Another Great Year Of The Star City Nights Festival

Last year the old Starry Night Festival was going to end and the shopowners in downtown Lafayette came up with the idea to keep it going on their side of the river. In the days leading up to the event it sounded pretty cool, but I had a football game that night. I came down to catch the final band after my game, and I had a blast. I got to see just how cool this little festival was. I made it a point to keep my schedule open for this years version of the Star City Nights Festival. I am glad that I did. I had a blast, and got to hear some awesome music.

Happy Landing Caps Off A Great Night

We will start at the logical spot. The end of the night. Happy Landing was the headliner for the entire festival. Leading up to the night I started listening to them while editing photos. Before the lineup was announced I will admit that I had never heard of them. Listening to them though I really started liking them. I watched a couple of shows of theirs on YouTube to get a feel for how the show would go. What I saw was a band that has fun and really puts on a good show. That made me super excited for the concert. I have started to listen to their music a lot now, and it was really cool to be editing their concert photos listening to them. I will find them on the road again and check out their show for sure. I assume that they will be much bigger and harder to get this close to the next time that I see them.

The Silkies Play The Main Stage

Part of the fun of this festival is to find bands that I had not heard of before. The Silkies are out of Cincinnati and did a great job with their time on the stage. They had a great energy on the stage that was fun to photograph. I might say this a lot in this post, but I can see them catching on and becoming a much bigger band soon. They already had a nice following at this festival in Indiana. It will be fun to follow them in the future to see what they can do.

Finding The Photo

I saw this art piece early in the night and started coming up with ideas to photograph it. I wanted it to be darker out so that sign glowed a little more. This photo is a classic example of my what else philosophy when making photos. I started off just making a photo of the sign straight on with nobody in the frame. I then asked myself “what else”? That led to me dragging the shutter to get people walking by the sign from straight on. I liked it, but I was not there yet. I asked myself “what else”? I found this angle off to the side that included some local Lafayette art and the rising nearly full moon in the frame. I was still dragging the shutter when a patron came leaping into the frame. I was going for a clean frame here, but I love the movement and what it adds. This whole process took a couple of minutes, but led to one of my favorite frames of the night.

Brielle Skye Plays Star City Nights

I have known Brielle for a while now. I used to make photos for the local wood bat summer league team and she was the on field announcer for them. In the years since we have heard her on the radio and have seen her announcing bands at festivals. It was really cool to see her singing her music at this festival.

Using The Halo Filter

I had the Halo Filter on me and with unlimited songs to photograph I could play with it a little. I ended up only using it for half a song, but in that limited time I really liked what I made with it. I really like what it did for this photo. It gave it a dreamy look that was much different from anything else that I made on the night.

Light And Dark

I like these two frames that I made fairly close to each other. In one the light was fully on the artist with a dark background. On the other the only light was behind them rim lighting them. I don’t know how well they stand up as individual photos, but they do work really well in the overall story of the night. When you get to photograph the entire show you can really have some fun and make images that are not so stock.

THIS Band Brings Some Local Flavor To The Night

I didn’t know it until the show was happening, but THIS Band is filled with former Purdue students. Purdue has a really cool music scene going on right now, and they are putting bands out there into the wild. I loved seeing them have their moment to shine Friday night.

Mark Your Calendars

Last year I realized that I missed something really cool by not attending this entire show. This year I cleared my calendar to make sure that I could attend the entire event. I am glad that I did. As soon as I see that this festival has picked a date for next year I will put it in my calendar right away. You should too. I have focused on the music in this post, but there is great art and food along the way. This is so well done, and is a highlight of the year downtown.