Well Burning Man is around the corner!

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If you can get out to the desert in NW Nevada it is one heck of a photo op!
Now they have gone a bit tougher on "video" which I can see but they are not too bad on still photography yet-been a big debate this year on the subject in the "burner" and "photography" communities.

I've been a few times now Various Burning Man Events Around the US Photo Gallery by pgkps at pbase.com and have always had fun out there-btw the avg age is over 40 now!

You would be surprised how much dot.com money is still around and being spent out there to throw one heck of a party.

[Steelsun]

I've been to Burning Flipside in Texas (last year, missed this year due to conflict with an Alaskan vacation), and will hit next year's.

Kinda like a mini-Burning Man without quite as much weirdness (although there is plenty).

Next year a friend and I are thinking of making a Pavillion with pillows, etc and offer free Boudoir pics. (I know, we'll have to bleach our eyes after some of them, but that's the way Flipside is anyway).

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Brian never have made it to Flipside, one time I had a ticket I broke my ankle a couple months before the event so didn't make it, now there is a second burn in Texas called Mischevia that is in Oct and I've been to that one a couple times now (a lot of Flip people are there) and it is quite small. Flipside is like the "neighbourhood that you are in at THE MAN" while Mischevia is like "your block".

The MAN just offers so many photo ops it ain't even funny- i've posted more pics today for 2009 and that is still just the tip of what I shot there. I've run into a couple people with models on location shooting but quite often you can find people just willing to pose if the location is interesting enough for them. Another thing is that you can be at a location on Tuesday and go back Friday and it feels completely different or even the time of day can make a big difference. You really have to pace yourself and force yourself just to have some fun time without a camera or you will just go insane out there!

One year I saw a tent that said "have your free genitalia photo taken here!" Did not check it out!

So no telling what you will come across AT THE MAN!

Did see a camp that taught women pole dancing, watched for a while but didn't shoot out of courtesy which is one thing that I do practice when shooting at this event. Saw one creep last year who was shooting every topless girl that he saw without asking or even acknowledging their dirty looks-he was oriental and playing the "don't speak english" card while later that same day I saw him and heard him speaking clear english to a friend. Those really mess up the fun for people who just want to be free while at The Man.

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this dude has some great shots from many years Burning Man Photos by Phil Steele also has some good tips on shooting/posing almost anywhere. (Warning nudity on site).

[Tom]

I would love to go shoot Burning Man, but I am afraid I am too employed, too drug-free and too clothed to make it work. Maybe someday!

[zebulus]

Originally Posted by Thomas Campbell

I would love to go shoot Burning Man, but I am afraid I am too employed, too drug-free and too clothed to make it work. Maybe someday!

I lol'd

[J Eddington]

I want to go, Terry thinks I am crazy.

[ChristopherCoy]

good gawd.... do women at BM not believe in bra's?


I think this would be completely awesome to attend. I've seen/read about it in the past, but never paid that much attention to it. I dont know that I'd be able to 'get into it' so much, because I'm shallow and pretentious. I can't speak to the goddess and fairy's, and I just dont have a desire to paint my wee-wee and run around in the dirt... but I'd love to be able to photograph the people and the art installations.

Anyone have an RV? We can register our own theme campsite and make a pilgrimage!

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

Originally Posted by Thomas Campbell

I would love to go shoot Burning Man, but I am afraid I am too employed, too drug-free and too clothed to make it work. Maybe someday!

Thomas it isn't all about walking around naked stoned out of your mind and living on whatever. You would be surprised on who attends this thing- especially if you were a dot.comer. I've run into property managers, engineers (you need a good engineer to build some of the structures that go up), hollywood types, musicians, accountants, computer programers, city planners, small business owners (they just take a vacation to attend this), and a whole mix of people from all over the world. Last year I met people from at least 20 countires, had 5 people from Switzerland camped next to me, 3 from germany across the street, a group from Mexico City down the block, and even met a lady from The Principality of Monaco (pop there is just over 30,000 folks), not counting others from Europe I have met in the past.

There are a lot of people who are not into the "drug" scene but happily drink libations to enjoy themselves and I would say over 95% of the people keep their clothes on (it's just the 5% can have some very nice figures!).

Now some folks will rent an RV in Reno and spend the $1,000 or so bucks for the week to live in one while others will just camp in all sorts of structures.

BTW I have even seen Actual Weddings performed there! They will pay to have a JP Come in and perform the wedding! Then there are the BM weddings that just last the week, and you may have your camp mate say a few words.

It is an experience like nothing else pretty much on the planet,

BTW while it is in existance it becomes the 3rd largest city in the state of Nevada!

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

Originally Posted by ChristopherCoy

good gawd.... do women at BM not believe in bra's?


I think this would be completely awesome to attend. I've seen/read about it in the past, but never paid that much attention to it. I dont know that I'd be able to 'get into it' so much, because I'm shallow and pretentious. I can't speak to the goddess and fairy's, and I just dont have a desire to paint my wee-wee and run around in the dirt... but I'd love to be able to photograph the people and the art installations.

