Major Bass Bournemouth
In the follwing post I will cover my experience photographing the Major Bass Drum and Bass event in Bournemouth this past weekend…
The Major Bass label is growing at an alarming rate with events across London, Bristol, Chippenham, Bournemouth and Southampton they are building quite the name for themselves. Having attended their events in Bournemouth I was under no illusion as to how high profile their upcoming event would be when I approached them to be the photographer of their next Bournemouth bound night. I was beyond delighted when I was brought on board to be a part of the event, and building up to arriving at the door I must admit I was more than a little nervous to cover it. The twenty minuet bus journey felt like an hour, with two floors packed wall to wall of ravers and drum and bass lovers it would be the biggest event I had covered to date and hell did I feel the pressure to deliver.
The Event
Arriving slightly before doors opened there was already a que of people waiting to get inside and start skanking to some of the best drum and bass around, within minuets of the doors opening at 9:30pm people were flooding through the doors. I chugged back a triple JD and Coke and slipped into photographer mode and started snapping away, the basement level’s doors opened up at 11pm and was instantly flooded by a sea of ravers ready to see the headline acts. I followed everyone down and it was almost impossible to navigate through the hundreds of people -the floor had not even been open five minuets!
Looking through the camera I quickly came to realise the need for a wide angle lens, an addition I will make to my gear soon. Owning only entry level equipment (Canon EOS 1200D + 18–55mm kit lens) I found it difficult to capture certain shots where people were so close together it was hard to create enough distance between myself and the subject in more than a few instances, nevertheless I was still able to work around it however having that wide angle would have made things so much easier and is definetly something I will be investing it. I also noticed when I sat down to edit that I could have done with having an external flash gun and diffuser as the in built flash on the Cannon 1200D created quite a harsh over-exposure in places on several photos.
The event was amazing to be a part of and I can’t express my thanks enough towards Suhel/Essay and the other Major Bass guys for letting me a part of it, finishing the night and heading home I looked through the images I’d captured feeling accomplished and happy that it’d gone so well and that the photos I’d captured were some of the best I have taken -I couldnt wait to get back and start editing.
Editing the Images
Starting up my computer I plugged my camera in and copied over the images I’d captured and loaded them straight into Lightroom to start sifting through the four hundred plus photos I’d taken, I then sifted through and cut it down by approximately a hundred photos, still leaving me with just under three hundred photos to edit -the biggest project Ive worked on has only produced around eighty photos before this so to me this was going to be a collosal task to edit everything.
I began editing the photos straight away and at the time of writing this I am just over 2/3rds of the way through them all. The aim was to have the photos sent off and for Major Bass to upload them on the Tuesday night, however I underestimated quite how long it would take me and looking to be a day or two later than my original deadline I had set myself.
In Conclusion
The Major Bass label is something that I have wanted to be involved in since they first showed up in Bournemouth, and to be a part of another amazing night is beyond humbling. I felt so much pressure to deliver, and am still a little nervous about the response to the photos once they go live on the Major Bass Facebook page but I look forward to seeing and hearing the feedback on them, this is the biggest event I’ve covered and some of the best, if not the best, work that I have produced and hope to continue to be a part of events of such a high stature like this one in the coming future. Keep an eye out for the photos -they’ll be up soon.
Thanks for reading,
Reece