Wow! I am now back home after traveling with Seal and his band for the past three weeks. It was an adventure I will never forget, getting to see all of the sights and sounds of South America, and it all ended with a bang in Mexico City, MX with TWO back to back shows. What a tour!
When I was asked to go on this three week journey I had an idea of what to expect since I toured with them in 2010 for a week on a bus tour through Europe. This time it was ALL about flying so there were many flights and bag check ins and even a delay or two. One late night in Miami, FL we waited 6 hours for a connecting flight to Mexico City, which finally departed at 1am.
All in all I had a blast on this tour and even though there were tiring moments, it was well worth it. Even when I threw up one hour before the first Mexico City show it was well worth it. Even though I averaged 4-5 hours of sleep a night, it was well worth it. The images I captured will always be something I can look back on and I may make a nice book out of the images from this tour (just for personal memories), as well as an upcoming show in Switzerland. Yea, it was well worth it.
I will be leaving on Wednesday once again to Join seal and the gang for two shows, one is South Africa in Cape Town, and one in Switzerland. I’ll be gone for another week but will be updating the site at every chance I get. Lots of photo opps coming up and the M9 will join me once again. I may also bring a NEX-5 this time to shoot it with Leica glass..Hmm, interesting.
I was lucky for this tour as Seal let me borrow his amazing Noctilux f/0.95 which I gave back to him yesterday morning. I may have shed a tear when I did that (lol). The lens is a masterpiece. Heavy? Yes. Large? Yes. Magical? YES! To those who own one, you own one of the most unique lenses ever made. One day….
Also, to those e-mailed me over the past three weeks I will be answering all of them on Monday 🙂 While away I had limited time so did not get to all of the e-mails.
As for the final two Seal shows, it was a blast and I shot loads of photos of which I am putting up my favorites below. Someone asked me how many photos I take during a typical 2 hour show. I know some concert guys who take over 1000 shots during a 2 hour show. Me, I usually end up at 175-200 max. Then I get 20-40 I like out of that with the others either out of focus or just missed timing shots.
There was a couple of times that I wished I had a zoom as I could never get a decent shot of the horn section. Maybe in Switzerland I can think of something.
Anyway, a big thank you to Seal for letting me tag along and do what I love doing, I’ll never forget it! Thanks to Sid for providing the laughs and hanging out, thanks to Steve and Chris for the fun days shooting and hanging out, and thanks to Marcus, Mark and Gus for being amazingly cool and nice and also welcoming me to travel along with the band. I also want to thank the horn section, Carol, Sarah, Georgina, and Katie for letting me tag along to Sugar Loaf Mountain and thanks to Ric Salmon, Seals manager for the beers and dinners, and for running such a class operation. I’ll see you all next week in Cape Town!
On to the pics from Mexico City…
Looking through the entry doors during soundcheck. Noctilux wide open.
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Steve McDonald (Background) replacing batteries for Mark Summerlin (Guitar) during soundcheck. Noctilux wide open.
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From Night #1 in Mexico City. I loved this one even though I did not nail focus. The expression, composition and smoke all come together for a great performance photo. Nocti, wide open!
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Seal always finds a way to connect with the fans during his performance. Nocti, stopped down a bit, maybe f4.
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The Nocti stopped down to 1.4. I intentionally blew out the backgrounds on this one…
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Once again, no other Leica lens does color quite like the Noctilux IMO though the M9 in general has such deep and rich color potential. You just have to “coax” it out and I do this by adjusting the black levels and exposure during the RAW development. These are with the 35 Summicron and 50 Noctilux…
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But to be fair, the little Leica 28 Elmarit ASPH is also STUNNING on the M9! If you have an M9 and want a wider lens than a 35 or 50..the 28 Elmarit gets my highest recommendation. It is small, semi affordable (for Leica) and performs as good, if not better, than the 35 Summicron. The Elmarit is usually IN STOCK as well.
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With the 35 Summicron, Seal smiles as a fan yells out “I Love You”..
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and some of the band from the last two shows..
