“I’ve been wanting to do evening photoshoots from the sky at EDM events for years. However, Hollands tough safety laws don’t allow flying after dark. But even at earlier timeslots I had never managed to get a helicopter available to me for a shooting. Then, late June, luck turned. As senior photographer for Q-dance I was granted heli-time at Defqon.1, not just any slot – a LATE shot, the latest possible in Holland.
At exactly 22:05 I took off for a 20 minute shoot in which I could expand my imagination to the limits. Thanks also to the new camera equipment like the Canon 1Dx (amazing noise-levels at 800-1600ISO) and the stabilizer from the 70-200IS II telelens, also by Canon, the photos came out incredibly good with never before seen camera-angles. I immediately wanted to up the ante: Tomorrowland was just weeks away and in Belgium one is allowed to do nighttime flights. I explained the organizers my plan to do something never been done before: a risky shoot over the mainstage during the massive fireworks! With a simple “make it happen” things were set in motion: a time-slot was reserved for me and all that was left was mentally preparing myself for the technically difficult shoot ahead.”
Tomorrowland is an Electronic Dance Music aka EDM event organized every year in the Belgium town of Boom. Normally there are 16.000 people living in Boom, but on Tomorrowland there are 180.000 people dancing on three days. This year Tomorrowland took place on Friday, July 27, Saturday, July 28 and Sunday, July 29. The line-up consisted of 400 DJs, such as Skrillex, Avicii, Skazi, David Guetta, Nervo, Swedish House Mafia, Steve Aoki, Carl Cox, The Bloody Beetroots, Paul van Dyk, Martin Solveig, Chuckie (DJ), Fatboy Slim and Pendulum, playing on 15 stages per day.
