You don’t need any introduction for Elwin Hendrijanto, a brilliant pianist who is currently finalising his master degree at the Utrecht Music Conservatory. This was the third time I watched his concert and he never stops to amaze me. He’s really making me proud to be an Indonesian in the Netherlands.

He always plays with his heart, emotionally involved with the music while his expressions follow his fingers on the piano. Today he played, amongst others, a very romantic piece of Rachmaninov and an upbeat number of Schumann Opus Toccata. He also amused us with his own piece which is inspired by a Chinese anthem. It was so beautiful, so if he planned to record it I will definitely buy his CD. He closed his performance with a ‘classical’ version of the Super Mario Bros Game. Indeed it was a well spent Saturday!

This was another backlight concert that needed extra work on focusing technique. I think if I had a longer lens, it would be easier to meter the correct exposure, as I would get tight frames pictures. The challenge for today’s shooting was the limitation of the venue, being located at the corner of the library, surrounded by shelfs. I could actually move freely but if I did it would definitely bother the small amount audience there.

Because the venue was so bright, I could use the smaller aperture, which was 2.8. Elwin is quite an expressionist pianist who moves a lot, thus it was necessary to use a high shutter speed. But it wasn’t a problem at all, as I am using the auto ISO and I didn’t even reach ISO 800. For the post processing I applied the daylight white balance.