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and a few more that I liked…
Even after 10 shows, some of these are my favorite inages from the tour. I hope you guys have enjoyed them and thanks for coming along with me on this photographic and musical journey 🙂
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~6 and Steve, just saw that you will be in Zermatt, Switzerland. If time allows, hop on the highest cable car in Europe, bringing you to the “Klein Matterhorn”, up to 14000 ft. Views and landscapes up there are simply breathtaking.
Seal – I love those shots! The city at night is stellar, love the Velvia 50. Where is that? Like how dark it is, cinematic. Your portraits are well composed and grab the energy from the respective scenes. Like your friend smiling in the bokeh of the shot of Steve – nice dichotomy of the two gents facial expressions. Wonder what they were thinking. Can’t wait to see more of your film work. Congrats on your ambassadorship post!
Steve, Ashwin, ~6,
Amazing shots all, and I’m tired just *thinking* of a travel itinerary such as this!
~6–Please do share as much of your forthcoming X-1 work on the tour as possible. I bought one last fall upon much scrutiny of Steves review and love it. I installed the 2.0 firmware on the release date, but have not had too much opportunity to test it out. Gotta get this spring commissioning of my boat done first! Then, some spring photography sessions. I’ve too many hobbies…
Cheers,
Tom
Steve, great pictures – the colors, the compositions; just gorgeous! Re your upcoming trip to Switzerland: I’m living near Zurich – anything I can do for you?
Hi everyone.
I concur, Steve did something really special here with these photos. I’m grateful for his friendship and talent. I have been going through some of my film images but haven’t really had time to post them here due to being home for only a short time and dedicating that time to the family. Once I get on the plane tomorrow I will sort through the best one’s and post a link to them upon landing in SA.
In the meantime I have secured my kit for this short one week trip. It will be an all digital affair for two reasons. Firstly, as a recently appointed first ever global ambassador for Leica, I need to post images from the road as I take them and secondly, I want to try the X1 with the new firmware. So it will be my M9 Titan together with a 50 Lux, 28 Cron, 75 Cron and a Noctilux for the darkness, then there will be the X1 with firmware version 2.0.
Working in Apple’s Aperture is great for digital management on the fly for it’s effortless merging and splitting of libraries…simply awesome. Also I think that this will encourage me to get out and frame more.
looking forward to sharing with you,
`6
Wow, Seal, what a kit to take with you! Can’t wait to see what images you come up with…I had not thought of pairing a 28 and 75, but it’s a lovely choice for a primary kit, along with the 2 fifeties…I will be curious about your X1 experience alongside the M9. I recently sold the camera, after much enjoyment of it over the year, since I found that I didn’t use it much (next to the M9) while in India for 3 weeks. Maybe the faster AF will make it more useable for street photography…
By the way, have you opened up the lovely silver K5 yet? I discovered a lens that you should seriously find and try…the old K mount SMC 135 mm f/2.5….there are some other 135 mm f/2.5 lenses, but those are all terrible compared to the original K mount 135/2.5. It’s a worthy manual focus option (I posted a couple of happy snaps from it that I took today from my place of work). I got a KatzEye focussing screen to help with Manual Focus, and it’s a dream. Makes the K5 even more rangefinder-ish…
Regardless, have a great time in SA. I just saw the video on your site of the White House performance. Great great stuff!
[img]http://www.stevehuffphoto.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/K5 UW- Cherry Blossoms in Bloom-10.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.stevehuffphoto.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/K5 UW- Cherry Blossoms in Bloom-8.jpg[/img]
Thanks Ashwin,
Beautiful images, you know how the saying goes “too much glass…no such thing” so I will definitely track down said lens. Yeah, don’t ask me why I’m pairing up the 28 & 75 as it doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense but I think the reason I’m doing it is because I haven’t used the 75 for a while and I feel like doing some close focusing portrait work plus I took the 35 with me on the South American trip so I’m a bit 35’d out!
