You want to be a fly on the wall. You want to be able to capture your subject in a purely candid way - to be invisible.
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That moment is what can make music festivals such a challenging scene to photograph.
You want the candid moment of someone dancing - someone in a crazy costume - or someone rolling around on the grass, but your subjects want to be in a photo.
I've covered music festivals in the Hunter where people have been lining up with their friends for a photo. Of course, we oblige everyone, those are always great times to meet new people and hear their stories, but we are also there to cover the story of the event.
We're looking for the natural moments.
It is almost always the case that the moment a subject notices what we are doing, they change. The candid moment disappears and it becomes composed.
Almost always, that is, until MulletFest.
MulletFest is just a really fun event. No two mullets are ever the same, and the place is always full of characters.
The crowd was gathering around for another heat for the best mullet of the event, and I had dropped my gear by the stage to take the weight off for a moment. That was when this little bloke in his boots and nappy stepped up.
He had the run of the place all day - he was all attitude.
He shuffled up to the front of the crowd and was walking back and forth. And just as I lifted the camera, he stopped, planted his feet, hand on hip, and stared down the barrel of the camera.
On assignment with Jonathan Carroll: 100 photos in 2019 from the award-winning Herald photographer
Later on, I had got talking to a bloke outside when I spotted something strange out of the corner of my eye.
It looked like a woman had hold of another bloke's shorts. I knew I had a split-second to capture it, and the minute they knew I was watching the moment would probably change.
I swung round mid-sentence and fired off a burst images - but the moment didn't change.
The three characters turned around, saw the camera, and went right back to what they were doing,
It was the moment that broke all expectations. It didn't matter if I was on the fringes of the action, or right in the middle of it. At MulletFest, everyone was just going to do their own thing.
It was a 1600th of a second, but this was MulletFest to the core.
- Jonathan Carroll
HOW I SHOT IT: Canon EOS 1D X, 16-35mm II lens at 17mm, f/5.6, 1/1600 sec. Available light.
