Outside Lands (OSL) 2012 Photo Galleries are up on Paste Magazine and Verbicide Magazine! Click to see the published galleries, or scroll through them in the embedded versions below.  Featuring photos of Metallica, Stevie Wonder, Foo Fighters, Regina Spektor, Jack White, Skrillex, Die Antwoord, Andrew Bird, Tom Morello, The Kills, Santigold, Fun, and more!

Having shot a bunch of different festivals before such as Sasquatch, SXSW, Bruise Cruise, Doe Bay Fest, MusicFest Northwest, and Bumbershoot, I have to say Outside Lands was among my favorites to attend and photograph. The festival grounds in the middle of Golden Gate Park are superbly huge and sheltered by trees, which gives it an intimate and unique vibe that I really liked. Each stage is in its own section of the park, which made it rather hard to reach the stages as the day wore on and more and more people showed up. This is how I learned early on that your OSL schedule is about picking and choosing. Despite the festival being relatively contained and not in separate venues (for the most part) like SXSW or MFNW, it’s challenging if not close to impossible to photograph every act from the photo pit, no matter how hard you sprint from one stage to the next. I practically broke my back trying to do this on the first day and eventually settled to having a prioritized list.

Another hardship that I learned was the difficulty in reaching the festival on foot, especially when lugging a bag of heavy camera gear. The OSL entrance isn’t at the most convenient point in the park, and many people end up walking (or biking!) in. Next time, I know to do the latter, and to significantly reduce the weight of my gear bag. Perhaps the best parts of the fest however were the food choices! Not only is the press room well stocked with beer and food samples in addition to a killer view of the main stage, but OSL itself doubles as a food fest with a host of local food vendors setting up shop and selling their delicious treats. Bring cash and an empty stomach and spend the free moments you have dining on some of San Francisco’s best bites!