visually rock

exhibited work

2009-11-20T19:21:00.003+02:00

These are my first photos that are being exhibited in a public place. And not just any place! The venue is the legendary Yo-talo in Tampere, my old hometown. The pics are huge, the JP pic is 125cm x 65cm and the Jussi/Timo pic is 180cm x 125cm. What a start for my exhibition career (add sarcasm tags around "career" :D)! The photos are a part of the interior design together with 5-6 other rock photos so they'll hang around in the bar for a while, I think :) I'm pretty proud and I'd like to thank Petra-Miisa Juusenaho of Interiori for this chance, she's the one who "discovered" my photos :) If you live in Tampere or visit Tampere, go have a look at the pics and tell me what you think!

Metsatöll

2009-10-26T21:55:00.003+02:00

I followed Ensiferum on their European Tour for a week in October 2009. I also made friends with Tracedawn and Metsatöll who were also fun to shoot, looking forward to shooting more of them! So get your asses back to Finland! :D I concentrated mainly on Ensiferum, since I was on assignment for them, but also shot the special guest bands. Since I can't publish the Ensiferum photos yet, here is the first Metsatöll pic for you :) Enjoy! There's more to follow, stay tuned :)

Rockstad Falun: H.E.A.T

2009-06-16T17:33:00.004+03:00

H.E.A.T plays great 80s hard rock. They are energetic live performers and really take their audience into consideration. Hope to get to shoot them more in the future, this time the light was really boring since the concert was an open air gig and during daylight time. Fortunately the sun didn't shine and that saved some of the ambience :)

Rockstad Falun: Sabaton

2009-06-15T17:14:00.005+03:00

So I opened my festival season in Falun, Sweden. Rockstad Falun (rocktown Falun in English) is a great, small town festival organised by Sabaton. This year their concert was also to celebrate their 10th anniversary. And what a gig it was! A lot of pyros, great stage show, the guys were in top condition and gave their best to the audience. They were so much fun to shoot and I managed to get a grip of that adrenaline kick from the "three first - no flash-ambience" again.

Needless to say the audience loved Sabaton as well. I heard there were people of 10 different nationalities and some had taken a bus ride of over 30 hours to get there. Unfortunately the weather was a traditional festival weather, i.e. not the best possible, it was raining but at least there was no mud: the festival was held in the middle of the town on a market ;)

After the festival we had a fun after party with the guys, of course ;) No awkward photos were taken, I usually keep my camera packed after I've "done the job." I'd just like to thank the Sabaton guys again for the great gig and attitude and for being so nice. The same goes to Olof from Skrikhult Production, their Scandinavian agent. A huge thank you for all the hospitality I experienced on my trip to Falun :)

In addition to Sabaton's I also shot the H.E.A.T gig. They were a lot of fun to shoot too and a great live band. At this point I've uploaded only the Sabaton pics, H.E.A.T will follow a.s.a.p :)

Pellavarock 2008

2009-06-12T17:13:00.004+03:00

Attention, this post is still under construction, more pics will follow :)

The festival season has begun already and I am once again reminiscing the festivals of last summer. In this post I'll be presenting some shots from the Pellavarock festival which is held in Lammi. A lovely, small festival with good artists. Well organised and the atmosphere was great.

All in all, it was really nice to shoot the festival, my favorite band to shoot being Bloodbath. Who could resist some fake blood and right attitude and guys who aren't taking themselves dead seriously although they are making death metal ;)

BLOODBATH

SOTAJUMALA

RYTMIHÄIRIÖ

KIUAS

Harmaja

2009-05-19T22:42:00.003+03:00

I shot the band Harmaja last week at On The Rocks, Helsinki. Very challenging. Monotonous, red-yellow-orange based light, the band was very static. Their music is so peaceful and poetic, it's a challenge to capture the mood in concerts like that. I knew already before shooting them that I'd convert the photos to black and white. I think it better describes the mood in the concert than colour imagery. And I just can't stand the colour of the light that was available in the concert ;)

