VANS WARPED TOUR 2018 - PART I — Nicole J Stephens

2018 has been something else! From working festivals on weekends while working 9 to 5 at an event / tour production company during the week to Tour Managing Doll Skin on the final cross country run of Vans Warped Tour. I am exhausted but also ready to keep busy and keep creating.

I'm still incredibly grateful for the opportunity to kick off my "band world" touring career on this tour. Not that my first experience on Warped was terrible by any means, but this year was tenfold better than when I did the full tour back in 2016 with a sponsor. This time around I had a lot more freedom to shoot and in turn made way more friends. I'm so thankful for the people on the this tour that acknowledged my existence and always stopped me to say hi and chat about our day's every day amid the circus level craziness that is Warped Tour.

I'm also so so so SO thankful for everyone who started following my work this summer either through Adam Elmakias or Doll Skin socials and liked it enough to stop me and say so. While such a small thing it helped me stay inspired to edit and go shoot bands when I felt very physically and creatively exhausted.

Overall, I'd like to thank all the ladies in Doll Skin (Alex, Meghan, Nicole, and Sydney), their incredible parents Holly, John, Temre, Gina, Matt, Dora, and Seth, Doll Skin's incredible merch manager Cameron, their manager David Ellefson, all of the women that run Warped Tour, every young woman that participated in the GBTRS x Doll Skin Roadie for A Day Program, the Accounting/Production plugs Matt, Ryan, and Kerry, EVERY HUMAN THAT WORKED ON THE OWLY.FM STAGE AS CREW, FOH, MANAGEMENT YOU MADE MY LIFE SO EASY I CAN NEVER REPAY YOU, Kami Thomas, Imani Givertz, and every single friend I made on or reconnected with on this tour.

With all that being said, I will be splitting this blog into two parts. I spent the first half of the tour not making taking photos for Doll Skin a primary focus and the last half of the tour that became an additional focus in addition to managing everything regarding the band's day to day routine. A lot of my favorite photos from this tour I took during the last half and I think there is a shift in my work in the second half. I'm choosing to do two seperate blogs for that reason.

LINKS

2016 VWT BLOG | PART II

Note: If you like any of the photos in this blog and wish to save and re-post them on social media or fan pages please give me proper credit and do not re-edit any image(s) you chose to re-post. If you would like higher resolution images for promotional or personal use or to purchase a print shoot me an email at nicole@nicolestephensphotography.com.

JUNE 20TH - PRE-PRODUCTION DAY - POMONA, CA