I had the pleasure of attending an intimate performance, last night. My friend Tony Tobin, a professional classical pianist, played Beethoven Opus 10, at the local Steinway Piano Gallery — a preview of his upcoming recital in Davos, Switzerland. And although I would love to go to Switzerland again someday, the local performance was certainly more accessible. Tony wowed a healthy crowd of music lovers, young and old.
My initial connection to Tony, however, is not though music, though I do enjoy the classics. Rather, I met Tony, many years ago through Flickr. Yes, in addition to his skill as a musician, Tony is a photographer and a movie maker. An all around creative and talented person.
As with many of my daily events, there is always a photography connection. With my Olympus PEN-F and attached 150mm equivalent lens, I created a simple portrait. Two actually, which I feature here. Both are studies in minimal black and white using an in-camera effect, with no additional post processing.
I tend to default to landscape but later changed to a portrait orientation, which also satisfies, perhaps a bit more in this case. The first picture shows Tony’s relationship to the piano, I think, while the second, of Tony himself. I especially like how the high contrast profile almost reduces the images to a series of shapes, formed by bezier curves.
Tony Tobin’s website: Pianist Anthony Tobin
Tony’s Facebook Page: Tony Tobin
Please support this blog by clicking on my Amazon Link before buying anything.



Great shots and post, thanks for the nice feature!
Your welcome. Thanks for the great performance.
Great shots! I love the look of that Pen’s black and white.
Thank you, Mike. I’ve used the standard Mono Profile 2, built into the camera, but I’ll need to customize it to experiment.
The subject almost demands black and white. What clean and elegant shots you’ve achieved. Having a clutter-free light background certainly helped you out there!
Thank you, Pete. There was a light colored cloud like mural in the background, I think. but increasing the exposure washed it out nicely.