Saturday 17 March 2012

Not Always What They Seem

... So don't take anything for granted.

Image by Melissa Gaggiano:
My eye on film, literally speaking.

    A few nights ago I dreamt that I attended the swing dance festival down Mordialloc way. In my dream a band performed on stage. Parents and children sat in chairs and listened.
    Today I attended the actual festival, truly imagining that I'd see swing dancers, which was partly what drew me and my camera to the local festivities. Alas! Alack! My dream turned out to be a premonition. There were adults sitting on the grass. There were the occasional child twirling and wiggling on the mat available for dancers. There were bands, and a stage that had the words "swing stage". But, no swing dancers.
    Okay! Admittedly, I was just a little disappointed. But I didn't let that stop me from taking a few photos and enjoying the festivities. There were the usual carnival rides, and many cultured food stalls. After all this was part of the Bayside Food and Wine festival.
    I certainly could not have left without picking up a sweet treat. I bought two chocolate brownies [preservative free] from a Gilbert & Marcel stall. It was soooooo delicious.
    I cannot show you the photos just yet, because I used ye olde camera with ye olde film. So you'll just have to wait for ye olde film processors to do their ye olde thing. Is my saying ye olde getting a bit olde? Sorry about that. I thought I was on a roll [Oh look, a pun].

    I came away from today having learnt a few lessons about festival photography...
  • Pack ear plugs. Trust me, when you are taking photos of bands you need to get close to the stage, which means extreme exposure to loud noise, which is really, really bad for your ears.
  • Pack a water bottle. Even if it is not a particularly hot day. Photography is quite active and you will dehydrate quickly. And take little sips now and again so you are not busting for the toilet 20 minutes later.
I am so glad I attended the festival. It was good to get out amongst the folk. And it didn't really matter that I didn't see actual swing dancers. Which, by the way, gets me thinking. I still want to take photos of swing dancers. Maybe I could find a swing dancers association [if such a thing exists] and take photos at one of their events. Add it to me list of must things to do this year.