Matariki celebrations at the Aotea Centre

Stan Walker at the Aotea Centre, Auckland.

What a treat!  The Tiramarama Concert at the Aotea Centre in Auckland with performances by, amongst others, Ardijah, Adeaze, Stan Walker, Hinewehi Mohi, Tama Waipara and the Auckland Chamber Orchestra.  This was a truely wonderful event, a real delight.  You may recall I took some photographs of Rico Tali at a local bar the other day.  I wasn't impressed with the lighting at the bar, so the concert in the Aotea Centre was a chance to get some better shots.

Stan Walker with members of the kapa haka Te Waka Huia.

Rico Tali

The lighting was good, but not as intense as I would have liked.  ISO was still up high at 3200 and my minimum aperture was f5.6.  Nevertheless I managed a few reasonable shots.  

First image in this post is of Stan Walker.  Stan won the Australian Idol Competition back in 2009 and his careeer has gone from strength to strength since then.  Hugely popular with the crowd, especially when he performed the Kapa Haka Group (second image).

You can see Rico in the third shot in this post.  Much better light than at the local bar and I must admit to being quite pleased with the results.  ISO3200, f5.6 and 1/15sec.  Focal length was 250mm, in 35mm speak, so I think you'll agree that the VR on the Nikkor lens is pretty good.  Well, either that or I have a very steady hand!  The image has been sharpened slightly and then I've used the "black clipping", clarity and vibrance to get a bit more contrast into the image.

Betty-Anne from Ardijah

The fourth shot in this post is of Betty-Anne Monga, lead singer of Ardijah.  I first met Betty-Anne last year at a free concert in Mangere.  I must admit to being enthralled by her performance.  She played an electric ukelele as well as sang and I was totally smitten.  She was wonderful.  Same again this evening.  Wonderful performance.

The fifth shot in this post is of Hinewehi Mohi.  You may recall Hinewehi for her Oceania CDs.  More recently she is perhaps better known for her work with the Raukatauri Music Therapy Centre.  A recent article gives a bit more insight into her involvment with the Centre.  As always, a beautiful voice and a wonderful performance by Hinewehi.

Hinewehi Mohi

The last few shots are of Adeaze (Nainz and Viiz Tupai) and Grace Ikenasio.  These guys can sing ... whoa they can sing.  They came on stage and I was quite stunned by their vocal talents.  Wonderful.  Haha, and then to top it off they get Grace to sing with them as well.  What a treat.

So, as I said at the start, this was a VERY special evening.  Great performances by some of New Zealand's best musical talent.  Hopefully the few shots you see in this post will give you a small taste of what we enjoyed.  Please follow the links in the post to the different artists websites and check out their music.  I suspect you won't be disappointed.

Grace Ikenasio.

Logovi'i Tupa'i, Adeaze.

Feagaigafou Tupa'i, Adeaze.