Featured on @JJ_MusicIsLife

A couple of weeks back I made a post about my research into music photography hubs on Instagram, and how one of them had actually paid off.

I was happy once again to wake up this morning and find that I had been featured yet again, this time on another hub, @jj_musicislife, which was reached through the #jj_musicislife hashtag.

This account was founded by @cecilianmd, and is moderated by @blaj_enst, and has over 3,900 posts with 5,212 followers. This means that this go around my photo was potentially seen by even more people than last time - cool!

The "JJ" at the start of the account and hashtag had me curious, as I also noticed it as a preface to a number of other accounts. So I looked into it, and found this article. Basically, a number of years back (the article is from 2012), photographer Josh Johnson started a daily Instagram exercise where he would post the rules and requirements for a daily photography "assignment," and photographers from around the world would chime in with their images, including the "JJ" hashtag. This movement also fostered a sense of community amongst the photographers, as they were also asked to "like" three photos and comment on two others.

Since the start of Johnson's project, it seems like a lot of other people felt inspired by them and started up their own accounts with specific themes, which I think is awesome. I'll often tag other photos with JJ hashtags, like #jj_blackandwhite, #jj_streetphotography, and #jj_sunsetlovers.

The original post on my account received 30 "likes," while the hub's re-post has so far reached 118.

The photo in question was taken this past Friday night at The Kingsville Folk Festival in Kingsville, Ontario, and features Alysha Brilla from Brampton, Ontario. I attended the festival for local online publication WindsoriteDOTca, but as usual still chose one of my favourite shots to post on my personal account.

I was actually rather surprised that this photo was chosen, though.

Obviously it's one that I like, otherwise I wouldn't have posted it at all, but I still feel that compared to some of my other work, this shot just isn't the best. The night in question I was working in rather dark, humid, and rainy conditions, and as much as I don't normally worry a huge amount about being in the way of other spectators (I don't really stay in one spot for long), in front of a crowd that was mostly seated on the ground or in lawn chairs, I felt bad getting right up against the stage and being all up in their sight lines. I also wasn't totally "feeling it" that night. I had had a fairly long drive, in the rain, after work, out to a park that featured bugs, rain, and a disgusting level of humidity. All of these conditions made for a photo that I believe is still alright, but not nearly my best work.

I did, however, enjoy the contrast of the bright stage colours against the darkness that was the surrounding Lakeside Park. And Alysha's performance was brilliant. I enjoyed it so much, actually, that on Sunday I returned to catch her in a workshop alongside a few other performers on one of the smaller stages during the day.

Below are some more shots from both of those performances.