The 28 Cron I’m taking is the one that came with my M7 Titan three lens kit so it’ll feel pretty at least. The 28 is actually my preferred wide over the 35. To me this is really where Leica glass earns it’s keep. There is so little distortion in their wides (glass period) that you can get close to people without their faces weirding out. Yeah Nikon, Canon and the likes make nice, clean, fast wides but you will never dream of putting someone’s face up close anywhere in the frame. Now I’m not saying that I would frame my wife’s portrait with either the 28 or the 35 Leica options (she’d kill me for a start) but what I am saying is that if caught in a pinch you have the option to frame a portrait with either due to the relatively little distortion. They really are a thing of beauty.
I didn’t receive the SIlver K-5 because the twits at the Pentax Online Store decided not to send it due to my billing address being different to my shipping address (don’t you hate that?) and I didn’t get the email telling me so. It was only when I checked the order status online that I figured they hadn’t sent it. So I promptly cancelled and just ordered it on Amazon however it won’t get here until Friday by which time we’ll be in SA.
The WH event was the greatest day of my career. When all’s said and done and my grandchildren ask me what I did for a living and why, it will not be the grammy’s or other awards that I’ll point to, it won’t be the time I played in the palace of Brunai for the Sultan that I’ll speak about with proud memories, it’ll be the time I played in the big house for the big man and the first lady and how they showed affection for one another four feet away from me whilst I was singing ‘My Girl’. Wow, even thinking about it now still takes my breath away.
`6
P.S, I don’t know if I’ll take two fifty’s as it’s a bit excessive but I kind of have to take the Noctilux for a Leica related reason and the day I leave the 50 Summilux at home will be the day they cart me off in the white truck in a white jacket with straps because I would’ve obviously lost my marbles!
Seal, I like your sentiments on the 28mm Cron. I wish I had one, or the Elmarit. I agree with you on them having no distortion at all. The same goes for Zeiss ZM wide angle lenses, two of which I am fortunate to have (namely, the 28mm and 35mm Biogons).
I remember my Nikon days and how I always tried to avoid wide angle for this very reason. I hate optical distortion in a lens. I know it could be corrected in PP but still I can’t stand it. It does something ugly to a picture and gives me a feeling of lens’s imperfection, so I am no longer happy with it. I remember how I loved and hated my Nikkor 50/1.2 (it had visible barrel distortion but was perfect in all other areas). Well, those days are over. My Zeiss lenses are all distortion free, both wide angle and normal.
You mentioned about making close up portraits with 28mm. Sure, why not? I very often do it with my two Biogons. In fact, I love doing it! Here’s a recent portrait of my nephew Arthur, a very lovely boy:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gregshanta/5497017845/lightbox/
I made it with a 28mm Biogon. Yes, there is a bit of perspective distortion visible there but that’s tolerable to me. It’s different from optical distortion which gives an image some ugly, funny look. Moderate perspective distortion is fine by me. Besides, I think it even adds to the impact of the close up portrait.
My nephew Arthur, by the way, is a very interesting racial mix, as you can see by his facial features. My brother is half Russian and half Zimbabwean (we have the same mother and different fathers), so his son has a distinct African face but an ivory-white skin and golden curly hair. You can see many pictures of him on my Flickr page in the ‘Kids’ section, if you like. Here are a couple more shots with him and my brother:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gregshanta/4956473217/lightbox/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gregshanta/4947927513/lightbox/
And here is a portrait of a friend of mine I made with my 35mm Biogon:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gregshanta/5384483439/lightbox/
A lovely lens for portraits, too! With it, the perspective distortion is virtually imperceptible.