sometimes more dreams come true

2009-01-12T23:48:00.007+02:00

I had been dreaming of shooting an open air festival at some point. I didn't really know how to get a photo pass to any festival (except for Rocknight, which isn't an open air, haha)... So I was going to the Rocksound festival in Huttwil, Switzerland, with my friends anyway and since Ensiferum was playing there I decided I'd try and ask them if they could help me out with the pass and I'd give them photos in return. And against all my expectations I soon got a message from Markus where he said they'll organise it for me. Just like that. That's how I ended up shooting Ensiferum for the first time :) I also shot Korpiklaani, Eluveitie and Queensrÿche, which truly was a dream come true. Hey can you imagine. My first big festival ever and I get to shoot one of my all time favorites, Queensrÿche. I was already excited to be able to finally see and hear Geoff Tate live on stage! I once again couldn't believe how lucky I was.

The Kirder brothers don't play in Eluveitie any more, but I posted the pics here anyway since they were such great characters on stage. The amount of energy and charisma was damn amazing.

Btw, gotta love the red bass strings :)

Here I tried some rather bold post processing... I think it kinda works with him.

Ok and my beloved Ensiferum :) It was raining cats and dogs by the time they were playing and I only stayed in the pit for the first 1.5-2 songs instead of the usual 3 first. Markus and his tongue are an essential part of every Ensiferum show :)

And here's Korpiklaani. I had such a fun party with the guys the night before and they were fun on stage as well. Btw, the Eluveitie, Ensiferum and Korpiklaani gigs were outside and that's why the light is not very interesting.

And here we go... Queensrÿche... Geoff Tate sounded just great, just great. He was a dynamic performer with a lot of expression.

Oh how I loved that moment. I just wished it'd never end. Oh and the lovely Pamela Moore was there too and they played quite a few songs from the amazing Operation: Mindcrime I-album. Which was released 20 years ago, 1988.

P.S. I'm so happy Tate didn't wear those lovely leggins he wore in the 80s :DD
P.S.2. I ended up shooting on 3 festivals last summer, I hope next summer I'll shoot at least as many :)

have yourself a merry heavy christmas...

2009-01-04T21:45:00.004+02:00

I shot the Raskasta Joulua-concert 20.12.08 in Tavastia, Helsinki. It was a good experience. There were a couple of problems though... There was no photopit so I had to shoot from the audience. Which was a pain in the ass since Tavastia was sold out and packed. So I was being pushed by people from all directions and taking in-focus pictures was a true challenge. In addition to that the girl in front of me kept on banging her head against my camera. *sigh* Not so bad for my camera, but the poor girl's head...

The pics I shot are going to the website of Dex Viihde, the company that organised the whole concert :) They will appear in the "Media"-section where diverse media can download pics if they need images.

I'm not unequivocally satisfied with the images, but that was what I could do at that time. So, here we go, enjoy :)

the importance of having long lenses

2008-12-16T23:42:00.004+02:00

I wasn't too worried about my not having anything longer than my 90mm 2.8 Tamron for concerts until I was standing in the photo pit of Rabarock Festival in Estonia in June 2008, seeing Helloween play on a stage this high:

Took that one with 17mm just to demonstrate how small I felt down there with my 167 cm which isn't even short! So I was happy to have at least my 90mm lens for Rabarock and ended up getting portraits like this:

The lens is a really good lens, but it doesn't give you many choices for framing. Especially when being in the pit, having the first three songs for shooting which means not much space and not much time for trying out stuff. At least for me. So I've been wanting a good 70-200mm lens for concert shooting ever since. Dear Santa... ;)

I must admit the stage was also a kind of a turn off for me as far as large festivals are concerned. A stage like that and it being outside (= the light is flat and boring) is not a very intriguing combination. However, with some luck and good timing it's possible to get energetic and interesting shots as well. The Japanese band Electric Eel Shock was the best band to take photos of in Rabarock, their stage show was just amazing.

So, even though my tent was flooded (it rained almost all the time) and I didn't get much sleep...

...even though I hit my left leg really painfully on an iron rod and mosquitos massacred my legs...

