Another kiss

Don't you worry, I'm not turning into a hopeless romantic only shooting people in love, silently judging their happiness. At least that's what I tell myself :)
But seriously, this is an old picture that I remembered after posting the Stockholm kiss.
You can tell it's an old one cause it's in color, I don't really shoot much color anymore. That, and the fact that it's a wideangle pic. I don't really shoot wideangle anymore. At least not in the street.

So, here's this week's picture:

That's a random street in Strasbourg, France. June 2008 I think.

I usually hate these "fake color" pictures, where you desaturate the image and just leave something in color. It strikes me as fake, and well... just not my cup of tea. But having said that, what I adore about this shot is the splash of color from the red light, specially on the wet street. It's 100% luck and I think it looks wonderful.
No "artificial" post processing was done to the image, that was the way that night particular street looked like that night. Also, that kiss is fantastic. I love how it's pretty hidden in the image, but once you see it, you cannot stop looking at it.

THE KISS

Not much to say here.

This happened somewhere in Stockholm, a couple of weeks ago.

(I wonder if they remember that kiss).

INCUBATE

I love music. I love concerts. I love photography.
So, it shouldn't be much of a surprise to see that I love taking pictures at any gig I go to.

A couple of weeks ago, there was a pretty interesting festival going on near my place: Incubate. It took place all around Tilburg and lasted for a whole week.
The idea behind Incubate was of having all these different artistic endeavors going on simultaneously around town. So, it was not a huge festival where you have one or two stages in a stupidly large park (as most euro festivals are) but the festival itself took place within the city, everything could become a venue; record stores, bars, actual venues and -of course- the street itself.

I regret a bit that I was there for just one saturday. The things I saw and heard were so good that I promised myself I'll go there for the whole duration next year.
So... without further ado, here's some pictures from Incubate 2010.

As for the images, I think they do speak for themselves in the sense that I like to treat my concert photography in the same way I treat all my photography. I'm not there to show you how it was, I'm there to show you how I see it. I usually find concert pics boring because they attempt to show something that cannot be shown.
The visuals of a live show are extremely difficult to capture. Lighting conditions are usually crap (for photography, that is) and in any case, visuals without the music and vibe just don't convey much.
So you can easily end up with sterile shots that are technically good but transmit nothing or with complete nonsense, shots that are out of focus, over exposed and under exposed all at the same time.
My way out of that? Just shoot like crazy. The more shots you get, the bigger the chances you get at least a useable picture. And focus on the details. Shoot whatever it is that sparks your interest. It can be the lead singer, but it can also often be something as simple as the symmetry of a cable running the length of the stage.

EKLIN. http://www.myspace.com/eklin Dutch psychedelic trip-hop. They played in almost total darkness to a backdrop of bizarre public domain dutch footage.

THIS WILL DESTROY YOU. http://www.myspace.com/thiswilldestroyyou

American post-rock. Think Godspeed you! black emperor or mono.

PSYCHOFAGIST.http://www.myspace.com/psychofagist
Craziest shit I've ever seen. Brutal death metal jazz thingy. Like Mr. Bungle, UneXpect and Secret chiefs 3 all rolled into one with the aggression turned up to 11.

Well... That's it for today. See you next time.