Palestine Australia Relief and Action (PARA) Foundation hiring us to shoot its bigger events over the course of the year is becoming a common occurrence; and PARA never skips a beat in terms of bringing the community together to share in Palestinian culture and awareness raising. PARA, as a Palestinian run organisation and managed predominantly by volunteers, was established amidst the destruction of Gaza and supports new Palestinian arrivals in Australia; linking them up with work, professional support and education to help them reestablish themselves.
This event was no different. Hosted at Collingwood Town Hall and billed as a night of healing; self-taught Palestinian pianist Bahar Skaik performed a three-set show to hundreds of attendees. Skaik was joined by Palestinian-Australian singer Heba Tayeh. Both have performed at other events over the last few years too. Our team provided both photography and videography for this event.
Much like the other events that preceded it; we were tasked with capturing the performance itself as well as the emotion of the crowd in attendance. As images we've taken for PARA in the past, these images will no doubt be used in its reporting. with both photos and video also being used general promotional purposes.
For images, due to Collingwood Town Hall being almost completely dark (particularly the seating area) while the show was happening, and because we had to be discrete (that means, no use of a camera flash); we took the liberty of producing a series of black and white stills alongside images of a generally warm colour tone to help overcome the technical problems that inevitably arise when shooting in low light conditions.
Another challenge arose as Skaik himself was wearing a light coloured suit while playing a black coloured piano, which was situated against a black stage curtain. While we were able to recover detail in a number of these images in post production, some of the better images we took on the night came from having behind the stage access.
Both of these challenges we were more than able to overcome.
We provide professional event photography and videography services for all sorts of community and cultural events thoughout Melbourne and all across Victoria. Get in contact to enquire about our services and to get a quote.
Palestinian-Australian singer Heba Tayeh performs with Skaik Bahar as part of one of his sets.
Taking into account (or perhaps, taking advantage of) the high contrast tones and the lack of light over the audience; we opted for black and white edits for many of these images.
Bahar Skaik, left, stands on stage with Heba Tayeh, right, on conclusion of the third and final set of his performance as the crowd behind them applauds.
We of course took plenty of photos of the detail.
PARA volunteers standing with Bahar Skaik and Heba Tayeh.
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