Cheers,
Greg
Momentito Greg and `6. I can see that `6 and bunch of others are fond of Crons, Luxes, Ars, Rits and Gones. But talking about distortions, you tend to mistifie Leica or Zeiss lenses, disregarding the optical and perspective laws. Yes given, specially wide angle lens can have more or less distortiong. That goes mostly for geometric ones. Barrel, seldom if any cushion, waveform (aspherics) and so on. Contrary to what `6 says, there is absolutely no difference in perspective distorton ( best seen as circles in the middle get eliptical toward edge), between Nikor 28, Canon28, Biogon 28 or Elmarit 28. You can bend lightrays but not the law of perpective. You both just carried a bit away. Cheers
Stanis, I never meant to say that any wide-angle lens is free of perspective distortion. I am sure Seal didn’t, either. But I can speak for myself only. I meant geometric distortion, like barrel and pincushion, which is often quite visible in the files made with SLR wide-angle lenses and usually not present in those made with Leica or Zeiss rangefinder wides. That’s what I meant.
The perspective distortion, being dependent on the angle of view, is there, of course, and varies according to how wide the angle is. When I mentioned that my 35mm Biogon didn’t show much perspective distortion I meant the focal length in general, not the particular lens. Any other 35mm optic would look exactly the same in that regard.
What I wanted to say that you could take portraits with a 35mm lens and not get killed on the spot by your better half (but don’t try this at home, as better halves do vary; you’ve been warned). And, to illustrate that idea, I provided an example. Maybe it wasn’t the best example as my camera wasn’t close enough to the subject.
Here’s another one I took yesterday with my 35mm Biogon. I shot it virtually at the minimal focusing distance from the subject, yet I don’t see much perspective distortion there (there is some but it’s quite tolerable to my eye). So, my point is: 35mm is OK for occasional portraits. Not perfect, of course, but OK. Here’s the file:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gregshanta/5597883615/lightbox/
Have you noticed the strange necklace the girl is wearing? Yes, it’s made of dried apricots. It was a vegan restaurant opening event. Lots of cruelty-free yummy stuff for free! I could barely walk back home…
Cheers,
Greg
Seal, I checked your web site but I couldn’t locate that White House video. Could you post a link to it, please? I really want to watch it after reading your description of the experience.
Steve’s pictures look gorgeous on your front page!
Cheers,
Greg
Greg, beautifull pict of girl taken with 35. Of course you can take meanigfull portaits with wides. Here`one of me and my auntie taken years ago with tiny Oly XA4 with 28mm. Boy, you go forever hungry looking at that necklace, I guess I soon turn vegeterian 100%. (right now I am something like 90%. Cheers Stani
[img]http://www.stevehuffphoto.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/kazia i ja.jpg[/img]
Very nice portrait, Stanis! Doesn’t feel like a wide angle at all. Just good portrait. That’s what I like about good photographs: they are just good photographs: you don’t think what technology is behind them, you just enjoy them.
You have a philosopher’s face. Yeah, go 100%! That would be great! I’ve been that way for 30 years and I feel great, both ethically and physically. I am 48 and my wife is 25 but we hardly feel any difference. Well, I’m taller and fatter and I have a beard but age-wise we don’t feel much apart.
Wide angle or not — who cares? Here’s a snapshot of my wife and I taken last summer in St. Petersburg with a 15mm lens! I cropped it, of course, ’cause my hand would have looked like a giant octopus tentacle otherwise. Good thing about those ultra-wides: you don’t really need to focus at all. Point-and-shoot Leica style!
[img]http://www.stevehuffphoto.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/L1001326.jpg[/img]
Cheers,
Greg
Greg. By the way, I did send you some picts from India. Did you get them? Talking about selv/portraits with wideangles your 15mm shows how far you can go if you use a common sense. I think 50mm is the last focal that distorts face (frontal face fill-up) if misused. My favorite RF lens for selfportaits with or without two additional heads close-by is 21VC, which has min dist. of 0,5 which allowes me to comfortably hold camera with one hand. That leaves us with fish-eye lens, hard to selfportrait unless one is a fishy type. The one with my auntie and me was taken at something like 0,5m pressed against window pane. You can see my part of my thumb. By the way, when I wrote the pict was taken years ago, I involuntary rejuvenated myself, in fact it was taken
many, many years ago. It was just one at hand. I am 68 and have 22 year old son. The only thing relatively young is my spirit which try to keep high. Cheers Stanis.
p.s. You both do look happy.
