When I arrived the doors had not opened for the visitors yet, so we got a little tour around the stadium to get our bearings. My first impression was “Holy SHIT!” This place was huge, and the stage b2s had built was just off the hook. Meanwhile they were testing some of the lighting, which was also very impressive. Lasers, fireworks, LED screens and much more were all over the place. Then we went to take a look on stage, I could hardly imagine what the performing DJ’s of this night must experience when being up there. Well I was about to find out…

At 22:00 sharp Hard Bass started and thousands of people starting pooring in. I have to admit I was a bit nervous beforehand, having to work in front of 30.000 people is no joke and you don’t want to be the one to accidently hit a switch or button. So off I went, onstage for the first time to photograph the first act of the night. Nerves quickly made way for adrenaline, it was just an awesome view from up there! The crowd was going nutts and the DJ’s were loving it, and my job to capture it all. FYI: I also loved it

The whole night went by in a flash and it was one of the best experiences I’ve had so far. Also the feedback on twitter and facebook has been wonderfull.

Check out the photo’s of Hard Bass by clicking HERE

And the aftermovie HERE

For the photographers who read this: I’ve used a Canon EOS 7D, 17-55mm f/2.8 and a tripod.

And also a little bit of software: Photomatix, Photoshop CS5, Noiseware Professional and Color Efex 3.0

Right… enough with the technical chatter, here is the result.

It was a really nice small trance party, and I”ve had a lot of fun while shooting.

Click HERE to watch the entire photoshoot on the PT Events website!

Enjoy!

Event informatie:

Op 21 januari is het zover! Dan staat de Grotesque Newyear Special weer garant voor jouw ultieme avond uit. Het succes van Grotesque wordt wederom bevestigd, de kaartverkoop gaat erg goed, de PT tickets zijn bijna uitverkocht en Grotesque lijkt voor de 3e editie op rij al haar kaarten te gaan verkopen.

De Central Studios in Utrecht zal het nieuwe decor worden voor deze Grotesque Newyear Special. De organisatie heeft gekozen voor de kleine zaal en wil met een max van 800 bezoekers de intieme sfeer op het beste niveau houden, zoals men dit gewend is van Grotesque. De zaal wordt ingericht met een indrukwekkende stage, spectaculaire licht- en lasershows en op het balkon wordt een heerlijke lounge gemaakt waar jij jezelf even kan terugtrekken en uit kan kijken over de dansende menigte.“De kracht van deze locatie is voor ons zeer belangrijk! Wij kunnen ons hier met Grotesque helemaal uitleven, de zaal is lekker hoog en leent zich uitermate goed voor een mooie show“, aldus de heren van PT Events.

PT’s Huisspecialiteit!
Qua line-up presenteert PT Events op 21 januari een aantal waanzinnige namen uit de rijke historie van de Elektronische Dans Muziek! Met Ummet Ozcan, Ernesto vs Bastian, Cor Fijneman, RAM, Artento Divini en Angelique! vs Miss Legacee presenteert PT Events jou haar huisspecialiteit: een onvergetelijke avond uit met muzikaal vermaak van de bovenste plank. De avond wordt gehost door Mc Da Silva.

Time Table
22.00-23.15 Cor Fijneman
23.15-00.30 Artento Divini
00.30-01.45 Ummet Ozcan
01.45-03.00 RAM
03.00-04.15 Ernesto vs Bastian
04.15-05.30 Angelique! vs Miss Legacee

Friends Party Package
Wie nog gebruik wil maken van PT’s ‘Friends Party Package’ moet snel in actie komen. Je koopt dan als member op de PT site, 8 kaarten voor € 25 per stuk en krijgt er als koper nog eens 2 gastenlijst plaatsen voor een volgend PT event bij cadeau. Het aanbod, dat ontstaan is als Nieuwjaarspresentje naar PT-members, werd zo goed ontvangen dat PT de laatste pakketten deze week de deur uit doet. Resterende kaarten kunnen dan gekocht worden via Easyticket.­nl.

1. 

This is without a doubt my favorite photo of 2011, it just has to be this one! I’ve made this at Tomorrowland over the summer, it was just a fantastic party. But this is also the photo that got over 1.000 likes on facebook and helped me win a contest.

2. 

I love this photo for all the energy it has. Decibel Outdoor 2011 was a very special party for me, I had never gone up a stage this big before. There were at least standing 10.000 people down there and it was really overwhelming working in such an atmosphere. But in the end it felt great and I hope I get the opportunity to do it again.

3.

WiSH Outdoor 2011, it was a great party in many ways. The stage they had build over there was out of this world. This photo was taken in the middle of the end show. It also got used on many of the media of the organisation.

4.

If you know me a little bit, you know that I love Trance Music. I’m a big Armin van Buuren fan, so getting the chance to go on stage and capturing my favorite dj at work was priceless!

5.

