2016 Seattle Hempfest Festival

Seattle Hempfest is one of the world’s premiere cannabis festivals. Every year, it brings in right around 100,000 festival goers. Despite high temperatures, Seattle Hempfest Festival celebrated its 25th annual anniversary this weekend, but it could be the event’s final year due to money woes. Organizers worry that the festival may not have enough money to return in 2017.

Festivals are a great place to practice a wide variety of photographic disciplines for any photographer. With plenty of action in one central location, often over a couple of days or more, there’s a chance to try your hand at everything; portraiture, street photography, landscape, night photography, fast action, and more, as well as play with all kinds of lighting and subjects, and the chance to tell a photographic story.

The greatest joy for me, as a photographer, is utilizing light to take an instant out of time and holding it still. This can come in any number of forms, from the smallest single strand of light against a face or a subject in a field mid-afternoon. It’s imperative to train the eye to the spectrum of natural light. The only way to do so is to shoot constantly.

Here are some of my favorite photos from the 2016 Seattle Hempfest Festival. Please feel free to share them on social and tag j.a.Molina Creative on FB or @arlemJM on Twitter.