csxlab.org Francisco c.p. Vasconcelos
Clubbing
Concerts
Travel
Publications
My name is Francisco Vasconcelos, I'm Portuguese native, architect and photographer. Architecture as a profession and Photography as an hobby/profession. I started photography when I was 12 years old, my father was a cook in a cargo ship company based in Hamburg, Deutschland, so since very little I traveled a lot, mostly around europe. So by the age of 10, my father opened a business in our hometown near Porto (Oporto), and along from Germany he carried a Photo camera that he bought for vacation photos. The curiosity was that he could never used the camera very well, it was an Zeiss SLR - Model Icarex 35CS with a Jenna 50mm f2.8 Lens. At that time with 12 I couldn't understand any of those numbers, but I thought they could all mean a way to change the level that appeared in the focusing screen, hehe and voila, I started to try to level what I later understand as to be the exposure. So my first try with the camera, the photos came ... focused, heh and my father gave the camera to me, and I still have today, but don't use it anymore because it's not working well. So I took pictures only in "Vacation mode". When I was 18 my father gave me a new Canon EOS 50e, it was far more advanced than the old Zeiss, and I got excited with so much high-tech in a camera, very impressive the eye controlled focus-points, I'm still waiting for that to appear in a DSLR again. Anyhow, with so much purity from the camera and from the new-films, and started not linking photography, I did it always as a profound amateur. A big change came when I started to find out that I was color-blind, in the green-red spectrum. I cleared in my mind that I couldn't take color photographs because I couldn't seem them correctly, and it was a big fuzz in my head, lol. At this time, I started to photograph in Black & White, when I was shopping for film roll in a new big shop that recently opened, and I saw a film, that it started to be my only film to use, The Ilford B&W 400. This was a short introduction, to how I came to photography. I first started to commit to everyday photography, when because of high cost, and lots of undeveloped films, because shortage of money, with the help of my fathers, I got the Canon EOS 350D, first digital SLR for me. I started to photograph everything, just to find out later that I had to delete thousands of pictures, just to keep a few dozen of them. When I went to a club with my friends, I started to take pictures to the Dj.'s, and the pictures with flash where horrible, at this moment it was the start to define what kind of photographer I could turn out. I tried overtime to take pictures without flash, but with a 3.5-4.5 lens, I had to develop my own method to grab that photo that I could keep from that night. I have several musician and Dj friends, so I took pictures of their performances and offered them. Later some recognition, for my embarrassment started to appear on my photographs, has I only did it has an Hobby, my friends started to ask to go to their performances to grab the moments, it was good for both. By nights and days, traveling on vacations, or study, or work, the camera became the extension of my right arm. And I never took a photography study or degree, so I know there is so much that i don't know, so it is still an Art that has the power surprise me. I feel now as an Art and not amateurism, because it started to permit my own expression to show the world has I see it. In 2009 happened the biggest advance in the equipment based, so for some years I had a good camera and crappy lens, and in short, I won a scholarship to work as an intern i The Kiyokazu Arau Architects Office, in the Shibuya-Tokyo branch, for one year. With the scholarship I decided to change my gear for a better one, has I was in the mecca of lens and camera shops hehe and I could buy professional second-hand lens, at at cheaper price and bigger availability, not to mention the quality of second-hand equipment. So I manage to make my set composed of a Canon EOS 7D + Sigma 15-30 f3.5-5.6 + Sigma 50mm f1.4 + Canon EF 70-200L f2.8 (would become addicted to this lens) with a 2x Extender. At this time the clear results of my night photographs started to happier clear and bright, by the quality of the lens and by the breaking of the limitations of the old 350D. Everything turn out well, started to make some money in a friends small Event Productions Company, that it is starting to rise, and carried away by photographing dark environment performances. But, and there is always a but, some weeks ago, my apartment was broken by thief's, and all my gear stolen, disappeared, it looks like someone ripped of my eyes and blinded me for good. But not hall is bad, they didn't took the Zeiss Camera neither the recently bought Henri Chretien Hypergonar HI-FI2, my stone equipment is marked with an ! in my equipment list. Fortunately I had kept my Canon 50mm f1.8 II that had a broken internal element, and a friend had an 350D that he did not use. By his motivation he brought is camera and lent it to me, so I could have my eyes again. I am so appreciated to him, because he somehow attenuated my inner suffering (not because of the equipment, but because I couldn't speak the way I used to speak, with photos). So know, I'm back to basics Canon 350D + 50mm f1.8 II (with a broken element, still take great pictures). And with the some spare time has I'm looking for job in any place in the world (outside of the Iberian peninsula), I found this wonderful platform from photographers to photographers, 500px.com ... I started to look again to my 100.000 photos library, and start to make something out of it, I want to show somehow what I saw, the countries I visited (Tokyo for instance), the performance of musical artists and the expression of people. This step is starting now, and I'm starting the process to learn how to select the photographs that I have. Francisco c.p. Vasconcelos ............................................................................................................................................................ P.S.: Sorry my bad English, I'm not native.