaller stages are very cosy and everyone is close to the performers, though the audiences tend to be laid back. There is no age-restriction so you get a big blend of Vancouverrites. The very young, to the old and sedate. For most of the festival I was travelling around the edges, shooting crowd shots, portraits. With the music everywhere you coudn't ask for a better soundtrack for working. I usually shoot a lot of telephoto to get warmed up and truth be told, not many of the stages are conducive to shooting close to the performers. They are set low so that people who are lying back on deck chairs or beach towels can just lie there and listen. However, when the band demands dancing, then you can get close to the stage and you can swap your telephoto for a wide angle.

I've always loved the atmosphere at the folk festival. People are friendly, open to being approached, and only too willing to share their tips on music. You tend to start seeing the same people year after year and then suddenly they have children. And then their children start growing up and coming to the festival. Even the inclusion of a beer garden last year doesn't seem to have changed the family atmosphere -- though Sunday the announcer asked people to stop peeing in the pond. Beer can do that to you.

Between sets people who have camped out chill, go shop in the market, eat overpriced (and really not very good) food and meet people. This fellow above was giving lessons to others. I'm not sure if he was a performer or just someone who brought instrument.

On Saturday I happened to catch the tail end of an amazing choral performance. Billed as "The Troubadors", it was several acts together in a workshop (Ladies of the Canyon, Luduc, Po' Girl, Matt Epp and Sarah Harmer). I only heard a fragment of their finale song which I found out later was their rendition of "Four Strong Winds", a folk standard that even my parents know. I was sorry not to catch the entire song. To me, folk music is best experienced live and any studio performance cannot compare. So I'm a bit sad I missed that song because the ending sounded really beautiful. Unless there is some recording being released of that live performance you won't ever hear that again.

As I said the other day, my digital died on day two so I had to fall back on all my film cameras. After determining that it wasn't the battery or even the watch battery, I shelved the 30D and returned later on Saturday with my Fujica ST705 and Pentax Spotmatic. I loaded up on cheap consumer film (Superia 200 and Kodak Ultra Max 800) and shot eight rolls (Sunday I slowed down as I was lugging around my Pacemaker Speed Graphic). I don't much like the tones of either of them that much but some of the shots scanned pretty magically, I thought. The ones at twilight especially I like. But anything in harsh sunlight or if at all underexposed are not good. I have too many discards like that. As for shooting style, I didn't find I adjusted my shooting all that much. I was shooting a lot and the only issue was having to reload film after 24 or 36 shots.

I certainly missed being able to shoot with my 100-400L, though, and had to substitute that wonderful event lens with my two Tamron telephotos: a very light but not very fast 300mm f/5.6 and a decent 70-210 f/3.5. The IQ of the zoom lens is very good and I didn't suffer any using that one. For primes, I switched between a 50mm Takumar and my old standard, Carl Zeiss Flektogon 20mm for crowd shots.

My next post hopefully has some of my oddities including anything good that came from my 4x5, 120 Polaroid 600SE and slides.