Another great night of jazz, this time in Nel in Amsterdam. It was a great jam session and I listened to some very nice jazz. The guy on the guitar was very talented and produced a very smooth sound. You can find the rest of my pictures on my flickr page.
Whilst taking some pictures I noticed I wasn't the only analogue photographer in the room. There was a man with a Mamiya RB67 pro-SD making some hand-held available light shots. I was quite impressed and surprised. I didn't think it could be done. He was pushing hp5 to iso 3200 though, it wasn't easy!
The performance was set in a stylish restaurant, and the staff were very accommodating so I could focus on capturing jazz on celluloid. I'm very pleased with the bokeh of the sonnar in this shot as well as the other shots on my flickr site.
I took some photos of a performance by Anne Chris before with the Contax G 90mm f/2.8 sonnar, but this time there was more ambient light and I got away with a 135mm lens. (albeit on a monopod!) The slightly more compressed perspective looks quite pleasing, so I'm going to use it a bit more in the future.
On Thursday I visited a theatre show by Petter Goldstine. It's his final project for Dasarts, a master of theatre program in Amsterdam. Petter and I met by chance in a professional lab next to Dasarts. He needed a timer for his piece, and since they didn't have any for sale I offered him a spare one I had.
I dropped of the timer and asked whether I could take pictures at his performance in Amsterdam. The show was very inspirational and innovative.
The lighting was a little challenging, and I had to use shutter times as long as 1/10 of a second. Luckily I brought my Konica Hexar...
The entire series is on my Flickr site.
The first Jazz on Monday gig of the year, and what a treat. Thanks to Stormvogel and Alexander Beets an amazing series of jazz performances is taking place in 'de Observant' in Amersfoort, and I don't want to miss any of them.
Yesterday evening Mirjam van Dam was the special guest, and she sang some beautiful songs from Ella Fitzgerald's repertoire. I especially liked Mack the knive, an adaptation of Mackie Messer from die Dreigroschenoper of Kurt Weill.
Apart from the music, the venue lends itself for nice backlit portraits with highlights in the hair. I like black & white, but I secretly like black more that white!
I went to see Hans Dulfer performing in Cafe Alto last Wednesday. Fast Jazz and good fun. There are several ways to annoy Hans. If you don't shut up when he asks you to, he'll play ridiculously loud. If you don't clap your hands until they bleed he'll give you an angry look. If you don't 'drink your ass off' in between sets to sponsor the already very successful cafe, he will tell you to in a language that seems to resemble English if you listen carefully. As you can imagine, it's quite a show and the tourists love it. If you want to go to Cafe Alto, be there 30min in advance. It's a very busy place.
What I liked best that night was the piano. Bas van Lier plays the piano like a Kalashnikov on steroids. I've never seen anyone play as violent and fast! He brings his own keyboard which he places on top of the piano, he sits on a telephone directory, and just tries to destroy the keyboard whenever he gets a chance to play solo.
My favourite shot from Tuesday night. I went to see Merel Koman and her band perform in 't Nonnetje in Amersfoort. They really know their stuff. I especially liked the guitar solos by Keith. I forgot his real name, but Keith seems appropriate for now...
I'm really pleased that despite the challenging lighting I got away with some passable shots. I really needed the Neopan 1600 here. Luckily, I don't care much for shadow detail. The entire set is on my Flickr page. Click on the photo to see it!
Compared to Neopan 1600, this film isn't inherently push processed, so you get a lot more shadow detail, and much smaller grain. I haven't made up my mind as to what film I like best for this type of shot. The technical merits of the TMY-2 aren't important here, it's a matter of aesthetics only.