During the year I’ve seen so many great lightshows, but the one at Energy The Network was one of the best. This photo came out perfectly in my opinion, I was standing exactly in the middle and everything came together.

6.

At Rebirth Festival dj Crypsis was playing an awesome liveset. I got up on a wobbly box behind the dj to capture everything from a good angle. Later the photo made a local newspaper, which was a first for me!

7.

One of the most intense close-ups from 2011. I saw a few party people with these lenses in their eyes and I just had to get it. Much respect for not blinking while I was flashing in your eye

8.

Carnaval 2011 in Udenhout. An entire square filled with partying people, it was just magic to see…

9.

We all know this symbol, I love the way the colours came out.

10.

Also at WiSH Outdoor, I got the chance to get up above the festival and capture everything from above. I actually have a small fear of heights, so getting up in a small box and being lifted up by a crane is a big deal for me. But somehow I forgot all about the height while photographing the sunset.

11.

BLACK in Hasselt Belgium. I didn’t expect much from the party to be honest, but the lighting over there just blew me away. Mobile phones, lasers, fire, crowds… thats what I want to see in this kind of photography.

12.

DJ Zany at Dominator, I like it when dj’s put a lot of energy into their sets, and it shows on the photo.

13.

Speaking of dj’s who are energetic, how about these guys at XXlerator. The Theracords allstars ripping it up!

14.

The Qontinent, lot’s of fire and great colours in this photo. Also the stage looked very cool.

15.

Once again a photo from WiSH Outdoor. Radical Redemption giving away his first performance while the sun was setting. We are gonna hear a lot from this guy!

16.

The Pussy Lounge stage at sunset during Decibel Outdoor. This photo illustrates everything a festival is about.

17.

This photo was a bit of a lucky shot, a spotlight flashed brightly just when the dj was lifting his hand.

18.

The atmosphere during Ran-D’s performance at The Qontinent was absolutely electric! The whole tent was packed and Ran-D gave away a hell of a set!

19.

Over the last year I really tried to capture the atmosphere from within the audience. It’s often not easy because people don’t stand still and tap you on the shoulder all the time. But the result speaks for itself. There is nothing more satisfying then capturing moments like this. This was taken at Fusion.

20.

Every year thousands of people look forward to this one event: Defqon 1. Festival. I happen to have a necklace with the logo, it came out really good in the grass.

Having said that, this year I went with my camera! Because I wanted to capture some HDR images in the dark for the first time.
Once we arrived the hording could begin! Busloads of people with expensive camera’s tried to capture something of Glow 2011, most of them used flash…
Some dude looked at me, than he noticed I was capturing a photo with a very long shutter time… so he decided to walk right through my shot and then smirked at me with a very evil look.

At some point it really felt like everyone was doing their best to ruin my shot, but in the end I managed to capture some interesting views:

Van Abbe Museum

The Station in Eindhoven

Statue at Eindhoven CS

The Station Square with a big light dome on it

More info about Glow: http://www.gloweindhoven.nl/

It was a very atmospheric party with a very young hardstyle crowd. But nevertheless this crowd got what it came for, and that is an epic party.
For a photographer like me, it turned out to be a succes too. Got some big shots from the dj’s, lasers and crowd.

I’m not really good at explaining how cool something is with words… so here are the photo’s

Click HERE to watch the entire set!

Enjoy!

Deepack at Work

Lovely Crowd!

D-Block & S-te-Fan

MC Apster

Last week the Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) was held again. For those of you who don’t know what ADE is, it is basically a gathering of everyone involved in the dance scene. A week long you are able to visit conferences during the day, and great parties during the night with the best dj’s the scene has to offer. For me personally this meant I could see some of my trance heroes. What made it extra special this year is the fact I won a photo contest on facebook. With well over a 1000 likes for my submission I had won a VIP treatment to Armada Night. I had also visited the DJ Mag Top 100 Awards Party the night before.

But this was all without my camera. On saturday the 22nd of October I got the opportunity to visit the Matrixx in Nijmegen. This huge club is currently celebrating it’s 10 year anniversary, and what better way to do this then by inviting Armin van Buuren for a 3 hour set. As you might know I’m a huge fan of this guy, so photographing him really felt special. I had done it once before at Dance Valley, but back than I was still a photography noob (I’ll probably say the same about this shoot in a few years).

Check out all the photo’s I have made by clicking HERE

I’ve got a new camera, finally! And it’s the Canon EOS 7D…

Thats’s basically all I have to say for now, stay tuned

Riverdance
I guess the season started for me with Riverdance on the 21st of May. What a great way to kick off the outdoor season, the sun was shining, the music was banging and the crowd was already in a good mood. It was a fun photoshoot from start to finish!

DJ Coone:

Emporium
The next party in my agenda was Emporium. A great festival wich offers a wide variety of dance music genres, from house untill hardcore, there is something for everyone to enjoy within the dance scene. Unfortunately the weather wouldn’t always coorporate, but for most of the day it was dry. I got the chance to see some personal heroes of mine such as Aly & Fila and Simon Patterson. A really big compliment goes out to the organisation for making all the stages look spectacular!

