July 26, 2007
Idan Raichel Project
Today, HP organized a "fun day" as they call it in Israel. A day at the beach with food and drink and leisure activities, followed by a dinner and a gig. Responsible for the gig this time was a group called The Idan Raichel Project. While interesting musically, the group's music has a mild tendency to put me to sleep in the long run. This time however, I had a camera and had access to the stage, so I could entertain myself. Don't get me wrong. The music is very good, spans different continents (Middle Eastern Arabic and Jewish styles, Ethiopian styles and a singer from Suriname with his distinct take on things) and is very well executed. It's just that it a bit too slow and ballad-oriented for my taste. They're just not James Brown or Chet Baker, as it were.
However, since this was a company party they had hired a photographer to shoot the day, and the resident camera geeks (Yours truly included) were all there to strut their stuff. The common denominator being that they all use expensive Cameras and Flash-units, and cheaper lenses. I was the only one with a huge, 1.5 kilo heavy piece of expensive glass mounted on a cheap-ass body with no flash. Naturally this drew some attention from aforementioned aficionados, so I got two different offers to borrow their flash-units. I saw them thinking "poor bastard". But I told them I don't use flash. Ever. If there's not enough light to take the picture, I generally don't. Here are three reasons why:
