Indexi ... and a new open air season starts

Time flies, very fast. Open air season is here again, and for me it started with an assignment to cover the Indexi and friends concert in most beautifull Križanke open air theatre in Ljubljana. Those of you not familiar, Indexi, were a very popular group in 80s in this region. They came back with 15 or so guest starts, all ex-you big names, and following them on a sound check was really cool, relaxed and somehow inspiring just by listening all the stories they kept telling to each other during the afternoon. Working on stage this time was not as hard as smaller clubs, but still pretty different then anything else, because some didn't want me too close to them, some turned away, well some of them oven wanted to strike a pose or two , but i try to catch them in a natural behaviour. Here are some moments from the late afternoon sound check.

Željko Bebek with a cup of waiting for his sound check before Indexi sign in the back

Fadil Redžić - legendary Indexi bass player talking to sound engineer from stage

Aki Rahimovski and Janez Bončina Benč jamming on piano (they were playing Child in Time by Deep Purple actually)

... and Massimo Savić joined in on a Fender Stratocaster guitar, i haven't seen him like this before ..

Benč and Dado Topić on a side stage position jammin something up while waiting - two huge legends

Garfield and The Cats

This week started unexpectedly good when i heard that an interesting group is coming to Ljubljana to do a small gig. David Garfield and The Cats. Ok, name doesn't tell you much, probably, but if you go into details and see that a guitar player has been playing with Madonna, the singer has been known as The singer in the band of Carlos Santana for 18 years, and that the keys are in the hands of man working with George Benson, Diane Reeves, Cher, Eros Ramazzotti this can tell you what to expect. It all happened in a little known Sputnik bar, but when i came in i quickly noticed like that 2/3rd of the public present were musicians. The gig was simply amazing, altough the music is an interesting fusion of pop, jazz, rock and who knows what else, which can sound too jazzy for my taste. But still, this concert comes to my top ten list of such club shows. Cool stuff and one of those concerts where listening and enjoying the music takes over priority over photographing.

Katie Melua

So, Katie Melua finally did a concert in Ljubljana, which was great and i enjoyed it big time... However, few weeks ago i promissed to show up some more photos of her while she was in Ljubljana for the 3 day promotion trip. I read somewhere that she gave out 29 interviews and she still had the energy and will when i asked her about a mini shoot at Ljubljana Old Castle above the city. The weather wasn't really cooperative at all, so at the end we did a few shots outside and a few just below the top of the tower with her looking outside. Nobody would want her to catch a cold before the tour start....

Katie at Radio Hit

... still Radio Hit, playing Nine Million Bycycles

Sound check during Hri-bar show on national television

Interview for Antena magazine...

... a quick snapshot before goin on top of the castle tower...

... looking at Ljubljana city below ...

... the city of Ljubljana behind Katie dressed up warm before photographing - see the wind in her hair?

On stage with Chris Jagger

After few local bands, my sound check project is finally getting some international names. This time i was able to get on stage with Chris Jagger, a brother of more famous Mick Jagger from The Rolling Stones. Chris was in Ljubljana on Cvetličarna stage with his band Atcha and did another show in Portorož a day later (unfortunately i was not able to be there, but i heard it was amazing, just as was the one i saw).

I was quite limited, although Chris allowed me to shoot during sound check i quickly noticed it would not be good to stay too close to him on stage, as he moved and turned away everytime i pointed my lens to him, so i quietly worked from side and in front of stage and it turned to be ok. He also had some personal issues with his son, as i learned later, and i didn't want to get him too upset with my photographing. The evening turned out great as Chris and his band came to Roxly (a new rock club in Ljubljana, where you can see some of my photograps) and enjoyed some time relaxing after the gig.

A short concert photography presentation today

I don't know why i didn't post this before, but if anyone is interested in hearing me giving a short one hour concert photography presentation feel free to show up in Knjižnica Otona Župančiča in Ljubljana, today (21.4.) at 18.00. There is no admission. I'll have some slideshows, and a bit of talk about how to sucessfully take photos at concerts...See you there :)

Can we disturb the concert?

Gogol Bordello did a great show in Cvetlicarna last friday. I came in quite late as other work had to be done. The hall was already packed full and i could quickly notice a lots, and i mean, lots of photographers in the first rows. As this is a club show, there is no space between the stage and crowd and this means, especially in a show where everyone in the crods jumps all over, pretty hard work to get a picture. I was able to get in front of the fence, there was a space just next to the stage for one or two photographers, and observe the happening a bit from the side. The action on stage was amazing, the band really did a great performance and pictures are very energetic. But the point of this post is to ask a question. What is the limit of our work, how long can we take pictures in front of stage and push the cameras into musicians and flash them. I completely understand this gives good pictures and all, and i do it all the time in club gigs, sometimes this is the only way to catch the energy there. But there is a limit, there are people who paid for the ticket and would like to see the show, see the musicians faces, and on the other hand there are musicians who can get distracted by this, some will tell you that, some will not but they might complain to the local organizers and sometimes this is not so good. Below are some images of what has been happening on friday, captured intentionally to show the photo action in first rows. I know musicians, organizers and photographers might read this and it would be nice to hear from you and see what is your opinion.

