My own photo story

Lately, I have been going through my directories of pictures. We are in 2013 and 10 years after my first real pictures, digital photography is still a mess when it comes to the storage part. Especially if you try to keep the future in mind.

I have yet to find a safe and cross-platform option to store my files. But this will be another story.

I would like to share with you a small story on how I came to My Best Picture Ever and how my photographic endeavors stopped.

How everything began

I was born in the mid eighties. Like lots of children in Western countries, I found my first film camera in my grandparents' basement. This was probably around 1990. My grandfather bought me my first roll of 35mm film a few hours later at the local newspaper stand, and I took my first pictures in a sunny field during the summer.

I remember trying to find a correct opening and exposure time by reading the instructions on the back of the film's package. It took time, lots of time and of course, every picture was a mess. If I was able to get some exposure on the printed pictures, the post-processing from the local photo lab had probably more credit to it than me.

I took a black and white photography class in my early years of high school. Being able to discover and experience the chemical processes was an enlighting experience. Unfortunately for me, my parents where strong enough to not let me build my own lab in the basement.

I owned various cameras until I had enough money to buy a Canon 350D (or Digital Rebel XT). This was my first digital reflex camera and this is where everything started. I was free of the costs of film and processing and the digital world gave me enough freedom to experiment. Photography got me at this moment.

And then...

While studying computer science and engineering in Paris, I started attending more and more live music gigs. This was more or less the time when I did buy this Canon reflex. I felt the urge to bring my camera with me at every gig! At this time, I had only the kit lens, a 18-55mm zoom, not suitable at all for the obscurity of the places that I was visiting. My pictures were not good, to say the least. But I loved the atmosphere. I loved how the lights where changing so much and so often. I was in love with the complexity and randomness of everything.

The social part was also quite nice. And I enjoyed keeping in touch with the bands, to share pictures and memories of their performances.

At some point I randomly took a few pictures of Parisian all-girl rock band. Those pictures were bought by a paper magazine and this helped me to enter the world of commercial photography. I joined a small agency specialized on music photography and I started hanging with the amazing crew of the LeCargo webzine.

During the summer of 2005, I was fortunate enough to get an invitation to the Rock en Seine festival -- starring the Pixies, Franz Ferdinand, the Foo Fighters, Arcade Fire, Vitalic, Queens of the Stone Age, I am not sure that they got a better lineup after this year'! I got the invitation through a great man, whose greatness was only improved when he let me use his boss's Canon EF 70-200 2.8L lens for the whole weekend. No questions asked.

This is where my love for concert photography really started. Thank you Asega!

I enjoyed being on the field. I loved running among the other photographers to be in the right place at the right time. And I even had the opportunity of being in a very special place during the Queen of the Stone Age set. This is not an experience that can be described with words.

Anyway.

After this great revelation of live music photography, I attended lots of small gigs in Paris. Thanks to my small portfolio, I got a few photo passes and was able to attend various music festivals in Brittany. With those experiences, I was connected enough to be invited as a photographer for the Hellfest festival in Clisson in 2007. At this point, selling my pictures did pay for a Canon 24-70mm 2.8L lens. I was able to complete my equipment by renting an 80-200, for much more money that it was worth.

Man, I had the time of my life during the Hellfest 2007. Even with heavy rains and more mud than grass, there is no place like a metal festival. People are true to themselves, living their dream. This is where you can easily catch with the best expressions on faces, on stage or in the crowd.

I took lots of great pictures. But this particular story is about My Best Picture Ever. This picture.

There are lot of things and stories leading to this picture but what I really love about it is the fact that everyone can get the atmosphere. You don't need to know the story. You don't have to have any interest in that particular kind of music to get what is currently happening between the crowd and the guy on stage.

This is one of my favorite pictures. I hope that you will enjoy it. I lost a shoe in the mud a few minutes before, but it does not matter when you get such a shot after!

After that.

I moved from Paris to Brittany, switched jobs, partners, did an amazing trip between Montreal and San Francisco and landed back in France in Lille, a great city where I still live. Great, but not always safe. In 2009, on the 26th of December, a burglar entered my house and all my photographic equipment was stolen.

I guess that something is now broken in my relationship to photography and I never had as much fun taking pictures since this very particular moment. I never tried to take a picture near a music stage again. The green fog one is still my favorite.

I hope to move on, but I still have to find a camera that really fit my new requirements: easy to travel with and with a great image quality. Something as small as my beloved Rollei 35, but digital. And reasonably priced. The search continues.