Shoot from the hip

Out in the real world, your lens cap is practically useless -- it will only slow you down. Leave it at home. Keeping the lens cap off the camera at all times is absolutely critical. Glastonbury taught us this important rule after about ten minutes in the mud. The last thing you need when you've spied the perfect shot is to discover you can't see anything through the lens. Rely on your UV filter, or good judgement, to keep the lens from getting scratched.

Keep your SLR in standby for when an unexpected moment grabs you. Alternatively, train yourself to set the camera into shooting mode whenever you frame a shot. SLRs like the D70 and EOS 350D have an extremely long battery life, so there's no need to worry about running out before the festival is over.

Keeping your digital camera accessible at all times is also very important. You never know when you'll spot a perfect composition that vanishes a few seconds later. Be quick off the mark and keep your dSLR in an automatic mode, or pre-configured for a manual exposure that matches current conditions.

We spotted this strange cowboy as he stopped for a few seconds after running though the mud. Although he looks almost rooted to the ground in this shot, the cowboy was leaping about the festival like Zebedee. He stopped for a second while another festival-goer scribbled on his body. A second later he scrambled off through the mud. Because the lens cap was off our SLR and it was preset to the correct exposure, we got this shot in time.