Matthew Waller Photography - May 26-27, 2024

Posted June 8, 2024

O my moribund blog. But IS it moribund? When viewed in the future the entries will flow nicely from one to the other, with only the date headers hinting at the reader-frustrating gaps between, in which, to be honest, I sometimes forget that this so-called record-keeping endeavor even exists.

Last month I went to the anuual Folklife music festival, which takes over Seattle Center every Memorial Day weekend. It's always a fun combination of street photography at the audience and musician photography up at the stages. The latter sometimes requires my telephoto lens, but at least there's a clear line of sight, unlike the innumerable buskers along the side paths, some of whom are more entertaining characters (and provide better music), but who are mostly hidden by the stalled and admiring throng circled about them.

This year it was overcast and a little chilly, which was a less dramatic photography light but brought out all the nubbly and wooly fabrics favored by the event's main demographic, who eschew the riotous ska bands for the smaller stages where an elderly singer with a guitar or banjo, maybe their friend, still holds high the torch of folk music.

Anyway, it was a great workout for my also secretly moribund street photography. And the music was fabulous too.