in the name of friendship.

a very typical scene from a Sportfreunde Stiller concert.
this one was Hillside festival 2004.
fans with vans surfing the crowd.
for real surfboards please attend a Beatsteaks concert.

full frontal camera flash looks better on black&white images.
sometimes the only chance to get the picture at all.

generations meet.
to celebrate. the birthdays – the old and the new.

share some good time, and go to the mountains the next day.
well, what do you expect from a party where around thirty 8000m+ climbs were present?

but first, take a look at the time.

ah, its now.
perfect.

“real pumpkin seed oil, real guys, real grid girls, real crashes, real blood, just no real cars.” (NoSane)

that pretty much sums it up.
one of those really cool races where you want to drop your camera,
jump into some leather, put your head inside a helmet
and head down the road at 60 km per hour.

maybe next year, third time around would be a good thing.

dont miss the picture-essay that NoSane of NYX put together from my pics:

bobbyCross tieschen 2008 at BikeBoard.at

ignoring the arrow on the street, leaping the last meters towards the finish.
Graz Marathon in october 2007.

shot with my NakedLens.
no, thats not a postproduction effect. (1)

take a look at taojjbtcrf (2) for recent usage of the same optical principal in a feature film.
also well worth a look for all the beautiful light.
i wonder where one can see the four hour extended version.
wouldnt be boring at all i think.

but even the regular version is longer than it takes for top athletes
to complete the famous 42,195 kilometers.

(1) but some distracting logos from the shirt have been removed.
(2) the assassination of jesse james by the coward robert ford

setup follows hundred year old family pictures.
including the plant on the table.

someone who was more into effects and tricks would have done more.
added scratches. dust. torn edges. toning. fading colours.

if it was for a movie, where someone finds this picture on his attic. maybe yes.
for a present picture. no.
why would a photographer degrade a picture.
with things that any person tries to avoid happen to their pictures.
keeping the memory alive.
keep it from melting away.

nothing did we know how appropriate the look from an old family album would be.
only some years later.

fan [fɛn], engl. – faecher, ventilator, bewunderer, liebhaber

to take good photographs you have to be a fan.
even if its just for the time of the shoot.
especially with music.

music has a direct way to your heart.

its always great to have no obstacles when shooting live.
when you know the band. or the manager. or the location boss.
someone giving you the thumbs up to shoot more than the first three songs.

sometimes it helps just to be nice to the security.
or the sound technician.
who might just allow you to use one of his large cases to stand on.
and you can pull out the big long lens.

ask. politely. it helps.