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DVA @ Papryka, Sopot – 4 III 2011
Krzysiek has done it again – catchy tunes, freak folk melodies and a bit of crazy dancing by the bands female singer. You won’t see a boring concert during Sopot Melody Day, no you won’t!
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Winter At The Seaside
Yup, it’s freezing out here. Shot almost a week ago. Play some Boards Of Canada and watch:
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Marek Rogala – eskaem.pl
Marek is the creator, desinger and the one-man-army of Eskaem.pl, a unique calendar. He visualizes, cuts, pastes, glues, animates, scannes, draws, sketches all the things you can find on the Eskaem webpage. Because I was writing about his project I needed a picture to illustrate the article – so on a sunny Sunday morning I payed him a visit.
Marek was going on a work-related trip so between figuring out what kind of underpants and CD he should take, he found enough time to pose for me and even made me a delicious green tea with lemons. This is the kind of morning that I like very much! I also shoot some pics around his workplace, where he creates the new Eskaem stuff.
This was the first shot done with my new set of lenses – Sigma 20 1.8 and Samyang Fisheye 8 mm 3.5. Both seem to be doing very well, but Sigma is pretty hard when it comes to concert photography:)
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Equality March @ Kraków, 2009
Because it’s back-up friday (be sure to back-up every 2 weeks – it once saved my life:), I was coping, moving, removing old folders and doing some rearangements on my HDD’s. In the meantime I found some old pics from Kraków – from the Equality March and thought it would be fun to put something non-musical here. It’s hard to belive it was almost 2 years ago and how much has changed since then. I’m often told that if the pics are from an Equality March there should be only Equality March pics in it – no fascists, no landscapes, no street, no police-beating-somebody. And I have to disagree – I’m shooting the event as a whole, not 50% of it. It’s like shooting a festival and completely omitting the crowd.
My friends told me that marches in Kraków are pretty dangerous – people throwing rocks and other things. Nothing happened but the other Black Box Photo girl almost got hit by a pot that was thrown at the crowd. She’s known for her ninja skills so everything turned out okay. And, what’s the most important, our cameras and lenses came home in a perfect state.
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Troum @ CSW Łaźnia, Gdańsk – 8 I 2011
I thought shooting drone and experimental artists will always be a pain in the ass, but Troum was different. It was a bit dark and you had to maneuver a lot to catch some moments but it was more of a challenge than a difficulty. And, thank God (or any other creature you believe in..), Troum plays a very interesting drone music with actual instruments, not two notebooks. A definite eye-and-ear catcher. Check them if that play anywhere near you.
Not all the pics ended up in the gallery I was commissioned to shoot so here’s a bit more.
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???? @ Papryka’s basement, Sopot – 6 I 2011
Well, the first photoshoot in 2011 – hope there will be more. A friend asked me to shot promos and backstage pics for a new band (not named by the way) – the promos were pstponed because of the weather but I’ve managed to snap some backstage pics. The room was ultra-small (fisheye would be nice!) and ultra dark so it was hard to move and SB-600 came in handy. Two strobes would be even better but I’ve managed to set the strobe in such a way that it lit up the two guys.
This year I’m planning to update the blog a little more but with some minor things – not only “the big ones” but less popular things to. I hope there will be more than just concert photography on this page. Keep visiting and commenting (yes, we have comments on this page!). We’ll be waiting!
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Gdynia w Stereo @ Ucho, Gdynia – 15 XI 2010
To cut the long story short – photos from a concert (or a mini-festival) that was promoting a CD with bands from my hometown. I was involved in the promotion of it and preparing the photodocumentation. Turned out very nice and a lot of people showed up and I must say – running with your cam for 6 hours straight after spending 11 hours in a train can be quite relaxing!
The CD can be found here – buy it if you’re interested in following what’s happening in the local scenes. It’s an addition to the 4(5) number of an artistic magazine Bliza.
