the temple under the full moon - burning man 2009

Burning Man 2009 photos by Tristan Savatier (email me!)

You can see the photos from previous years at www.loupiote.com/burningman

For me, 2009 was a very good harvest for burning man festival Photography. I selected twice as many photos as last year in this series. I am a bit sad that I missed a few amazing art pieces and magical moments, but i managed to capture more excellent images than in previous years.

Like the previous years, I was part of the BM photo Team and I was assigned an area of the playa to document. But unfortunately I found the art in this area quite uninspiring (visually), and the Theme-Camps in my area where quite hard to capture with photography. The "Nectar Village Steam Bath" crew did not want people to take photos in their camp (even though they don't declare it a No-Camera zone) and they were extremely aggressive towards me when I did. This was the only bad experience I had for the entire week.

Because of the windy and dusty conditions this year, I very rarely changed lenses, and I had to clean my sensor once. This is why I took almost no photos with a telephoto this year. My night / fire photos are not stellar because of playa dust inside my fastest lens (between the glass elements). But overall, I think this is a great series, and people seem to like it.

Hi-resolutions photos with no watermark are available for editorial use (contact me).

For information on this festival and to see my photos from other years, click here.

burning man 2009

I'm going for my first time this year. I'm really excited.

So many memories, it was my first time! Great pictures, Thanks

Love your Burning Man photos! For those of us who have not been, yet, they are gifts from the gods!

I can't go , so thanks for the pictures. Great job

gotta go one day, gotta go

Wow! Amazing pictures - great photography, especially under the circumstances (dust etc). Hope your lenses/cameras didn't get damaged!
Out of interest, what's your gear?

thanks! my gear for the various years is indicated on this page: http://www.loupiote.com/burningman/
this year i mostly used a 17-50mm F2.8 tamron lens (35mm equiv 28-75mm). you can see all the metadata for each shot on flickr, by clicking on "More Proterties" link on the bottom-right of the flickr page. There is a link "Go to Flickr" on each of my photo-page on this site.

Tristan, your pics provide inspiration for getting my ass into gear for next years BM. I often look at them having attended two previous burns. Lovely shots mate!

thanks!

Fascinating stuff. I'm determined to see BM myself some day.
Thanks for sharing.

What's on your mind...
These are the best pictures I have seen!!! Nice photography.

thanks!

I'm so glad to find so many pictures, my camera and I had a parting of the ways... and I wasn't able to take any photos while I was there. So again, thank you thank you thank you.

good job! I want to be like you when I'll grow up!

You are an incredible photographer. I wish I had spent some time with you. David Morton

thanks, david.
it's always hard to spend much time with anyone at BM, as you have certainely noticed :)
i try my best, but it's not always easy to get good images at BM, because of the dust that prevents changing lenses, and sometrimes, the extreme light conditions. i'm glad you like my photos. you can check my work from the previous years.