...Rabarock was made worth while by the hilarious, energetic, fun guys of Electric Eel Shock.

sometimes dreams come true

2008-12-01T13:21:00.006+02:00

Last February I got to shoot my first huge gig in a stadium. Nightwish was playing and the Hallenstadion in Zurich was sold out. That meant that while being in the photo pit, there were 13 000 people celebrating Nightwish behind me and Nightwish playing in front of me. Something to make a young, inexperienced photographer humble ;) I didn't wet my pants, but it was an awesome feeling. The energy was amazing. The trouble was that our space was strictly limited between two basses so it wasn't too much. And there was this one guy who kept on pushing me aside :P What an asshole. The other ones were really nice and polite, the way I'm used to, acting according to the unwritten rules of photo pit manners. We also only had two songs instead of the normal three first ones, which fortunately were quite long songs ;)

What I really enjoyed was the great lighting. There was really enough of the light (except on Tuomas) and it was beautiful anyway.

I think I managed to capture a couple of really nice situations which still makes me very happy. Considering I'm still rather a beginner, the results looks actually quite nice. I was also still quite ill that evening, I had been ill all week, but hey how could I have missed an opportunity like this.

After the gig I was invited to the after party and yeah, I had a great time with the people ;) Ewo with his Ville Vallaton-drinks was really funny. I went to him to say hi and before he said hi back he gave me a glass, made me a Ville Vallaton and then shook hands with me :D

I want to thank my friends Maarit and Jarkki again for making that evening possible through their contacts and Marco for organizing the passes for me. See you some time soon :)

Cheers,
Ilona

bleak origin, part I

2008-11-27T23:39:00.005+02:00

One of the "bands that changed my life" is Bleak Origin from Burgdorf, Berne, Switzerland. Not only do they play great music, they are also a bunch of lovely people and have become very dear friends of mine. I've had the best laughs with them, I've cried with them, I've traveled with them, spent some quality time on a festival with them... Yeah, what friends do :) So this is a posting dedicated to them.

It all started in the Burgdorfer Rocknight 2006. They performed there and the singer/guitarist/songwriter was one of the promoters. After that I only knew Patrick, but got to know the whole band during the promo shooting I did in March 2007. It was a hilarious shooting and damn cold, too! We walked around in Sulzer Areal in Winterthur, Switzerland and they posed for me in various locations. Now that I look at the photos I think I could do everything better now, but oh well ;) That was back then and I did my best.

There was a cool parking garage where we did most of the shooting. I didn't use any artificial lighting, it was all natural light. Afterwards I played around in Photoshop.

This was towards the end of the shooting as we all were already kinda tired and most of all freezing ;) Patrick (leftmost in the picture) was really giving his best :D

Ohhh, I have a couple of stories that are quite funny, but now I have to go to bed. In the meantime, have a look at this video. It's part I of the "documentation" from the road/gig trip to Leipzig where Bleak Origin were supporting Dark Suns in their record release party. Fun times :) Oh, and "Breath of Death" later became the title for the first song of our heavy metal-post doom-progressive-melodic-fistfucking-hardcore band ;) Also go and have a taste of Bleak Origin's music.

Cheers,
Ilona

kamel

2008-11-26T21:19:00.004+02:00

A working colleague of mine told me last week their band is playing in Liberte (Kallio, Helsinki) on coming (i.e. now last) Friday. I thought I'd give it a go and support the band by going to see them. So I took my camera with me as well and lucky me I did! Not only did they play well, the singer Toni was a very charismatic performer and took eventually his shirt off ;) Somehow he reminds me of young Iggy Pop here.

His style was pretty dandy and vain. Not his clothes as much as his way of performing though. He was flirting with the few people who were there, giving his best and really managed to get some people on the dance floor to have a party. Anyway, these guys need more gigs, why don't you just book them ;) Listen to them here.

I put up an interactive show with Toni over there, quite funny actually. I had made a HOUSUT POIS!-poster (pants down in English) and showed it to them and Toni was making gestures of me having to pay him for doing that. I coincidentally had my wallet in my hand as I was heading towards the bar to get another beer and I just waved it in my hand and he reacted and I decided to play the demanding one and just "told" him to bugger off with his cost demands. Apparently other ones had their fun as well since people were smiling. Hey I just gotta love that rock n roll!

Cheers,
Ilona

flashback

2008-11-25T22:09:00.006+02:00

I shot my first concert ever on 1. May 2006 in Zurich. It was a free concert organized on Helvetiaplatz. I still had my D50 then and absolutely no clue about any concert photography. So I just did everything intuitively :) See more photos from that concert here. It was so much fun and I knew that this is my thing. It took a long time though to shoot my next concert, which was already a small festival: the Burgdorfer Rocknight.