Stanis, thank you, I received those pictures and liked them very much (well, all but one, which was too disturbing…). I am just like you: I need some time to gather myself up for a reply.
Of course, I prefer making portraits and self-portraits with at least 50mm but sometimes there is a mood for a self-portrait and no chance to use tripod, etc. Then, I use wide-angles. My 15mm can focus as close as 30cm, which come in very handy in such situations. But there is no way not to crop afterwards unless you want to look like you just fell out of a flying saucer.
Cheers,
Greg
Btw Ashwin,
here are some of my film images from South America. I haven’t been through them yet but I like these
`6
[img]http://www.stevehuffphoto.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/FUJI_RVP50_E6_E-001.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.stevehuffphoto.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/FUJI_1600_PR_BW188162_A-010-1.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.stevehuffphoto.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/FUJI_1600_PR_BW188162_B-018A.jpg[/img]
Hi Seal!
I like all three of these pictures. Especially Steve’s portrait and the night landscape. Great! The portrait is very intense, yet not hard at all. Composition wise I wish Steve was the only person in the frame but that is not that important. The main thing is the mood, the emotion. It always is. Besides, when I think again, there is something interesting there in the way how those two faces work together and reflect the light. I think they form a very nice shape and movement with the direction of the light in the background.
In your landscape image the sky and the light falling on the city is just fantastic! And it’s perfectly exposed, too. I know how difficult this can be. I’ve struggled a lot with this kind of shots. But I had the advantage of looking at the screen and immediately reshooting, while your picture was shot on film, so you had to nail it all in your head. Great stuff! And I also like the colour palette of this image very much.
I hope you’ll be posting more. Have fun in SA and Switzerland!
Cheers,
Greg
You know what, Seal? I looked at your other portrait (is that Mark? I’m still learning who’s who in your band — sorry) and realized that I like it a lot. Great portrait! Somehow I didn’t see it immediately.
Cheers,
Greg
These shots are great, man. Steve looks quite studdly, and portrait # 2 and the darkened city have a palpable atmospheric quality. Great stuff.
I got a good laugh when you described what would happen if you left a 50 ‘lux at home..hahah…but when the Noctilux is in hand, it’s a tough lens not to use, despite its size…I think you should commit blasphemy and leave the 50 ‘lux behind 😉
So sorry to hear about the K5 screw-up….I hadn’t had any experience with the Pentax online store, and now I know to avoid this even more. Looking forward to many more pictures, and enjoy your travels! One of these days, you need to make it back to the U.S. for a tour ;). I’ll be the first to snag some tickets!
Very nice pictures, Ashwin! I like your crow: very interesting composition and lovely texture on that branch. OOF area is very pleasing to the eye. I actually like it very much. The composition contains a potential conflict (the crow looking in the ‘wrong’ direction) but it’s only theoretical. In fact, it is very nicely balanced with those triangular shapes formed by the branches. This is a good example of how braking the rules can actually benefit the picture.
In your other picture I like the way those trees kind of embrace or chase those people in the foreground. It contributes to the feeling of depth and movement. This is very smart use of telephoto’s disadvantage of compressing the space — turning it into a huge advantage here. I will try to remember this when I shoot with my 300mm Kilfitt Tele-Kilar (a very rare but joyous occasion).
Your crow image reminds me of one of my own, which is not nearly as nicely composed and executed as your’s but I like the Poe-ish mood to it:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gregshanta/4947885483/lightbox/
Cheers,
Greg
THanks, Greg. The crow image turned out very interesting, as I had to do very little post processing; a slight crop, and a conversion to BW in LR, with addition of some noise. It was as if I had darkened the crow’s head, but its not the case. I like the mystery in the shot, and appreciate your feedback on composition. Very nice capture yourself!
Thanks, Ashwin. That black head looks great in your picture. Good that you didn’t have to darken it. One of those perfect arrangements by Mother Nature.
I took my picture basically face to face with that crow. It perched on that fence, not minding me or anything else. I came in very close with my 35mm lens, knelt down and snapped it right at the time it moved its head away from me. I remember saying “Nevermore!” in my mind before walking away.
