Luke Awtry Photography

ENGAGED! 💍✨ Thank you (📸) @lukeawtryphotography for accepting a covert mission and capturing the moment. 🙏✨

The heatwave knocked me off my usual beaten path this past week and the Eye on the Scene ended up being an unexpectedly delicious one 🍦 Eye on the Scene, wk. 61 @sevendaysvt Vol.29 No.38 Pg.55 Published 06.26.2024 Words and photos by me *photos 2-10 are unpublished extras Little Gordo Creemee Stand, Burlington, Saturday, June 22: It sure was a scorcher last week, so I leaned heavily on air-conditioned indoor spaces and didn’t go out until well after dark. That got me thinking: Where is the late-night heat-wave hang spot in downtown Burlington? In retrospect, it’s a no-brainer. What better place to get the core temperature down than Little Gordo Creemee Stand? The tunes were bumping, the tables were full, and though the line was long — 15 or so deep when I arrived — it moved quickly enough that no one seemed to care. Folks danced and laughed with their friends, in line and out. I ordered the chocolate-banana twist with sprinkles, and it was an easy win. Too easy — I made a second trip to the creemee window just before the 10 p.m. closing time.

It’s so hard to post music festival recaps, especially a local buddy-fest like @wakingwindows . WW was a 3-day festival and these 10 shots were taken before the first band, @thewetones_vt , even got off stage at the @monkeyhouse_vt . So that’s the quality of people and moments I have to deal with. Geeeeez. And it’s so so so fun, and a lot of work too. Anyone care to guess how many photos I delivered from the entire weekend? First one to guess within 3% gets a WW2024 8x10 print of their choice. Reply to this post with one guess only, no cheating! Go to gallery.lukeawtryphotography.com to peep the full set. Keep in mind, I had a co-house photographer, @shawncimonetti , and his shots are in there. And a few from @andrianacee too. Much more to come!

All of @wakingwindows has been delivered. It includes coverage of each day by myself and @shawncimonetti as well as some shots from guest photographer @andrianacee who covered the sets that I performed. Pretty stoked on all of this year’s performances and events and I don’t think we missed a single set between the three of us! Sure, live music is great and all but I know what you have all been waiting for… WOOFING WINDOWS 2024 @wakingwindows Winooski, VT 05.03-05.2024

Soundtoys Signals 2024 #1 Haley Fohr + Whitney Johnson + Lula Asplund @circuitdesyeux + @matchesse + @l.u.l.a__._ performing as Matchess, a triple-marimba/triple-vocal experimental project by @dragcityrecords artist Whitney Johnson [001-006] w/ local support from @casperelectronics + @indivisual.video with an opening set of real-time modular A/V synthesis [007-010] Presented by @soundtoys Lighting by @liggylights FOH Jared Slomoff Soundtoys HQ Burlington, VT 06.18.2024

Soundtoys Signals Series 2024 [BTS/Pre-show] Haley Fohr + Whitney Johnson + Lula Asplund @circuitdesyeux + @matchesse + @l.u.l.a__._ performing as Matchess, an experimental project by @dragcityrecords artist Whitney Johnson w/ local support from @casperelectronics + @indivisual.video Presented by @soundtoys Lighting by @liggylights FOH Jared Slomoff Soundtoys HQ Burlington, VT 06.18.2024

Eye on the Scene, wk. 59 @sevendaysvt Vol.29 No.36 Published June 12, 2024 Words and photos by me *shots 2-8 were not published with the story Edmunds Middle School Jazz Band, City Hall Park, Burlington Discover Jazz Festival, Thursday, June 6: This year’s was not a tame Burlington Discover Jazz Festival. As the event’s official photographer, I got to see its wild side. Big Freedia’s Waterfront Park show was a spicy one, no butts about it. And at the Flynn Space, Hot Butter LGBTQIA+ Disco featuring the Illustrious Blacks got ... slippery. But the set that really popped off was in City Hall Park last Thursday afternoon. A large crowd had gathered, and I was picking up elementary school chorus vibes, big time. When Graham Lambert, a self-proclaimed Santana fanatic, led his Edmunds Middle School Jazz Band in “Oye Como Va,” the young crowd went feral. I saw moves I’d never seen before. Think sugar high plus out-of-school experience — and the only conga line of the festival, to my knowledge. Huge shout-out to the Flynn for all the school-related programming and to our local music teachers for keeping kids interested in music and showing them a good time. I’m not sure where I’d be if not for teachers like that.

This (past) week, on @sevendaysvt : Cover Story: Older & Bolder ‘Wonderful Noises’ Experimental musician Herb Leff, 80 Words by Rachel Hellman Photos by me (slides 3-9 are unpublished shots from the shoot with Herb) Herb Leff likes to spend time in what he calls “the Etherium” a makeshift music studio in an upstairs bedroom of his Burlington home. It’s crammed with hundreds of instruments: xylophones, singing bowls, drums, metal water bottles that he drums on to produce “vibrant, wonderful noises,” and chimes of all shapes and sizes. [excerpt]

I suppose it’s time to end my (near) hiatus from posting on here for the last few months. It’s one of those situations where I have so much great stuff going on which I do want to share with everyone but it’s literally taking all my energy to execute all those things and I have near zero left when it comes to things like social media, especially given how social the nature of a lot of my work is, which is exhausting in a different way. I’m not complaining, and I know I’m lucky to have the opportunity to be so busy professionally, but it’s not getting easier or less expensive to run my businesses. What I figured out is that I was spending way more time on posts than I should. I always try to credit everyone involved (and will always do so) but then also write my own little thoughts on everything with tags and mentions and hashtags and whatever else I was feeling. But I’ve decided I need to make my feed about my work, not about my thoughts on everything, so I’m going to be (mostly) concise moving forward. If you want my thoughts, pick up a copy of @sevendaysvt and turn to the music section for Eye on the Scene, my (mostly) weekly mini-column about local music/nightlife! In any case, I have lots of catching up to do with posting. I’ve shot entire festivals, worked with multiple Grammy winning artists, put up whole shows of my work, had 7D covers and features, done fine art reproductions for so many amazing local artists, had photos in nationally distributed magazines, done art direction and photography for album releases, and so much more. It’s dumb for me not to post about all this on the one remaining social channel I actually use, right? (The real test, does anyone even read this far anymore?)

Jazz hands are out. Jazz butts are in. @bigfreedia @discoverjazzfestival Day 3 Presented by @flynncenter Waterfront Park Burlington, VT

Seun Kuti aka @bigbirdkuti @discoverjazzfestival Day 4 Presented by @flynncenter and @nefcu Waterfront Park Burlington, VT

@mononeon @discoverjazzfestival Day 4 Presented by @flynncenter and @nefcu Waterfront Park Burlington, VT