Beautiful Lisboa

The band and I were able to spend the better part of the day wandering around the tiled streets of Lisbon. I supposed we walked across the major part of the city, back to the venue to get the gear and ship off to Porto. I wish I knew more about the buildings and the history of the city itself, in order to caption the photos. Lolo and his girlfriend, Sara, treated us to a great lunch at a cafe that overlooked the water. We like Lisbon!!!

After the Lisbon gig...

Just a few photos of the guys wrapping things up after the gig. Everyone seemed a tad tired yet excited to explore Lisbon, which we would have time for the next day. But for now, some beer and wine to help with the loading of the gear seemed to keep spirits up. Also, the venue itself was a fine subject for the camera.

Live in Lisboa

The venue for the Lisbon gig was in this 2 story open ceiling industrial building in the middle of the 'arts/culture' neighborhood. We couldn't tell if it was a squat, a gallery, or simply a rad place where cool things happen. There was a decent group art show up that had works ranging from pen and ink, screen print, poster art, to illustrations, books, piantings etc... The venue was too big to look entirely full, but as usual, the band pulled out all the stops and turned heads. This was by far the toughest gig to photograph as the lighting was non-existent. I've been using a Canon Rebel xti with the kit lens (efs 18-55) and a ultrasonic 75-300 and built-in flash. Its small, easy to use, and there was no room in the tour van for anything larger.... needless to say I think it got the job done. I don't particularly enjoy the 'stock' style of band/concert photography where the musicians are flatly illuminated by a bulb. There is no sense of what the music sounds like, no sense of energy or dynamics, no sense of rhythm. I typically use a 1-2 second exposure with and without flash at an f-stop anywhere between 13-3.5. This seems to bring out a much greater idea of what the performance is like. The long exposures capture the motion (emotion) of the musicians mid-song and allows the available or stage lighting to achieve a sense of dynamic energy that could represent a sound/song. I also tend to utilize the zoom in/out to pull certain aspects of a song into and out of attention.