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DJ Shadow @ CSG, Gdańsk – 24 VII 2010
I waited for this set a couple of years. DJ Shadow was one of the first artist that showed me that electronic and hip hop music can be interesting and well-made. His records are always interesting and I often return to them. His first concert in Poland was amazing – a great mix of visualizations, samples, music and mixing. A part of the set can be found here.
The shooting conditions were awful. As soon as I saw who was organizing the event, I decided to take my beloved ladder with me. There was never a pit during their gigs so I thought that this is going to be a tough one. And this time it was no different. No pit, a large crowd = a photo disaster. I’ve managed to secure a place near a pillar so as not to disturb the other people, managed to shoot a couple of pics from there, moved to the pillar on the other side and shoot Shadow again. And the photo pit was empty the whole time…
Before the gig I’ve managed to talk with The Man and do a short interview and take some pics at the conference. And I was amazed by his modesty and love for music, the Black Circles and pop culture itself.
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Heineken Open’er Festival 2010 @ Babie Doły, Gdynia – Day 4
Election day in Poland, Jack White returning to Open’er’s grounds (third time!), The Hives jumping all around, Fatboy Slim playing his shitty DJ Set again and the little kitten that was found in on of the trucks – that what the last day of my favorite festival was all about. But before all the fun, we voted (remember kids – it’s really important to do those things!). The whole day was just shooting things and asking people about the polls. Crazy stuff. Remember – if somehow you’ll have a chance to visit Fatboy Slim DJ’ing don’t ever do it or do have somebody to pay you for watching this kind of DJ crap. My grandma could do just as good at him… And as history repeats itself – in 2005, during my first Opener, I left in the middle of his set. This year I left after taking pics. If you wanted a DJ set that would be up to the standards you’d be rocking during 2Many Djs two days before. PS. Yup, I know… Somwhere in the galleries the 3rd day is missing. I’ll get back to it! Rest of the Heineken galleries can be seen here: first day, second day and some last year edition’s pics. (more…)
The Car Is On Fire @ Papryka, Sopot – 9 XII 2010
This was the best TCIOF gig I’ve ever seen – and also almost the last on from our (yes, I also do other things than take pictures of guys or gals sweating on a stage – like writing and drawing stuff) Sopot Melody Day series for this year. We’ve got really nice plans for next year so keep your fingers crossed!
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The Black Tapes @ Rockz, Gdynia – 4 XII 2010
I’ve seen and seen The Black Tapes a couple of times (including their great gig before Fucked Up and Bad Religion) but wondered how they sound in a really small club.
Apart from the almost-dead crowd (blame it on the weather), the show was very energetic and almost made me forget that out there, there’s snow, wind and all of the other winter crap. Be sure to The Black Tapes’s CD – lots of melodies that will keep you warm or/and scream your lungs out in the snow.
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Tortoise @ Jazz Club Hipnoza, Katowice – 24 XI 2010
Ars Cameralis had a mindblowing line-up this year: National, Mercury Rev and Totroise were only the tip of the iceberg. Tortoise‘s gig was the hardest to photograph (we shot from the crowd) but the pics are also the ones I like the most.
And I must say, after almost a week in Katowice (scatterd into smaller periods of time because I had to come back to Trójmiasto for the Gdynia W Stereo event because I was the involved in it’s promotion, I’m falling in love with the town and place I used to hate. Pitty, I’m spending most of my time in Trójmiasto these days because I’d rather explore Ślask and all the gem’s there..
Will add some galleries from the fest soon.
Aga Zaryan @ Ucho, Gdynia – 12 III 2009
Recently I’ve been pretty busy doing some evil things, listening to some very sad songs (it’s Fall so I don’t have to be guilty ’bout it;) and cleaning up my archive. And travelling of course – 2,400 km during those 2 weeks. Pretty large number, considering how shitty the polish railways are!
While digging through the old goddies, I found this set from Aga Zaryan‘s gig in Ucho – the lights were terrible so I’ve just stuck to my 50 mm for about 99% of the time. And you have to be very careful not to disturb the audience so it’s even more frustrating. But I really like them.
