Diego El Cigala

Finally a new post again, caught up in family life and of course work (still lucky in these times). Thought it was about time to post a new entry. Got many really nice comments on my entry of the birth of my son Marcos, thanks for that, really nice! Planning to upload some newer shots soon.

Thursday I went to a concert of Flamenco singer Diego "El Cigala" here in the Auditorium of Malaga as press, they could not have done me a bigger favour (except for a press card for Madonna of course)
I love Don Diegos music, it´s a fusion of Flamenco and Jazz and I think its a perfect combination. I photographed him at the press conference first and after that the concert. After the first 2 songs they allowed us to hang out at the side and basically I was the only one left enjoying the music and shooting away.
It had the atmosphere of The NorthSea Jazz Festival in The Hague, The Netherlands where I used to go every year. hmmm good memories!
Enjoy V.

Miss Bellydance Marbella 2008

I did a job in a nigthclub in marbella last week. "Miss Bellydance Marbella 2008", commisioned by the talented Anandi. It started a 1 a.m. till 4 a.m. I shot in the worst possible light conditions; dark-wood environment, black stage and vari-lights as keylights. The first time I shot bellydance I shot it in a theater with 2 strobes on either side of the stage. NO GO with flashes this time, apparently they got off wrong on their choreography due to the flashes. This time was a lot better they shot 5 beams from the vari-lights aimed at the feet of the dancers (otherwise they get off wrong in their choreography) so basically you could not see shit. Tremendous differences in contrast.....oooofff ugly stuff. I was happy to use my D700. Put it on automatic iso-exposure (lens on 2.8 and the cam looks for the best iso on 1/100th sec). All in all not the best and fun job, but I think I managed to squeeze out a few good ones....
btw, no shots of bellies in the blog (I find bellydance bellies not very attractive)

Dry Martina

Being on the road lately for a travelguide, got me a legit reason to go party-while-shooting or shoot-while-partying (luv those assignments), which I fully did of course. Being a sucker for (live) jazz music, its one thing I truly miss down here in Spain. I grew up with the annual North Sea Jazz Festival in my native city. Anyway after getting comfortable (aka a few beers) I went into this nice bar in oldtown Marbella, while just having a blast portraing people this spanish trio on stage started to play. Simple setup: vocals, amplified acoustic guitar and a slidetrombone..............wow some good old Kansas City style jazz filled the room. That girl could sing and tha boys could play!! 2 sets of absolute fun. Could not help myself photographing them.....

Bellydance in Marbella

Two and a half months ago already, I was asked to shoot a bellydance show in the Blackbox Theatre in Marbella. Nice one, I like that kind of assignments. Came early to checkout the theatre. It was a black box!!! very nice little theatre. I decided without asking (to avoid the 'no´s') to put an sb-800 with triggers on either side of the stage just behind the first wings pointing into the stage where they crossed in the middle. I filtered them with 1/4 CTO and put the dome on both of them and zoomed the heads out to 24 mm to get as wide of a beam possible. I put the power on 1/8. Camera (fuji S3) on 800iso and shot on f2,8. Again you keep the original stage lights and have nice keylights on faces. Gives them I crisp feel imo

TL

Bjorn Again on San Roque Golf Club

Last Friday I went to San Roque (near Algeciras) to photograph Bjorn Again. Great musicians (and look-a-likes) performing all the ABBA songs. What a pleasure to photograph (also a good chance to put the Nikon D700 to the test....yes it happily made the test!!). Great music, the musicians had a lot of fun and not to mention the audience!!! Big big party
They put up the stage on the shooting range of San Roque Golf & Country Club so plenty of room on the field and they converted the shooting building into the VIP and media area. Very well organized. I was not allowed to put any strobes on stage so I had to use the available light. I put my camera on 'automatic ISO' with a minimum of 1/60th shutterspeed and a max of 3200 ISO
This works excellent in this mode the camera searches for the best ISO value with a 60th shutterspeed. I include a few photos

TL (till later)

jay Kaye, Sherman Robertson and Connie Lush at Antequera Blues Festival

some more including Robertsons drummer Jamie Little

Jay Kaye, Sherman Robertson and Connie Lush at Antequera Blues Festival

Some more

Sherman Robertson at Antequera Blues Festival

Last Friday I shot Connie Lush and Sherman Robertson at the Antequera Blues Festival. Great fun!! good atmosphere and grrrreat music. They kindly allowed me to put a Nikon sb-800 speedlight up in the left light-truss while i put another sb-800 on shoulderlevel at the right corner of the stage. I set the power on 1/4 power to give me quick recharges and plenty of flashes. You keep the nice ambient colorful light and have a crisp edgy image that is actually sharp at a low iso value. Both flashes were triggered by elinchrome skyports so nobody triggered my flashes with theirs. This works flawless. I shot this image at 80mm f5,6 1/180th at 400 iso. processed in Lightroom


Vincent