Majke - Sound Check

It has been extremely busy lately and this is the reason for less posts as usual. Concerts are in full swing all over the small clubs (still no big ones, but there are some nice names booked as i hear) and also some nice opportunities for new additions to my sound check project. Recently, legendary croatian band Majke came to Cvetličarna club and i managed to get there during the sound check time and shoot some new additions to my sound check project. At the time of my shooting, lead singer Bare was not present on stage, as he was not in a good mood. He came there later, but i was asked not to shoot while he is there. Those of you knowing this band will understand, for others - sometimes rock stars can be sort of a special charachters :)
Also, i played a bit with the tool i have been using a lot lately, the Adobe Lightroom. I like it a lot, finally got used to its easy workflow and quick selection ability. The only light present at the time was more or less working light on stage and some fog to obstruct that little light i got. Here are some shots..enjoy!

.. after the show is over ...

Who says backstage is always fun and fancy. No sweat, no glory. These guys have done this thousands of times and they will keep on doing it (a member of Zablujena Generacija pushing his gear out, after the gig...)

Rockin' Easter Bunnies

Here are some Rockin' Easter bunnies enjoying a performance of Tide, yesterday at NLP. The second picture shows a closeup of what has been happening down there in the crowd :)

An unusual combination

Ok, most of you have heard, seen or read about it. Big Foot Mama, rockers, did a show during Viktorji 07 awards last week and invited Lojze Slak, folk music legend, and his band to join them on stage. There were reactions on this all over the country, some liked it, some didn't. To me it looks like a fun combination and it seems funny to see two types of music so different merged like this, especially for an occasion like media awards. What do you think about it? Can Rock 'n' roll an dfolk co-exist like this ? Should they or not ? Here are some shots i took from a distance....

Katie Melua - a vist to Ljubljana

Last weekend was simply amazing. Ok, lots of work, Viktorji event, but the cream was the fact that Katie Melua visited Ljubljana, for 3 days. It was not a private visit, but a promotional one, for a new record and a concert on 27th April. And so she went and gave more than 20 interviews, did TV appearences and radio shows. I was lucky enough to be able to follow and photograph her at several locations and even did a little "photoshoot" with her on Sunday at Ljubljana castle. She's very quiet, just like her music, altough she said several times she's an adrenaline addict, and listening to her greatest hit Nine Million Bycycles, just one meter from here was really cool. Anyway, i managed to get some new shots for my sound check project. It is not everyday that a musician who sold 7,5 million albums allows you to photograph at sound check and performances with no limitations. She did. Thanks Katie :) Here are two shots, one taken at Radio Hit quick sound check before going live and the other, which looks more like a concert shot, was taken at national TV during Hri-bar show sound check.

60 songs for 60 years from Tomaž Domicelj

Tomaž Domicelj turned 60 years and at the same time turned 40 on Slovenian music scene. To celebrate, he organized a night maraton, a 5 hour long concert of 60 songs of his career, that was transmitted over national radio. At first i only planned to be there for one maybe two hours, but at the end came home early in the morning around 5.30 and watched the whole show. Tomaž played like crazy, pausing for maybe 5 minutes every hour. Shooting during radio shows is usually quite interesting and the microphones seem to pick up every shutter click quite easily (yes, my wish for Canon is to make shutters more silent). Luckily his songs are quite loud and this makes the job easier and less disturbing for the listening audience and technicians working on sound. Here are some moments. Enjoy ...

Nightwish, wish, wush

I am still alive, just kicking all over places and coming home late. Work, work, work, some skiing for few days to relax a bit and leave camera at home, and so , here we go again. Anyway, it looks like concert season is starting again. The first ones to kick the ground of Hala Tivoli in Ljubljana were Nightwish from Finland.

An evening with The Queen - Esma Redzepova

After not being able to take pictures of her last concert, finally, Esma Redžepova, The Queen of Roma Music, was back in Ljubljana. This time she visited Cvetličarna and was in a very good mood. I took a few seconds off before the TV crews were in the room to get some of her smiles captured. I didn't know much about her besides knowing who she is, but i was impressed to learn later she had been nominated for nobel peace prize twice for her humanitarian work, learned the fact she played more than 15000 concerts in her career and that she adopted 47 boys with her late housband. Amazing lady, so full of energy. Here are some moments before and during the show. Enjoy!

Third event of the night - Tribute 2 Love

Sometimes shooting a concert in a small club from a distance can be fun too, especially if that means your work day has ended and it is time for some beers :) Listening Tribute 2 Love live is always cool and i can't wait these guys get some more attention and start their tour so people all over can hear them. Here are some moments from the concert last week.