Happenings on Film: The Lake Como Expo Night 2015

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This article is the first one that I want to dedicate to the Expo 2015. A month ago, my city Como hosted a night spectacular preceding the opening of the Universal Exposition in Milan. With my Praktica and color film, I documented this joyful, artistic event.

Como is only forty kilometers from Milan. Touristic and boasting of a wonderful lake, it is a perfect place to combine a relaxing holiday with a community show. The night before the Expo 2015 opening ceremony, Como hosted two delightful events: an outdoor show of acrobats by the Sonics followed by a DJ techno and house concert at the public park.

Credits: sirio174

I got to the first venue at 8:30 in the evening. I wanted to find a place just behind the stage where I could take advantage of the barriers to support my elbows (This is important when you need to shoot in low-light conditions; all these photos were taken with a shutter speed between 1/15 and 1/60th of a second). Despite the adverse weather forecast that announced a high chance of rain, the sky was clear, except for some clouds — at first.

Half an hour later, the clouds got darker. And just a few minutes before the beginning of the show, a light rain began to fall. Despite this, the artists began their show at 9:30 as scheduled. But when the rain got stronger it became necessary to temporarily stop the show. Some acrobatic numbers were even removed from the program for safety reasons.

Credits: sirio174

Despite the program cuts, the remaining part of the show was highly choreographic, with spectacular equilibrium and marvelous rotations. The acrobats hung from a hook supported by a truck crane. The lighting was also excellent.

Credits: sirio174

All these photos were taken with my old Praktica camera equipped with a standard 50mm lens (a Pentacon 50/1.8 which I often use at almost full aperture, and a closed diaphragm between F1.8 and F4). I used Fuji Superia 800 film. I was choosing between this one and a Superia 1600, but I ended up with 800 because it has finer grain and better color rendition.

Credits: sirio174

A few minutes before the end of the show the rain stopped, but the equipment was all wet. Too dangerous! In the photo below you can see the final greetings of the artists, who thanked the audience for staying to watch the show despite the rain.

Credits: sirio174

After the show, I walked toward the public park near the lake for the second part of the event: a techno and house music concert. I prefer classical music, progressive rock, ballads and Celtic dances, but I still took some pictures to complete the photo reportage of this wonderful event.

Credits: sirio174

The Mayor and the Councilor for Culture attended the event. I talked to them about my passion for analog photography, my interest to document the social life of my city and my contributions to Lomography magazine.

written by sirio174 on 2015-06-22 #news #park #music #event #dj #concert #italy #acrobats #como #requested-post #expo-2015 #sonics #expo-night-2015

One Comment

  1. lomodesbro
    lomodesbro ·

    spectacular

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