Photos: Outside Lands Day Two
Is it bad that I have to look at the photos I took on day two of Outside Lands to even remember who I saw?
Also, is it bad that my pants were noticeably looser when I wore them after washing them Monday night? I call it the “Music Festival Photographer Crash Diet.” Basically, run around from stage to stage for three days straight, fueled by adrenaline and anxiety and the rare slice of pizza or foot-long hot dog. By that I mean that my food consumption at the festival was limited to one slice of pizza on Saturday and a hot dog on Sunday. Yeah you read that right.
The first act I shot on Saturday was The Coup. I love me some Boots Riley, even if hip-hop usually is not my thing. I shot two songs and then regrettably had to run over to the Sutro stage for Devandra Banhart.


Also weird was seeing the Liars play on the smallest stage of the festival, when four days later they were playing Cricket Wireless as the opener for Radiohead.


Fortunately, I didn’t have to run to another stage for my next act, as Regina Spector was up on the Sutro stage right after M. Ward. She was just adorable, talking about how all the small kids wearing the huge noise-dampening headphones were “sickeningly cute.” She sang her first song a capella, tapping the microphone for a beat. Which was gracious considering that after she sat down at her piano, there were maybe two decent sightlines for the photographers. Great monitor placement, but what can you do?

I trekked over to the small stage that The Walkmen were playing and prepared myself to be absolutely blown away, which is what happened the last two times I saw them. Have I mentioned before that I have a thing for tall, lanky dudes? Even ones who can’t belt out lyrics with such passion that it looks like the veins in their neck are going to explode? Yeah, I might have a slight crush on their singer. Needless to say, they did not disappoint me.


And good god, that man is a rock star. Totally hamming it up for the photographers, even bowing at the end of the first three songs. That might have been the first thing all weekend that went in favor of the media. Well, the 30 or so photographers that were let in the pit, at least.
The lighting was great, and I shot full manual again, since the light wasn’t as crazy as Radiohead. Basically I was at f2.8, 1/400th at ISO 1600, and changed the shutter speed as needed (and by guessing) whenever the light changed.
Afterwards, I hung out long enough to hear “Free Fallin'” and “Last Dance with Mary Jane,” but then I was out of there. Too beat to even go out and grab a drink, especially with the knowledge that the next day was going to be even busier…