The Saintbox – (rehersal before the gig) @ Żak, Gdańsk – 12 XI 2010
Gaba Kulka has been featured on this blog quite often. I really love her music and her voice and gigs. And I’m really happy that one of my photos became the cover of her DVD. Since “Out”, she’s done quite a lot of different stuff (not all in my taste) – The Saintbox being one of them. It’s more of an experimental thing with visuals and display screens covering the band. If it ever will be presented again you ought to go – interesting stuff and the intro reminded me of Throbbing Gristle.
Gaba was invited by Olo Walicki and Maciek Szupica to participate in the whole thing. The Grand Premiere took place in Gdańsk, and because I was in town, I popped in and shoot some backstage stuff from the rehearsal couple hours before The Big Thing. A bit of experiments, just like in the music… I just hope I was quiet enough ;)
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Parada Technokracji @ Gdynia – 26 VI 2010
A parade which took place before Morcheeba’s gig. Pretty neat thing – if I were a kid it would take a legion to put me off those things. And a live gig provided by the Małe Instrumenty band was also a cool thing to do and something different to experience. I think it was one of the best events organised by the AKuKu Sztuka collective and the city so far. Wonder what they will come up next year.
The pics were done for Onet.pl but weren’t picked by the editor. Only Novika, Jimi Tenor and Morcheeba made a public apperence on the web. But had a hell of a time shooting those.
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Muzyka Końca Lata & Stan Miłości i Zaufania @ Papryka, Sopot – 28 X 2010
Nice lights, good bands, a decent crowd and a small club – don’t know if I should write something more.
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Dorena @ Rockz, Gdynia – 30 X 2010
My friend won a free ticket so I tagged along bringing my gear with me just to have some fun shooting for myself. Because I was in no rush, there was no song limit, I wasn’t shooting for anybody who would bite my head of it I’d upload some abstract stuff I decided to experiment. And so a creative concert photography was born!:) Done mostly with the best lens I have (50 mm 1.8) with using the multiply image option in my D300 I decided to take a shot at it. I think it was a good decision – boring stills wouldn’t fit with the music Dorena’s playing. One of the most intriguing things I’ve done in a while because I think there’s too much boredom and pattern-followers in the world of concert photography and stills, portraits and other guidelines are not always the answer. Of course until your editor calls and tells you he wants a photo filled with informations not a junky piece of crap-art :))
Swedes play a happy version of post-rock. Yes H-A-P-P-Y. Not gloomy, not the one that makes you cut your vains but a very noisy, optimistic instrumental music. Glad to see them live. If you like that kind of music – you should check them out.
And about creative photography – my friend Ada used to tell me a lot about it. Pretty interesting stuff. Worth checking out if I have the time.
None of the pictures can be used without permission.
Donna Regina @ Ucho, Gdynia – 6 X 2010
Very quiet and nice gig. Shot it with my D50 and 50 mm 1.8 (thanks to Paweł for borrowing it to me) – the D300 is coming back to me (hopefully) on Sunday night so next gigs will be shot on something more than ISO 800 ;)
Morcheeba @ Gdynia – 26 VI 2010
Yup, we have a new page so I thought a blast from the past would be a nice thing. Finally, I’ll have some motivation to change the blog posts as the main page is just a collage of the blog posts so I have to add new ones to change it :)) Some things are still to be done sor for a few weeks the BBP will be a big playground for Utek (the fabulous punk-rock loving, music discovering computer geek!:) and me.
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Off Festival 2010 @ Katowice – Day 3
Why start with the third day? Simply because it was the best in terms of everything: music, concerts, meetings, photos and other events. Great gigs by No Age or The Flaming Lips were a great closure to the best Polish festivals I’ve been so far this summer.
You can check how everything was last year here. Miss the old spot at Mysłowice because Off now seems like a smaller Open’er-kind-of-place. Not the small, venues-scattered-around town, fest anymore. Pitty, but it couldn’t be avoided…
And if you are interested in buying any of the photos for a publication, please contact us.