The end of July, right before my birthday, it’s my favourite time of the year… Splendour in the Grass time!!!

This year was my sixth year attending, my fifth year attending with my partner Jacob, and my third year shooting. 

Three years ago a friend recommended me to shoot to for the official Splendour team and by some absolute miracle, and with a small bit of festival experience, I was accepted in to a marvellous crew of four females and four male photographers. This year we had a huge crew of eleven official Splendour photographers, all beautiful and exceedingly creative individuals who brought a little bit of their unique love to their photos. Together we created some gorgeous content across the festival. 

My role is to mostly create as much atmosphere and people content. Most of the photos you’ll see here are some of the lovely people I captured over the three days! I also have the opportunity to capture the bands that particularly capture my fancy. 

This year began with making an interstate friend who was one of our fellow SITG photography crew. Miranda joined our Splendour team this year, yet knew no one, so I asked her if she wanted to join my partner and myself to camp and have a few celebratory drinks. On Thursday we enjoyed some delicious red vino courtesy of Miranda, and every other day I enjoyed her warm company.

My first shooting day began with my usual festival routine. It begins with fried eggs and toast in fold out chairs at our tent, followed by relentless bathing before I get dusty all over again. In the festival I’ll get some pictures of amazing looking people and visit all the little quirky things that happen in the morning - talks, science, yoga, breakfast banter, craftiness... Every morning without fail I’d head to the Craft tent to visit friends and drink a soy chai lattes. From there it’s a bit of a mess trying to work my way around a scheduled day of atmosphere, people and band photography - but it always ends up working. 

Friday shooting was truly a dream! I saw some of my favourite bands; The xx, Haim, Father John Misty. But my Friday highlight definitely had to be meeting the ever so whimsical Vera Blue and capturing a portrait of her backstage. Second to that was being on stage with Vance Joy and watching all the crowd fall in love with his little uke. See photos below for a picture of both!

Saturday always ends up a hectic day, but once again some absolute stand out acts. My biggest love for the day was seeing a mini Powderfinger reunion and capturing Bernard Fanning’s truly ecstatic expression when he looked at his band members. 

Sunday was the best / worst day. I cracked 35k steps for one according to my iPhone. That’s a milestone in itself. My entire body was destroyed after that - that was the worst aspect. Best?! Shooting on stage with Client Liaison for an absolutely killer shower. Even better?!?! Standing next to Tina Arena for most of that performance whilst shooting. Also, definitely witnessing the most splendorous post-rock artist/band to play for my third time, the wonderful Jonsi of Sigur Ros. After capturing some photos of them I went into the crowd and sat on the ground listening with my eyes closed, taking in every single aspect of Jonsi's performance. 

Words cannot describe the weekend that is Splendour. I’m just so honoured to be able to continue capturing such an dreamy event with the ever incredible Splendour crew!

I've broken this post up into days, with which bands I shot under each day. Definitely worthwhile checking out each and every one of them. At the real bottom of this post you’ll find a sneaky photo of me looking beyond destroyed on the last day. I look like a dork, forgive me! 

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All photos taken with a Canon 5Dmiii & Fujifilm X-Pro2. 

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

Bands: Vera Blue, Real Estate, Julia Jacklin, Father John Misty, Haim, Tash Sultana, Vance Joy, The XX,  Peking Duck with Safia and Aluna George.

SATURDAY

Bands: Gretta Ray, Dune Rats, Confidence Man, Dan Sultan, Bernard Fanning ft Powderfinger come-back, Royal Blood, Queens of the Stone Age.

SUNDAY

Bands: Good Boy, The Murlocs, The Smith Street Band, Pond, Client Liason with Tina Arena, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Sigur Ros.

One final, very dorky photo of me looking absolutely defeated on Splendour's big hill, carrying three cameras.

Taken by a friendly creative.