A couple of weeks ago I was commissioned to photograph the 2000 Trees Festival near Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. As most of my work tends to be in the corporate photography world, it was especially nice to be able to go to work in jeans and t shirt. My brief was to capture some atmosphere of the event as well as highlighting the work done by the University of Gloucestershire students who help organise and run the festival.
I remember photographing Glastonbury as an 18 year old Trainee Photojournalist back in 1987. Back then you could turn up with a press card and be invited in and onto the stage within minutes. Although I was a bit drunk I can just about recall being on the stage with Elvis Costello. Access back then was easy but it was quite tricky doing it all on film and not being able to look at the result instantly, we also had the restriction of sticking to one film speed for the whole roll of film. Nearly 30 years on it felt quite easy to be able to shoot a festival on digital, I now have the luxury of changing ISO at will during the assignment and the freedom to adjust colour balance afterwards, great leaps forward that I could never of dreamt of.