Beautiful stage at Emporium:

Ground Zero & 7th Sunday
Onto the next weekend, I didn’t have one but two big parties planned. First up was Ground Zero on Saturday the 6th of June. I got the opportunity to shoot for Theracords, a hardstyle label that is getting more and more exposure in the Netherlands. It was a lot of fun to focus on one stage in particular for a change. Don’t get me wrong, it is fun to photograph people going nutts on their favorite music, but it can be overwhelming.

After getting just a little bit of sleep it was time for yet another big party: 7th Sunday. Luckily for me 7th Sunday was being held not too far from where I live, and on I went again with my camera. I decided to focus mainly on the “Hard Nature” stage wich hosted several big hardstyle acts during the day. One of my personal highlights must have been Crypsis’ performance, not only because I love his productions, but mainly because of the energy that has been released during his set. 7th Sunday also offered a nice firework display, it was the closing of a perfect weekend.

Geck-O enjoying his music:

Catatonic Overload at Ground Zero:

MC Apster waving the mic on 7th Sunday:

Crypsis giving one of top performances:

Crowd enjoying the fireworks:

WiSH Outdoor
Another weekend and another photoshoot to look forward to. On the 2nd of July I visited WiSH Outdoor. This party was extra special for me, since The Magic Show was hosting their own stage. That meant I got to photograph a lot of personal friends of mine during their sets. The mainstage on WiSH Outdoor was one of the best I have ever seen! A giant red star was rising from the landscape and it just looked amazing. Especially at night! During the day I also got the chance to photograph from high in a big crane, even though I have a slight fear of heights I decided to go for it. All together it was just a perfect day, nuff said though, this is how it looked:

Kodex at The Magic Show area:

<3

Beautiful view from up here:

One of my favorites this summer:

Tomorrowland
The weekend after WiSH Outdoor the time had come for probably my biggest festival of the year: Tomorrowland. Last year this party blew me away with it’s spectacular looking stages, firework displays and a wide variety of music genres to enjoy. This year would prove to be even better since ID&T decided to stretch Tomorrowland over a lenght of three days. Me and a buddy booked a hotel in Antwerp, especially because I did not want my camera gear in a wet tent on the festival camping. Luckily for us the weather gods decided to give us some nice weather during the entire stay. And all we could say after three days of partying and photographing is: WOW!!! Even though I already visited Tomorrowland before it totally blew me away again!

Fireworks at Tomorrowland are some of the best I’ve ever seen:

Dominator – Nirvana of Noise
After a three day party marathon like Tomorrowland every person needs some time to recover…….NOT! Are you kidding me?! Your only young once you know And on I went again to Dominator Festival in Eersel. I even drove my bike there to avoid the big traffic jam that is a yearly tradition. Although hardcore is not my favorite genre it was still a fun party with lots of things to capture.

Somebody lost something?
\

DJ Zany at Dominator:

Put your hands up for…

The Qontinent
After a short break, in which I visited Spain briefly, I could continue the photo journey to Belgium. The party was called The Qontinent and The Magic Show was hosting a stage again, this time for two days in a row. On this party we decided to camp on the special campsite Bass Events and Q-dance had arranged. This idea turned out to have one giant flaw in it: my tent was leaking… Luckily I didn’t forget to bring a towel and the problem was solved quickly. The festival itself turned out to be amazing! The Magic Show was held in a tent on both days, therefor the rain didn’t bother me at all. The Belgian crowd seemed to love all the dj’s and the endshow was spectacular.

MC da Syndrome!

DJ Thera vs. Geck-O tearing the roof off!

The Mainstage at The Qontinent:

Ran-D probably the performance of that day!

Jack of Sound:

Davide Sonar at the Pre-Party:

MC Apster going wild

Decibel Outdoor
It was time for the last photoshoot of my festival season. And this one would prove to be very special for me. Just before The Qontinent the organisation (b2s) of Decibel Outdoor gave me a phone call, asking me if I was interested to shoot on this massive event. Ofcourse I was! Not only is Decibel one of the biggest hard dance parties in the Netherlands, it’s also one of the parties which I really wanted to photograph at. On the 20th of August it was hot and the sun was shining, all the ingredients were there for a great day. I had to work together in a team with 4 other photographers which was really nice since I knew all of them already. Time seemed to be flying that day, but it was a really great experience!

DJ Coone at the mainstage

Max Enforcer WOW!

The Pussy Lounge stage!

20.000 hands… damn

All together this summer turned out to be great, I went to so many places and met so many people it’s hard to keep count. Most important for me is that people enjoy my work. I also learned a lot about photography and I hope to get better throughout the years. But as they say “Practice makes perfect,” so that’s what I will be doing in the future!

Untill we meet again…

- Michel van Rossum

For all the complete sets of this summer please visit my Flickr Page!