This was shot in the Burgdorfer Rocknight on 19 November 2006. My first real gig shooting ever. With a photo pass, you know ;) This occasion was immensely important to me since that's how I got to know one of my dearest friends, Patrick, who was one of the promoters and masterminds of Rocknight. I considered him arrogant at that time - how wrong I was! That way I also got to know the whole Bleak Origin band and the other members became my dear friends as well.

In that photo Roland of Deadsoul Tribe shows off with his dreadlocks. I'm still quite satisfied with this shot though I'd prolly try and compose it otherwise now. You shoot, you learn :) I'll never forget the excitement and passion that was glowing inside me. I knew I wanted to do concert shooting, I wanted it so badly. After this Rocknight I knew it was my true passion, one of the few things I was able to concentrate on over a longer time and where I had true ambitions.

Here's another shot from that night. It's Rollz of Deadsoul Tribe. He had been injured earlier and was sitting on a chair during part of the show. The yellow light and the smoke create a pretty intense atmosphere here although there is nothing much happening in the picture as such.

In the Burgdorfer Rocknight I also got the first bitter lesson about the difficulty of getting decent shots of drummers and developing a certain kind of love and hate-relationship to the light engineers... ;) This was the best I could do that night and I must say it hasn't become much easier ever since if you have to shoot the whole gig from the pit or first row and have no chance to climb on stage:
That's Niko of Dark Suns.

Have a look at the whole Rocknight set on my flickr account or on the Rocknight 2006 gallery.

Cheers,
Ilona

karoshi lovers

2008-11-24T23:17:00.004+02:00

Before Klaus Thunder ja Ukkosmaine Karoshi Lovers were playing their set. They were once again great live and their music really is something fresh for your ears. I like their outlooks, it's a pity they have played in places where the lighting is "challenging" (reads: crappy ;)) and they haven't been very well lit. Oh well, I've only shot them twice so far and I hope to get to shoot them many times again. I decided to choose two images from them, two different kinds of images. One is peaceful, one has more action in it.

Kid Karoshi is depicted in this picture. I chose this one since it is somehow deviant from the average gig shot. It could almost be posed to be a still life. However, there's more to it when you look at it more carefully. The light is as such not very interesting, but still I like it. I like the subtle motion blur of the left hand and the shadows. An elegant portrait of a musician playing death pop :)

This is an interesting photo in that sense that there is action with Kid Karoshi moving and yet Ms. Stress is sitting behind her keyboard, not moving. Technically this is not a very good image, but I've learned to oversee those things sometimes if the picture is otherwise interesting.

During Karoshi Lovers I had no problems with space. I actually noticed when I stopped shooting in front of the stage that there was a space around me, I wonder if people somehow intuitively had left me that space. Awkward. As a photographer, I don't want to take anybody's space nor do I want to be in anyone's way. But it's difficult not to if there's no pit. It's a dilemma really: you have your space and peace to photograph in a pit (except sometimes some photographers can be real asses to their colleagues), but it's difficult to take the audience with into the pictures; when there's no pit you have to be careful with everything and you often have no space, but then again the atmosphere is great and the audience really close.

Cheers,
Ilona

klaus thunder

2008-11-24T12:37:00.005+02:00

So in lack of a proper website (anyone willing to design and program one for me cheap or even for free? ;)), I decided to create a photoblog. Here I want to represent my gig photography, which is my great passion. Any comments highly appreciated!

In this first picture the guy is Klaus Thunder from the band Klaus Thunder ja Ukkosmaine. They make funny elektro pop in Finnish and they're best experienced live. One of the funniest shootings I've had for some time :) I had to be really inventive, since the lighting was a challenge and I was in the first row (no photo pit in Semifinal), surrounded by a dense crowd of eager (mostly) female fans. I couldn't move at all so changing positions was out of question. I had to shoot everything from the same position. So I decided to try to take the audience with into the pictures. The interaction was really great. I really hope I get to shoot the band again, they were so much fun :)

Cheers,
Ilona