As soon as I got to Park City I had to get my press credentials.  One for Sundance and another for “The Lift” which was the area of Sundance that included private party areas such as Tao, The Entertainment Weekly Tent, and the Myspace Cafe (and free food!).  We made the mistake of getting the Lift pass first, because by the time we went to get my Sundance credentials they were about to close.  They told me I couldn’t get the pass until tomorrow, but I was scheduled to shoot the opening night event of the festival.  After some complaining they told me that if I waited around there might be a chance I would get mine, but they didn’t think it was likely.  About 5 minutes later they handed me my pass and thanked me for my patience.  Very odd.

Anyway, when we got to the event we had to wait around while it opened.  They were letting some VIP’s in and things but we just stood to the side.  At some point I made up something about how it was very important that I needed to get photos of our product before there was anyone inside the party.  They whisked us through the line and we got upstairs before the event even started.  The party was not the star studded gala you might expect.  It was however, very crowded.  I spent several hours shooting all manor of people drinking our product, Le Tourment Absinthe.  The Absinthe did it’s trick and by the end of the party everyone was pretty inebriated and people were dancing up a storm to some questionable DJ’s.  I met a girl named Laura who worked for Sundance and showed me the best places to purchase dead animals to eat.  I also got a milkshake with her on my last night despite it being winter… in Utah… in the mountains.  I ran into my friend Julius there who I did not expect to see, although maybe I should have.  We ran into each other pretty much every day I was there.  It was good to see a familiar face as I went up there pretty much knowing no one. As I mentioned before, the event was not exactly jam packed with celebrities, but I have to say I was pretty excited to meet the Dude himself, Jeff Dowd, who was the inspiration for the Big Lebowski.  I ended up having a lot of fun and stayed until they kicked us out.  So I opened the place and closed it down.

Admittedly, these are not the most exciting shots I have ever taken, and they tend to run a bit dark, you should check them out anyway.  It’s what the Dude would do, because the Dude abides.

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