Cheers,
Greg
Sometimes we think we observe Nature while it’s actually just the opposite.
I love the Cron shots! Awesome job, Steve. Have fun on your next gig!
Steve,
Can I just say I hate you? Brazil, Mexico, Seal, tour, Leica…. Man, you make it hard for us average Joe to get up in the morning 🙂
Congrats on a spectacular trip.
Green with Envy.
Get up early when you come to Zermatt in Switzerland…The Matterhorn, the famous mountain looks best during sunrise 😉
Steve & Seal – Thanks so much for allowing us to digitally-trail-along with you! Amazing artistry from both of you! The shot b/w, where the back was blown out is stellar, a great ending shot. I am happy all your travels were safe and you are back home getting re-freshed for another go at it!! Best!
“ IT ALL ENDED WITH A BANG IN MEXICO CITY“ so who was she steve?
awesome stuff, huff. for me, the first and last few shows of this tour gave the most memorable shots. the shot of seal and the fans hand coming from out of frame, reaching reaching reaching for each other, the bouncer as witness… truly incredible. congrats on it all and thanks for sharing.
Steve, these are outstanding. Agreed that they are some of my favorites from the tour. What a world traveller you have become. Make sure to get in some recovery time between now and Capetown and Switzerland…I think Leica should be considering your for ambassadorship soon, given your work on this site and essentially on their behalf. Keep it up. I’m so proud of you and what you have accomplished in a short time…Great of Seal to be so supportive of you as well…what an impressive guy he is too….
Best,
Ashwin
S&S,
Congratulations on such a winning series. Wow what a tour! Great subject and photography! Would love to join you guys one day.
All the best and continued success on the next leg of the tour.
Hatem
Your shots that show the interaction between Seal and the audience are always my favourites – they show so much passion and enthusiasm, and show what a great guy Seal is. You did a great job at these shows, and I’m anxious to see your photographic reports on the shows in SA and Switzerland! 🙂
That was an amazing tour and you added to it with your images. Enjoyed your series very much. Now I go and save for a noctilux a sweet-voiced black guy in my life 🙂
Hi Steve.
You took great photos and seen the photos I know the shows was amazing.
I am waiting the next photos from the nexts concerts from Seal.
Steve,
Absolutely GORGEOUS photographs!!!! Congratulations!!!! As i’ve been saying…you are awesome!!!!!
sori
Steve, Seall, I recently took a picture that became very dear to me as it signifies for me the concept of meeting, or an encounter. As Seal’s tour has been a great meeting place for so many people, both physically and virtually, I’d like to share this picture with all of the readers of this blog. Here it is on my Flickr page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gregshanta/5463185046/lightbox/
I always like sharing images. To me it’s like a visual dialogue. You can express things by words but you can show so much more visually.
Cheers,
Greg
Greg, that’s a very cool shot. The mystery, the lighting, a lot captured by this simple and powerful composition.
Thank you, Ashwinji! I really value your opinion. I’ve enjoyed reading many of your articles on this site and I especially like your last Indian series. There were some fantastic pictures there! And thank you so much for allowing me to feel that nostalgic feeling for India by looking at your images! I haven’t been there for a while and I really feel homesick. Yes, my birth country is Russia but I’ve spent so much time in India that I feel it has become my real home now.
Cheers,
Greg
Great set, Steve! I like the pictures with Seal interacting with his fans. Also the b/w OOF one that you mentioned you liked and the one with blown highlights. Oh, and the ‘yellow jacket’ one, of course!
Great tour, great coverage, great memories for all!
Congratulations to Seal for completing the South American tour so successfully and to all the band members, too! Good luck to you, guys, in South Africa and Switzerland! Look forward to seeing some great images by Steve.
And Seal, I really look forward to seeing your film photographs (you promised, remember?) and you yourself when you come to Russia later this year.
Cheers,
Greg
Absolutely loved your images from this tour. He isn’t doing a date in Cape Town, is he? Is that just a break?