My friends had a gig recently in Orto Bar. They were the opening act for a group called Puppetz. Interestingly enough though, there were more people there when they started than when Puppetz began :). The performance I saw was great.

Even though Miha, who was also there, speculates the crowd dissolved due to heat, I have this crazy suspicion that more people were there to see world :: within  than Puppetz. It’s not impossible.

Anyway, I also had a chance to try out a 10-22 mm lens borrowed from Jan (the lead singer ), so I did a couple test shots before they went on stage.

On 14th June, 2008, John Fogerty went on stage of the Hala Tivoli venue (read the report here).

A recap from Wikipedia tells us that:

John Cameron Fogerty (born May 28, 1945) is an American rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist, best known for his time with the swamp rock/roots rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival. He was born in Berkeley, California.

The concert was amazing, even though I don’t listen to this type of music I found the performance excellent. And speaking of excellence, the drummer was AWESOME. I later found out it’s none other than THE Kenny Arnoff.

Aronoff has recorded with musicians such as Melissa Etheridge, Jon Bon Jovi, Michelle Branch, Joe Cocker, Trey Anastasio, The BoDeans, Corey Hart, Meat Loaf, Willie Nelson, The Rolling Stones, Alanis Morissette, Bob Seger, Elton John, Bob Dylan, Rod Stewart, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Waylon Jennings, Bonnie Raitt, Mick Jagger, Alice Cooper, Belinda Carlisle, Avril Lavigne, Kelly Clarkson, Lisa Germano, Tony Iommi, Iggy Pop, The Starting Line, and hard rock and glam metal band Cinderella.

Combine that, with Dave Santos on bass, Matt Nolen on keyboard, Hunter Perrin on one guitar, and Billy Burnette (of Fleetwood Mac!) on other guitars, and you get a line-up that plays really well together.

As far as photographing goes, we were limited to two stage positions and for two songs. We had to stay fixed and so the photos are all from the same angle. The lights were OK and the ambience was great. One thing though, that was different was the placement of the stage. Instead of facing the exit, it was sideways. Interesting…

Oh, and I’m pretty sure the teeth are fake…

Wow. It happened. I took pictures at Mark Knopfler’s concert in Zagreb. The show was fantastic. The ambience was great, and the crowd was in my opinion excellent. It seems that Guy Fletcher agrees with this ;-). Interesting though as the concert was, nothing could ever top the meet & greet I witnessed from Mark and the band (including the awesome performance from Matt and Guy on the stylophones ).

The only thing horribly wrong with the whole picture was the appalling odor of the dressing rooms…

As far as photographing goes, the lights were very good, but Mark is more or less still on the stage anyway. The crowd was sitting down, which is always a shame as it kills the mood, not to mention it makes the photographers squat in front.  We had two songs to work our magic and then we were able to go and enjoy the show.

A couple weeks ago (I know, I’m behind :), it’s just that I have a ton of work I need to do) Križanke were filled with fans of the legendary Indexi band. The concert was really fun and I really like what came out with the photos. Photographing though, was a pain in the behind. There were no fences between the crowd an the stage, but the crowd didn’t move to the front of the stage, and the front row was sitting down. That left us needing to kneel constantly and after the show, most of us walked like ye’old cowboys.

After all this time, I’m still impressed with the sharpness of my 70-200 2.8 lens.

A couple weeks ago, the largest student “party” event took place - Škisova tržnica. Apart from the really bad organization as far as photography is concerned, and the fact that I don’t like these types of mass events, the whole experience was interesting. Tiring, but interesting.

No, this photo is not photoshoped. It’s directly from the camera, with a slight adjustment of exposure.

Ljubljana, 27.4.2008 in Hala Tivoli, saw the performance of Katie Melua. She plays acoustic folk-pop with mixes of blues, jazz and some rock. Before her, a fairly unknown singer went on stage, Andrea McEwan. I didn’t know what to expect from either of them (I’ve heard one or two songs from Katie before, but that’s it) and was pleasantly surprised after the show. Apart from excellent performances, we witnessed a really dynamic show. The people could have shown a bit more enthusiasm, but hey… that’s Ljubljana’s calm crowd :-).

Andrea McEwan

Katie Melua

At Seka’s concert in Ljubljana, during the warm-up bands, the excitement in the public was overwhelming… people were screaming and shouting… or maybe not

Ah, another concert. Not exactly a great, big, Rock concert like I wanted, but something I wanted to photograph non the less. Seka Aleksić, the Queen (Kraljica), known mostly for her hit single Aspirin, came to Ljubljana. She was only 2 and a half hours late, and there were three semi-good but mostly bad warm-up bands. I went there with a friend - Pavle Barborič, so at least I had someone to talk to during the wait :-).

The lights were horrible and smoke was everywhere, but hey, it was a challenge non the less. Comments appreciated.

Finally!!! A concert again. You can’t imagine how good it felt to shoot a concert again. Especially Nightwish. For me, the concert was good. Anette did a good job at the latest songs, but obviously, with the older ones, Tarja’s voice was sorely missed. But ok, things change.

Anyway, for the concert, I focused a lot on Emppu and his poses, because he’s known to be energetic through the whole concert, and generally a poser :-). As far as the pictures go, I’m not really that satisfied, partially because I’ve grown lazy because of the 70-200. And I need to buy myself a Lowepro 75 or something similar (suggestions anyone?) so I can change lenses a bit faster than with my current Kata R-103. Right… a bit off topic :). Here are the pics. Comments appreciated.

As is custom, I would like to add my wishes and thoughts. I would like to wish you happiness, health, success but most of that, which you want and need the most. I wish you find those little moments of happiness, the moments that define our lives, and spend them with people who you care most about. Of course, I also wish you a new year full of such moments and full of the same people you care about. So again, have a happy new year. And many more!

The year 2007 is coming to an end. For me personally, the year was full of things I’ll want to remember for ever. It was full of moments that I want to keep and treasure. Unfortunately there were some events I would have changed, but none that I regret.

After doing some thinking on how I can describe the moments that meant the most to me, I decided on putting together a collage of pictures representing people, events, and memories of these moments. Each picture in the collage has a special meaning to me, and something nice related to it!

I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank all of my friends who lived the year with me. And all of you guys who keep reading my blog. Here’s to hoping many more years will come.