Anyone have an RV? We can register our own theme campsite and make a pilgrimage!

To late to register a "theme camp" this year and get closer in space but you could just set up camp and call it whatever you want. There is a Houston based camp that has been around for years they call themselves the D@%$ F&*!#$ TEXANS and they set up near the Barbie Death Camp usually-tend to have kegs of Shiner on tap.

If your speaking to "fairies" you need to put down the Absinth and sometimes there are some "godess's" out there that are worth speaking too!

If you like hearing some of the best spinners in the world you need to go since one camp flys DJ's in from all over- last year they had one in from Tokyo, another From London, another from Rio and then another from NY City, not sure about who spun the 5th night as the big DJ. (Can't say the names but they are at the top of the list-I mean if they came to a club in your city you would be paying $20+ a head to see them- and of course you can dance your butt off in the domes (they have gotten so popular they added a second dome).

Then of course you would need to participate in the Death guilds Thunderdome Experience! go in direct combat with another with bats! (One year 2 guys actually wore amour and went in with aluminum bats and beat the crap out of each other-I didn't see it but have heard about it).

You just don't know what you will see until you enter the city and bring your own input to the city!

[Steelsun]

I'll probably stick to Flipside, as Burning Man has seemed to progress beyond what it was originally for (artistic expression and friendliness), i.e. that photographer mentioned above.

Flip has photography rules that you must agree to (along with the other rules): basically no video without permission from the organizers, and for all photographs you have to get permission of any identifiable people in it (i.e. Ask before you shoot): the exception is the public times/performances like the firespinners/grand parade/etc.

The presence of drugs, etc is over-hyped by some. I saw a few people smoking non-tobacco, but that's about it. Now alcohol was very present (we had a public free bar set up in our camp). Nudity is a choice, not demanded, and harassment is severely dealt with.

It's a fun way to relax (or decompress as Burners say).

I am looking forward to next year's Flip.

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Well I'm posting a few more pics from last year up- many are from Kostume Klub where they give out free costumes for people to wear and keep-I shot the runway that people have to parade on after they put in the costume-always waited for a thumbs up agreement before I shot (about 80% of people while I was there were fine with me shooting) (even had one crazy scene where a lady handed me her camera and said shoot this as she went after the MC which she knew already-she was not fully clothed- the MC later asked me about the pics (like the next day) and I told him that they were all on her camera and he said fine.) I just had a good time and was even handed a Kostume by one of the people from the camp that I wore the next two nights.

As to booze flowing- well I actually gave a couple bottles of vodka to a bar that I had been hitting near me to help them with their supplies but after the man was over with other people gifting me booze I ended up leaving with more than I arrived with (some of them just had extra and were heading to Reno and didn't want to fly with it in their luggage so they just said if I would like some!)

Brian maybe i can make it to flipside next spring and have some fun down outside of Austin!

Like I said Mischevia is outside of Paris in Oct. (not to often you can say that you went to a burn outside of Paris with a straight face!)

[J Eddington]

Art it is all about art to me. To go in acreate something that will only be there for 5 days just seems amazing.
Here is an old link.
2009 Art Theme: Evolution

Here is a link to my friend becker site from last year.
Burning Man 2009, the people - thebecker.com 949.707.0033

burning man 2009, my experience - thebecker.com 949.707.0033

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Janice that is a great link. I actually saw there camp last year but didn't get a chance to talk to them-if I had known that it was a large group of photographers I would definitely spent some time talking to them.

like I said above you never know who you will run into out there! One year I heard Joan Baez signing live at the Temple! She sang Amazing grace ! No amplification just her voice which was amazing!

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Well back from Black Rock City, posting a few pics up as I have the time at Burning Man 2010 Photo Gallery by pgkps at pbase.com .

Art was not as great as years past but Bliss, the 40+ ft woman, was well worth the trip in and of itself. Now the women were as beautiful if not more so than in the past (didn't do too many portraits but a few were just wow!). Talked to one of the LEOs and he said that they had a bit more minor problems than in years past but the pop is bigger 51,500+ this year so they expected a bit more.

Had all types of weather including a FOG Bank at sunrise one morning! Rain, Wind, Cold (36F), Heat (95+F), calm, thunder and lightening in the mountains, snow one morning on a distant peak, but LOW Humidity!

It was fun as usual and met some cool people, one guy who at one time was worth $20 Mil! (7th employee for Blue Martini Corp Blue Martini Software - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ) was visitng the artists camp next to me-cool dude.

So 8+ days of photographers heaven, next year when I upgrade my camera I don't know when I will sleep since I will do night shots too!

Learned a few photographic tricks too that will improve my work.

Saw one fool with what looked to be a canon rig walking around at night in a light dust storm, no lights on him, no protection on the camera, who easily could have been hit by a person on a bike which would have caused him to either drop or slam his camera on the ground and oops there would have been several grand in pieces! IF YOU EVER GO BE SURE TO HAVE LIGHTS OF SOME TYPE ON THE FRONT AND BACK of your BODY!

So folks you need to put this event on your bucket list!