Matthew Waller Photography - May 25-26, 2023

Posted June 17, 2023

Back on Memorial Day weekend (three weeks ago now! How did that happen?) I spent two days at Seattle's ever-throbbing Folklife music festival, to practice my musician photography and kick my rusty street photography into gear amongst the dancing and cavorting crowds.

It was a triumph and a tragedy.

I came away with what I consider some of my best photographs of the year. But in the process my beloved E-PL8 died.

I've never had a camera die so strangely. For the weekend I'd treated myself to a rental of the Olympus 25mm f1.2 lens: it's a bit big for a Pen but my God does it take great images, and someday I must own one. Alas, I think it played a role in the bizarre smashing of my camera.

I was sitting in the grass on one of the big lawns at Seattle Center, watching a band, and all I did was go to stand up. The camera, on a strap around my neck, swung out and back in, and the LCD screen hit my knee with a whack. A couple of steps later I tried to turn it on: the screen was cracked, and it was dead. I had killed my E-PL8 with my own knee. And yes, it was probably the heavy weight of that glorious lens that was to blame.

Fortunately I also own an E-M1 Mark II, so I made a round trip home to grab it and resumed shooting Folklife. The 25mm f1.2 lens is a much better fit on that camera, though I find the camera too big and clunky for street photography. Ah well, so it goes. A week or so later I had a new small camera: I replaced my E-PL8 with an E-PL10 (there might be another blog post about that).

Back to the festival. It was a sun-flooded afternoon, fantastic music poured from a dozen tents and stages on the grounds, and happy Seattleites were out in charismatic throngs. I was mostly there to do people photography, and that gallery is coming below, but first the music called me, and you have to suffer through more of my attempts at musician portraits. It was challenging and fun: some bands were in bright sun, some in shade, some indoors; it was an exercise in changing settings, darting around to find the best angles and moments, and trying to capture in an image not just the person but the spirit of the music vibe.

On to the human carnival. I have to admit, as a street photographer I love shooting in situations where everyone is taking photos and no one minds another camera; I'm not only more comfortable but I come away with better (and closer) photos.

At any rate, there was material to work with everywhere I turned. And my E-PL8 went out with a bang in more ways than one.