Bon Journal

Yet another photo shoot

Getting your professional photos taken is not a trivial undertaking. Even after finding a photographer and a venue, it's important to get in the right mood for the shoot.

In June 2002, I arranged for an afternoon photo session at the Pitshanger Manor in Ealing. The London-based photographer Anjam Ahmad brought two different cameras for the occasion. It was my first experience "posing" in front of a camera for my music career. Anjam shot two rolls which were used in pianoguitar.com

In April 2003, I arranged for the New York-based photographer Nick Kuskin to photograph my piano guitar duo in the Colet House in Hammersmith. Colet House belongs to the Study Society, and the lady who worked there (Renate) was very kind to ask a ballet class to vacate their largest room for our benefit. We used one of the photos as cover for our first public concert in London.

In May 2003, the Iranian photographer Erfan Arefi offered to take black and white photos of the performers at the international guitar festival in North Cyprus. He cleverly fed us Tequila slammers on the pretense that we had to wait for someone else to arrive. By the time the bottle was empty, we were relaxed enough to pose.

Today, we engaged the North Holland-based photographer and artist Serge van Empelen to take photos for our new season of piano and guitar music. To warm ourselves up or more importantly, to ensure that we were relaxed, we visited the New Market in Amsterdam for a drink or two.

After a shot of the 40% proof Dutch whiskey, a glass of Dutch beer, and a glass of hot Irish coffee, I shed the frozen princess persona of winter and became a bubbly and chatty girl. Escorted by two Dutch men, I walked through the double-glazed window shopping area of Amsterdam to the hidden concert hall where a Steinway awaited.

In two hours, Serge took two hundred photos with his digital camera. I can't wait to see the results.

3 March 2004 Wednesday

analyticalQ photo gallery

pianoguitar duo

New photos by
Serge van Empelen

Bethanienklooster concert hall (previously an ancient convent) in Amsterdam