Nikio

CLAP is a video we did in our Multimedia workshop at a youth summer camp during the last 7 days. Our inspiration was the morning rehearsal of the UMMI orchestra (with Vlado Batista as a conductor). The most fun thing about that orchestra is that we all participated, no matter our previous experience in music or sound.

This is how our playing looked and sounded like on the first day:


Of course we got a lot better ofer time and our final concert was really cool (videos and sounds will follow).

But our job (Multimedia workshop) was to visualize those sounds. We took a short piece from the second rehearsal and after 6 days of brainstorming and hard labour, this is what we have to offer to the world. Enjoy!




The sounds were recorded with Olympus LS-10, photos and video with Canon EOS 5D mkII.

Have you ever ask yourself what are the aspects that make great performers really great? The question is a lot easier asked than answered, but there are certain things that can be explained and argued. I've noticed one thing that seems to be rather important and once you become aware of it, you can see it everywhere (which is usually the case when you are obsessed with something).

What is the most common thing we do when we acquire new knowledge or a skill? We show off. Children do that all the time and adults are no better. When a new skill is mastered we tend to overuse it in order to create a spectacle that will blow away anyone. Amateur orchestra's like to play out loud for most of the time to show what kind of strength they have, people who learn photoshop start producing over-saturated photos of sunsets which are "so amazing" to them, singers who learned new techniques like to sing loudly for everyone to hear the power of their new voice, and designers who come across some new astonishing fonts, like to put them everywhere they can.

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As you probably remember, I photographed UPOL's concert. Now you can also watch them in action. This is my favorite song of that evening, an adaptation of an old tratitional song "Stu ledi" (A hundred people) which was sung to invite people to the celebration (Stu ledi nej pride nutr - Let a hundred people in).
Stu ledi: tržaška ljudska: prir.: Janez Dovč from Upol on Vimeo.

Tonight I work! I will make a presentational video for my masters work at Faculty of architecture. I figured it could be really easy to animate 3d stills of my project into a fancy flashy video. So I set up a small video studio in my room. Here's what I have for the night:



- one TV monitor for previews
- one PC monitor for work (borrowed)
- one video PC (borrowed)
- one condensor mic for possible audio effects
- one iMac for graphics and cool stuff
- 750 GB of extra storage (that will not be used)
- studio headphones
- 0.5 L of fresh coffee (that will be very needed)
- 0.5 L of fresh watter
- a good chair
- a lot of patience (not visible on the picture)

Wish me luck! If this goes well... I'll be happy!

Some might remember my excitement over the UPOL Orchestra I visited last year. Well, the conductor of that orchestra, maestro Simon Perčič, is a very active man; every August he organizes a summer camp for young wind and percussion musicians. The camp lasts for 7 days and on the last night they play a final concert on a beautiful square in Izola. I feel honoured to be invited to photograph that magical event. The music was absolutely fantastic.




Click for more

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I was there for a special concert of which I will post photos in a while (6 GB to process), but for now just this one

Yesterday Slovenian Philharmonic orchestra played an open-air concert to celebrate their 100th anniversary. It was the first night of summer '08 and it was spectacular! Special guest for the evening was Maksim Mrvica, Croatian pianist of wide pupularity in this part of Europe.
I went for the music, but as some of you know, I like listen with my photo camera



Click below for more, or visit the album.

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Yesterday my friend and I went to a concert of Katie Melua, one of the best song-writers and singers today. Her singing skills are simply stunning; she has control over her voice way above any other singer in this genre. She practicly doesn't sing vibrato, which is widely overused (and abused) and I believe it is a bit "old school". The thing with vibrato in singing is that is not really to be used excessively but only slightly when the tone is already at it's finish. Before that singer must use other techniques to add warmth and richness to his/her's voice. Needles to say, Katie does it perfectly. And her band plays flawlessly along. Just listen... Her live performance is even better!

So you can imagine that it was a night to remember. I was there to photograph. As usually, we could take photos only during three songs, which makes it difficult to focus and make the best of it. Since my last photo session at live concert is more than 6 months ago, I must admit I became a bit rusty. I am not 100% happy with the results, there are flaws, but I'll remember them for the next time.

So, here it is



PS: photos are taken with digital and with film camera. Can you distinguish them?

Yesterday I was photographing the concert of our local brass band. Unfortunatelly I couldn't play, because I was missing the practice in autumn, but listening to my band for the first time in many years simply as a visitor was a delightful experience anyway.

The light for photographing was not exactly dim, but chaotic, so I decided it is time to experiment. I took a BW film (Ilford PAN 400) to avoid any shifts in color temperature and pushed it to 3200 ISO!!! It is was the first time I did a push of such magnitude and I didn't know what kind of results to expect.

Well - It is better than I expected!!! A lot better! The pictures are not as grainy as one could predict and they gained a lot of contrast. A lot of whites and a lot of blacks, but not many greys inbetween. The images have some sort of mystic atmosphere, they look very similar to the image of the Sin City movie, which is soooo stylish! Here is an example (It is made by hands in the darkroom, no photoshop whatsoever - just raw scan of a physical image).



Spending the night in the darkroom (developing photos) is usually an experience of solitude and contemplation. Time passes very quickly and while you wait for the image to appear, there is a lot of time to think. It is funny, how analogue photography seems more real to me than the digital. I believe it is because more senses are involved in the process of it. With BW films, you literally do the photos with your own hands, and you can touch it, smell it, see it... In the digital world, everything is so abstract and distant. I am not trying to romanticize it too much, but there is something too it. It is like playing an electirc piano; it sounds and feels like the real thing, untill you try the real thing! When you can actually feel, see, touch and smell the strings or mechanisms that produce the sound the whole experience gets far more overwhelming.

It is the physical world we have been living in for the last 99.9999...% of the evolution and all our mental devices are more or less developed to serve the function of the physical perception. Abstract thinking is really cool because it helps you to think about the future and things beyond, but the power of the experience is still based upon sensorial perception.

There are some more pics below... Enjoy!

PS: And merry Christmas all!

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It is really a rare thing for a band to make a concert where they play their entire discography. Siddharta played 53 songs, some of them were not heared for a loooong time, and one of them was performed live for the first time at all! However, the energy was spectacular and I was in a great mood to take photos. My friend Prelc and I got the acreditation for most of the concert so that we could also photograph their special guests (Vlado Kreslin, Dan D, their first bass player Primož, etc...). The whole thing was one of the most awesomnest concert in my life.

My only dissapointment is that I din't make a sigle good photo of the drummer (Boštjan). Photos of drummers are always the hardest, especially if there is a lot of fog on the stage. Lights were great, though (as allways on their concerts).

Here are some pics with commentary, more in the galery.

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