Merry Xmas — by remotes

I’ve been doing very technically oriented work lately. And my postings have been accor­dingly. So let me just share a beutiful moment from last night. A concert by the a capella group Rajaton — held in the church of our little town.

It was sold out ages ago — and I really wanted to see it. So I promised the local paper (my wife being a journalist there… ;-) ) that I give the paper couple of images if I just get to see it… Yes, mea culpa, dumping the prices… but I promise to be really expensive some other time… and they would not have hired a photo­grapher on a saturday night anyway. A journalist herself clicking away with her tiny camera and a flash… what a moodkiller it would have been.

And an experience it was — I simply loved it. One of the best concerts I have ever heard or seen (and I worked for like ten years as a music photo­grapher). I knew beforehand that it would be dead quiet there, even with 700 people wathching, so I was very concerned about the noise of the cameras. I don’t work in the movie industry and thus I do not own noise blimps, so I simply had to live with it and do the best I could.

I talked to the group beforehand and we agreed on the moments I would shoot. I rigged three cameras with remotes (one with a small stand on the altar, two with superclamps and hydraulic arms) , each on a different subchannel with the Multimax, trying to place them so they would not disturb and locked their mirrors up to reduce the noise. Tested with the audio guys that there would not be any distur­bance on the radio frequencies… and fingers crossed, hoped for the best.

I just sent the images to the paper… and I smile to myself, I wonder if they do know how to appreciate what went on doing these images.

And if you are looking for that special Christmas present — do consider their album called Joulu, I promise, you won’t regret it.